| Virgin vs Sky 10:53 - Sep 14 with 3925 views | Trom |
I'm thinking of making the switch from Sky to Virgin and wondered if any of you had done so in the past and had a view on the two services.
Currently have Sky with sports, HD and multi room. Also they do the phone and internet.
Looking for a similar package with Virgin - it appears on the face of it to have faster broadband and come in a little cheaper. |  | | |  |
| Virgin vs Sky on 11:00 - Sep 14 with 3909 views | QPR1506 |
I had considered it but when on the train to the bush on a Saturday my 6 year old can watch the live Sky game on my phone I thought otherwise. |  |
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| Virgin vs Sky on 11:04 - Sep 14 with 3895 views | kingsburyR |
In a nut shell -
Internet - I work in the business and Virgins fibre broadband spanks anything BT can offer. (Work for BT but used Virgin boradband untili left)
HD - Virgin do not charge for alot of their HD channels
Recording channels - You can record two channels on virgin and watch a third channel at the same time. On Sky if you are recording two channels at once you have to watch one.
Sky is a more polished set up but all in all id go Virgin if it was available in my new area but its not. Love my Sky though! |  |
| Dont know why we bother. .... but we do! |
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| Virgin vs Sky on 11:11 - Sep 14 with 3878 views | WokingR |
Agree with KingsburyR
Virgin is better for Internet (I have 100mbps download speed) and for being able to watch and record up to 3 programmes.
They always seem to be playing catch up to Sky though with remote connectivity. It is only recently that you can programme a recording remotely via a phone or laptop and Sky are still the only ones who actually allow you to log in and watch anything away from home. |  | | |
| Virgin vs Sky on 11:12 - Sep 14 with 3873 views | simmo |
Got Sky now, had Virgin before.
In my opinion Virgin internet is easily the best provided you can get fibre optics in your area. They also thought have THE WORST customer service department of any company I have ever dealt with. I fell out with them massively and am still in dispute as we speak.
If you have just the internet it is fine but if you get the whole hog with them prepare to speak to India and deal with incompetence in general every time you need anything |  |
| ask Beavis I get nothing Butthead |
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| Virgin vs Sky on 11:25 - Sep 14 with 3849 views | barbicanranger |
Same as Simmo here.
Had Virgin now on Sky in my new place...I couldnt get sky in my old place.
The virgin broadband was very impressive but when moving to my new place my big clincher for moving to sky is the sports package is cheaper (i guess virgin has to charge a margin) and mainly sky go - it is a incredible offering that I don't think Virgin will ever be able match (I spent a good while talking to one of their "come back to us" sales people and he told me that Virgin are trying to develop something similar but doubts they will get live sport on it for the foreseeable future).
I guess Trom it depends what you need it for, if broadband's your big deal go Virgin but if you like sport and sport on the go then I think Sky takes it. |  | | |
| Virgin vs Sky on 11:33 - Sep 14 with 3826 views | Trom |
Hmm I do use Sky Go a bit as I travel internationally for work. Involves fiddling around with proxy servers so they think you are in the UK but it does work.
Both my Sky boxes are fairly old so the idea of new boxes with bigger storage capacity is appealing.
With Virgin it says "wireless super hub included". I use an apple airport extreme as my router and the Sky thing with wireless turned off as the modem. Anyone know if you can use the Virgin hub as purely a modem and not a router (i.e. turn its wireless off). | | | |
| Virgin vs Sky on 11:41 - Sep 14 with 3806 views | vodkasupper |
I have virgin and find them far superior to Sky. No need to get the sports package as watch it all online for free on their Broadband. It helps it is a lot faster than anything else.
Plus Tivo box. |  | | |
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| Virgin vs Sky on 11:59 - Sep 14 with 3759 views | swisscottage |
| Virgin vs Sky on 11:41 - Sep 14 by vodkasupper |
I have virgin and find them far superior to Sky. No need to get the sports package as watch it all online for free on their Broadband. It helps it is a lot faster than anything else.
