Verizon is coming on the 13th to install my HD. I have had comcast and have not been happy with them. I pay for HD programming and have not been very please with the HD picture quality. It just does not seem like 720P to me. When they installed it i questioned the installer why they were not using an HDMI cable and he insisted that there was no noticeable difference in picture quality between HDMI cable the component (red,blue,green). I have lived with it and then recently my cousin came over whose BF works for comcast and he said that they didnt even give me a digital box, which I have been paying for the last eight months.

Anyways, I am done with comcast and I am looking forward to Fios. Lots more HD channels and is $5 less than comcast!

I noticed one odd thing about Comedy Central related to their bugs.

When they are showing HD content, they have the Comedy Central HD bug in the corner. However, when they are showing SD content, it's a mix. When they were showing futurama reruns (not the movies) the HD bug is present (in the 4:3 safe area) even though it's upconverted SD. However, during the daily show, they use the SD Comedy Central bug. I have to check my latest recording of the colbert report because I could have swore I noticed the Comedy Central HD bug on that one even though it's upconverted SD like the daily show.

I wonder what the difference in bugs signifies, if the material is actually going through a different workflow to make it to the feed depending on what it is?

4 SD Big 10 Network overflow channels will be added to the lineup by the end of July.

They will be located at 330-333 in the guide.

Before anyone asks - all programming is identical except for game days, so it would be a waste of bandwidth to also carry the HD versions. :cool:

4 SD Big 10 Network overflow channels will be added to the lineup by the end of July.

They will be located at 330-333 in the guide.

Before anyone asks - all programming is identical except for game days, so it would be a waste of bandwidth to also carry the HD versions. :cool:

All VHOs?

Yes

Noticed in Northern Virginia that channel 25, WHAG, an NBC affiliate in Hagerstown showed up in HD on Fios Channel 515 yesterday.I'm getting this too, and I can't believe Verizon is adding this garbage down in Fredericksburg but refuses to give us Richmond locals.

That sounds like a disadvantage of their current setup with local VHO's and Fredericksburg being in the middle. Hopefully in the future they'll be able to combine local channels for a place like this.

When they installed it i questioned the installer why they were not using an HDMI cable and he insisted that there was no noticeable difference in picture quality between HDMI cable the component (red,blue,green).

I saw no real difference in picture quality using HDMI or component on the standard Motorola 6216 box that Verizon installs. I'm still using component to preserve the HDMI connectors on my TV for other things.

(I'm sending the audio out via the optical port, so I only care about the video portion of the HDMI connection. YMMV.)

JWhip-

I must totally agree with you. Especially on Pets.tv - the macroblocking during fast action is very evident.

Also - the "logos" they place on the screen are not only HUGE - they are half-way in the middle of the screen.

On Cars.tv - the logo covers up half of the car they are showing.

And on Comedy.tv, not only do they have the huge logo in the lower right - they then have a 2nd logo in the lower left with the name of the show!

Byron - you are failing miserably with these channels.

My vote overall goes to Recipe.tv - the shorts are good, however after every 2 minute short, they go to a 3 minute commerical! :eek:

What is going on with FIOS lately? With the addition of channels have they kicked up the compression? I thought I have been noticing more compression on the HD channels lately but watching Speed Racer on HBO HD tonight the macroblocking was terrible on the fast scenes. I have had FIOS now for a couple of years and have never noticed this before. This is what I remember seeing with cable and Directv HD-light. If this is going to be the norm I will be seriously disapointed and this will erase any advantage FIOS has over the competition.

I would assume the .TV channels look poor because of something on their end rather than Verizon's.

But I too watched Speed Racer and was a little surprised by all the macroblocking. I think that's because Verizon has to convert HBO's MPEG4 signal to MPEG2. There was much debate several months ago over whether DirecTV's MPEG4 presentation of HBO was superior to Verizon's MPEG2 conversion. I think Speed Racer settles that debate in DirecTV's favor.

Speed Racer is full of the things that drive MPEG encoders crazy. I'd just put it down to that.

But I too watched Speed Racer and was a little surprised by all the macroblocking. I think that's because Verizon has to convert HBO's MPEG4 signal to MPEG2. There was much debate several months ago over whether DirecTV's MPEG4 presentation of HBO was superior to Verizon's MPEG2 conversion. I think Speed Racer settles that debate in DirecTV's favor.

Multiple problems with your assumptions.

First, the Movies are stored as MPEG2 on the Servers, so they have the MPEG2 issues on the Servers. They are converted to MPEG4 for Directv and Dish, while remuxed for everyone else.

Furthermore, FiOS still uses the MPEG2 feed off 127W for HBO-HD (899) and HBO-HD West (901), Cinemax HD (920) and Cinemax HD West (921). All others are re-encoded from MPEG4 > MPEG2.

This has been confirmed by comparision with C Band Feeds off 127W.

The final problem is, as noted before, the SHE (at least in Florida) has either a dish that is too small for 127W (or it is not aligned properly) and everything off 127W has far too many errors in the video with overnight and morning fog (a daily occurence during the Winter Months) or thunderstorms (which is almost a daily occurance in Florida from May - September).

Here's a classic example:



HDNET-834 Lone Star started: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 19:38:10<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
program 609 vpid 0x0031, apid 0x0034
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:14:47.4<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<7:53pm
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:14:47.4
DISCONT_FOUND, using last delta 00:14:47.4 OUT_PCR resync: 00:14:47.4
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:16:06.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:16:06.0
DISCONT_FOUND, using last delta 00:16:06.0 OUT_PCR resync: 00:16:06.0
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:16:06.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:16:06.0
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:16:06.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:16:06.0
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:16:07.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:16:07.0
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:16:07.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:16:07.0
DISCONT_FOUND, using last delta 00:16:07.0 OUT_PCR resync: 00:16:07.0 DISCONT_FOUND, using last delta 00:16:41.4 OUT_PCR resync: 00:16:41.4 DISCONT_FOUND, using last delta 00:18:33.3 OUT_PCR resync: 00:18:33.3
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:18:51.5
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:18:51.5
DISCONT_FOUND, using last delta 00:18:52.5 OUT_PCR resync: 00:18:52.5 DISCONT_FOUND, using last delta 00:19:32.3 OUT_PCR resync: 00:19:33.3 DISCONT_FOUND, using last delta 00:19:33.3 OUT_PCR resync: 00:19:33.3 DISCONT_FOUND, using last delta 00:20:02.0 OUT_PCR resync: 00:20:02.0
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:20:02.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:20:02.0
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:20:02.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:20:02.0
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:20:03.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:20:03.0
DISCONT_FOUND, using last delta 00:20:03.0 OUT_PCR resync: 00:20:03.0 DISCONT_FOUND, using last delta 00:20:49.4 OUT_PCR resync: 00:20:49.4 DISCONT_FOUND, using last delta 00:21:01.0 OUT_PCR resync: 00:21:01.0 DISCONT_FOUND, using last delta 00:21:01.0 OUT_PCR resync: 00:21:01.0 DISCONT_FOUND, using last delta 00:22:22.2 OUT_PCR resync: 00:22:23.2 DISCONT_FOUND, using last delta 00:23:01.0 OUT_PCR resync: 00:23:01.0 PRCD_RNG, using last delta 00:23:02.0 OUT_PCR resync: 00:23:02.0
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:23:07.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:23:07.0
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:23:07.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:23:07.0
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:23:07.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:23:07.0
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:23:08.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:23:08.0
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:23:08.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:23:08.0
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:23:08.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:23:08.0
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:23:09.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:23:09.0
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:23:09.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:23:09.0
WRN:TS_RC_RING_OVFL: 00:23:09.0
WRN:PCR_INS_OK: 00:23:09.0
DISCONT_FOUND, using last delta 00:23:10.1 OUT_PCR resync: 00:23:10.1



http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/6795/radarb.jpg (http://img4.imageshack.us/i/radarb.jpg/)

When I said "HBO" I was using that as a catch all for the whole set of HBO and Cinemax channels. I watched Speed Racer on either HBO Family or one of the secondary Cinemax channels when there was tons of macroblocking. I forget which it was.

When I said "HBO" I was using that as a catch all for the whole set of HBO and Cinemax channels. I watched Speed Racer on either HBO Family or one of the secondary Cinemax channels when there was tons of macroblocking. I forget which it was.I haven't done any comparisons lately, but in the past, the FiOS MPEG2 sourced feeds (i.e. HBO-HD, HBO-HD West, Cinemax HD, Cinemax HD West) were noticeably better than the other MPEG4 sourced HBO and Cinemax feeds, both with regard to detail and [fewer] compression artifacts.

DirecTV only offers HBO-HD, HBO-HD West, Cinemax-HD, and Cinemax-HD West. When I compared those specific channels last year, FiOS always had the better picture.

I would assume the .TV channels look poor because of something on their end rather than Verizon's.

But I too watched Speed Racer and was a little surprised by all the macroblocking. I think that's because Verizon has to convert HBO's MPEG4 signal to MPEG2. There was much debate several months ago over whether DirecTV's MPEG4 presentation of HBO was superior to Verizon's MPEG2 conversion. I think Speed Racer settles that debate in DirecTV's favor.I think in general, you can expect the smaller, less well-known content providers to use much higher compression on their HD feeds, to (a) minimize satellite uplink costs and (b) make their channels more appealing to bandwidth constrained cable providers. Has anyone checked to see how many of the new .TV channels are on a QAM?

