How much does Fios TV really cost?

[pinkey2u]

Switching to FiOS Triple Freedom

My wife and I decided it was time to make a switch from E* to FiOS since it has just become available to us in the last couple of months. Cleaning the snow off our satellite dishes on our roof yesterday was the final straw. We signed up today for the 20/5 internet along with the FiOS Extreme TV package which of course included the Verizon Freedom Essentials home phone service. We added (1) DVR and (1) HD Set Top Box. The total came to $135.97 less $5.00 for Special Online Only Offer which should show up on our billing??? The install date is scheduled for Friday, Jan 02, 2009. Hopefully we have made the right decision.

 

[riffjim4069]

My wife and I decided it was time to make a switch from E* to FiOS since it has just become available to us in the last couple of months. Cleaning the snow off our satellite dishes on our roof yesterday was the final straw. We signed up today for the 20/5 internet along with the FiOS Extreme TV package which of course included the Verizon Freedom Essentials home phone service. We added (1) DVR and (1) HD Set Top Box. The total came to $135.97 less $5.00 for Special Online Only Offer which should show up on our billing??? The install date is scheduled for Friday, Dec 02, 2009. Hopefully we have made the right decision.

Once you get past their billing and ordering process, you will be happy with your decision. Yes, we still miss the 622...but the FiOS HD DVR is tolerable and getting better all the time.

 

[DishDave]

Once you get past their billing and ordering process, you will be happy with your decision. Yes, we still miss the 622...but the FiOS HD DVR is tolerable and getting better all the time.

I agree 100%

 

[cebbigh]

I was totally amazed they showed up today. We have over a foot of snow on the ground. They hooked it up and were done quick because I already had fios internet. They did a quick run thru and were on their way because they could reuse my house cabling from back when I had cable. I told them I would be redoing my boxes anyway.

First impressions. I haven't done tweaking yet and I can't say for certain the HD PQ is better than DTV. But it's obvious that SD is better. I've got a ton of channels now. There seems to be quite a lot of on demand, that might help offset the smaller hard drive.

It makes no sense to drop DTV right away because I still have just under a year on the contract. So I'll reduce my programing with them and enjoy both for a while.

 

[cebbigh]

After having played with the Motorola I find I've been spoiled by the HR2x (and the 622 that I had a Dish before I left). So now I'm thing the best solution is to go tivo series 3 before I cut the strings to DTV. But I've never had a tivo. How does it compare to the DTV/Dish DVR's?

 

[riffjim4069]

After having played with the Motorola I find I've been spoiled by the HR2x (and the 622 that I had a Dish before I left). So now I'm thing the best solution is to go tivo series 3 before I cut the strings to DTV. But I've never had a tivo. How does it compare to the DTV/Dish DVR's?

We've owned/leased/used 12 HD DVRs to date...and the 622/722 is at the top of our list. We tried our best to like the Tivo HD box (it has a lot of features), but my wife and I actually preferred using the FiOS HD DVR, which keeps getting better. In our opinion, the Tivo HD box was way too slow, ownership was too expensive (once you add up cablecard and subscription fees), and the GUI is terrible. To be honest, we probably would have kept the Tivo...if we didn't get spoiled using the 622. We also found our friends DirecTV HR?? to provide a better DVR experience than the Tivo HD box.

Although we have gotten used to the FiOS HD DVR, we haven't completely ruled out a future Tivo HD DVR because we are getting really tired of the miniscule 160GB hard drive...and waiting for Verizon to support external storage (eSATA).

Anyway, just my opinion! I get the feeling Verizon will support eSATA sometime after the New Year, plus I am hoping (praying is a better word) EchoStar announces a Digital Cable Ready version of their DTVPal DVR at CES 2009.

 

[cebbigh]

Thanks for the info. Is there a way to just do a search to produce a simple list of all HD movie titles with the Motorola? Maybe I'm just not adept enough. That and the external storage would be my biggest wishes.

 

[scifilaser]

try here!

This place had a review of the Fios DVR! They listed the pros and cons of the DVR with some comparisons to Tivo!

Engadget HD

You'll have to scroll thru a little, the post was a few days ago. I know this isn't exactly what you wanted, but maybe this will point some things you may have missed!

Thxs!