Plus Tivo box. |
What Virgin offers for about the same price is more than sky.
Better broadband, Tivo box offers much more content.
However I'd still flip back to Sky in a hearbeat if I could convince my apartment block to pump for a communal dish ( lease won't allow individual sataellite dishes).
I have my broadband from a independant supplier with no throttling during peak hours and better customer service and whilst the TIVO box offers so much content, it is unresponsive, slow and the menu system has been designed by a complete retard.
On top of which I found the skygo absolutely fantastic allowing me to watch the test matches streamed on my laptop at work amonst other things.
On sky you can actually put in the number of minutes into a recorded program you want, on Tivo I cant... which is especially annoying when having to break in recorded show for more than a few minutes as it then cancels and you have to fast forward (slowly) through the whole damn thing.
Seriously you don't know how annoying it all is once you'd got used too the Sky HD boxes and interface. | | | |
| Virgin vs Sky on 12:00 - Sep 14 with 3754 views | barbicanranger |
| Virgin vs Sky on 11:33 - Sep 14 by Trom |
Hmm I do use Sky Go a bit as I travel internationally for work. Involves fiddling around with proxy servers so they think you are in the UK but it does work.
Both my Sky boxes are fairly old so the idea of new boxes with bigger storage capacity is appealing.
With Virgin it says "wireless super hub included". I use an apple airport extreme as my router and the Sky thing with wireless turned off as the modem. Anyone know if you can use the Virgin hub as purely a modem and not a router (i.e. turn its wireless off). |
The broadband Virgin gave me had a modem so I would say the answer is yes, but you probably best check before you go ahead with it. | | | |
| Virgin vs Sky on 12:01 - Sep 14 with 3749 views | barbicanranger |
| Virgin vs Sky on 11:59 - Sep 14 by swisscottage |
What Virgin offers for about the same price is more than sky.
Better broadband, Tivo box offers much more content.
However I'd still flip back to Sky in a hearbeat if I could convince my apartment block to pump for a communal dish ( lease won't allow individual sataellite dishes).
I have my broadband from a independant supplier with no throttling during peak hours and better customer service and whilst the TIVO box offers so much content, it is unresponsive, slow and the menu system has been designed by a complete retard.
On top of which I found the skygo absolutely fantastic allowing me to watch the test matches streamed on my laptop at work amonst other things.
On sky you can actually put in the number of minutes into a recorded program you want, on Tivo I cant... which is especially annoying when having to break in recorded show for more than a few minutes as it then cancels and you have to fast forward (slowly) through the whole damn thing.
Seriously you don't know how annoying it all is once you'd got used too the Sky HD boxes and interface. |
My old place in Barbican was the same so I have to get Virgin - agreed the interface on Virgin is turd. | | | |
| Virgin vs Sky on 13:15 - Sep 14 with 3658 views | rocketron |
| Virgin vs Sky on 12:01 - Sep 14 by barbicanranger |
My old place in Barbican was the same so I have to get Virgin - agreed the interface on Virgin is turd. |
I have just switched from Sky to Virgin in the past month. Due to their incompetence they lost my phone no that I have had for the past 40 years. You can imagine the problems that this as given me. Trying to talk to some one about this they told me to go back to Sky and open a new contract for the phone for 12 months. Total rubbish. | | | |
| Virgin vs Sky on 14:04 - Sep 14 with 3613 views | westolian |
Had Sky now with Virgin.
I've found Virgins customer services excellent.
I wouldn't go back ! |  |
| I've found a team sheet for the weekend - anyone interested ? |
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| Virgin vs Sky on 14:24 - Sep 14 with 3582 views | Toast_R |
I had Sky earlier this year and moved to a new address and now have Virgin Media.
Here's my findings.