I believe the compression has increased on other channels too. I’m not sure of the term but if you have a scene for instance where someone’s face is relatively stationary but does move around slightly, you can see the compression in their skin where it looks almost plastic or animated. Sorry for the funny description but I’m sure some know what I’m referring too. I know that it’s a result of those pixels that are not changing do not get redrawn with each frame. I have been noticing this allot more lately.

WHAG NBC 25 has no SD sub-channels, so I am hoping they are providing the full bandwidth to the HD feed, but I have not done much comparison of the OTA broadcasts of WRC 4 and WHAG 25 since WHAG finally got to their post-transition broadcast power of 575 kW last week.WRC is using 12.0Mbps and WHAG is using 17.0Mbps. Note the difference in the size of the two recordings.

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/8616/kmttg.png

Edit: I just recently resubscribed to HBO. Verizon is now re-encoding HBO-HD here in VA/MD, as all recordings from that channel run ~13.75Mbps, up from the previous 8-12Mbps ABR. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but they are doing it. There are clearly more compression artifacts than there used to be on this channel, although until I do another Comcast comparison, I can't say for certain whether it is Verizon's fault.

I've always seen plenty of macroblocking during busy scenes or fast motion.

There is NO additional compression by Verizon..

2 HD's to a QAM - always has been...

As others have mentioned, some content providers are becoming cheap...

Food and HGTV HD are two of the big culprits in my opinion..

There is NO additional compression by Verizon..

2 HD's to a QAM - always has been...

As others have mentioned, some content providers are becoming cheap...

Food and HGTV HD are two of the big culprits in my opinion..

so when it is all said and done, FIOS also suffers from motion blur and microblocking like regular Cable does?....darn....! I was seriously thinking about FIOS over regular cable for that very reason..shoot!

so when it is all said and done, FIOS also suffers from motion blur and microblocking like regular Cable does?....darn....! I was seriously thinking about FIOS over regular cable for that very reason..shoot!

That would be macroblocking, and it and the motion blur are something that is noticeable to me only because it is so rare.

The only time I've seen it lately (as in within the last five months or so) was on a broadcast from South Africa of the US - Egypt match in the soccer Confederations Cup on ESPN. It was an anomaly, since all other matches were perfect, so I chalk that up to a bad source. The S.African infrastructure for the World Cup next year is being tested with this year's Confederations Cup, and one of the tests was its broadcasting capabilities.

There was plenty of fast action, different perspectives, and it was a full HD broadcast. Perfect PQ except for one match. So.... if you really are thinking of FIOS over regular cable, keep doing so.

....darn...shoot!

wow, language...

I saw no real difference in picture quality using HDMI or component on the standard Motorola 6216 box that Verizon installs. I'm still using component to preserve the HDMI connectors on my TV for other things.

(I'm sending the audio out via the optical port, so I only care about the video portion of the HDMI connection. YMMV.)

Thanks, hopefully Verizon Fios has a little better picture than comcast. At any rate, it will be nice to have all those extra channels. Is it much extra to get a DVR?

I think the DVR runs $5 per month more than the standard high def box, but check their site. It may only be $3 per month more. That's the rub with FiOS though...each box costs $X per month, and there's no savings bundle for the boxes. I think my box rental runs about the same as the total service.

I think the DVR runs $5 per month more than the standard high def box, but check their site. It may only be $3 per month more. That's the rub with FiOS though...each box costs $X per month, and there's no savings bundle for the boxes. I think my box rental runs about the same as the total service.

jeez. Comcast was the same way. I am counting the days to fios.

Yeah, not sure how Comcast does their thing anymore...it's been awhile since I've had their service. For standard TVs on the Comcast system, you could just run a cable into the TV and get most of the channels. With FiOS, you need a box of some sort to get anything, and they charge for each. That added four boxes to my mix!

Anything yet on MSNBC HD? That'll finish off FiOS SD viewing for me.

^ Are you in a Cablevision market?

^ Are you in a Cablevision market?

Some dink called Mediacom, they kept calling me to switch back and I finally let let them have it about how for three months I had a half inch 'ghost' on channel 13 and how they had said it was community wide/needed a microwave tower part to fix it/and finally that they couldn't afford the part to fix it!:eek::p I love FiOs(even more since they fixed most of the Motorola HD DVR STB bugs.)

I too am waiting for MSNBC to get on the list here. On the Morning Joe show they mentioned being in high def, so obviously they've made the transition now.

MSNBC HD isn't coming until the Cablevision exclusivity agreement runs out. Apparently Verizon is taking a stand against exclusivity agreements, and we're all caught in the crossfire.

Given that MSNBC is a lost cause in the medium term, I'd like to see Verizon add the Time Warner channels. With HLN coming to some TWC markets in August, that makes four TW channels that we don't have now. Here's a breakdown of everything we don't have:

These channels have already been announced:

CBS College Sports (announced in 2008, presumably contracted to add by start of college football season in August)
NBA TV (scheduled for 2008 but pulled, presumably contracted to add by start of NBA season circa Nov. 1)
Team HD (scheduled for 2008 but pulled, presumably contracted to add by start of NBA season circa Nov. 1)
Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN claims the HD feed is uplinked to Verizon now)

Remaining Available HD Channels
A&E Networks: 2 - BBC America, Crime & Investigation Network
Comcast: 3 - E!, G4, Style Network
Fox: Fuel TV
NBC Universal: MSNBC
Rainbow Media: 4 - AMC, Fuse, IFC, We tv
Time Warner: 4 - Cartoon Network, HLN, truTV, Turner Classic Movies
Viacom: 3 - BET, BET J, Logo
Other: 4 - Fashion TV, Jewelry TV, RFD-TV, TV One

Thanks for bringing me up to date URFloorMat. At face value, I would think a media exclusivity contract would be/should be illegal.

I could enjoy the Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon, AMC, MSNBC, and the CBS Sports, but what the hell is Fuel TV and those in your "other" category? Probably as worthless as our Cars and Pets TV channels. Funny how these strange little channels are popping up. Is this the new "dot com" for investors hoping to cash in and be bought up by larger networks?

Verizon actually carries all of those channels in SD save for Fashion TV, so you can check them out if you can find them in the guide. Fashion TV is a popular international channel. Only Dish Network carries it at this time.

Fuel TV was one of DirecTV's "fluff" channels when they rolled out their 100 HD channels, Speed's unknown little brother. Think action/extreme sports rather than typical car racing. According to Wikipedia, it has not aired a single minute of HD programming in about 2 years of existence.

Funny how these strange little channels are popping up. Is this the new "dot com" for investors hoping to cash in and be bought up by larger networks?

Hey, why not? Less than 1 yr ago NBC paid $3.5 Billion, that's billion with a B, for the Weather Channel. There's a lot of stupid money out there, waiting to be taken from the networks.

Verizon recently eliminated their CableCard "truck roll" fee, so it no longer costs anything to get a CableCard installed in a Moxi or TiVo. Verizon has standardized on M-CARDs in all service areas, so you'll never need more than one card to support dual tuners.



I have 3 STBs and 4 cablecards (two per TiVo). I called Verizon today and asked to add one more STB. I had read somewhere that the ONT supported only 7 devices. I thought that perhaps switching to an M-Card in the TiVos would solve this problem. The rep told me that M-Cards were not yet available but might be some time in the future. She also told me that I could add another box to my existing setup with no problem.

Does this seem right?

The 7 devices limit is for the boxes that uses MOCA. TiVo doesn't do MOCA. So you are safe.

Hey everyone, might have been asked before, but can you set your Fios menu to be widescreen vs. 4:3? This is killing my plasma!

Hey everyone, might have been asked before, but can you set your Fios menu to be widescreen vs. 4:3? This is killing my plasma!

No.

Are you leaving your menu up for hours at a time? If not, I don't understand your concern.

Hours at a time? No, not at all. However on my Panny 46 S1 I'm starting to see the image retention more frequent. I do not watch 4:3 programming, so it's either commercials in 4:3 or using the guide which is 4:3.

The image retention is happening in the exact borders of a 4:3 format. It's baffling, but it's there. Hard to see it, but during the Wimbleton match it was clearly there. Have used the scrolling bar to see if that gets rid of it, but no.

I was very careful the first 200 hours and still have my brightness below 50.


I use the guide alot, but I wouldn't think it's enought to cause IR.

Thoughts?

The 7 devices limit is for the boxes that uses MOCA. TiVo doesn't do MOCA. So you are safe.

Not true... there is a cable card limit as well, technical or not (obviously it's not technical, but I think it's an ordering system limit/issue). I can't get any more cable cards without jumping through hoops each time. I think they're up to allowing 9 total devices, with up to 7 MOCA devices.

So they always have to cancel one of my devices, add a new cable card, then put notes on the order to not actually cancel the device and to bring extra cable cards.

The tech can activate as many cable cards as he wants, but the ordering system seems to be a little crippled.

Unless this has been fixed in the past few months?

when r the rest of the showtime channels going hd on fios and when is ion going hd in philly area...

Im kinda in the same boat
Ive been with DTV for going on 8 years now.
I still have SDef receiver only for my DTV and use a TIVO for my DVR.

but want to upgrade to an HD receiver and service.
FIOS sounds compelling as well for me due to the much lower costs
I also have Verizon phone and DSL right and and getting reamed with all the extra costs they tack on. I never use my home phone really.

