Another FiOS TV Review

[mrparrott]

I wish that down here in Southern Sarasota county (North Port) would catch up to the times we can't even get cable or DSL for high speed internet.

 

[Kaos]

Class act on your review, it was very detailed and informing... Got a question for us sports junkies.
1. Does the Tampa area FiOS carry both FSNFL and Sun Sports or do they shortchange viewers of FSNFL, like Brighthouse does?
2. Do they carry the Sports package of RSNs like DirecTV & DISH?
3. Do they allow you to subscribe to sports packages like Extra Innings or Center Ice?

I don't think we have it in this area of the State yet, but had some sports questions.

1. Yes http://www22.verizon.com/FiOSForHome/Includes/FiOSTV/FloridaGulfCoast.pdf

2. They don't carry the individual RSNs.

3. From the link: http://www.longhornxp.net/Verizon.html
One big drawback with Verizon FIOS TV is the issue with InDemand. InDemand is a company that offers the two InHD channels along with PPV On Demand titles and many of the Sports subscriptions. InDemand is partly owned by several of the top cable companies such as Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Comcast Cable among others. Because of this they are pulling some unfair pricing tactics that are keeping DirecTV and Dish Network from offer the two InHD channels but these tactics are hurting Verizon more as its not just the two InHD channels but the sports subscriptions as well.

DirecTV and Dish Network have deals in place for the sports packages while Verizon is a new entrant without a deal so they are getting the hard end of the stick. I expect this to be handled quicker than most think but until that time the following channels and packages aren't on Verizon FIOS TV.

The two InHD channels of course.

Sports Packages include the following below.

MLB Extra Innings.
NBA League Pass.
NHL Center Ice.
Nascar InCar.
MLS Direct Kick.

Until this InDemand issue gets cleared up these sports packages listed above and the two InHD channels will "not" be offered on Verizon FIOS TV.

 

[Kaos]

Another thing I noticed, but have not had a lot of time to play around with is this. I had two recordings set up last night for the Sopranos and Desperate Housewives. Both start at 9pm. I had it on HBO at around 855 and a message came up asking if I wanted to switch to the Desperate Housewives channel or delete the Sopranos recording. Not wanting to mess with it last night, I just choose to cancel the Sopranos recording as I was watching it live. I can't figure out why it was asking me to choose between the two as it will record two programs at once and I had it on one of the channels that it was recording. I will test more later on.

It seems the DVR receiver is only capable of recording 1 channel in the background. If you want to record a second channel, it cannot be done in the background like the first one. It has to be done where it is viewable. So you cannot record 2 channels in the background and watch a third channel.

 

[HDFreud]

OK! I was an Voom charter member and I wanted the service for the reason we all love HD. Quatlity and Content with empahasis on quality. What we all want is true HI-Def and I truly believe that in the end most consumers will go with who ever delivers the best HD picture. I remember all the problems early on with Voom, but I hung ith there because of HD quality.
I think that who ever has the most bandwith and is smart with a solid business plan that recognizes the needs of consumers, will be the player for my $ and the massess as well.
I have comcast and while I am sticking with them for new, I have more pixelation that I should (tech's have been to the house 5x).
FIOS come to North NJ fast.
Scott, D*, Dish, and others should have a link to this thread!!!

 

[korsjs]

It seems the DVR receiver is only capable of recording 1 channel in the background. If you want to record a second channel, it cannot be done in the background like the first one. It has to be done where it is viewable. So you cannot record 2 channels in the background and watch a third channel.

was not trying to watch a third channel. had it on one of the channels it was going to record.

it will get a good test tonight. i am getting ready to go to bed and it should be recording two different shows from 8 - 10. the power will be off so we will see how it goes. tomorrow i will see if it lets me watch a show being recorded while recording a second channel.

 

[mindgrind]

What is happening is that the DVR records one minute before the actual show. It thinks you are trying to record 2 shows while watching another, or trying to record 3 shows.

I have yet to find a workabout on this issue- I don't believe you can just set it to record on time.

 

[korsjs]

was not trying to watch a third channel. had it on one of the channels it was going to record.

it will get a good test tonight. i am getting ready to go to bed and it should be recording two different shows from 8 - 10. the power will be off so we will see how it goes. tomorrow i will see if it lets me watch a show being recorded while recording a second channel.

everything recoded ok last night. will test the watching one live recording while recording a second channel later.

 

[David_Levin]

Great review and pictures - thanks....

Wow, that wiring looks interesting. It's all coax. I assume there a fiber feeding the box?

I wonder if all channels are being modulated and sent simultaneously over the coax, or if the STB is sending up requests for the channels it needs.

Has anyone heard of any problems between Verizon and High bandwidth internet users? I've herd of Comcast sending out nasty-o-grams to some of thier users.

 

[StevenD]

Has anyone heard of any problems between Verizon and High bandwidth internet users? I've herd of Comcast sending out nasty-o-grams to some of thier users.

I would certainly consider myself a "high bandwidth" user and I haven't heard a word from them.

 

[korsjs]

Here are my latest thoughts.

