How to record on a Virgin Media TV box
It’s easy to keep on top of all your favourite programs with Virgin Media. Learn how to record on a Virgin TV box.
Manage your TV via our app
Manage recordings and more from the palm of your hand. If you have a 360 box simply download the TV Go app. Or if you have a V6 or TiVo box download the TV Control app.
How to record on Virgin TV 360 box
With a Virgin TV 360 box, you can record up to 6 programs at the same time, all while watching live TV. Set your recordings using the 360 box’s TV guide or the mini guide. Visit the shop and check out the Virgin TV 360 box
Press either the Home button then Guide or the OK button
Scroll and find your program, then press Record
Recording a program that’s part of a series? Select to record the whole series or just the episode and press OK.
Your program is now scheduled to record. If you’ve chosen to record the series, all episodes in the series will record automatically when they are shown on TV, or save from Catch Up or On Demand.
Press the Home button on the remote and select Saved, or simply hold the Microphone button and say “saved” to bring up your recorded programs. Everything you record will be saved here, ready to watch later. The Virgin TV 360 box will even save your place if you start watching a recorded show but don’t finish, letting you pick up where you left off.
How to record on Virgin TV V6 or Tivo Box
You can record up to 6 programs on the TV V6 box, or 3 on the TiVo, all while watching something you recorded earlier.
To record the program you’re watching, press Record on the Virgin TV remote and select Record this episode. You can also select Get Series Link+ and the box will record any future episodes when they are shown on TV, or save them from On Demand or Catch Up.
The Virgin TV V6 or TiVo box automatically saves up to 60 minutes of the channel you’re watching from the moment you switch over, so by hitting Record you’ll save everything you’ve already watched too.
To stop a live recording, simply press Record and select Stop recording. Or, you can press My Shows on the remote, choose the show and press Clear.
Press Guide on the Virgin TV remote
Find the show you’d like to record and press Record
Select Record this episode or Get a series Link+ to record an entire series
Press OK
When you set a Series Link+, episodes will be recorded automatically when they are shown on TV. Or, if available on Catch Up, On Demand or Netflix, the episodes will be saved from there. You can find all your recorded episodes in My Shows, and any Series Link+ you set will be added to Manage my Series Links.
The Virgin TV V6 or TiVo box schedules recordings based on the information available in the TV Guide. Sometimes, when programs overrun or if there is a change to the schedule, the Guide might not always be correct.
The TV Guide updates automatically every couple of hours, but to make sure you have the most up-to-date information, you can update it manually.
To do this:
Press Home on the remote
Select Help & Settings
Select Settings
Select Network. You’ll see the last time the TV Guide was updated
Select Connect to the Virgin Media Service now
Manage recordings
Press Guide on the remote
Find the show you’d like to set a reminder for
Press Record, Info, or OK
Select Record and remind this episode
To set a reminder on any planned recordings:
Press Home on the remote
Select My Shows & Recordings
Select My Planned Recordings
Select the show or episode
Select Options
Change the Reminder option to On (or Off to turn the reminder off).
Press Home on the remote
Select My Shows & Recordings
Select My Planned Recordings
You can edit any recording listed here by pressing OK and selecting Modify Recording, or cancel it by simply hitting Record.
If you set too many shows to record at the same time, the box will use recording priorities to determine what shows should be recorded. If the box can’t record a show, then lower priority shows will be marked as a clash. By default, recording priorities are set as follows:
One-off recordings
Series Link+
TiVo Suggestions
For the shows being recorded by Series Link+, newer shows are given a lower priority than older shows. You can change recording priority manually by following these steps:
Press Home on the remote
Select My Shows & Recordings
Select Manage Series Link+
Select the Series Link + show you want to change
You can then set the recording priority by doing one of the following:
Enter new number using the remote keypad
Press Right and use the Up / Down icon to set its priority
Moving a show up to a higher number to increases its priority, while moving it down to a lower number decreases its priority.
Sometimes shows can overrun, and this can cause clashes in your recording schedule. If you've reached your recording limit (6 on a V6 box and 3 on TiVo), this can lead to missed programs. Overlap Protection makes dealing with these clashes a little easier.
With Overlap Protection, lower priority recordings are cut by just a few minutes (up to 5), allowing both shows to record. When Overlap Protection is turned off, when two shows overlap, the lower priority recording is cancelled.
