New house set up for Virgin rather than Sky

[munties]

Hello,

I'm after a little advice on wither our new house which is already set up for Virgin is compatible with Sky.

The previous owners had set up Virgin going to almost every room in the house & I would like to do this with Sky.

There is a unit in the loft which seems to be there for sending the incoming signal to each room.

I know that a Sky box tunes the LMB into the required signal & that Virgin is just basically everything being sent down the cable & the box decoding it as required.

Will this box just scramble the Sky signal & mess it all up, should I just go for the easy option & go for Virgin as the house is set up for it.

Thanks for your advice,

Anthony.

[Isitme]

Its up to you really, the TV set up should work with the Sky box the same as with the Virgin one. I would base my decision on the speed I could get from Sky v Virgin. If you are a long way from the exchange and don't have fibre, Sky are unlikely to be competitive. This only applies if you are interested in broadband of course.

[FelixTCat]

I suspect that the Virgin distribution system will not work with Sky. With Virgin, all the TV signals come down the one fibre and are separated (tuned) at the set-top box. Provided you have a set-top box for each TV you will be able to watch all the channels on any of the TVs. With Sky, although some tuning is done at the box, some is also done at the antenna. The system cannot handle more than one TV from one antenna feed. You can still get multi-room from Sky, but you will need a different set-up.

[Isitme]

You could be right Felix, but I thought the distribution would be done by coax which could be connected to the RF2 as many do in conjunction with 'magic eyes'. I didn't think Virgin used fibre within or into the home.

[bubblegun]

Hello,

I'm after a little advice on wither our new house which is already set up for Virgin is compatible with Sky.

The previous owners had set up Virgin going to almost every room in the house & I would like to do this with Sky.

There is a unit in the loft which seems to be there for sending the incoming signal to each room.

I know that a Sky box tunes the LMB into the required signal & that Virgin is just basically everything being sent down the cable & the box decoding it as required.

Will this box just scramble the Sky signal & mess it all up, should I just go for the easy option & go for Virgin as the house is set up for it.

Thanks for your advice,

Anthony.

What do you want to have in the house for yourself?
Do you wants tv in all these rooms?

Both Sky and Virgin can provide tv into 1, 2 or many rooms but is that what you would want?

You need to decided what you want the system to give you then decide between the two which can best give you that service. Sky and Virgin are both pretty similar really.

[FelixTCat]

You could be right Felix, but I thought the distribution would be done by coax which could be connected to the RF2 as many do in conjunction with 'magic eyes'. I didn't think Virgin used fibre within or into the home.

My apologies. Virgin use coax into the house, not fibre.

I have a similar distribution system in my house but only for terrestrial TV, with a signal booster and distributor in the loft and coax running to wall sockets all over the house. Goodness knows why the previous occupant needed that many TVs.

[smudge1977]

HI

you will probably find that the box in loft is to feed each room with the virgin and terrestrial signal. The same as RF2 does on a sky box. you will just need to check model of box and let us know on here. It would help if you took a few pics. o we can see wire in living room and loft.

regards

James

[ronnie38]

If your after a box in every room I believe Virgin is the way to go. If your after broadband Virgin is definately the way to go.

[Scubbie]

Welcome to the forum.

There is much debate over the VM broadband. In many areas it is over subscribed and very slow at peak times.

In the few cases where Sky Broadband has had issues, they have improved the backhaul and those areas no longer have the same problems with peak times. Of course a new area may become affected, but Sky does invest a lot on this service.

Sure the 100mb and 120mb service from VM is good, but then Sky can supply a product which uses the BTO 80/20 FTTC infrastructure.

BTW: What is capping and throttling?

As for multi-room, I don't have the VM prices to compare, but the channel line up for Sky is far better IMHO. With the current total of 66 HD channels (including the only 3D channel in Europe and 2 SBO channels) available to subscribe to, can you say the same?

It really depends on what you want from your TV package, whether you can put a dish up or if VM has a cabinet which you can connect to and how much you are prepared to pay.

[dholdi]

If your after a box in every room I believe Virgin is the way to go. If your after broadband Virgin is definately the way to go.

I have the choice of both for broadband and use neither, however I do understand fanboys blinkered opinions.