Thinking of downgrading or cancelling VM TV but...

marcaaron22

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I am currently on moreless the full package, movies/sports etc.. plus HD.. in 2 rooms, 600 speed fibre broadband,
I’m paying £143.50 per month (will be more come March/April), I am out of contract so not tied into anything. But...
I don’t want to cancel because I’ll lose all my recordings so thinking of removing movies (as I buy 4K and HD Blu rays of films I want to watch anyways, way better quality), sports and kids channels, but still want the HD of the other channels and I want the same fibre broadband speed as I am getting.

Got the same dilemma with Sky, I’ve got the Sky+HD box, I’m still paying them just because I don’t want to lose the recordings. Just on the very basic package with them.

That’s why I liked the Dreambox satellite receiver when you could easily use the sky card in the box, you could record as much as you like and then transfer to laptop to burn to Blu ray or DVD.
I still use the Dreambox but now just for the free channels, anything I want to record that I want to keep I record on there.
 
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You shouldn't be cepending upon the STVs as a means by which to archive content. THe recording capabilities should be regarded as a means to watch content you couldn't manuage to watch as they were being aired and more akin to catch up as opposed to long tterm storage.

Solution is to stop using your box as an archive and you'd then be less obligated to continue using Virgin Media or indeed SKY for TV services.

Anyway, you'd need to buy most of the higher tier kids channels as a seperate add on these days. Even the top Maxit package doesn't now include these channels.

If you sign up for a lower tier TV package then anything associated with any channel you no longer have access to will no longer be watchable via your recorded shows.

You used to be able to output anything you'd recorded via VM in real time via a box's analogue output. THis allowed you to recorde saved shows or content as in SD. This is no longer possible though because the V6 and the 360 boxes no longer have analogue outputs that are enabled. You cannot use the HDMI outpu on these boxes to recorf anything uasing an external recording device because they are protected using HDCP.





AS I suggested, try to get out of the habit of using the STBs are storage devices. You'd be screwed anyway if a box develops a fault thart requires it be replaced. You'd lose the content stored on that box.




By the way, you are paying substantially more than someone who renegotiated their contract would be paying for a similar pacjage as yours. THe only way you are realistically going to get what you have for less ifs if you do likewos, negotiate a cheaper price and then sign up for 18 months to that contract.
 
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I don’t record movies or tv series, as you can get them on Blu ray and DVD anyway, it’s just one off things that I record, I always have done, back in the days of VHS, then DVD when the recorders first came out, then on hard disc via the Dreambox as the box is more accessible than the Sky and Virgin boxes.

It’s basically music performances, interviews etc that I record stuff that’s only on once and never to be seen again.
 
I typically record stuff and watch it. I then ordinarily delete it after watching it.


You should not use the STB for storage of anything you wish to archive. If the box needs replacing (and they do) then you lose anything and everuthing you've recorded onto that box!
 
Would a video gaming capture device and an HDMI splitter work for copying recordings? Copy what I can then phone to cancel my subscription and use a streaming service like Netflix where you can cancel anytime
 
Would a video gaming capture device and an HDMI splitter work for copying recordings? Copy what I can then phone to cancel my subscription and use a streaming service like Netflix where you can cancel anytime


No, HDCP prevents such a device from being able to record anything the STB outputs via HDMI. Games are not protected by HDCP so that is how such devices are able to record game action.


THere are ways to strip the HDCP protection from the HDMI signal though:

 

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