12 things to expect from Virgin Media's next-gen box

10. More graphics, less text

Last but not least, Virgin Media's TiVo boxes will almost certainly boast a much more visual user experience. The current text-heavy menu systems are a million miles away from the graphical TiVo UI and integrating things like movie posters and screenshots really make using it significantly nicer.

Of course, the corporate colours are likely to feature heavily and it remains to be seen whether the ever-present discovery bar at the top of the screen will be ported across in all its graphical glory, but expect a more dynamic, more graphical and friendlier experience.

11. Networked multi-room

One of TiVo's most popular features is its networked boxes – allowing you to access the recordings you made in your living room from your second box in the bedroom or vice versa.

It certainly isn't much of a reach to suggest that Virgin media will be keen to bring this feature to its boxes, especially because 'upselling' – convincing people that they shouldn't just get the basic packages but should add a V+ box or multi-room – is a great way of increasing revenues, and this is a great reason to splash out a little more for a nice bit of functionality.

12. Mobile content

This remains the feature that is both the most desirable for consumers and thorniest for Virgin Media. Imagine being able to simply convert and send your content to your mobile phone or laptop so that you can keep up with your television wherever you are.

It's obviously a powerful concept, and yet content providers – ie, the people who make the TV programmes or films – remain worried that being able to copy to a mobile device could impact on their DVD sales.

Can the problem be solved? Almost certainly. But it remains to be seen if we will get the TiVo mobile functionality in the Virgin box