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Virgin Media - analogue TV service reduction and switch off

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    #302
    Wabbit Ears
    Registered Users Posts: 3,043 ✭✭✭Wabbit Ears


    stimpson wrote: »
    The Virgin Horizon box doesnt use infra red so this won’t work with it. It may be fine for other boxes though.

    The current remote is RF but IR does work in a limited way.

    It can do IR for box on, Channel up/down, Menu, Ok, Numbers, play, stop, pause, FF etc.

    The IR remote cant put in letters so you cant use search with an IR remote.


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    #303
    stimpson
    Registered Users Posts: 7,815 ✭✭✭stimpson


    Wabbit Ears wrote: »
    The current remote is RF but IR does work in a limited way.

    It can do IR for box on, Channel up/down, Menu, Ok, Numbers, play, stop, pause, FF etc.

    The IR remote cant put in letters so you cant use search with an IR remote.

    The virgin remote has IR to control the TV, but you cannot control the Horizon box with IR. From the horses mouth -> https://www.boards.ie/ttfpost/90154619


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    #304
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,796 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    stimpson wrote: »
    The virgin remote has IR to control the TV, but you cannot control the Horizon box with IR. From the horses mouth -> https://www.boards.ie/ttfpost/90154619

    People have actually done it. Virgin staff are not known to be particularly accurate on things.

    It didn't work with the one unit you had. There's plenty of people on that very Virgin forum here moaning about the very limited range of buttons that work over IR from units like older Logitech Harmony devices - IR only ones.


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    #305
    Wabbit Ears
    Registered Users Posts: 3,043 ✭✭✭Wabbit Ears


    stimpson wrote: »
    The virgin remote has IR to control the TV, but you cannot control the Horizon box with IR. From the horses mouth -> https://www.boards.ie/ttfpost/90154619

    The first beta boxes of horizon had IR remotes and the one I have still works on the latest version of horizon.


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    #306
    coylemj
    Registered Users Posts: 25,345 ✭✭✭✭coylemj


    Wabbit Ears wrote: »
    The first beta boxes of horizon had IR remotes and the one I have still works on the latest version of horizon.

    +1 I have an early Horizon box and can control it using my (IR) Logitech Harmony One remote. The only function that I'm missing is the back (the previous channel I was watching) button.


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    #307
    dublinman1990
    Registered Users Posts: 8,302 ✭✭✭dublinman1990


    I read the letter from VM about the analogue channel switch off today. It's a pretty standard letter that is addressed to the main resident of your home address. I am not a VM subscriber. My late granny was a subscriber to Cablelink before she died in 2008. They had cut off the channels about 8 months after she died. AFAIK; my mam & I don't receive bills from them anymore. I think her brother & her partner may have sorted something out to cut them off as we couldn't afford to pay for the channels anymore. I live in <Mod edit> Blackrock. VM said they will switch off the analogue channels here on Monday the 8th of April. There are two neighbours near me who I presume got the same letter in the post today; one is a next door neighbour of mine & the other neighbours live on the opposite side of our houses. They're both covered with the VM STBs in their houses which both include VM broadband.


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    #308
    icdg
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 11,516 Mod ✭✭✭✭icdg


    Not a good idea to post basically your entire address on an open forum, dublinman1990.


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    #309
    dublinman1990
    Registered Users Posts: 8,302 ✭✭✭dublinman1990


    Apologies icdg. I will know that for next time. :o

    I have an assumption that the analogue switch off date on the 8th of April probably stretches to the whole of Newtownpark Avenue up to White's Cross including Carysfort Avenue & Rowanbyrn too. UPC had installed their fibre broadband cables in these areas a few years ago before it got taken over by VM. Am I making sense with this move from VM in that they will switch off the analogue TV channels within this part of Dublin? It is an extremely large area to cover as it took a few weeks to get the fibre installed.


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    #310
    Wabbit Ears
    Registered Users Posts: 3,043 ✭✭✭Wabbit Ears


    its a nationwide switchoff.. Im not sure what your question is?