Ive been happy with DTV and never had issues and never had to call them out to fix anything

I want a good DVR as that is the key and Ive read some here that the FIOS DVR sucks.
Is there a review to compare FIOS DVR versus the DTV DVR?


I've been a 10 year DirecTV customer, mostly because of NFL Sunday Ticket.

I've had Verizon internet/phone service for the past two years and have blown off the repeated calls to bundle the TV services.

But their current offer is intriguing. They are offering bundling all services with a free year of HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, the Home Media DVR, 2 HD boxes, 2 SD boxes, faster internet service (25 down/15up instead of 10/2) plus the netbook laptop for $65 less than I'm paying per month.

As much as I liked NFL Sunday Ticket, I usually end up watching the local Cowboy game. And over the years the price has creeped up for $179 to almost $350 for the ST/Superfan package to get the games in HD. That's pretty much $20 a week to occasionally surf another game.

My main concern is how the FIOS DVR/Programming compare to DirecTV.

I would appreciate anybody who has made the plunge weighing in on their experience.....

Thanks!

Does anyone know if FiOS ever plans on carrying MSG, MSG Plus, or Sportsnet?

I've had DTV for a year now and while I love the channels, the outages from the slightest bit of electricity in the air is starting to get on my nerves. If FiOS would get those channels that I mentioned, then I would gladly switch since they are the only ones that are missing that we watch regularly during hockey season.

Not really much of a comparison. The current FiOS DVR is terrible. If you've never had any DVR before, it's fine, but if you're used to Tivo, expect much pain. There's always the option of using a Tivo HD with cablecards, however, which is quite popular.

Does anyone know if FiOS ever plans on carrying MSG, MSG Plus, or Sportsnet?

I've had DTV for a year now and while I love the channels, the outages from the slightest bit of electricity in the air is starting to get on my nerves. If FiOS would get those channels that I mentioned, then I would gladly switch since they are the only ones that are missing that we watch regularly during hockey season.
The Dolan family, owners of Cablevision and the MSG networks, is withholding HD versions of those channels from Verizon. Verizon thinks they're doing so illegally and has sued, but who knows how long that will take to get through the court system.

SNY HD is available in the NYC area on FiOS channel 577.

I'm a big fan of TiVo. Standalone and with DirecTV. I'd take a look at any neighbors that may have the FiOS DVR before you make the switch. I'd also consider the standalone TiVo with FiOS as an option.

I feel the FiOS DVR has come a long way and is better then Comcast's DVR that I had.

I use the FiOS DVR and it works for us. We really use the Multi Room feature a lot so that is why I have not moved to a stand alone TiVo. And yes, I am aware TiVo has a multi room feature but it isn't as good as the FiOS one IMHO.

For us, the picture quality, Multi Room, amount of HD, and price make FiOS the clear choice.

Boy that sounds like an a FiOS ad... We like FiOS a lot.

I'm a big fan of TiVo. Standalone and with DirecTV. I'd take a look at any neighbors that may have the FiOS DVR before you make the switch. I'd also consider the standalone TiVo with FiOS as an option.

I feel the FiOS DVR has come a long way and is better then Comcast's DVR that I had.

I use the FiOS DVR and it works for us. We really use the Multi Room feature a lot so that is why I have not moved to a stand alone TiVo. And yes, I am aware TiVo has a multi room feature but it isn't as good as the FiOS one IMHO.

For us, the picture quality, Multi Room, amount of HD, and price make FiOS the clear choice.

Boy that sounds like an a FiOS ad... We like FiOS a lot.

Multi-room with 160GB is sort of useless...

Tivo MRV is superior to FIOS in a lot of ways, it's all about use-cases...

But the lack of disk space alone makes the FIOS DVR nearly useless, IMO, no matter how good it might be otherwise. And promises of more disk space in the future don't help!

We use FiOS Multi Room all the time so it is far from useless.

I agree with you that 160 gig hard drive is insufficient for HD recording.

But I like to go to my non DVR TV's and play what is on my FiOS DVR immediately. So I don't agree with you.


Multi-room with 160GB is sort of useless...

Tivo MRV is superior to FIOS in a lot of ways, it's all about use-cases...

But the lack of disk space alone makes the FIOS DVR nearly useless, IMO, no matter how good it might be otherwise. And promises of more disk space in the future don't help!

We use FiOS Multi Room all the time so it is far from useless.

I agree with you that 160 gig hard drive is insufficient for HD recording.

But I like to go to my non DVR TV's and play what is on my FiOS DVR immediately. So I don't agree with you.

If you can't record what you want to watch, it's useless.

And Tivo MRV let's you watch everything immediately as well, unless you have a circa 1990's home network.

Better yet, Tivo let's you record everything you actually want to record, which is a sort of useful function for a DVR.

If YOU can't record what you want then it is useless to YOU. Not everyone else.

Wireless G is not quite 1990's but if it works fine for YOU than great for YOU! Buffering as I fast forward isn't immediate. A wired Ethernet connection is probably best but wasn't an option for me.

My FiOS DVR records everything I program it to. I guess YOURS didn't.

It's one thing to point out pros and cons but don't assume everyone has YOUR issues.

I made my point and you did too. You may have the last word since I'm going to go and enjoy my 4th in the pool.

If you can't record what you want to watch, it's useless.

And Tivo MRV let's you watch everything immediately as well, unless you have a circa 1990's home network.

Better yet, Tivo let's you record everything you actually want to record, which is a sort of useful function for a DVR.

I agree with you that 160 gig hard drive is insufficient for HD recording.

If YOU can't record what you want then it is useless to YOU. Not everyone else.

Wireless G is not quite 1990's but if it works fine for YOU than great for YOU! Buffering as I fast forward isn't immediate. A wired Ethernet connection is probably best but wasn't an option for me.

Actually, I thought we agreed, per your earlier post (quoted above). We both agree the FIOS DVR is inadequate for recording due to the puny hard disk. The obvious conclusion is that it's useless - a DVR that is inadequate for recording (as we've both agreed) is useless, by definition.

And yes, Wireless-G is circa 1990's (okay, 2003), that was my point... Old networks can't handle HD media, but there are lots of wired options, including MOCA, that everyone can easily use.

What do you mean I don't have enough space to record HD? :D

What do you mean I don't have enough space to record HD? :D

Nice! Is that a bug in the DVR, or a photoshop? Funny in any case...

Yeah I had to pull that out as a goof. It is an actual bug. I couldn't photo shop to save my life. :)

Nice! Is that a bug in the DVR, or a photoshop? Funny in any case...

The Fios DVR is useless. It is the reason I didnt go with FIOS 2 years ago. But the TivoHD units change all of that. I have secured 2 of them, upgraded the internal drives to 1TB and await my FIOS install in 4 days.

The Fios DVR is useless. It is the reason I didnt go with FIOS 2 years ago. But the TivoHD units change all of that. I have secured 2 of them, upgraded the internal drives to 1TB and await my FIOS install in 4 days.Both are good and bad and has their drawbacks, as covered many times before, I don't have the well over $500+ to invest in a TivoHD and personally would rather stick with Verizon's DVR's as they will eventually upgrade them anyways.

Both are good and bad and has their drawbacks, as covered many times before, I don't have the well over $500+ to invest in a TivoHD and personally would rather stick with Verizon's DVR's as they will eventually upgrade them anyways.refurbished ones are $199 with a new warranty from Tivo. The Hard drive upgrade to 1TB is about 100 dollars. For me I have no problem owning my own equipment and purchasing a long prepaid plan. Plus you have the ability to store the recordings on your computer and do whatever you please with them. How much a month is the Home media DVR from V*? Its an apples and oranges comparison anyway.

Both are good and bad and has their drawbacks, as covered many times before, I don't have the well over $500+ to invest in a TivoHD and personally would rather stick with Verizon's DVR's as they will eventually upgrade them anyways.

Even when they have an upgrade they won't just offer it unless you ask for it, and even then they might only deploy them to new customers for while.

Anyway the FIOS DVR is too expensive for it's limited storage space and capability. I'll stick with the four TiVos I have on FIOS. I've had FIOS for almost two years now. If I had their DVRs during that time I would have spent more money on those FIOS DVRs than I have with my TiVos I have on FIOS.

refurbished ones are $199 with a new warranty from Tivo. The Hard drive upgrade to 1TB is about 100 dollars. For me I have no problem owning my own equipment and purchasing a long prepaid plan. Plus you have the ability to store the recordings on your computer and do whatever you please with them. How much a month is the Home media DVR from V*? Its an apples and oranges comparison anyway.

Then perhaps you should have posted:

"The Fios DVR is useless for my application"

Rather than your blanket statement that the Fios DVR is useless.

Can we please stop hijacking the thread from those involved trying to push Tivo DVRs on us? We know you love them. You've made your point. Isn't that enough?

My box rebooted itself around 11PM last night and I was wondering if any of y'all know if it was because of some sort of system/software update or if it was just a fluke. Thanks.

My DVR rebooted too. I thought it was just me. Good to know it wasn't. I guess.

Mine did too. I assumed it was an upgrade, but I didn't check. You can look at the system info and it should tell you if there's a new FW version. Also, if they added any features, they probably sent you a message on the box.

Doug

The usually do things like this around 3 am so something tells me this wasn't planned.

There was a message last week about an HD channel being moved to a (currently) non-existent channel number on July 29th. An indication of more HD channels to be added???

Joel-
No more HD adds are currently in the "near-term" pipeline..