Broadband
Sky
Need at BT Line. Reasonably fast wired connection. Wireless, not so good as the radio signal is poor from their modems and won't stretch the whole house without buying a booster. Even then it drops out regular and you have to re-boot the modem.
Virgin
Check you have Fibre Optic in your area else it's sh*te. I don't and signed up to have 100mb supposedly. Like F*ck I do, 10mb if I'm lucky.
Online gaming is poor. Call of Duty for example, rubber bulletts and moonwalking round the maps all day.
The modem wireless hub looks great but in reality it's sh*te and drops out a lot needing multiple re-boots a day which is a pain in the ass especially working from home wirelessly. Use Ethernet cables is my advice.
TV
Sky
Does what it says on the tin, HD channels all good, easy to use interface and HD boxes are a lot more reliable these days then the old Sky Plus boxes of 6 years ago. One major ball ache, in bad weather, you lose signal. That kiiled it for me and 90% why I went to Virgin. ESPN is not included as standard which is a bitch.
Virgin
Tivo Box is their latest eye catcher and again looks great with many Bells and whistles (which I hardly use) but it's only when you start getting used to it you realise is badly designed. Menu's are ball achingly long winded, no back button is irritating. Virgin does have the On Demand features which I admit is very good. The Mrs loves that. Free ESPN too which is great however their contract is ending with the Prem soon, so may be pointless when it does. No 3D Sky Sports and HD channels cos an additional £7.99 a month which is embarrassing really as (inside knowledge here) Sky have for sometime broadcast sport in HD and actually spend money lowering the the images to standard non HD format. So the HD picture you receive costs them fckall and your paying extra for it. Shocking but the blame really lies with SKY on that one.
Phone
Sky
Basically BT on a a chosen Sky Tariff. No complaints other then the additional BT line rental you have to pay.
Virgin
Better cost as no line rental fee's in addition to your Virgin Bill, however they recycle their phone numbers, mine gets 5 calls on average a day for the previous owner and owners before them. Can be irritating. Lots of cold callers from automated systems but that happens with all lines I guess.
Customer Service
SKY
Based in Scotland mainly, are okay. Had problems with the multi-room once or twice as they kept telling me a phone line cable was disconnected, took a while to resolve and they did get arsey about it at one point. The installers are usually thick a sh*t, my dish was nailed to the next-door neighbours wall (I was out) so had to get them back to remove it.
Virgin
Based in Scotland and India. Prey you don't get the India call centre who mainly deal with technical issues. They are worse then useless and read from a script put together by someone who couldn't fill a post-it note with their knowledge on their hardware. I've had major issues with this knob's and only been with them since July, couldn't access my online account for ages and they were not helpful at all. Took £160 without informing me as they registered me under the wrong email address. Tossers.
Conclusion
Both have good and bad points, I'm now with Virgin as got 6 moths half price, when this is up, I'm considering Sky.
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| Virgin vs Sky on 15:02 - Sep 14 with 3556 views | simmo |
Tried to cancel with Virgin after 6 months of terrible service and moving house. Charged me maximum contract charges for each service INDIVIDUALLY. So had X amount for duration of remaining contract on TV services X amount for phone services etc. They are utter utter ladies parts and I cannot recommend strongly enough to never do any kind of business with them.
Unless its fibre optic broadband. | |
| ask Beavis I get nothing Butthead |
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| Virgin vs Sky on 15:42 - Sep 14 with 3526 views | BasingstokeR |
| Virgin vs Sky on 14:24 - Sep 14 by Toast_R |
I had Sky earlier this year and moved to a new address and now have Virgin Media.
Here's my findings.
Broadband
Sky
Need at BT Line. Reasonably fast wired connection. Wireless, not so good as the radio signal is poor from their modems and won't stretch the whole house without buying a booster. Even then it drops out regular and you have to re-boot the modem.
Virgin
Check you have Fibre Optic in your area else it's sh*te. I don't and signed up to have 100mb supposedly. Like F*ck I do, 10mb if I'm lucky.