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    #311
    coylemj
    Registered Users Posts: 25,345 ✭✭✭✭coylemj


    dublinman1990 wrote: »
    My late granny was a subscriber to Cablelink before she died in 2008. They had cut off the channels about 8 months after she died. AFAIK; my mam & I don't receive bills from them anymore. I think her brother & her partner may have sorted something out to cut them off as we couldn't afford to pay for the channels anymore. I live in <Mod edit> Blackrock. VM said they will switch off the analogue channels here on Monday the 8th of April. There are two neighbours near me who I presume got the same letter in the post today; one is a next door neighbour of mine & the other neighbours live on the opposite side of our houses. They're both covered with the VM STBs in their houses which both include VM broadband.

    If what you're saying is that you're not paying a subscription to VM but you still get the analog channels, that's not uncommon. To lose the signal altogether when you cancel the subscription requires them to come to your house and physically cut you off which they do not always do. So a lot of people still have the analog channels, effectively for free.

    Your neighbours with STBs will not be affected, at least the TVs connected to VM via an STB will not, it's only TVs that are directly connected to the wall point that will lose the channels. If the co-ax cable goes from the wall point to an STB (digital decoder) and from there to the TV, that TV will not be affected by the analog switchoff.


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    #312
    dublinman1990
    Registered Users Posts: 8,302 ✭✭✭dublinman1990


    coylemj wrote: »
    If what you're saying is that you're not paying a subscription to VM but you still get the analog channels, that's not uncommon. To lose the signal altogether when you cancel the subscription requires them to come to your house and physically cut you off which they do not always do. So a lot of people still have the analog channels, effectively for free.

    Your neighbours with STBs will not be affected, at least the TVs connected to VM via an STB will not, it's only TVs that are directly connected to the wall point that will lose the channels. If the co-ax cable goes from the wall point to an STB (digital decoder) and from there to the TV, that TV will not be affected by the analog switchoff.

    The house that I live in does not get the analog channels anymore through the TV. The last time I got a signal from them was October 2008. After that it was gone. I now receive Saorview channels since March 2012 and FTA Satellite from November 2012 to the present day. My uncle's partner arranged with NTL around 2006/7 to install a cable box when my grandmother was alive. We then decided we didn't want it as we thought it was too expensive. We then cancelled the install of the STB.

    The letter that I received from them does not include an account number for residential customers.

    It is a standard generic letter sent from VM. It's written as "The Resident" from their current address, their road or housing estate & their current county. There is an extra flyer included in the letter where you have a specific phone number including a website & email address if people wanted to upgrade their VM subscription. Those details are also written into the letter as well. I don't know why those things are included twice as it's really an unnecessary waste of paper. Anyone around the country would have got this letter in the past or they will get them when there are remaining subscribers in their area.


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    #313
    Gadgetman496
    Registered Users Posts: 8,363 ✭✭✭Gadgetman496


    I'd imagine that if Virgin's cable crosses your property, you are capable in theory of receiving analog channels (even though you don't use them). Therefore Virgin have to cover themselves by notifying everyone who's property is crossed by their cable that they are switching off the service, even those who are not currently account holders.

    That's why they are using generic letters and also availing of the opportunity to try and sell a package to non account holders.

    I'm not sure where you are coming from or why you have an issue with this.

    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."



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    #314
    coylemj
    Registered Users Posts: 25,345 ✭✭✭✭coylemj


    Gadgetman496 wrote: »
    I'm not sure where you are coming from or why you have an issue with this.

    +1 dublinman1990, what is the point of your posts? Just toss the letter in the bin, you don't use any VM service so the switch-off doesn't affect you.


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    #315
    rubadub
    Registered Users Posts: 32,373 ✭✭✭✭rubadub


    dublinman1990 wrote: »
    The house that I live in does not get the analog channels anymore through the TV. The last time I got a signal from them was October 2008. After that it was gone.
    Sounds like you were disconnected, they might not keep records of who was or was not connected. Also somebody might have reconnected it at sometime, e.g. if you had rented it out somebody might have done a job and you were unaware.

    The wires are usually outside the house and some people tap into the wire, or else just reconnect somehow.

    I think they are just advertising their service and not wanting to get themselves a bad name if people lose their service all of a sudden (whether they are supposed to have it or not).

    I am still down to half my existing analog channels.


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    #316
    odyssey06
    Registered Users Posts: 28,005 ✭✭✭✭odyssey06


    I better not tell my folks... still missing their analogue... they couldve been getting cable for free until the shutdown!