For late July / early August - we should see the addition of the 4 Big 10 Overflow SD channels, and Hallmark Movie Channel SD added to 239 (hence the STB message stating HMC HD would move from 740 to 739)

Only rumor I heard was that in Q4 we could see more HD's...

Certainly NBA TV and Team HD will be coming in Q4, I would think. But if Verizon doesn't add CBS College Sports until Q4, that'll be mostly a waste. There was very little college basketball in HD earlier this year on CBS CS.

Can we please stop hijacking the thread from those involved trying to push Tivo DVRs on us? We know you love them. You've made your point. Isn't that enough?Seconded. This is a programming thread. DVR discussion should occur in the appropriate thread here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=25.

Pittsburgh Clears Way For FiOS TV

Verizon's 10-Year Franchise Agreement Subject To City Council Approval

Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 7/6/2009 4:28:31 PM EDT

Verizon Communications reached a tentative agreement with the city of Pittsburgh for a 10-year cable TV franchise agreement that would let the telco compete with Comcast.

The 10-year agreement is subject to the approval of City Council and the recommendation of the city's Cable Advisory Board.

"I am very pleased that the city and Verizon have reached an agreement that will pave the way for cable competition in Pittsburgh," Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said in a statement. "For the first time in the city's history, Pittsburgh residents will have a choice in their cable provider."

Pittsburgh river viewUnder the terms of the agreement, Verizon will deploy cable service throughout the entire city within six years. In the first phase, FiOS TV is to be deployed to at least 50% of the city within three years of the effective date of the agreement.

Comcast's 10-year franchise agreement with the city expires at the end of 2009. Verizon will pay 5% of gross revenue to Pittsburgh, the same franchise fee Comcast pays.

Verizon has offered FiOS TV service in several Pittsburgh suburbs since the fall of 2007.

Pittsburgh's proposed agreement with Verizon includes customer-service standards, such as credits for service outages, time frames for installation and service appointments, reporting requirements and customer-complaint procedures.

Under the agreement, Verizon will provide the city with a private fiber-optic network for its public safety communications. In addition, the telco will provide funding for the city's Cable Bureau, which produces programming for two government channels, as well as Pittsburgh Community Television, the administrator for the city's public-access channel. Verizon also has agreed to carry two additional PEG channels, one of which will be used as an educational channel.

According to the mayor's office, legislation for approval of the cable franchise agreement is expected to be introduced in the Pittsburgh City Council on July 7.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/307569-Pittsburgh_Clears_Way_For_FiOS_TV.php

So the only semi-valuable HD channel left not carried by FIOS is AMC-HD, right? Did we get TOON-HD with this last batch?

So the only semi-valuable HD channel left not carried by FIOS is AMC-HD, right? Did we get TOON-HD with this last batch?

Are you forgetting about TCM HD, one of the most anticipated HD channels for years?

And BBCA-HD

We don't have:
BBCA-HD, E!-HD , Cartoon-HD, MSNBC-HD, TCM-HD, AMC-HD, G4-HD, HLN-HD, BET-HD, WE-HD, C&I-HD, Style-HD, Fuse-HD, TRU-HD among others .....

We don't have:
BBCA-HD, E!-HD , Cartoon-HD, MSNBC-HD, TCM-HD, AMC-HD, G4-HD, HLN-HD, BET-HD, WE-HD, C&I-HD, Style-HD, Fuse-HD, TRU-HD among others .....

And some of them, most of us can do without as most channels barely have any HD programming! (BRAVO-HD anyone?) TCM-HD has stated that it may be a year before they are able to show films in HD (right now, they are broadcasting upconverts). I'm anxious to get it, but fortunately there are enough classics showing in true HD on HDNet, MGM-HD, etc.

And some of them, most of us can do without as most channels barely have any HD programming! (BRAVO-HD anyone?) ......
It's very shortsighted to see few HD programs on a channel(s) today, & make a blanket ASSumption that "most of us can do without"

While not perfect, Bravo has a very acceptable amount of HD programming, including their most watched flagship series, such as Top Chef, Top chef masters, & some of those model/ designer shows.
Likewise, just 12 months ago people were complaining about lack of HD on FOOD, TNT , TLC, USA & many others too ...
... Just as with FOOD & the others, not many months from now there will be more HD than they currently have ...
E!-hd, for example, has at least their couple of high rated shows, such as "Chelsea Lately", in HD, & that's fine for now, knowing there'll be more soon ....
BBC-AmerHD, for example, will be the only network to see the new seasons of Torchwood & DR. Who in HD .. That's enough for most of us, & their other HD programming may get a wider audience as well ...
It's also worth mentioning that "most of us" find that even SD programs look slightly better on the direct HD feed of the channel as well, & they're easier to "surf" if they are in line w/ the rest in the 500-800 range...
I would guess many viewers look at many Basic cable channels as "1 to 4 show networks" anyway....
DISC-HD - Cash Cab, Mythbusters, Deadliest catch.
TLC - What Not to Wear
Bravo - Top Chef, ect....
Whale Wars, Monk, Leverage, The Closer, L&O CI, Stargate, ect ....
As long as the "1 to 4 big shows" or so per channel are HD, whatever else is HD is "iceing on the cake" ... & each month brings more HD anyway.

Yeah, I would rather get a channel now that may have 1 or 2 shows in HD and have it as they continually add stuff than wait until it's been around for years and most of the lineup is in HD. Even if they don't show any HD, 9 times out of 10 the picture quality of the upconvert is superior to the SD station which seem to be hit or miss.

For example, Comedy Central. Sure only a handful of things are in HD right now. South Park, a few movies, some of their newer shows, some standup specials. But I'm glad that Verizon went though the contract negotiations now and got it fully deployed so that when The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and the new Futurama start, I can watch it in HD from day one. Meanwhile, I can enjoy decent sound and picture for once on the SD material.

That's the thing that's bothering me about BBC-A HD. They are launching the station at the same time they are doing first run airings of a bunch of new HD content that no one is going to get to watch (no carriage agreements have been announced.) It's going to kill me to watch that on the SD station when I know it's available in HD. We also know that they are planning on upscaling all their 16:9 content to be full screen 16:9 which should look a ton better than the letterboxed content on their SD station. They should have launched the HD station months ago, even if they weren't ready for the content, to give more time for providers to add it.

Besides all of this, it's not the quantity of HD, it's watching the best possible quality of the show YOU want to watch that's available. I wouldn't care if a particular station had 99.8% SD material if the .2% of the material that they do have in HD is my favorite show.

And some of them, most of us can do without as most channels barely have any HD programming!

It's not a question of the amount of true HD programming. Rather some of us have TV's that have a poor SD output but the HD channels look pretty danged good.

...For late July / early August - we should see the addition of the 4 Big 10 Overflow SD channels....
Any reason for these to be in SD only, and not as overflow HD channels? Is the Big Ten Network limited to only one game in HD due to equipment availability?

Verizon Files Program Access Complaint Against Cablevision

Says cabler has "intentionally and unlawfully" refused to make local NY sports coverage available through FiOS

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/8/2009 12:40:56 PM EDT

Verizon has filed a program access complaint with the FCC against Cablevision, saying that the cable operator should be compelled to sell HD programming from its Madison Square Garden Network to the telco and its FiOS multichannel video service.

Verizon says the company has "intentionally and unlawfully" refused to make that unique programming available. The unique programming it is focused on includes the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils and Buffalo Sabers.

Verizon says that Cablevision has told analysts that its own carriage of the programming in HD is a competitive advantage.

The FCC has said that coverage of local sports teams is the kind of must-have programming for which there is not a ready substitute.

Cablevision does sell the programming to Verizon in standard definition, but Verizon says that was only after it filed a similar access complaint and complaints that with growing demand for HD sports, the high-definition versions should be considered similar must-have programming.

Cablevision was preparing a response at press time.

Verizon has asked for a decision out of the commission within five months.

The FCC is currently considering possible changes to its program access and carriage rules.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/307770-Verizon_Files_Program_Access_Complaint_Against_Cablevision.p hp

So I was very excited about getting Fios HD and internet. You can look back and see my posts. It ended up being a horrible experience. Its very long, but this is the letter I just sent to Verizon:

To Whom It May Concern:

Firstly, I apologize for the length of this letter, but it took this long to explain this unfortunate scenario.

I recently decided to get Verizon Fios TV and Internet after visiting your store at Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, Va. I went in to purchase a cell phone and one of the sales people sold me on Fios. I bought the cable HD package for 2 TV’s as well as internet. The salesperson also told me he would give me a promotional 3 month subscription to HBO and Cinemax. The salesman arranged my installation for the first available installation date, which was July 18th. I left very excited to receive the service, but it all seemed to go down hill from there.

Approximately June 30th, Verizon came to install the Fios line to my house. I did not receive any call to arrange this, so I guess they take it upon themselves to come onto my property to install it. I now have a very prominent dead streak of grass going through my back yard as an indication. When the installation crew came out to install the line they were not careful and not only cut my current cable, internet and telephone line, but my neighbors as well. I came home to find that I had no TV, phone or internet. They also cut the existing phone line, which was not in use, but will have to be replaced if I ever choose to get that service from another provider.

I called Comcast to try to see if they could come out and repair the line and they informed me that the first available date they could come out would be July 6th. This would not work. After spending some time on the phone with them to no avail, I decided to call Verizon. I was connected to an operator named Graham who was apologetic to my situation and said he could help. He said that they would be able to come out and install the service tomorrow and said he had sent a message to the local dispatch office for them to call me the next day and arrange a time to come out. On his assurance that they would install my service the next day, I called Comcast to cancel my service.

