If you've got a Virgin Media TV 360 or Stream box nestled under your telly, you're about to be treated to a free upgrade designed to make finding your next favourite show much, much simpler. The team at Virgin Media has put together a free software update designed to make the search functionality a lot prettier.
Gone is the dull list of text-only titles of television shows, documentaries, and movies, replaced with eye-catching artwork of what's available to watch on your Virgin Media TV 360 or Virgin Stream set-top box. So, instead of scanning a long list for "EastEnders BBC One 7:30pm" in a list of plain text, you should spot the EastEnders logo immediately.
Just tap the button with the magnifying glass symbol on your remote control and start typing, Virgin Media's software will try to anticipate what you're looking for as soon as you've entered a few letters.
Virgin Media has overhauled the search experience with new suggestions and artwork
|VIRGIN MEDIA O2 PRESS OFFICE
The visual makeover was announced in a blog post on the Virgin Media website. It explains: "We’re rolling out some helpful improvements to how you search on our Stream box and Virgin TV 360. Gone are the boring search results that made it feel like you were cramming for an exam (and not a fun one).
"Instead, we’ve ditched the text lists and have updated our search function to show image results, making it quicker and easier to find what you want. Whether you’re typing out your search query or you’re using our super powerful voice search feature, you will now see visual tiles for the relevant results."
With its slick new look, Virgin Media has brought its software closer to what you'd expect from Disney+ or Netflix.
Virgin Media searches across everything included in its catalogue, so you'll see upcoming shows from the TV Guide, on-demand boxsets, as well as shows from your favourite streamers, like Netflix or Prime Video. This means you'll avoid paying to rent something that's included in the catalogue of one of your subscriptions.
You don't have to search for a specific show, film, or actor to make use of this new functionality either. If you're unsure about exactly what you're looking to watch, you can ask for broader categories like “feel-good movies”, “reality TV”, or even “live sports tonight” to surface some new suggestions.
As you start typing, artwork will populate from across the Virgin Media catalogue, as well as anything included in the Netflix or Disney+ streaming library
|VIRGIN MEDIA O2 PRESS OFFICE
Virgin Media will roll out the update automatically when it's ready, so there's nothing for you to do.
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The rollout is expected to start in the coming days, so you should see the visual overhaul on your telly soon. Some Virgin TV subscribers have already started to see the new search functionality land on their devices.
Sadly, Virgin Media won't be bringing this updated appearance to its oldest boxes, like the Virgin Media TV V6 or TiVO-powered options.
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