I am a virgin media customer myself, however I don't tend to watch TV often but upon reading your problem it brings back a similar problem that I have heard of before (and there was a pretty simple way to solve it) but I can't remember the exact way. However, I would of thought that ringing 150 from your landline, and speaking to someone from the TV department, explaining the above problem you would have had no problem in being told how to do it over the phone as it seems pointless in an engineer coming out just to solve something that somebody in the call centre can!! (HAVE U ASKED FOR INSTRUCTIONS VIA PHONE??) I will see what I can find online for you. Keep us updated!!!!!!!