Around 2PM the next day I decided that I probably was not going to get that call and called Verizon again. This time I was met with a brick wall. The first gentleman I spoke to was again, very apologetic. He called the local dispatch office and put me on hold for about 15 minutes. When he came back he said that the first available appointment he had was July 7th. I politely told him that that was not acceptable and that it needed to be fixed in the next couple days. He put me on hold again and tried to arrange an earlier date. When he came back he again said that they would not provide him with a date earlier than July 7th. I told him that I would like to speaker to manager. He said he would gladly have his manager speak to me and asked me to hold. 20 minutes later I was still holding waiting to speak to a manager. I told him that I would like it if a manager could call me back when he was available and provided him with my Verizon cell phone number. Again, I was never called back.

So an hour later I called again. After waiting on hold for 10 minutes for a representative, I was eventually put in touch with a woman, who again was very apologetic. I told her the predicament involving Verizon cutting my line and how I was never called back by the manager. I decided I would just stay on hold this time while waiting for the manager, rather than risk not being called back. After holding for about 30 minutes I was disconnected by the representative. Needless to say I was getting frustrated by this point.

I called once again and held for a representative. Once I got someone, I told them that this is the third time calling and that if I am disconnected that I expect a call back. I told him that I have been trying to talk to a manager for 3 hours and want to talk to one immediately. After 15 minutes of holding I was connected with a manager. He was very unpleasant and said that he could not override what the dispatch office said was their first available date. I told him that this was unacceptable and that Verizon is responsible for my service outage so they need to resolve it. He said that there was nothing he could and I would have to wait for the 7th. This manager said that he would wave my first months bill for the issues and time spent trying to resolve it.

I then decided to call the store where I signed up for my service and talked to a manager there about what could be done. He was very apologetic and said that he really can’t do anything from the store level and that he would have the same result if he called on my behalf. I was then told that I should call the elite team and that they could possibly arrange the repair I was promised.

So once again I called your customer service line. This time I was connected to a gentleman who was very straightforward with me and told me that the elite team did not have any ability to override anybody and that they are responsible for account management, or something like that. I asked to speak to someone anyway on the hopes that they could help me. I was connected with someone who was playing rap music loudly at their desk. She told me that she would not be able to help me.

At this point I gave up. I had spent a total of approximately, 4 hours on the phone and was very frustrated.

About an hour later, I received a call on my cell phone from the local dispatch office saying that they had been informed that they cut my Comcast line and they would like to come and install my services. I told him that tomorrow would be great and he confirmed all my information.

I was very happy to have it resolved, but cannot figure out why it was so difficult. I had spent hours on the phone trying to get this resolved and was flat out told NO. This should have been the initial response from Verizon and I should not have spent that much time or energy. Since my house phone was not working I was forced to use my cell phone to make these calls. I used up a lot of my peak usage minutes doing this too. I estimate I used almost 200 minutes of my 450 allowance.

My service was installed as indicated and was done quickly. Unfortunately though, I did not have the promotional package that I was told I would have at the store. I was given a number to call by the installer to tell them I did not have it. I called the number and was connected to someone who apologized and said she would activate it. She said she could not activate it for some reason, but would write down my information and would have it resolved the next day. I checked HBO and Cinemax repeatedly but it never came on. I called back the next day and someone else said they had no record of me calling. This person said they would activate it and I was given a confirmation number this time. Again I continued to check and nothing!... I called back the following day and talked to another representative, who again had no record of me calling!!! Which I don’t know how it’s possible given that I had a confirmation number. She activated it and this time it worked.

All in all, this is by far the worst experience I have had with any company’s customer service. I still have not received any sort of credit for the first months bill (per the last rep I talked to) and have wasted a lot of my cell phone minutes trying to resolve it. I was very excited to receive Fios, but did not expect all this. I would still like to be compensated on my bill for the time I spent trying to resolve Verizons error. I would also like to have my minutes used trying to resolve this credited back to my cellular account. I do not feel that I should have to front the cost to contact you, since you disconnected my home line.

If you would like to contact me my information is provided below.

Thank you,

Any reason for these to be in SD only, and not as overflow HD channels? Is the Big Ten Network limited to only one game in HD due to equipment availability?

It's a matter of not wanting to burn up a bunch of QAM channels for the HD feeds, which to me makes sense. As someone else pointed out earlier in the thread, the satellite companies can push several mpeg4 HD channels (6 or sometimes 7) down one transponder. The way Verizon is setup they put 2 HD's on a QAM so they would be burning 2 QAM channels during the college football season.

From a capacity standpoint it makes sense to just carry the SD version.

So I was very excited about getting Fios HD and internet. You can look back and see my posts. It ended up being a horrible experience. Its very long, but this is the letter I just sent to Verizon:...Thank you,

Similar experience. Call and call and call; wait and wait on hold. Be told repeatedly that either a) the problem would be taken care of, or b) a manager would call me back. Lies, lies, lies. Their customer service sucks; it's just a good thing they have the product they do. If they would bother to fix their customer service they could own the TV distribution market. Very sad.

In Summer 2007 FIOS cut my Comcast line three times and Comcast cut my FIOS line 3 times. I dropped my landline at the end of October 2008 and they still have not been able to get my billing right.

On my initial install they called one day to confirm and then the next day, the day of the install they never showed up and when I called they said it had been canceled. But of course I never did that.

Be prepared for many more hours on the phone. You'll feel like your in a situation comedy, especially after talking to five people that shuffled you around and you end up with the very first person you started with 30 to 60 minutes earlier.

So I was very excited about getting Fios HD and internet. You can look back and see my posts. It ended up being a horrible experience. Its very long, but this is the letter I just sent to Verizon:

To Whom It May Concern:

Firstly, I apologize for the length of this letter, but it took this long to explain this unfortunate scenario.

I recently decided to get Verizon Fios TV and Internet after visiting your store at Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, Va. I went in to purchase a cell phone and one of the sales people sold me on Fios. I bought the cable HD package for 2 TV’s as well as internet. The salesperson also told me he would give me a promotional 3 month subscription to HBO and Cinemax. The salesman arranged my installation for the first available installation date, which was July 18th. I left very excited to receive the service, but it all seemed to go down hill from there.

Approximately June 30th, Verizon came to install the Fios line to my house. I did not receive any call to arrange this, so I guess they take it upon themselves to come onto my property to install it. I now have a very prominent dead streak of grass going through my back yard as an indication. When the installation crew came out to install the line they were not careful and not only cut my current cable, internet and telephone line, but my neighbors as well. I came home to find that I had no TV, phone or internet. They also cut the existing phone line, which was not in use, but will have to be replaced if I ever choose to get that service from another provider.

I called Comcast to try to see if they could come out and repair the line and they informed me that the first available date they could come out would be July 6th. This would not work. After spending some time on the phone with them to no avail, I decided to call Verizon. I was connected to an operator named Graham who was apologetic to my situation and said he could help. He said that they would be able to come out and install the service tomorrow and said he had sent a message to the local dispatch office for them to call me the next day and arrange a time to come out. On his assurance that they would install my service the next day, I called Comcast to cancel my service.

Around 2PM the next day I decided that I probably was not going to get that call and called Verizon again. This time I was met with a brick wall. The first gentleman I spoke to was again, very apologetic. He called the local dispatch office and put me on hold for about 15 minutes. When he came back he said that the first available appointment he had was July 7th. I politely told him that that was not acceptable and that it needed to be fixed in the next couple days. He put me on hold again and tried to arrange an earlier date. When he came back he again said that they would not provide him with a date earlier than July 7th. I told him that I would like to speaker to manager. He said he would gladly have his manager speak to me and asked me to hold. 20 minutes later I was still holding waiting to speak to a manager. I told him that I would like it if a manager could call me back when he was available and provided him with my Verizon cell phone number. Again, I was never called back.

So an hour later I called again. After waiting on hold for 10 minutes for a representative, I was eventually put in touch with a woman, who again was very apologetic. I told her the predicament involving Verizon cutting my line and how I was never called back by the manager. I decided I would just stay on hold this time while waiting for the manager, rather than risk not being called back. After holding for about 30 minutes I was disconnected by the representative. Needless to say I was getting frustrated by this point.

I called once again and held for a representative. Once I got someone, I told them that this is the third time calling and that if I am disconnected that I expect a call back. I told him that I have been trying to talk to a manager for 3 hours and want to talk to one immediately. After 15 minutes of holding I was connected with a manager. He was very unpleasant and said that he could not override what the dispatch office said was their first available date. I told him that this was unacceptable and that Verizon is responsible for my service outage so they need to resolve it. He said that there was nothing he could and I would have to wait for the 7th. This manager said that he would wave my first months bill for the issues and time spent trying to resolve it.

I then decided to call the store where I signed up for my service and talked to a manager there about what could be done. He was very apologetic and said that he really can’t do anything from the store level and that he would have the same result if he called on my behalf. I was then told that I should call the elite team and that they could possibly arrange the repair I was promised.

So once again I called your customer service line. This time I was connected to a gentleman who was very straightforward with me and told me that the elite team did not have any ability to override anybody and that they are responsible for account management, or something like that. I asked to speak to someone anyway on the hopes that they could help me. I was connected with someone who was playing rap music loudly at their desk. She told me that she would not be able to help me.