To set up Overlap Protection:
Press Home on the remote
Select Help & Settings
Select Settings
Select Recordings
Select Overlap Protection
Padding helps make sure you don’t miss the beginning or end of the shows you love. To do this, the box will start recording a few minutes before a show is scheduled to start and will stop a few minutes after it ends. You can change your padding settings by doing one of the following:
To change padding when you’re setting up a recording:
Go to Explore this show
Select Get this show
Select Create a Series Link+, Record next episode or Record this show
Select Options
To change padding for a one-off planned recording:
Press Home on the remote
Select My Shows & Recordings
Select My Planned Recordings
Press OK on the programme you want to change
Select Modify recording
Select Recording Options
To change the padding for an existing Series Link+:
Press Home on the remote
Select My Shows & Recordings
Select Manage Series Link +
Press OK on the Series Link + show
Select Series Link + Info
Select Modify options
The options you can change are:
Start Recording: set your recording to start up to 10 minutes before the show is scheduled to begin
Stop Recording: set your recording to carry on up to 3 hours after the show is scheduled to end
Global padding
If you'd like to apply new padding settings to all your future recordings, simply do the following:
Press Home on the remote
Select Help & Settings
Select Settings
Select Recordings
Select Series Link+ and Recording Options
You can then set new values for:
The programme type you want to record
The number of episodes you want to keep in a series
How long before a programme is due to begin that you’d like recording to start
How long after a programme is due to end that you’d like recording to stop
You can add extra time onto your live recordings by following these steps:
Press Home on the remote
Select Help & Settings
Select Settings
Select Recordings
Select Extend Live Recordings
If you’re facing playback issues, check to make sure the channel you recorded your show from is still available:
If you’ve recorded a show from a channel you no longer have a subscription to, such as a Sky channel, you won't be able to watch your recording until you renew your subscription.
If you've recorded a show from a non-subscription channel that has been removed from Virgin TV, you'll only be able to watch recordings for up to 3 months after the channel has been removed.
Normally when the box is running out of space, it’ll automatically delete older shows. If you have recorded any shows you don't want deleted automatically, you can set them as Keep Until I Delete. This way, they’ll remain saved on the box until you delete them manually.
Manage Series Link+
Press Home on the remote
Select My Shows & Recordings
Select Manage My Series Links
Select the programme
Press OK
Go to Change recording options
From here, you can change the following Series Link+ settings:
Include
Set where you like to record your episodes from:
Recording & Streaming videos: record episodes from live TV, Catch Up, On Demand and Netflix.
Recording only: only record episodes from live TV. Catch Up, On Demand and Netflix won’t be included.
Streaming videos only: only save episodes from Catch Up, On Demand and Netflix only. Live TV won’t be recorded.
Start From
Already seen the first season of a show? No problem. Use this option to choose which seasons of a show you want to record episodes for.
Record
New & reruns: record all episodes that haven’t yet been recorded. Any episodes you've deleted before have won’t be recorded again.
New only: only record episodes that are being broadcast for the first time in the UK
Everything: record all episodes available for the show, even if they’ve previously been deleted.
Channel
Choose to record episodes from a Single Channel, or All Channels available in your subscription.
Get in HD
Choose whether you'd like to record your episodes in HD:
If possible: prioritise recording the episode from an HD channel in your subscription.
Always: only record an episode from a HD channel in your subscription (episodes only available in SD it won’t be recorded).
Never: only record episodes from a SD channel (episodes only available in HD won’t be recorded).
Keep at most
Set how many episodes you'd like keep in My Shows. If the number of saved episodes goes over the limit, the oldest episode will be automatically deleted. (The default is 10 episodes.)
Keep until
Select for how long you’d like to keep each episode:
Space Needed: keep your recorded programs until the space is needed to record something else.
Until I Delete Recordings: keep your recordings until you delete them (if you run out of space, new episodes won’t be recorded).
Start recording
Adjust the start time of the recording. This can be useful when TV schedules get a little delayed. (Recordings are set to start 1 minute before the show is scheduled to begin by default.) Stop recording
Set how many minutes after a program's official end time the recording will run for. (This is set to 4 minutes by default.)
Press Home on the remote
Select My Shows & Recordings
Select Manage My Series Links