New House "prewired for Virgin" - multiroom?

New House "prewired for Virgin" - multiroom?

Author
Discussion

Chucklehead

Original Poster:

2,729 posts

207 months

Friday 2nd December 2016
quotequote all
I'm in the process of buying a new house at the moment, and the sales folk are not entirely clued up on what they mean when they advertise that the houses are "prewired for Virgin". I'll be able to speak to the site manager who will give me more detail, but i thought i would put it to you guys first!

I would assume prewired to mean that the phone and tv point in the main living room will be set up and installed all the way to the cabinet, and so just a simple activation is required by Virgin. I've never had Virgin before and don't know how i'll get along with it, but the broadband speed and general packages so far look good to me.

However, i will want the ability to watch three different HD channels independently in three different rooms in the house. How does Virgin handle that? In a Sky setup i know that i need to have cabling to each room from the dish (Sky Q aside). I can see in the showhome that there are TV points in each room of the house, but i expect them to be co-ax and not up to independent HD viewing. I am trying to specify Cat 6 for a few rooms, but i am expecting resistance.

So, what is required to watch 3x different HD channels with Virgin in different rooms in the house? And to those of you who have experience of "pre wired", what did you get?


TonyRPH

12,963 posts

167 months

Friday 2nd December 2016
quotequote all
Virgin just requires a single co-ax cable which can be split with the use of a special splitter box to each room.

So you would have a cable coming into the lounge from outside, this would then be split by a multi way splitter sending cables off to each of the respective rooms.

Like this:

|---------- Lounge
|---------- Room 1
Incoming signal >-------|---------- Room 2
|---------- Broadband
|---------- Room 3
^
^ this is a splitter


The splitters they provide generally look like this:



Although in some cases they do provide powered splitters which look slightly different.



Edited by TonyRPH on Friday 2nd December 15:56

Chucklehead

Original Poster:

2,729 posts

207 months

Friday 2nd December 2016
quotequote all
I see, thanks!

Is standard coax enough for a virgin set top box to give full HD via that little box of tricks?

I'll hope that all TV points feed back to one of these splitters already, but assuming they don't, all I need to do is get that signal to wherever the existing coax terminates?

Thinking about future developments.. What about 4k?

t2007p

82 posts

128 months

Saturday 3rd December 2016
quotequote all
You will most likely find that it all runs back to one point depending on the developer near the front door you will see a little bit of green pipe and most likely a load of white wires hanging just above it ready for the outside junction box to be fitted. All the rooms with a white face plate and small virgin logo on are the rooms with cables running to them. In terms of 4K the new TiVo V6 is 4k enabled with currently Netflix and YouTube available.

HaiKarate

279 posts

133 months

Saturday 3rd December 2016
quotequote all
I strongly advise you favour the new Qbox over the clunky, slow Tivo piece of crap. I complained to Virgin until I was red in the face ref my slow broadband speed, but they will never believe you, even calling me a liar. So when I cancelled my contract they agreed to send out an engineer (told them to stick it up their arse), funnily enough, and I have to say Sky is incredible. Broadband is much faster (fibreoptic) than Virgin and the Qbox is absolutely fantastic. I cannot fault it.

I have had so many Virgin customers in the Portsmouth area complain about their broadband speed its unreal. When they state 'UP TO' 100mbps, they do it for a reason. Their equipment is very outdated.

VEX

5,256 posts

245 months

Saturday 3rd December 2016
quotequote all
Very short sighted of the developer to only wire for Virgin. Unless he is being supported by Virgin (which is unlikely)

I would ask it there can be 3 or 4 coaxes run it from the loft space to either the hub or the living room to be able to accomerdate Sky Q.

Hopefully if they have thought about virgin, then there is a little bit of networking in there as well.

V.

Chucklehead

Original Poster:

2,729 posts

207 months

Saturday 3rd December 2016
quotequote all
I understand what you're saying about Sky, and I've had Sky for many many years... but I'll be going with Virgin.

HaiKarate

279 posts

133 months

Sunday 4th December 2016
quotequote all
I wouldn't mind Virgin if they listened to their customers when there is a problem. They don't.

Djtemeka

1,802 posts

191 months

Sunday 4th December 2016
quotequote all
Developments are partly sponsored by the provider or at least installed for free by the provider. In your purchasers pack it stated that you may NOT install a dish on your property therefore eliminating some competition.

2 sMoKiN bArReLs

30,230 posts

234 months

Sunday 4th December 2016
quotequote all
Chucklehead said:
I understand what you're saying about Sky, and I've had Sky for many many years... but I'll be going with Virgin.
A word to the wise. See if you can speak with somebody in the area to make sure Virgin is not oversold. For the last year they have been selling 70mb broadband in this area....but the truth is it is about 2mb or less in the evenings.

2 sMoKiN bArReLs

30,230 posts

234 months

Sunday 4th December 2016
quotequote all
I know you are referring to TV...but I guess that too might be affected

Jobbo

12,960 posts

263 months

Sunday 4th December 2016
quotequote all
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
A word to the wise. See if you can speak with somebody in the area to make sure Virgin is not oversold. For the last year they have been selling 70mb broadband in this area....but the truth is it is about 2mb or less in the evenings.
Virgin only offer broadband at that speed if they're using the BT network, surely? Otherwise it's 50, 100 or 200mbps packages, and you can invariably choose the highest of those provided you're connected to Virgin's cable network.

