verizon fios tv review

[korsjs]

thanks to member scatt for sending me this info.

http://www.i4u.com/article4365.html

there are some good pictures at the link as well.

We reported in September that Verizon launched it's fiber optics FiOS TV service in Keller, Texas.
We asked in that story if anybody living in Keller is getting the FiOS TV service. Craig J. contacted us and answered a couple of questions about his new Verizon FiOS TV service for us. Craig also was kind enough to make a couple of photos of his setup (see below).
So, read on to learn about Verizon FiOS TV and why it sucks that you do not live in Keller.

I4U: How is the image quality of Verizon FiOS TV?
Craig: The picture is really the best that I have seen ever, even on non-HD channels.

I4U: What about the promised HD channels?
Craig: I have about 20 HD channels including all the major networks starting at 801 and working down to PBS HD, WB HD, TNT HD, UPN HD, NFL HD, ESPN HD & ESPN2 HD and to HBO HD. I even have some that I have not heard of like Wealth TV.

I4U: Anything that reminds you that it is not cable or satellite?
Craig: I know that it is not satellite because it rained over the weekend and we all know what happens then. It is not cable because the starter channel package is really affordable.

I4U: What can you tell us about the video on demand channels?
Craig: As far as the VOD, a lot of shows are free, the wife loves the 18 or so Sex and the City episodes that she can watch and rewind, fast-forward, but can’t record. I really have my own DVD collection on my remote. If you have HBO then you get all the movies that appear that month and so on with Cinemax and Starz, etc. The new releases are $3.95 and movies from the library are $2.95.

I4U: Is the DVR function in the Verizon FiOS setop box (by Motorola) usable?
Craig: The DVR hard drive is about par for the size of the box, 30 hrs. Dish has the 80 hrs DVR but is the size of a boat. The 30 hrs gives you enough to record your month of favorite shows but with the VOD, you are really cutting your live TV viewing time in half.

I4U: Thanks Craig for giving us a reason to move to Keller.
Craig: You are welcome.

Besides TV, Verizon offers also broadband internet access over their FiOS network. You can get up to 30Mps/5Mps. More details on that service here.

 

[yanks2402]

I4U: How is the image quality of Verizon FiOS TV?
Craig: The picture is really the best that I have seen ever, even on non-HD channels.

I4U: What about the promised HD channels?
Craig: I have about 20 HD channels including all the major networks starting at 801 and working down to PBS HD, WB HD, TNT HD, UPN HD, NFL HD, ESPN HD & ESPN2 HD and to HBO HD. I even have some that I have not heard of like Wealth TV.

Both VERY promising comments, thanks for the link korsjs and scatt

 

[riffjim4069]

I am indeed jealous!!!

 

[Cyclone]

I like the comment about the great PQ on SD channels. I almost forgot that SD could have good PQ since "must carry".

I do not like the comment about satellite and rain. It takes a pretty heavy rain to lose a Satellite picture.

 

[korsjs]

I like the comment about the great PQ on SD channels. I almost forgot that SD could have good PQ since "must carry".

I do not like the comment about satellite and rain. It takes a pretty heavy rain to lose a Satellite picture.

you are right this is a pretty strong statement.

I4U: How is the image quality of Verizon FiOS TV?
Craig: The picture is really the best that I have seen ever, even on non-HD channels.

 

[Cyclone]

I remember when I first had Dish hooked up in Sep of 2000. Wow, that picture knocked my socks off. The only problem I had was dark scenes you could see the macroblocking. I guess I'm used to that (and worse) now.

 

[yanks2402]

I remember when I first had Dish hooked up in Sep of 2000. Wow, that picture knocked my socks off. The only problem I had was dark scenes you could see the macroblocking. I guess I'm used to that (and worse) now.

Dish's standard SD and HD channels are still very good IMO, it's their local channel PQ that sucks.

 

[peterl1365]

Dish's standard SD and HD channels are still very good IMO, it's their local channel PQ that sucks.