Online gaming is poor. Call of Duty for example, rubber bulletts and moonwalking round the maps all day.
The modem wireless hub looks great but in reality it's sh*te and drops out a lot needing multiple re-boots a day which is a pain in the ass especially working from home wirelessly. Use Ethernet cables is my advice.
TV
Sky
Does what it says on the tin, HD channels all good, easy to use interface and HD boxes are a lot more reliable these days then the old Sky Plus boxes of 6 years ago. One major ball ache, in bad weather, you lose signal. That kiiled it for me and 90% why I went to Virgin. ESPN is not included as standard which is a bitch.
Virgin
Tivo Box is their latest eye catcher and again looks great with many Bells and whistles (which I hardly use) but it's only when you start getting used to it you realise is badly designed. Menu's are ball achingly long winded, no back button is irritating. Virgin does have the On Demand features which I admit is very good. The Mrs loves that. Free ESPN too which is great however their contract is ending with the Prem soon, so may be pointless when it does. No 3D Sky Sports and HD channels cos an additional £7.99 a month which is embarrassing really as (inside knowledge here) Sky have for sometime broadcast sport in HD and actually spend money lowering the the images to standard non HD format. So the HD picture you receive costs them fckall and your paying extra for it. Shocking but the blame really lies with SKY on that one.
Phone
Sky
Basically BT on a a chosen Sky Tariff. No complaints other then the additional BT line rental you have to pay.
Virgin
Better cost as no line rental fee's in addition to your Virgin Bill, however they recycle their phone numbers, mine gets 5 calls on average a day for the previous owner and owners before them. Can be irritating. Lots of cold callers from automated systems but that happens with all lines I guess.
Customer Service
SKY
Based in Scotland mainly, are okay. Had problems with the multi-room once or twice as they kept telling me a phone line cable was disconnected, took a while to resolve and they did get arsey about it at one point. The installers are usually thick a sh*t, my dish was nailed to the next-door neighbours wall (I was out) so had to get them back to remove it.
Virgin
Based in Scotland and India. Prey you don't get the India call centre who mainly deal with technical issues. They are worse then useless and read from a script put together by someone who couldn't fill a post-it note with their knowledge on their hardware. I've had major issues with this knob's and only been with them since July, couldn't access my online account for ages and they were not helpful at all. Took £160 without informing me as they registered me under the wrong email address. Tossers.
Conclusion
Both have good and bad points, I'm now with Virgin as got 6 moths half price, when this is up, I'm considering Sky.
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I think people have horror stories with either...I have Virgin on Fibre Optic 60mb, the new Hub, Tivo, phone line and my Mrs mobile all through the same Deal.
We have (touch wood) never had a problem. None of the problems Toast_R has and the Hub we got (so far) is really good, works well outside at the bottom of our garden and to multiple devices really well, not one reboot yet (maybe it was the newest firmware). Never had a landline phone call for someone else - they let us pick our own number from a list so got a really easy to remember one.
Broadband is the main USP to me and Call of Duty as an example is great online, and I'm obivously one of the people ToastR is playing against that he can't shoot! (lol)
The only trouble we've had with the indian call centre is them being confused with what they can and can't offer you. Pretty sure UK cancellations now all go to Scotland call centre. TiVo box is good so far, menus a bit annoying compared to the standard HD Box - but links well to Youtube on my iPad and with Spotify.
Want to really have a go with this new Virgin Media App to see how it compares to SkyGo
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| Virgin vs Sky on 20:04 - Sep 14 with 3444 views | BazWoT |
Seemon, do you mind if me and my friends, borrow? |  |
| WE R PREMIER LEAGUE, SAY!!! |
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| Virgin vs Sky on 00:39 - Sep 15 with 3351 views | MrSheen |
No Premier Sports on Virgin, so no Hurling or NRL. Are you a man or a mouse? |  | | |
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