# Virgin Horizon Box



## imalwayshappy (31 Aug 2020)

So I was a long time customer of Virgin media 5+ years and switched to Sky given the Horizon box finally annoyed me with its woefulness that I decided to change provider. I signed back up to Virgin thinking I was getting the 360 box (the new improved Virgin setup) but alas a box arrived with my old nemesis.....Horizon. Many a control was broken in when watching this monstrosity of a system. 

I rang Virgin and asked them can I get the new box. They said yes but it will cost you an extra 44 euro a month! I said Whhhhhhhaaaaaaaaa??????? Apparantly they are focusing on their existing customers first with this roll out. I tried to play the card that I was a customer for years but it didn't work.

Does anyone actually know when we will be able to get the new Virgin Media box? I am actually considering cancelling my subscription because the Horizon box is so so bad.


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## evil_g (31 Aug 2020)

I'm afraid I can't help with your question, but I'd like to join in venting about how horrendous the Horizon Box is. 

It's amazing that they can get away with selling such a product. 

They do have the best Broadband though, which is why I'm still with them, and unlikely to move.


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## Brendan Burgess (31 Aug 2020)

I'm a Virgin customer

How do I get this 360 box and what is so wonderful about it? 

Do I lose everything on my Horizon box if I switch?

Brendan


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## Sue Ellen (31 Aug 2020)

imalwayshappy said:


> I am actually considering cancelling my subscription because the Horizon box is so so bad.



Be very careful there because they are big into breach of contract with heavy fines.  Suppose if you can prove the service is woeful  you may be able to get around it that way.


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## imalwayshappy (31 Aug 2020)

Brendan Burgess said:


> I'm a Virgin customer
> 
> How do I get this 360 box and what is so wonderful about it?
> 
> ...



Yes all your saved recordings would be gone as it is a brand new box. It appears to be far more responsive than Horizon. See link below. Apparently it is what Virgin use in the UK and it is close to Sky's box which to be fair is very very good. I would ring them Brendan, took me 20mins to get through and they stated that they are rolling it out to existing customers first.









						Virgin Media Ireland 360 Box (V6)
					

All new virgin media box to replace horizon




					www.youtube.com


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## imalwayshappy (31 Aug 2020)

Sue Ellen said:


> Be very careful there because they are big into breach of contract with heavy fines.  Suppose if you can prove the service is woeful  you may be able to get around it that way.



I am still in the cooling off period, i think i have 14 days to cancel.


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## imalwayshappy (31 Aug 2020)

evil_g said:


> I'm afraid I can't help with your question, but I'd like to join in venting about how horrendous the Horizon Box is.
> 
> It's amazing that they can get away with selling such a product.
> 
> They do have the best Broadband though, which is why I'm still with them, and unlikely to move.



It is shocking how something like this could have been released to the public. Like seriously who would have signed off on it. Let's give them a box that lags constantly and you have to mash the buttons to type something. Ridiculous!


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## Brendan Burgess (31 Aug 2020)

Does it do anything that the Horizon box does not do.

There are a few glitches with the Horizon box, but it works well for what I do with it which is watching TV and recording programmes. 

Brendan


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## peteb (1 Sep 2020)

They arent focussing on rolling it out to existing customers.  Because existing customers would also have to upgrade to the new packages at a higher prices - just for that box!!

I contacted them and they said "its lightening quick against the horizon box".  I pointed out that the horizon box was legendarily poor so this was harly a selling point.....radio silence.

It allows you record more channels at once than the existing 4 or so on the horizon box.  I gather the EPG has improved.  I would think there is more capacity for apps like netflix etc to be integrated into it.  And i i think it allows a smaller receiver on multi-room viewing.


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## evil_g (1 Sep 2020)

Brendan Burgess said:


> Does it do anything that the Horizon box does not do.
> 
> There are a few glitches with the Horizon box, but it works well for what I do with it which is watching TV and recording programmes.
> 
> Brendan



Maybe you've a newer version of the Horizon box than ours, but ours won't turn on sometimes. (I don't recall ever turning it off). The solution is a random, and always different, combination of unplugging it, playing with the buttons on the front, and / or leaving it for a few hours and just watching Netflix instead.

When it's on, it takes a few (sometimes two, sometimes twenty) seconds to register a button being pressed on the remote. Most commonly, it will wait until you've pressed the button twice, to register both presses at once, so that you have to start again. It will take two to twenty seconds to register each press to get you back to the start, so there's every chance it'll take a few goes to get back to where you were. 

And heaven forbid you should forget you were watching something on a delay, and go to bed with the box still recording thirty minutes ahead. You'll have to give it a good long rest before asking it to do anything the next day.

It's an hilariously bad product, and it's telling that they supply an entirely different box to every customer in the UK.

But the only TV I watch these days is the odd game of Rugby (which is maybe why I haven't gotten used to working around the above problems), so I can live with it because their broadband is so good.


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## EmmDee (1 Sep 2020)

Brendan Burgess said:


> Does it do anything that the Horizon box does not do.
> 
> There are a few glitches with the Horizon box, but it works well for what I do with it which is watching TV and recording programmes.
> 
> Brendan



Brendan - open to correction but I think what Virgin are doing is to separate the TV box element and the Wifi router (they are also "offering" a new router). If you do have Virgin Wifi, I believe the new TV box doesn't act as a router. The TV box is probably better but you might have to get a new router or take their offering (anything I have read on their router is not great).