Eric

 

[riffjim4069]

This place had a review of the Fios DVR! They listed the pros and cons of the DVR with some comparisons to Tivo!

Engadget HD

You'll have to scroll thru a little, the post was a few days ago. I know this isn't exactly what you wanted, but maybe this will point some things you may have missed!

Thxs!

Eric

The folks at Engaget posted an outstanding review of the FiOS HD DVR...Thanks! I would love see Verizon come out with another HD DVR in 2009. Until then, these "fixes" would greatly enhance the usability of their current HD DVR:

- 160GB HDD...enable eSATA.
- 4x3 guide...need an option for 16x9.
- Channels can't be removed from the guide and show up in search results...fix!
- No history page to see why a show failed to record...add!
- HD is not a category when searching...add.
- Keyword "search" needs to improve.
- Add PIP.
- Sports...automatically "add" recording time when game goes into OT.

 

[scifilaser]

Was told.....

By a REP here in Everett, WA office that External hard drive support is coming sometime next year, maybe first quarter! Also they thought that auto time adjust was in the works too. Take that with a grain of salt, but that what I was told, and we know how things change!

Thxs!

Eric

 

[riffjim4069]

By a REP here in Everett, WA office that External hard drive support is coming sometime next year, maybe first quarter! Also they thought that auto time adjust was in the works too. Take that with a grain of salt, but that what I was told, and we know how things change!

Thxs!

Eric

I was told the same thing about external storage...and to expect additional improvements to their HD DVR. We shall see.

 

[JPL]

This one has me scratching my head:

Guide won't wrap around, so if you are at channel 1 you can't wrap around to 1000.

That's true... but only if you use a favorites list. These guys didn't play around with the guide without a favorites list set? Granted, I think this limitation is pretty annoying and I don't understand why it's there. Still, they've improved things considerably. Before you had one favorites list, and you had to swap to it whenever you would go into the guide. And once there, you couldn't jump to a channel - you had to page through. All of that has been improved. You can now 'set' the favorites list so that it shows up automatically when you go into the guide, and you can now jump to a channel in the guide. And you can also set up more than one list (I'd like to see the ability to name the lists, but that's a nit). Also, when channel surfing, in the past the s/w would ignore your favorite list, and you would surf to channels that weren't on your favorites list. That's now fixed too.

Point is, I see steady improvements with each new s/w release, and we're set to get a doozy of a s/w release pretty soon.

They also ignored a couple pluses - the biggie in my opinion is speed. Surfing in the guide is really fast. And (I know this is a minor one, but it's one that has me scratching my head that other guides don't have) - color coding. My original DirecTV receivers had that, and I loved that feature - why providers got away from that is anyone's guess.

I do agree with their nits, though - the harddrive is way too small. They NEED external storage... or a bigger harddrive.

 

[Ray S]

Is anyone leaving DishNetwork for Fios? Does Fios have more HD?

 

[riffjim4069]

Point is, I see steady improvements with each new s/w release, and we're set to get a doozy of a s/w release pretty soon.

I sure hope this is true. Any idea what's coming the next software update?

They also ignored a couple pluses - the biggie in my opinion is speed. Surfing in the guide is really fast.

Absolutely! That's the biggest reason we returned the Tivo HD box...too slow changing channels, navigating the guide, etc.

They NEED external storage... or a bigger harddrive.

...or both!

 

[cebbigh]

We've owned/leased/used 12 HD DVRs to date...and the 622/722 is at the top of our list. We tried our best to like the Tivo HD box (it has a lot of features), but my wife and I actually preferred using the FiOS HD DVR, which keeps getting better. In our opinion, the Tivo HD box was way too slow, ownership was too expensive (once you add up cablecard and subscription fees), and the GUI is terrible. To be honest, we probably would have kept the Tivo...if we didn't get spoiled using the 622. We also found our friends DirecTV HR?? to provide a better DVR experience than the Tivo HD box.

Although we have gotten used to the FiOS HD DVR, we haven't completely ruled out a future Tivo HD DVR because we are getting really tired of the miniscule 160GB hard drive...and waiting for Verizon to support external storage (eSATA).