At this point I gave up. I had spent a total of approximately, 4 hours on the phone and was very frustrated.

About an hour later, I received a call on my cell phone from the local dispatch office saying that they had been informed that they cut my Comcast line and they would like to come and install my services. I told him that tomorrow would be great and he confirmed all my information.

I was very happy to have it resolved, but cannot figure out why it was so difficult. I had spent hours on the phone trying to get this resolved and was flat out told NO. This should have been the initial response from Verizon and I should not have spent that much time or energy. Since my house phone was not working I was forced to use my cell phone to make these calls. I used up a lot of my peak usage minutes doing this too. I estimate I used almost 200 minutes of my 450 allowance.

My service was installed as indicated and was done quickly. Unfortunately though, I did not have the promotional package that I was told I would have at the store. I was given a number to call by the installer to tell them I did not have it. I called the number and was connected to someone who apologized and said she would activate it. She said she could not activate it for some reason, but would write down my information and would have it resolved the next day. I checked HBO and Cinemax repeatedly but it never came on. I called back the next day and someone else said they had no record of me calling. This person said they would activate it and I was given a confirmation number this time. Again I continued to check and nothing!... I called back the following day and talked to another representative, who again had no record of me calling!!! Which I don’t know how it’s possible given that I had a confirmation number. She activated it and this time it worked.

All in all, this is by far the worst experience I have had with any company’s customer service. I still have not received any sort of credit for the first months bill (per the last rep I talked to) and have wasted a lot of my cell phone minutes trying to resolve it. I was very excited to receive Fios, but did not expect all this. I would still like to be compensated on my bill for the time I spent trying to resolve Verizons error. I would also like to have my minutes used trying to resolve this credited back to my cellular account. I do not feel that I should have to front the cost to contact you, since you disconnected my home line.

If you would like to contact me my information is provided below.

Thank you,

It was by far the worst customer service I have ever had. I was trying hard not to flip out. Everything is working fine now I'm just hoping to get reimbursed for my pain and suffering. Doubtful though...

Well, I think it's only fair to balance these stores out with my install experience.

I ordered FIOS online and the process took about 5 minutes. I selected my bundles and promotions and chose an install date and they gave me at time frame. I got a couple automated phone calls warning me of my impending install date.

Between the time I ordered and the time of my install, Verizon introduced the Extreme HD package. I had ordered the 15/2 internet with the Premiere package. I decided to leave well enough alone until the install point though.

The installer arrived about 20 minutes into the install window. The first thing I hit him with was "Extreme HD didn't exist when I ordered, but that's the package I want." He said that he would sort everything out for me.

That installer stayed on his cell phone with CS while stringing fiber from the pole to the house, drilling through the foundation, and installing the ONT in the basement. Every once and awhile he was hand the phone over to me to speak to customer service to give authorization for service changes and whatnot. I ended up with the Extreme HD bundle with 20/5 internet for a lower price than I originally ordered. All I had to do was say "yes" a few times.

The installer stayed on the phone with CS for quite awhile afterwards verfying that everything was correct. After the ONT was installed, he told me that he had to leave for about 15 minutes to take care of something associated with the account. He arrived back right on schedule and was now off the phone. He then installed both my cable boxes and activated with my computer. Afterwards, he verified that my package was working. Then he hit up several speed sites to verify that my 20/5 internet was active (which it was).

The install was completed without a hitch even with the package change curve-ball I gave them in just under 4 hours. My bill was perfect from day one, not a single problem.

Granted, I never had to speak with CS on my own accord, but that installer went above and beyond to make sure everything was perfect and exactly the way I wanted it before he left.

Fios 1 News and Traffic launched in the NY Area this week. Great competition vs Cablevision's News 12.

Fios 1 News and Traffic launched in the NY Area this week. Great competition vs Cablevision's News 12.You sure this one isn't a local multicast channel? How different is this from the info available on the "Widget"?

In Summer 2007 FIOS cut my Comcast line three times and Comcast cut my FIOS line 3 times. I dropped my landline at the end of October 2008 and they still have not been able to get my billing right.

On my initial install they called one day to confirm and then the next day, the day of the install they never showed up and when I called they said it had been canceled. But of course I never did that.

Be prepared for many more hours on the phone. You'll feel like your in a situation comedy, especially after talking to five people that shuffled you around and you end up with the very first person you started with 30 to 60 minutes earlier.

Thats pretty bad too. It was funny how everytime I got what seems like a very sincere apology and then was told sorry we cant do anything for you....

My install went flawlessly also. In and out in about 3 hours and arrived 5 minutes into the install window. They did traipse a few flowers when installing the line to the house, though. This was before we signed up for the service. In my neighborhood, they dug up everyone's front yard to bring the lines to the house well before they actually started signing people up for the service.

Their CS needs some help, i'll agree. My bill has been incorrect twice, both times being resolved immediately, albeit after waiting on hold for what i think is a ridiculous amount of time. I've also contacted CS a few other times for service changes, technical issues, etc and always had no problem beyond the wait time. Overall, I'm happy with my installation and my service. I've had much worse CS experience with Comcast in a neighboring county, so compared to that, Fios isn't bad at all, but I do agree they definitely need to beef up their CS if they want to come close to having a "perfect" product if such a thing exists.

My actual install went fine, it was just trying to get them to install it that was hard. They showed up right at 8. The guy was very fast, polite and did good work. He was out of there in two hours. Its everything else that was a problem.

When I called the manager at the Fios store (referenced in my letter), he said that up until a couple weeks ago, he had a number he could call just for managers to get things resolved with customers, but they have done away with that.

If you bring a problem to a store manager for Fios problems or cellular, they have to call the same number as you and wait on hold for a representative, explain the problem to them and see what they advise.

He wasn't too happy about it either....

My service though is outstanding. Especially my internet. I was downloading at 1.6mb/s last night. Someone said it best in an earlier post, that if Verizon could get their customer service together, they would have the market cornered.

Agree with what everyone has said the last 2 days. Install was flawless, I love the product, but I'm having billing issues.

This month I see where my payment left my account on the 2nd, I log into My Verizon and they show it posting on the 2nd, but Verizon sends me a letter that says I haven't paid, and when my wife called CS they said they have not received it either.

Idiocy. Like someone else said, at times it is so bad it's like a comedy sketch.

Anyone having any luck with "Refer A Friend"?

I referred my wife's Grandmother on Nov 4th and she ordered service the next day. Install was scheduled for Dec 17th, which Verizon called the morning of and cancelled, rescheduled for Dec 27th and didn't bother showing up. After an extremely long call we finally rescheduled for January
6th.

Checked my referals Feb 13th and it showed status as "declined", clicked "why declined" and it just gave generic reasons. Called and they said it was declined because the install was more than "30" days after referal, advised her the websites states "Remind friends and family that they must order service within 60 days of your referral" and besides she took the first open schedule (which was more than 30 days later) which Verizon cancelled and then neglected to show up for the rescheduled appt. She then said to just "Refer again" which I did.

Checked the referal on Feb 18th and it was declined again, called and was advised my referal was after she signed up for the service:eek:. Explained the whole thing again. The next day I rcvd an e-mail advising my referal was approved and I would receive a rewards check.

Rcvd the rewards "voucher" on Apr 9th which informs me I must send back to Verizon (wouldn't it have saved money and trees just to have credited my account?) and my account would be credited.

Today, called Verizon as I still haven't rcvd my credit and (big surprise) they never rcvd my voucher :mad:.

Now I'm waiting for him to check to see if they can send another Voucher, how much you want to bet I never receive a call back?

The funny things is they advertise as get up to $150 back - the only way to get $150 is if they order all three services as NEW, however, they must have a phone number to sign them up. I currently have a referal (friend moving to the area) as "Pending" and expect it will be denied because I had to list the phone number as their Sprint Cell number as they do not yet have a land line. Anyone know a way around this? The person I spoke to at Verizon advised me to list their cell #, I just don't see how they will link it?

Thanks for anyone's input!!

Fios 1 News and Traffic launched in the NY Area this week. Great competition vs Cablevision's News 12.

Kind of lame that it's not in HD.

Those traffic cameras should look great in HD:)

Last night I noticed that NBA TV was on channel 87, while NHL Network HD was still on 587. While it looks like a "test run" for the off season, it shows that there is some sort of carriage agreement in place for NBA TV. I'll go out on a limb and guess that NBA will end up on 89/589.

Last night I noticed that NBA TV was on channel 87, while NHL Network HD was still on 587. While it looks like a "test run" for the off season, it shows that there is some sort of carriage agreement in place for NBA TV. I'll go out on a limb and guess that NBA will end up on 89/589.

I don't know what it is but that channel ( 587 ) is always breaking up and unwatchable most of the time on my system while all the other channels are fine. I hope whatever they do, it will improve before the season starts!

Fios attitude of screw the customer is driving me back to Directv. I'm going back to Comcast for internet service. I'm also dropping my verizon land line. Frack em. MSG in HD not availabe.

Fios attitude of screw the customer is driving me back to Directv. I'm going back to Comcast for internet service. I'm also dropping my verizon land line. Frack em. MSG in HD not availabe.

MSG HD is not available because Cablevision will not allow Vz to carry it. Vz has launched a complaint with the FCC for unfair practices against Cablevision. This is how they more or less forced Cablevision to allow them to carry the SD version of the channel, so I would imagine the same will carry true for the HD version.