    "To follow knowledge like a sinking star..." (Tennyson's Ulysses)



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    #317
    mackersdublin
    Registered Users Posts: 1,431 ✭✭✭mackersdublin


    With Blackrock in Dublin switching off in April, anybody hear of any other shut down dates for this year?


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    #318
    r93kaey5p2izun
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3,962 ✭✭✭r93kaey5p2izun


    mackersdublin wrote: »
    With Blackrock in Dublin switching off in April, anybody hear of any other shut down dates for this year?

    It will be switched off in Lucan this Monday.


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    #319
    patrickc
    Registered Users Posts: 7,877 ✭✭✭patrickc


    does anyone know anything about Bray and the shutdown date?


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    #320
    decor58
    Registered Users Posts: 829 ✭✭✭decor58


    patrickc wrote:
    does anyone know anything about Bray and the shutdown date?


    Got a notice during the week saying April 8th.


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    #321
    AndrewJRenko
    Registered Users Posts: 28,439 ✭✭✭✭AndrewJRenko


    Having gone through the shutdown of analogue and switchover to digital last August/September in D16, I got a letter from Virgin telling me that they're shutting down the analogue service in the coming weeks.

    Again?


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    #322
    coylemj
    Registered Users Posts: 25,345 ✭✭✭✭coylemj


    AndrewJRenko wrote: »
    Having gone through the shutdown of analogue and switchover to digital last August/September in D16, I got a letter from Virgin telling me that they're shutting down the analogue service in the coming weeks.

    Again?

    Same here in D18.


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    #323
    patrickc
    Registered Users Posts: 7,877 ✭✭✭patrickc


    thanks my granny got the bray one today.

    I rang virgin and she is a free user I can't remember the word they called it but she has free virgin tv for life due to allowing cables on her property.

    I asked for the freedom 20 offer and they can't apply it to a free user only the 50 or 100 channels. Madness I really think she'll struggle with the horizon box at 93 and the normal digital box doesn't seem to be an option any more.


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    #324
    StreetLight
    Registered Users Posts: 1,392 ✭✭✭StreetLight


    patrickc wrote: »

    I rang virgin and she is a free user I can't remember the word they called it

    Concession?


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    #325
    patrickc
    Registered Users Posts: 7,877 ✭✭✭patrickc


    StreetLight wrote: »
    Concession?

    perhaps my son was distracting me at the time.


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    #326
    Hotblack Desiato
    Registered Users Posts: 34,007 ✭✭✭✭Hotblack Desiato


    Sure nearly everyone in Dublin has VM cables going across their property.

    Life ain't always empty.



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    #327
    patrickc
    Registered Users Posts: 7,877 ✭✭✭patrickc


    Hotblack Desiato wrote: »
    Sure nearly everyone in Dublin has VM cables going across their property.

    they had to dig across her property


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    #328
    Living Off The Splash
    Registered Users Posts: 2,103 ✭✭✭Living Off The Splash


    AndrewJRenko wrote: »
    Having gone through the shutdown of analogue and switchover to digital last August/September in D16, I got a letter from Virgin telling me that they're shutting down the analogue service in the coming weeks.

    Again?

    Same here in Blackrock South County Dublin. Waste of a letter...


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    #329
    Wabbit Ears
    Registered Users Posts: 3,043 ✭✭✭Wabbit Ears


    Dublin is a phased shutdown. They removed some channels and are now removing more/the rest. They have to send you another letter.


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    #330
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,796 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Hotblack Desiato wrote: »
    Sure nearly everyone in Dublin has VM cables going across their property.

    The first person who gives the wayleave agreement is usually able to extract a deal. My parents have free TV (the 100 channel or so one, not sports/movies) for a year or two more, and got their driveway widened slightly, as UPC needed to bypass a collapsed duct to go overhead.


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    #331
    gandalfio
    Registered Users Posts: 700 ✭✭✭gandalfio


    Hi.

    Installed a saorview box today as my granny had lost the RTÉ stations via her cable TV. Saorview box still was missing the RTÉ channels. Does she need to get an aerial fitted to the roof now to supply the full amount of saorview channels to multiple rooms? Are Virgin within their rights to reduce the number of channels supplied to her via cable?


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