I'm moving to a new flat in a few days and I will lose Hyperoptics. My wife has asked me to get her regular TV so that she can learn more about the local culture and television. She is trying to get into script writing in the UK so she wants a more representative view. I have never had a TV licence or cable before and don't know how they compare. I can get a colour TV licence for £150.50 annually. The best bundle deal I can find is the Virgin Player bundle with Player TV (Virgin TV V6 box and Over 70 channels) and VIVID 100 fibre broadband Talk Weekends for £32 a month for 12 months. Do I need a TV licence with the virgin bundle or is it one or the other? Freeview offers 70 TV channels, 15 HD* channels, and more than 30 radio stations. Does the Virgin Player TV offer anything extra in terms of content or would I just be paying more for PVR? If I go with Freeview I can get the VIVID 100 + Talk Weekends for £27 a month. My favourite channels are Dave and the BBC.
The basic, cheapest Virgin TV Package iirc is the same set of channels as freeview [so none of the Sky offerings or anything like that] iirc, and yes you do still need the TV License as it's 'live TV'... same with Sky/sattelite. A lot depends on what kind of stuff she's wanting to watch.
We haven't had a cable package before. She watches a lot of non-UK content online and Amazon amazon Prime. We the picture quality be any different in London? The Virgin bundle is an extra £5 over VIVID 100 fibre on its own. When I was doing a bit of research I saw some article saying that some Freeview content was no longer available in the basic Pay TV packages. This is why I was a bit confused if I would still need to pay for a TV licence.
What about an Amazon fire stick? You should be able to get tv player and iPlayer on that, as well as all the Amazon prime stuff. So then you'd just need an internet connection and possibly the tv license.
That is another reasonable alternative. I guess that would be TV licence + VIVID 100 fibre + firestick?
Whether satellite, cable or using an old-school aerial, if you are watching and/or recording tv programmes as they are transmitted, you require a license.
You need a licence to watch anything on iplayer as well. This may be handy re licence or no: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/tv-licence/
I wouldn't pay virgin for TV. Your TV will have a freeview tuner or if you want pvr functionality look at a humax youview box or freeview play box
You require a TV license when you: 1. Watch live broadcast or streamed TV programs 2. Record live broadcast or streamed TV and watch it later 3. Watch iPlayer at all 4. Watch catch up TV via a streaming app as in you're watching a repeat of a program that was broadcast via catchup features (AKA Freeview Play, or other catch up TV features) It doesn't matter whether this is via BT TV, Youview, a freeview box you purchased, Roku, Virgin TV, Sky TV, freesat, etc. You do not require a TV license when you: 1. Watch films 2. Watch boxsets 3. Watch original programming that was never broadcast and is only available to stream If the Virgin TV box is just £5 a month extra on your package, honestly I'd probably go for that. It'll save the hassle of buying your own box for the job. Alternatively you could run a Plex server with a £90 for lifetime plex pass, add a TV tuner, and stream/record Freeview channels to any device you want. Or you could buy your own set top box and plug it in to the aerial.
Forgot about iPlayer, D'oh! Best not to take the word of anyone here, including me. Read all the info on @adidan's link.
I've been looking into this today because I'm intending to borh dump Sky and unplug my aerial next year. https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one is where I paraphrased the above from.
We've had Virgin TV, and recently changed over to BT, so we're now using an aerial to receive a Freeview TV signal. If you're going to watch TV live (and if you're getting a Virgin box to do so, why wouldn't you), you will need a TV licence for either scenario, on top of the payments for Virgin cable, or if you have something like BT's box, in essence a standalone DVR with an aerial going into the back of it. In terms of choice, you'll get basically the same channels (BT offered some free BT Sport channels, Virgin gave a couple of other free ones). The list of Freeview channels is quite extensive, and includes BBC and Dave. It offers HD broadcasts of BBC1, BBC2, ITV1, Channel 4 and Channel 5, and a couple others which I don't think I've ever used. The quality of service is the same, providing your signal reception isn't naff. Only snag we had was on a hot day last year where the cooling after it knocked out the cable briefly, but apparently this is inherent to using cable. Conversely, we use an indoor aerial now, and occasionally the boiler igniting (the aerial is within a metre of the boiler) screws with the signal briefly. The older Virgin box was pretty rubbish, however I've heard the current one is much better. The YouView box BT provides is very good. Side note; their internet speeds have both lived up to their promises which is nice! If Virgin had been able to match BT's pricing I'd have stayed with Virgin as both have great internet speeds, and you get the same from their respective TV boxes. TL;DR; I'd get the cheaper VIVID 100 tariff, but you will need a TV licence if you're watching anything as it's broadcast. If you have a decent TV you can often stick a USB stick/HDD in to enable DVR functionality, or you can take your pick of the various DVRs. If the £5 a month is cheaper than the DVR you would get then obviously it could be worth going that route instead. (Freesat is basically identical to Freeview, it's just the reception method that differs, as well as the selection of TVs/DVRs that accept it)
I currently have my desktop connected to the TVover HDMI to play my media. It's an LG 42LB5500 from late 2014 so I assume it has Freeview HD My daughter is getting older so I want to move my computer to another part of the room and be able to play her shows without running them off my rig. I'm thinking between Freeview through the TV, Virgin for an extra £5 or a fire stick (or similar).
I think on the £5 Virgin TV package you'll get a couple of extra kids channels that are not on freeview. Might be worth it for that alone.
That would definitely be worth it for my daughter. Do you know if virgin is missing any of the freeview content? Link
The disagreement between VM and UKTV was resolved and those channels are accessible from the VM box again.
https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/bundles/player-bundle.html#channel - in the "See all channels" list select "Kids" and you will see what's included. I was incorrect - the player bundle doesn't have anything that freeview doesn't but Full House has Nick and Disney and CN which will be what you want really for a wee one. These channels are the only real reason I have Sky right now and are the challenge to me getting rid of it next year.
I went with the virgin package as it is a good deal right now. They bumped the 50Mb up to 100Mb and I won't need to deal with an aerial antenna. I will still need to sort out the best way to connect my PC to the TV for movies and gaming.