I think this is going to very according to the city you live in. I've had both Dish and DirecTV, and the local channels were just as good as the national channels. Of course, I live in a top-3 DMA, so that's probably got something to do with it. It all depends on the quality of the feed being provided to the DBS provider.

 

[LonghornXP]

I've been lucky to see TV service from Verizon in a few places in Tampa. With that said lets just say that if you saw the picture quality from D* in the very early days before LIL channels you will soon be back to those good days again. Verizons analog only tier is the sharpest analog signal I've ever seen. If you have a digital box you will have a 100% digital lineup and their SD quality on say SciFi will just knock your socks off. I was able to check out SciFi during both Stargate SG1 and Atlantis and I thought it was in HDTV when you have been watching it in analog the previous two weeks. I was able to compare ESPN HD on BHN and Verizon and you would be amazed at how much clearer the zoom shots and far away shots are. I believe today that the reason that CBS far away and zoom shots are because of the signal being sent over fiber. CBS HD feeds without multicasting have good quality to start so the compression via the cable company doesn't really affect the signal that much.

With that said it seems that 720p signals tend to not have enough bandwidth so if you add cable or satellite compression it does its toll. Just look at games from CBS, HDNet and InHD and they all are better than ESPN, ABC, NBC and Fox. Now with that said the blur I saw on both Monday and Sunday night football just wasn't present on Verizons system but was present on BHN and that to me makes switching to Verizon a no brainer. Just in case you wanted to know Fox looked way better on Verizon compared to BHN when compared with other HDTV channels. I think this might be due to the fact that because uses their splicer system its more compressed once it reaches the cable company so when they compress it again into QAM it makes a bigger difference than the others. Because it seems that Verizon doesn't compress their HD channels nearly as much as BHN that might be why the quality is just so much more stunning than BHN. I hate to say this but you haven't seen HDTV until you have seen Verizon HDTV. Think of Verizon as the next and better Voom because they are indeed both.

I'm begging for Florida to get a statewide agreement so just my lucky CO can get video service. Right now I'm the only CO in Largo that has fiber but I can't get TV service until a statewide agreement gets done because Verizon won't bother getting a franchise deal for a max of 50 residents connected to my CO. When the entire city gets wired or a statewide agreement gets in place will be my only options to get TV service.

Also video on demand picture quality happens to easily rival BHN picture quality as well. This happens to be the only service I would glady pay 200 per month for the triple play package without even asking for a discount. All I can say is that if both cable and satellite companies want these high-end customers they must start thinking very differently and figure out how to greatly increase picture quality and HDTV offerings.

 

[peterl1365]

LonghornXP,

Just curious, were you watching the SD signals on an SD set or an HD set?

I'm still a year or two away from upgrading to HD, so I'm wondering if I'll see any improvement in PQ on the 32 inch Sony SD (non-wega).

Thanks for the info.

 

[riffjim4069]

This sucks! I can't wait a years or two...have to convince the wife to move to an area with FiOS service!

 

[riffjim4069]

Verizon FiOS got user-reviewed

Some decent Reader Comments of the Keller TX review.

Source

 

[yanks2402]

I'm begging for Florida to get a statewide agreement so just my lucky CO can get video service.

Do you have any more information on how this is going? It sure would speed up the availibility of the TV service here in Tampa.

 

[LonghornXP]

LonghornXP,

Just curious, were you watching the SD signals on an SD set or an HD set?

I'm still a year or two away from upgrading to HD, so I'm wondering if I'll see any improvement in PQ on the 32 inch Sony SD (non-wega).

Thanks for the info.

I've compared both SD and HD on an HDTV set that was 60" in size. I've also compared just SD quality on a 36" analog CRT that happens to be from Sony and is a non-wega and image quality was supurb to say the least. Also the Verizon HD DVR (all they will have is an HD DVR) has a 160GB hard drive and it can record about 30 hours of HDTV. If you record all non HDTV stuff your looking at around 60 hours of total recording space instead of 80 hours like cable simply because every single channel Verizon will offer is at a higher bitrate and has less compression thus takes more space.