At least - that's as I understand it - could be wrong on the new TV box not acting as a router


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## theresa1 (1 Sep 2020)

Installation and Setup | Virgin Media Ireland
					






					www.virginmedia.ie
				




The main box does all your recordings. You can get extra boxes and you will be able to watch all your recordings on them. If you already have a white Modem you will keep this. Ideally Modem should be beside your main box so you can use an Ethernet but wi-fi will also work.
New box can handle 4K content. Has Netflix and Prime Video app.

You need to watch any recordings on your Horizon before you order Virgin Tv 360 box.


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## Brendan Burgess (1 Sep 2020)

evil_g said:


> Maybe you've a newer version of the Horizon box than ours, but ours won't turn on sometimes. (I don't recall ever turning it off). The solution is a random, and always different, combination of unplugging it, playing with the buttons on the front, and / or leaving it for a few hours and just watching Netflix instead.
> 
> When it's on, it takes a few (sometimes two, sometimes twenty) seconds to register a button being pressed on the remote. Most commonly, it will wait until you've pressed the button twice, to register both presses at once, so that you have to start again. It will take two to twenty seconds to register each press to get you back to the start, so there's every chance it'll take a few goes to get back to where you were.
> 
> ...



That is very funny, but it does not describe my experience. 

From time to time, it does seem to reset itself - maybe it's downloading software.  But that is very rare. Or very rarely happening when I want to watch something 

Occasionally, a recorded program "stutters" but again rare enough. 

The most irritating thing for me is that there are three recordings on my list which contain nothing and can't be deleted.  I have to scroll through them on the list. 

I don't watch Netflix or use the TV for anything other than watching TV and recording.  

I certainly don't need to record more than 4 programmes simultaneously. 

Brendan


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## theresa1 (1 Sep 2020)

https://www.virginmedia.ie/customer-support/faqs-and-videos/virgin-tv/fixing/factory-reset/ - If you really want to get rid off the three recordings on your list a factory reset will do this.

Be careful and do it step by step. If your asked for a PIn -try 1234 or 0000.


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## Brendan Burgess (1 Sep 2020)

Thanks Theresa

_You want to do a factory reset, and that’s fine. But, before resetting your Horizon box, please be aware that this action will delete your future planned recordings. Your existing recordings will not be affected, but you might miss something special you wanted to record later.  _

When I called, they told me I would lose all my recordings including the 3 phantom recordings. 

So I suspect that reset will either delete all recordings or delete none. 

Brendan


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## theresa1 (1 Sep 2020)

When you do a factory reset you have a choice.
On screen you will be asked if you would like to save your existing recordings:
 Select "YES" to keep your recordings, select "NO" to delete your recordings.

The advice you got on that phone call was wrong. You will need to re-set any future planned recordings you might have.


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## Brendan Burgess (2 Sep 2020)

Thanks theresa

I don't mind losing planned recordings.

Are you sure that if I tick Yes, it will still get rid of the phantom recordings? 

Brendan


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## EmmDee (2 Sep 2020)

Brendan Burgess said:


> Thanks theresa
> 
> I don't mind losing planned recordings.
> 
> ...



Not sure about that - I've factory reset and still have a couple of old phantoms. But maybe that's just me. And if you keep current recorded material you have little to lose by trying


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## Brendan Burgess (2 Sep 2020)

EmmDee said:


> I've factory reset and still have a couple of old phantoms.



Ah, it's good to see that others have the phantoms as well. I thought it was something I was doing wrong.

I'll give it a lash.

Brendan


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## SiobhanK (2 Sep 2020)

I find sometimes the phantoms happen when i try to delete multiple episodes at once.

The only way I have ever been able to get rid of phantom recordings is by deleting all recordings. Right now I have stuff on there from 2017 becasuse I have never been able to get through all my recordings to delete everything.


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## Brendan Burgess (2 Sep 2020)

OK, so I did the factory reset and it kept all the recordings including the phantoms. 

Maybe I need to bite the bullet and just get rid of all my recordings. 

Brendan


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## huskerdu (2 Sep 2020)

Brendan Burgess said:


> OK, so I did the factory reset and it kept all the recordings including the phantoms.
> 
> Maybe I need to bite the bullet and just get rid of all my recordings.
> 
> Brendan


Do it . You will feel much better . You will free yourself of the guilt because you didn’t watch the worthy foreign film and the documentary about the obesity crisis that you recorded months ago .


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## theresa1 (2 Sep 2020)

Sorry that didn't work Brendan. The new box is much better but if you are happy to wait you probably will eventually end up with one if you stay with Virgin. It has the radio channels on it if you are wondering.


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## evil_g (2 Sep 2020)

Brendan Burgess said:


> OK, so I did the factory reset and it kept all the recordings including the phantoms.
> 
> Maybe I need to bite the bullet and just get rid of all my recordings.
> 
> Brendan



Are the recordings mostly of you


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## imalwayshappy (4 Sep 2020)

An update, I had a virgin engineer out to fix my wifi and was asking him about the new box. His opinion is that they were going to roll it out earlier but covid hit so they so they delayed rolling it out fully to the network as their customer service is at limited capacity (WFH) and would not be able to handle the volume of questions/issues that a new TV box might present. Sounds plausible... Seems it will be rolled out over the next 2 months though...


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