This is more of a Cablevision screwing competition than it is Vz screwing its customers.

Fios attitude of screw the customer is driving me back to Directv. I'm going back to Comcast for internet service. I'm also dropping my verizon land line. Frack em. MSG in HD not availabe.

There is no way I could go back to Comcast for INternet, not with a cap of only 250GB. I use 1TB to 2TB a month.

And FIOS is the HD leader right now. Although I will admit that if DirecTV had never pushed us TiVo owners out the door, I would have probably never left DIrecTV for TV, but they forced me out when they didn't go forward with supporting the HDTiVo they had. Of course now they are coming out with a new HDTiVo soon, but it's too late for me since I have too much money invested in my current TiVos for use with cable systems and cable cards.

I will go back to analog rabbit ear antennas before I go back to Comcast.

Those traffic cameras should look great in HD:)

Nah, I understand that, but there's no reason the studio shots shouldn't be in HD. When the VOOM channels were around, they had a very nice HD news channel that had some beautiful HD studio shots. No reason FIOS can't do that unless they're preserving bandwidth.

With the huge drop in nice HD cams today, it can't be the cost of the HD equipment...unless the HD infrastructure in the studio doesn't exist.

......unless the HD infrastructure in the studio doesn't exist.

That would be my guess!

Fios attitude of screw the customer is driving me back to Directv. I'm going back to Comcast for internet service. I'm also dropping my verizon land line. Frack em.

Bye, bye.

Have had Fios for about a month now. Love the quality. Would never go back to Dish or TWC (for internet). Fios customer service has been fine.

BTW, isn't is parimutuel instead of paramutuel?

I don't know what it is but that channel ( 587 ) is always breaking up and unwatchable most of the time on my system while all the other channels are fine. I hope whatever they do, it will improve before the season starts!

I would suggest writing am old-school paper letter to the correspondence address on your bill, since that seems to be the only way to contact anyone. Make sure you mention your VHO number, since that's most likely where the signal is getting fouled up.

Are you using an HDMI connection from you set top box to your TV?

I had this same experience on a single channel (TNT HD) and the culprit turned out to be the HDMI cable from the box to the set!!!!!

Vern

Are you using an HDMI connection from you set top box to your TV?

I had this same experience on a single channel (TNT HD) and the culprit turned out to be the HDMI cable from the box to the set!!!!!

Vern

No, I'm using a CableCard which I feel may be the source of the problem. For whatever reason, it seems to have a hard time locking onto this particular channel. Might have to swap it out for another one.

I don't know what it is but that channel ( 587 ) is always breaking up and unwatchable most of the time on my system while all the other channels are fine. I hope whatever they do, it will improve before the season starts!

I've had a similar issue but with me it's Nat. Geo. HD. So far I've had a HD DVR STB swapped as well as the coax jumper that runs from the Fios box outside, through my attic, and down to my display. It seems to occur everyday at roughly the same time. Between 2:30 PM and 7:00 PM. My newest issue is the replacement STB they gave me seems to have a bad component connector causing brief (2-3 second) video only blackouts. I still wouldn't go back to Cablevision though.

FiOS TV Expands In SoCal

Verizon Offers FiOS Services To More Than 1 Million Households In Golden State

Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 7/14/2009 1:44:27 PM EDT

Verizon is now offering FiOS TV service to nearly 10,000 homes and businesses in Rancho Cucamonga and Fontana, Calif., where the telco will compete with Time Warner Cable and Charter Communications.

In Southern California, Verizon's FiOS TV and FiOS Internet services are now available to more than 1 million households in 85 communities throughout San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura and Riverside counties.

Verizon is touting an HD lineup of 127 channels in California as "an experience cable simply can't match."

FiOS TV is available to 9.7 million homes in 14 states: California, Delaware, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia and Washington.

In a promotion that runs through Aug. 15, Verizon is offering new customers who take a FiOS bundle either a Compaq Mini netbooks or a Cisco Flip Ultra camcorder.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/315220-FiOS_TV_Expands_In_SoCal.php

I've had a similar issue but with me it's Nat. Geo. HD. So far I've had a HD DVR STB swapped as well as the coax jumper that runs from the Fios box outside, through my attic, and down to my display. It seems to occur everyday at roughly the same time. Between 2:30 PM and 7:00 PM. My newest issue is the replacement STB they gave me seems to have a bad component connector causing brief (2-3 second) video only blackouts. I still wouldn't go back to Cablevision though.

I was having the same problems. I had a tech come out to the house and there were problems with my coax. He did some cutting and splicing and 45 minutes later all channels came in beautifully.

The signal was getting messed up on 3-4 channels and the rest came in fine. I would call them and see if a tech can come out to your house. Usually they try resending the signal and if that doesn't work (It won't) they send a tech.

Good luck because it is really frustrating having some channels not work. Hopefully it is an easy fix. It may be the splitter causing the problem and not the cable. If they run a diagnostics test they should know quickly.

I was having the same problems. I had a tech come out to the house and there were problems with my coax. He did some cutting and splicing and 45 minutes later all channels came in beautifully.

The signal was getting messed up on 3-4 channels and the rest came in fine. I would call them and see if a tech can come out to your house. Usually they try resending the signal and if that doesn't work (It won't) they send a tech.

Good luck because it is really frustrating having some channels not work. Hopefully it is an easy fix. It may be the splitter causing the problem and not the cable. If they run a diagnostics test they should know quickly.

Have actually been through all that already. When the coax was replaced the channels came in beautifully for a few days then it started all over again. Getting very frustrating. Sorry for the OT.

What is the true cost of a FiOS triple play (TV, phone, Internet) package? I keep getting promotions offering it for $109.99/month. Since I currently pay over $96 for just Internet and phone, it would be a pretty good deal to add crystal clear digital TV for only $13 more, but I strongly suspect that is not the number that would actually appear on my monthly bill.

Let's say I want just the absolute minimum, i.e. to get a clear QAM signal over the existing coax in my house, for local broadcast channels and whatever else they throw in the most basic package. No DVR, no STB at all even, no HBO or other premium channels, just split the cable going to my Actiontec router and run another line to my TV or a distribution amp.

First off, can it be done? And second, how much is it actually going to cost including taxes, fees, 911 "access charges", blah, blah, yada yada, etc. In other words, how big is the check I would have to write every month?

...no STB at all even....
I don't think that's possible with FiOS. I believe you will need at least a cable box as all channels are encoded in some fashion. The rub is that you rent a box for each TV you want to hook up, and that's the "add-on" cost they don't mention. I have quite a few hook-ups in my home, and I think the cable box charge exceeds the service cost.

Clear QAM will get you channels 2-49 (SD locals and P/E/Gs, WGN America SD, TV Guide, and Weatherscan Local), 460-549 (HD locals and subchannels), and 1800+ (music channels). The FiOS TV Local package includes that, $12.99/mo. I don't think you can bundle anything lower than Essentials ($47.99/mo).

I don't think that's possible with FiOS. I believe you will need at least a cable box as all channels are encoded in some fashion. The rub is that you rent a box for each TV you want to hook up, and that's the "add-on" cost they don't mention. I have quite a few hook-ups in my home, and I think the cable box charge exceeds the service cost.

This is not true.

Channels in the "Limited basic" tier are NOT encrypted.
Broadcast channels are usually mapped to their over the air equivalents. (ONLY the HD ones in case of HD channels)
WGN america (SD only) is on Ch 55-100.
also included are THe Weather channel (Sd only) Weatherscan TV guide network and the audio music channels..

I don't think that's possible with FiOS. I believe you will need at least a cable box as all channels are encoded in some fashion. The rub is that you rent a box for each TV you want to hook up, and that's the "add-on" cost they don't mention. I have quite a few hook-ups in my home, and I think the cable box charge exceeds the service cost.

This is not true.

Channels in the "Limited basic" tier are NOT encrypted.
Broadcast channels are usually mapped to their over the air equivalents. (ONLY the HD ones in case of HD channels)
WGN america (SD only) is on Ch 55-100.
also included are THe Weather channel (Sd only) Weatherscan TV guide network and the audio music channels..


Wow. One of you has posted completely incorrect information with complete certainty. This is very unfair to the forum user who comes here for information and then makes decisions based upon that information.

If one argues that no information should be considered correct without user verification, then the forum loses a great deal of it's value.

It would seem that the poster has some responsibility to be sure of his information before posting it as the gospel.

So Jim and chit, what happened here? Why was incorrect information posted by one of you?

Wow. One of you has posted completely incorrect information with complete certainty. This is very unfair to the forum user who comes here for information and then makes decisions based upon that information.

If one argues that no information should be considered correct without user verification, then the forum loses a great deal of it's value.

It would seem that the poster has some responsibility to be sure of his information before posting it as the gospel.

So Jim and chit, what happened here? Why was incorrect information posted by one of you?

Re-read the first post you are quoting. I don't see "complete certainty". I see "I don't think" and "I believe". So Sam, what happened here? Why was an incorrect accusation/condemnation posted by you?

Let's not go flying off on a tangent here, folks. There have been 5 responses to my post, and only one made any mention of cost at all. I already know that some channels are in clear QAM. What isn't clear is if they need to originate in a STB somewhere. I am only considering this as a very low cost supplement to my Dish account for a new flat panel in the home gym we are building. I want real life anecdotes, not speculation. Please let me see some posts that start "I have triple play, and my monthly bill is $..."

