Verdict
What TV service you want to keep or upgrade to may depend on various things – whether you want a dish on your home, your opinion of Rupert Murdoch, your attitude to filesharing, whether you live in a cable area, if BT is the best remaining option, and so on.
Lovefilm.com provides multiple options for its viewers
You could be perfectly happy using Freeview or Freesat but you might bemoan the lack of Sky Sports. Movie fans are well served with alternatives including simple Blockbuster rentals, LoveFilm (by post or from the internet) and downloading from the increasingly dominant iTunes Store for film and TV. Even so, pay-per-view through your telly is certainly very handy, if you don’t want to keep the film.
All services are undergoing changes. Virgin has its promising partnership with TiVo to bolster its already strong VoD line-up, BT Vision is about to revamp due to both fibre optic connections (in some areas) and YouView to offer a number of extras beyond Freeview without you needing to pay for dozens of channels you won’t watch.
Akin to the BBC iPlayer, 4OD accesses Channel 4's programme archive, but sports fans will still want live TV
Sky, despite being a broadcasting behemoth, has been the slowest to get proper video on demand onto its network. Indeed, it lacks catch-up TV from the public service broadcasters that account for so much viewing, yet it has the most linear channels, including lots in HD.
Currently, there has yet to be one gadget or provider that delivers all the options as far as television goes. When choosing there will, of course, be financial or feature incentives if you take phone and broadband from the same company. As this appraisal highlights, there are plenty of deals as well as new services on the horizon and performance factors to consider. Also, bear in mind if you need realtime telly for those time critical sporting events, or just plenty of films for the kids. Given the range of non-realtime broadcast options available, pay TV packages need closer scrutiny these days, as using other sources to mix and match may well allow you the freedom to focus on a deal that suits your viewing habits best. ®
COMMENTS
About as close as you can get..
would most likely be the PS3.
Blu-Ray
Freeview Inc PVR (PlayTV)
Upscaled DVD
iPlayer
4OD
ITV Player
Lovefilm
MUBI
PSN Video Store
SkyPlayer(soon)
YoutubeXL
Not bad for 1 box that's £180.
"unfrorgiveably unusably awful crap boxes from Virgin"??
Think you're a bit out of date - the Samsung V+HD box I've got is works fine and I personally think is better than Sky's offering.. I am considering upgrading to the Tivo though as it has more storage space and more than a weeks tv guide (the only 2 things I find a pain sometimes)..
I used to have Virgin...
But then I had 4 outages, lasting 5-8 days each, in the space of one month, I was left without television from 20th December until 6th January, no refund, even after a letter to the boss, so I cancelled my subscription, and have been telly-less for two years, and I love it. Okay, I have reasonable broadband, so there is iPlayer and other services, but I
Like everything else with Virgin, when it works it's very very good, but when it's bad, it's horrid.
@Gansta
"The UI is maybe a bit slow ( but not as much as you say)"
Yes, yes it is as slow as I say. I know because I spent a frustrating time trying to set up recording for WSB by searching for "motorsport" under the "TV Channels"
"You can't watch LiveTV while searching OnDemand (Probably a marketing decision rather than a technical one)"
Yes, I know this and I really don't care why it is that way; it's a PITA and affects my experience as a user.
"You can't hide Unsubscribed channels - So what? If you're on the V+ package you probably have XL anyway."
I can't view them and I don't want to have them cluttering up the guide, that's why.
"Why would you need to use Ethernet and USB? The software has no function for that - the recordings are encrypted for a reason."
You assumed I want to lift media off the V+ box and you assume wrong. I want to view media I already have on my network. The V+ box is running on a Linux distro, including "smbfs" would have been a snap.
"Have you heard of a Wireless Router? Never trust bundled routers."
I'll agree on that, I'm using the bundled one at the moment but considering buying another one and chucking DD-WRT on it.
Most of the above will be moot once I get around to setting up Myth with Freesat. The V+ box will either be returned or can just gather dust.