Anyway, just my opinion! I get the feeling Verizon will support eSATA sometime after the New Year, plus I am hoping (praying is a better word) EchoStar announces a Digital Cable Ready version of their DTVPal DVR at CES 2009.

I hadn't even considered that Echostar might produce a DVR compatible with Fios. WOW that is a great idea and it makes so much sense. Maybe there is a point to their splitting the company after all.

Is there any PQ difference between the Motorola box and the Tivo? I don't know if I can really make an assessment on the Motorola because the HDMI input died the day after installation and I had to switch over to the component input.

 

[JPL]

One thing that I've heard that will be included in the next s/w release is the ability to adjust the SD output on the HD DVR. Many have complained that one of the later s/w versions left the SD channels on the 6416 too soft. I did notice a bit of softening. Apparently this was done intentionally. Verizon adjusted some scan settings in that version of the s/w to intentionally soften the SD picture, because their focus groups told them that they preferred that type of picture on their HD TVs when watching an SD channel.

The next s/w upgrade, apparently, will allow you to modify that setting. You'll even be able to shut it off, to go back to what it was BEFORE the last s/w upgrade. Personally, I'm ok with how the box handles SD channels, but I understand what others are saying. Verizon also said that they made major upgrades to the video processing routines in the s/w, to help eliminate artifacts that people were complaining about. Based on my experience - they most certainly did.

Here's the deal. In the past I tried different SD override (4:3 override) settings on my TV, but with some channels both 480p and 'off' resulted in mosquitoing - white dots popping up randomly over my screen. Turning the contrast settings way down on my TV helped, but never got rid of the problem, so I set my 4:3 override to 480i. When Verizon indicated that they upgraded their video processing, I decided to play around with my SD override again. I found out that Verizon was correct - both 480p and 'off' are now artifact-free. As a result, I left my SD override set to 480p. That seems to be the best setting for my TV, and indeed sharpened the SD picture to a decent extent.

BTW, this ONLY seemed to apply to the 6416 HD DVR. My 2500 (SD STB) and DCT700 (digital adapter) are still producing as sharp of SD as ever. In fact, I think it's actually better than it was when I first got FiOS. Hell, that DCT700 even made an ancient TV look good. When they gave those boxes away when they eliminated their analogs, I took one for that TV, which was collecting dust in a spare bedroom. I hooked it up, and was astounded at how good the PQ looked on that ancient 19" (complete with rabbit ears, and an actual dial - 2 of them - one VHF and one UHF).

 

[JPL]

Is anyone leaving DishNetwork for Fios? Does Fios have more HD?

I came from DirecTV, but I do know a few people who switched from Dish to FiOS. In terms of HD channels, here's a good comparison chart:

Official AVS National HD Channel Lineups - Cable/DBS/Fiber/IPTV - Updated 12/21/08! - AVS Forum

This gives a good comparison of national HD channels, and it's pretty up-to-date. If you want to see all the channels you would get, go here and put in your zip code:

Verizon | FiOS TV Channel Lineup

Note that because you're in central NJ, you MAY not get MSNBC. Check the line-up, if that channel is important to you.

 

[scifilaser]

When is....

the new guide update coming? Has anyone heard when they are going to start actually rolling it out? I'm hoping soon as I'm personally really looking forward the possible external Hard Drive support, along with some of the others mentioned.

Thxs!

Eric

 

[cebbigh]

Where do you go to find out about software updates?

 

[cebbigh]

I came from DirecTV, but I do know a few people who switched from Dish to FiOS. In terms of HD channels, here's a good comparison chart:

Official AVS National HD Channel Lineups - Cable/DBS/Fiber/IPTV - Updated 12/21/08! - AVS Forum

This gives a good comparison of national HD channels, and it's pretty up-to-date. If you want to see all the channels you would get, go here and put in your zip code:

Verizon | FiOS TV Channel Lineup

Note that because you're in central NJ, you MAY not get MSNBC. Check the line-up, if that channel is important to you.

I currently (for the time being) have both DTV and now Fios. It seems to me the HD is also a little softer on Fios than DTV which really surprised me. But on that point I don't know if the reason is related to my having to go to component because the HDMI port on the 6416 died. I'm also a little worried that the installers reused existing cable company coax to bring it on from the poi...they tested the cabling and said it was good though. Any thoughts?