EDIT ON 3/14/06, 5:04 - One thing I noticed while recording which is very annoying is this. I tape Judge Judy everyday. There are two shows, one from 4 - 430 and the other is 430 - 5. My wife is usually not home during that time, but was home sick today. She was watching something else and Judge Judy was the only thing recording. At around 428 a message pops up saying it has to flip to the channel Judge Judy is recording. The reason it is doing it is because it starts to record a few minutes early and runs a few minutes late. So for about four minutes is was recording the same thing twice and we were forced to watch the channel Judge Judy was recording on. Very annoying. The Scientific Atlantic 8300 did not have this problem and hopefully it will be worked out soon.

 

[BrettTRay]

Glad to hear you like it Korsjs. I wish that i could get FIOS here but maybe the bell south/at&t merger will bring there version of IPTV to us southeasterners. I was at a friend of mines house that had that particular HD DVR through comcast and it sucked compared to the dish network interface. It was actually at the brothers house of Tampa Bay Running back Carnell Williams-and it is one big ass house here in gadsden!!!

 

[legalaliens]

Has anybody noticed a bit of "noise" on FiOS SD channels? Specifically, I've noticed it on the Children channels (like Nick, etc...), with animated programming (like Spongebob, Fairly Odd Parents, etc...). I still have D* as well as FiOS, and D* has noticeably less "noise" on these channels than FiOS. When I say "noise", I mean edges of the characters seem a bit blurred. I noticed this using HDMI output from the STB as well as S-Video.

I am extremely pleased with the HD PQ on FiOS, but jus a bit disappointed with the SD on some channels.

 

[korsjs]

i have not noticed any noise and am using the hdmi in the main room. my kid watches nick quite often. it even looks good in his room using standard rg6 as the connection.

i have watched a lot of hd over the past few days and it still is amazing to me how much better it looks than brighthouse and dish. i watched a show on discovery yesterday and it looked beautiful.

some minor bugs with the dvr, but the picture quality outways everything. truely stunning.

 

[legalaliens]

I wonder if this is a Fairfax County, VA issue (SD PQ)? Anybody in Fairfax County notice "noise" on some of the SD channels as I mentioned in the earlier post?

On other SD channels, I notice less "blockiness" on FiOS than D*. In other words, FiOS is more detailed (like you can see leaves on trees) than D* (can't really make out the leaves - more "fuzzy" green than leaves).

Go figure...

 

[mindgrind]

No noise on those channels on mine here in Texas either.

I agree Korsjs, the bug issues are easy to put up with if you are picky about the quality of the picture. If the best picture available is what you want, then FiosTV is your answer.

If you want the best of both, get a Tivo and bypass Fios' DVR. As I also said in my reviews, the HD is stunning and the SD is the best out there.

For those that can't get it yet, hopefully the satellite and cable companies will start getting "hurt" enough by us that have switched that they will upgrade their quality soon enough. Competition will help everyone.

 

[StevenD]

If you want the best of both, get a Tivo and bypass Fios' DVR. As I also said in my reviews, the HD is stunning and the SD is the best out there.

You cannot record HD from FiOS on a TiVo.

 

[jgantert]

You cannot record HD from FiOS on a TiVo.

As the old text based adventure games would say...

You can't do that yet!



-John

 

[mrschwarz]

I suspect the poster confused operating a mail server on a residential account, which is not allowed on most residential accounts for most ISPs anyway as it is not listed in the FIOS TOS on their webpage. Considering his other arguements, this mistake wouldn't surprise me.

I suspect Port 25 is blocked incoming but not outgoing on the residential accounts. I wish more Broadband Services would do this as so many residential accounts are turned into spambots. RoadRunner and other Broadband services have the same blocks in place.

Many ISPs will not even accept email from MailServers on Residential IPs, which also might be what the original poster is confused about. AOL and others have these blocks in place now.

I have no firsthand knowledge of it, but as the original poster said he is not a sub, he has no first hand knowledge of his statement either.

Actually, Verizon blocks port 25. This provents you from using other SMTP servers. YOu can download from any POP3 or IMAP server, but you cannot send using any server other than Verizon's on port 25. In addition, you cannot send any email to more than 50 recipients at a time.

You have two options. First, configure your outgoing mail to use the Verizon servers. THis solution is not that bigt a deal for a desktop PC. It's a problem for someone with a laptop.

The other solution is to get a provider to host an outgoing server on another port, such as 26. This is what I do and it works everywhere.

Verizon is probabably fooling itself into thinking it is preventing spam (which it may be doing, to a very limited extent).

 

[mrschwarz]

I don't have HD. The two things keeping from FIOS are their DVR, which is very unimpressive, and their prices.

I have *E with AT120, HBO and CInemax, a 522 DVR, and a 322. To replace it with a single DVR and 3 other receivers would increase my costs more than $15.

So far, I am not willing to pay the price.

 

[mindgrind]

You're kidding! You STILL can't record HD with Tivo yet? Do they think customers aren't that concerned with it? That seems crazy with a vast ammount of HD from the networks alone.

Well, what about the Sony HD recorder, what software does it use?