 

[LonghornXP]

Do you have any more information on how this is going? It sure would speed up the availibility of the TV service here in Tampa.

Lets just say Jeb is ticking me off because he keeps putting this on the backburner thinking that this isn't as important now compared to other things.

 

[jolibee]

Sorry if this has been mentioned before, but is Verizon transmitting in MPEG2 or MPEG4?

 

[vinnyv07]

I would switch to Fios in a second if it was available in NY. I have a feeling that Staten Island won't be seeing Fios for a very long time. Its so unfair!!!

 

[peterl1365]

I've compared both SD and HD on an HDTV set that was 60" in size. I've also compared just SD quality on a 36" analog CRT that happens to be from Sony and is a non-wega and image quality was supurb to say the least. Also the Verizon HD DVR (all they will have is an HD DVR) has a 160GB hard drive and it can record about 30 hours of HDTV. If you record all non HDTV stuff your looking at around 60 hours of total recording space instead of 80 hours like cable simply because every single channel Verizon will offer is at a higher bitrate and has less compression thus takes more space.

Thanks. That's great info. The higher bitrate is a double-edged sword though, because I've become accustomed to the 120 hour capacity of my DirecTivo. I don't suppose the Verizon DVR's will ever be upgradeable.

Any idea if the Multi-Room Viewing is working yet with the DVR? I haven't heard that reported anywhere else but from you. Since you've demonstrated that you know what you're talking about, I'm wondering why the media has been ignoring this feature.

 

[LonghornXP]

Thanks. That's great info. The higher bitrate is a double-edged sword though, because I've become accustomed to the 120 hour capacity of my DirecTivo. I don't suppose the Verizon DVR's will ever be upgradeable.

Any idea if the Multi-Room Viewing is working yet with the DVR? I haven't heard that reported anywhere else but from you. Since you've demonstrated that you know what you're talking about, I'm wondering why the media has been ignoring this feature.

At this time Verizon won't have anything better size wise but they will support customers adding their own bought SATA hard drive as long as they are either Western Digital, Seagate and/or Maxtor SATA drives. You will need to format it with the box to use it and anything on it will be encrypted. The multiroom aspect will be a standard feature at some point in the near future (within the next 6 months) but for now because its so early in this rollout stage they want to keep things simple.

Also to answer another poster all programming is in MPEG2 and will be sent via QAM 256. Now as with anything in the future they plan to move to MPEG4 (all current Verizon boxes from the start have support for MPEG4) and IPTV instead of QAM but that is way down the line. Now with that said they have switched video hardware in place so only the basic package (15 or so channels) will always be sent down the fiber. This means that all other channels beyond those select 15 or so channels will be sent via switched video hardware. This means in simple terms that all the channels above those first 15 will only be sent down the fiber to your house if you tune them in. This gives Verizon the ability to offer pretty much an unlimited amount of channels without running out of bandwidth and without reducing picture quality. Maybe cable companies which include Comcast and Time Warner Cable among others have added switched video hardware or soon will which gives them these same benefits. For those Comcast areas that have all their analog channels in digital now with a digital box you are seeing the benefits now of switched video.

 

[RScottyL]

I do not like the comment about satellite and rain. It takes a pretty heavy rain to lose a Satellite picture.

Well, it depends on different factors. The first factor being the size of the dish. If you have the standard 18" dish, then you are going to be more prone to have the "rain fade" than if you have the 18" x 24" oval HD dish or larger.

The second factor being the starting signal strength. If your signal strength is just barely enough to keep your satellite picture going, then obviously rain will bring it down more than if you are starting with a very high siganl strength. The low signal strength would be caused by the dish not being properly aimed for the best signal, or just by location. I think people in the southern central parts of the US have the possibility of getting a high strength just by the satellite position in it's orbit over Earth, but not 100% sure on that.