I can't see any reason to use Virgin when you only have a BT line, but if you're on cable the broadband is excellent. My 200mpbs package actually runs at about 215mbps; unlike the BT line service providers, it's not 'up to', it's 'at least'.

Condi

17,089 posts

170 months

Sunday 4th December 2016
quotequote all
^^ Would tend to agree, if you have Virgin fibre to the home then its a very good service and astonishingly quick. We had it at uni when it was the only provider of 50mb/s+ and it did what it said on the tin. Less important now BT can put 50mb/s into the home, for general use is it worth the extra money?

TonyRPH

12,963 posts

167 months

Sunday 4th December 2016
quotequote all
Chucklehead said:
<snip>
Is standard coax enough for a virgin set top box to give full HD via that little box of tricks?
<snip>
Virgin (in my area at least) used to be quite particular about the quality of the cable, and also used to insist on crimped connections everywhere.

Regarding broadband: If the broadband you will be getting is delivered via the cable TV service, then you should be fine, and potentially get up to 200mbit/s*. If they are providing broadband via ADSL, well then it'll be subject to the same limitations as any other DSL service.

  • Although in some regions this can still be a little congested at times as I understand it.

megaphone

10,694 posts

250 months

Sunday 4th December 2016
quotequote all
Jobbo said:
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
A word to the wise. See if you can speak with somebody in the area to make sure Virgin is not oversold. For the last year they have been selling 70mb broadband in this area....but the truth is it is about 2mb or less in the evenings.
Virgin only offer broadband at that speed if they're using the BT network, surely? Otherwise it's 50, 100 or 200mbps packages, and you can invariably choose the highest of those provided you're connected to Virgin's cable network.

I can't see any reason to use Virgin when you only have a BT line, but if you're on cable the broadband is excellent. My 200mpbs package actually runs at about 215mbps; unlike the BT line service providers, it's not 'up to', it's 'at least'.
I was under the impression Virgin stopped supplying an ADSL service, over phone lines, a few years ago. Think they sold it to Talk Talk.

2 sMoKiN bArReLs

30,230 posts

234 months

Sunday 4th December 2016
quotequote all
Jobbo said:
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
A word to the wise. See if you can speak with somebody in the area to make sure Virgin is not oversold. For the last year they have been selling 70mb broadband in this area....but the truth is it is about 2mb or less in the evenings.
Virgin only offer broadband at that speed if they're using the BT network, surely? Otherwise it's 50, 100 or 200mbps packages, and you can invariably choose the highest of those provided you're connected to Virgin's cable network.

I can't see any reason to use Virgin when you only have a BT line, but if you're on cable the broadband is excellent. My 200mpbs package actually runs at about 215mbps; unlike the BT line service providers, it's not 'up to', it's 'at least'.
Nope, it' fibre. Was 50 with upgrade to 70. Problem is it's oversold in this area

2 sMoKiN bArReLs

30,230 posts

234 months

Sunday 4th December 2016
quotequote all
Virgin said:

Hello Steve,

Your broadband just got even faster – we’ve now increased your speed from a nippy up to 50Mb to up to 70Mb.

In the past year, our customers have been doing more with their connection (around 50% more, in fact). So with your new speed, you've got extra power to stream, share, play and whatever else you love.


...and I'm getting between 0 & 2mb in the evenings


Actual

683 posts

105 months

Sunday 4th December 2016
quotequote all
If a new build house is wired for Virgin cable then beware that there may be covenants to prevent the erection of TV aerials and satellite dishes.

Virgin broadband is the best by 1 million miles.

Sky TV is 100 million times better than Virgin TV.

All in my opinion.

Jobbo

12,960 posts

263 months

Sunday 4th December 2016
quotequote all
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
Jobbo said:
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
A word to the wise. See if you can speak with somebody in the area to make sure Virgin is not oversold. For the last year they have been selling 70mb broadband in this area....but the truth is it is about 2mb or less in the evenings.
Virgin only offer broadband at that speed if they're using the BT network, surely? Otherwise it's 50, 100 or 200mbps packages, and you can invariably choose the highest of those provided you're connected to Virgin's cable network.

I can't see any reason to use Virgin when you only have a BT line, but if you're on cable the broadband is excellent. My 200mpbs package actually runs at about 215mbps; unlike the BT line service providers, it's not 'up to', it's 'at least'.
Nope, it' fibre. Was 50 with upgrade to 70. Problem is it's oversold in this area
Virgin isn't fibre, though - it's coax cable. ETA: ah, I see they brand it 'Super Fibre' now, which is somewhat misleading!

They do offer better contention ratios on the higher packages, I believe.

Edited by Jobbo on Sunday 4th December 16:57

TonyRPH

12,963 posts

167 months

Sunday 4th December 2016
quotequote all
Jobbo said:
Virgin isn't fibre, though - it's coax cable. ETA: ah, I see they brand it 'Super Fibre' now, which is somewhat misleading!

They do offer better contention ratios on the higher packages, I believe.

Edited by Jobbo on Sunday 4th December 16:57
Looking at the speeds here I think "Super Fibre" is ADSL / Fibre and the "Vivid" product range is coax.