Virgin has boldly been challenging Sky for the space under your telly for some time now, offering all manner of music, sport and entertainment channels on its V+ box, without the need for any ugly satellite dishes to be installed on the side of your house.
Giving you upscaled Freeview programmes, the Virgin V+ box also offers you some 1080i Hi-Def content. Admittedly, as with most other HD set-top boxes on the market, it’s no match for Sky’s glittering HD line-up (how could they expect BBC HD and some on-demand stuff could match Sky’s catalogue of content?). That said, it does have three tuners (one more than Sky HD) that will let you record two channels while watching a third. Think of it as a way of keeping your kids, your wife and yourself happy all at once.
There are a few niggles, though. There’s only a 160GB hard drive, which matches the Sky HD box, but pales in comparison to the Humax Foxsat-HDR’s 300GB hard drive. Also, If you want to enjoy the full 5.1 surround sound, you’ll need an optical audio cable, as the HDMI link doesn’t support it.
That said, cable reception is truly excellent. None of this broken signal that plagues Sky HD. And the on-demand content and catch-up service dumps on Sky’s Anytime service from a great height, with a choice of old and new content. Prices vary depending on what you choose, but generally range from free up to £3.75. And the fingertip access to the BBC iPlayer is a real boon.
Ultimately there aren’t enough HD channels for this to take on Sky in an HD battle. But there are heaps of channels, with excellent on-demand TV and the best catch-up service by far. Impressive.