As an example, with Double Freedom, the advertised package price is $79.99, but my actual bill comes to $97.38. So can I expect to pay $30 more than that for a triple play, or even more?

About $20 additional is what I would assume, mostly taxes and fees associated with the phone line.

My hidden fees/taxes come to $20 a month on the triple play. But I'm in Virginia. I'm sure Maryland has at least some different rates.

Clear QAM will get you channels 2-49 (SD locals and P/E/Gs, WGN America SD, TV Guide, and Weatherscan Local), 460-549 (HD locals and subchannels), and 1800+ (music channels). The FiOS TV Local package includes that, $12.99/mo. I don't think you can bundle anything lower than Essentials ($47.99/mo).

It depends on your area. In mine they are not allowed to offer a basic tier like that. The county officials, with their wisdom, does not allow it. So none of the other cable providers, like Comcast, can offer it either in my area.

What is the true cost of a FiOS triple play (TV, phone, Internet) package? I keep getting promotions offering it for $109.99/month. Since I currently pay over $96 for just Internet and phone, it would be a pretty good deal to add crystal clear digital TV for only $13 more, but I strongly suspect that is not the number that would actually appear on my monthly bill.

I am in HoCo MD with the $109.99 triple play. My taxes/fees are $15.88. I also have extras like an HD DVR, 2 STBs, and the movies package so my taxes are undoubtedly higher than yours would be.

To get all of the channels in that package, you need a STB of course. The DCT-700 is the cheapest box at I think $2.99 or $3.99, i'm not sure, I don't pay for mine. I don't see why they would make you get a box though, so you could go without a box and just receive the "in the clear" QAM channels as mentioned above, making your total bill $109.99 + taxes less than $15.88.

I doubt anyone will have a figure for just the triple play with nothing else because basically, its silly to pay for a package that gives all the channels and then not use a STB to receive them. You are probably better off adding the $12.99 plan to your existing plan if you are looking for the rock bottom price.

...Why was incorrect information posted by one of you?
Sorry, but I was giving my information based on my experience. The only TV I did not have a box for was my bathroom panel. This was limited to the "basic" 13 or 14 analog channels then coming into the home. I have since added a "digital adapter", and can now get the full tier that I subscribe to, minus the premium HD and Movie channels. I have no experience with "in the clear" after the all digital conversion. I should have first mentioned that I am not a "basic" subscriber, having opted to get everything offered by Verizon with the exception of non-English speaking and "semi-porn" channels such as Playboy. I didn't mean to confuse the issue.

About $20 additional is what I would assume, mostly taxes and fees associated with the phone line.What he said. There are no taxes on Internet and the taxes on TV only amount to around $5/mo most areas. The bulk of all taxes and fees are on landline phone service, which I don't have.

Here's my bill for HD Extreme, 2x CableCards (for 2x HD TiVo), and 20/5 Internet. The bundle of HD Extreme and 20/5 Internet is $79.99 and the CableCards are $2.99/ea, so total "taxes and fees" come to $3.85/mo.

http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm314/ilovehdtv/Other/FiOS/fiostvbill.gif http://i299.photobucket.com/albums/mm314/ilovehdtv/Other/FiOS/fiosnetbill.gif

For new customers, CableCards (for HD TiVos) have since increased to $3.99, and the bundle price for FiOS HD Extreme has increased by $5/mo to $84.99/mo for HD Extrene and 15/5 Internet service outside of NY. The 25/15 (actual 25/25) plan adds another $10 outside NY.

Let's not go flying off on a tangent here, folks. There have been 5 responses to my post, and only one made any mention of cost at all. I already know that some channels are in clear QAM. What isn't clear is if they need to originate in a STB somewhere. I am only considering this as a very low cost supplement to my Dish account for a new flat panel in the home gym we are building. I want real life anecdotes, not speculation. Please let me see some posts that start "I have triple play, and my monthly bill is $..."

I can tell you from experience with setting up my mother-in-law's new HDTV last year that no set top box is needed to watch the QAM local HD and basic SD channels *IF* your TV has a QAM tuner. We just hooked the coax cable from outside straight into the coax input on her TV. No cable box was needed.

The QAM tuner is only needed for the local HD channels not the SD channels. Also you need to do a channel scan on your TV to find the QAM HD channels and they will be at a higher odd looking channel number but they will be there.

I can tell you from experience with setting up my mother-in-law's new HDTV last year that no set top box is needed to watch the QAM local HD and basic SD channels *IF* your TV has a QAM tuner. We just hooked the coax cable from outside straight into the coax input on her TV. No cable box was needed.

The QAM tuner is only needed for the local HD channels not the SD channels. Also you need to do a channel scan on your TV to find the QAM HD channels and they will be at a higher odd looking channel number but they will be there.

The QAM tuner is needed for everything, including SD. There is no analog feed on FIOS (anymore).

So I was very excited about getting Fios HD and internet. You can look back and see my posts. It ended up being a horrible experience. Its very long, but this is the letter I just sent to Verizon:

To Whom It May Concern:

Firstly, I apologize for the length of this letter, but it took this long to explain this unfortunate scenario.

I recently decided to get Verizon Fios TV and Internet after visiting your store at Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, Va. I went in to purchase a cell phone and one of the sales people sold me on Fios. I bought the cable HD package for 2 TV’s as well as internet. The salesperson also told me he would give me a promotional 3 month subscription to HBO and Cinemax. The salesman arranged my installation for the first available installation date, which was July 18th. I left very excited to receive the service, but it all seemed to go down hill from there.

Approximately June 30th, Verizon came to install the Fios line to my house. I did not receive any call to arrange this, so I guess they take it upon themselves to come onto my property to install it. I now have a very prominent dead streak of grass going through my back yard as an indication. When the installation crew came out to install the line they were not careful and not only cut my current cable, internet and telephone line, but my neighbors as well. I came home to find that I had no TV, phone or internet. They also cut the existing phone line, which was not in use, but will have to be replaced if I ever choose to get that service from another provider.

I called Comcast to try to see if they could come out and repair the line and they informed me that the first available date they could come out would be July 6th. This would not work. After spending some time on the phone with them to no avail, I decided to call Verizon. I was connected to an operator named Graham who was apologetic to my situation and said he could help. He said that they would be able to come out and install the service tomorrow and said he had sent a message to the local dispatch office for them to call me the next day and arrange a time to come out. On his assurance that they would install my service the next day, I called Comcast to cancel my service.

Around 2PM the next day I decided that I probably was not going to get that call and called Verizon again. This time I was met with a brick wall. The first gentleman I spoke to was again, very apologetic. He called the local dispatch office and put me on hold for about 15 minutes. When he came back he said that the first available appointment he had was July 7th. I politely told him that that was not acceptable and that it needed to be fixed in the next couple days. He put me on hold again and tried to arrange an earlier date. When he came back he again said that they would not provide him with a date earlier than July 7th. I told him that I would like to speaker to manager. He said he would gladly have his manager speak to me and asked me to hold. 20 minutes later I was still holding waiting to speak to a manager. I told him that I would like it if a manager could call me back when he was available and provided him with my Verizon cell phone number. Again, I was never called back.

So an hour later I called again. After waiting on hold for 10 minutes for a representative, I was eventually put in touch with a woman, who again was very apologetic. I told her the predicament involving Verizon cutting my line and how I was never called back by the manager. I decided I would just stay on hold this time while waiting for the manager, rather than risk not being called back. After holding for about 30 minutes I was disconnected by the representative. Needless to say I was getting frustrated by this point.

I called once again and held for a representative. Once I got someone, I told them that this is the third time calling and that if I am disconnected that I expect a call back. I told him that I have been trying to talk to a manager for 3 hours and want to talk to one immediately. After 15 minutes of holding I was connected with a manager. He was very unpleasant and said that he could not override what the dispatch office said was their first available date. I told him that this was unacceptable and that Verizon is responsible for my service outage so they need to resolve it. He said that there was nothing he could and I would have to wait for the 7th. This manager said that he would wave my first months bill for the issues and time spent trying to resolve it.

I then decided to call the store where I signed up for my service and talked to a manager there about what could be done. He was very apologetic and said that he really can’t do anything from the store level and that he would have the same result if he called on my behalf. I was then told that I should call the elite team and that they could possibly arrange the repair I was promised.

So once again I called your customer service line. This time I was connected to a gentleman who was very straightforward with me and told me that the elite team did not have any ability to override anybody and that they are responsible for account management, or something like that. I asked to speak to someone anyway on the hopes that they could help me. I was connected with someone who was playing rap music loudly at their desk. She told me that she would not be able to help me.

At this point I gave up. I had spent a total of approximately, 4 hours on the phone and was very frustrated.

About an hour later, I received a call on my cell phone from the local dispatch office saying that they had been informed that they cut my Comcast line and they would like to come and install my services. I told him that tomorrow would be great and he confirmed all my information.

I was very happy to have it resolved, but cannot figure out why it was so difficult. I had spent hours on the phone trying to get this resolved and was flat out told NO. This should have been the initial response from Verizon and I should not have spent that much time or energy. Since my house phone was not working I was forced to use my cell phone to make these calls. I used up a lot of my peak usage minutes doing this too. I estimate I used almost 200 minutes of my 450 allowance.

My service was installed as indicated and was done quickly. Unfortunately though, I did not have the promotional package that I was told I would have at the store. I was given a number to call by the installer to tell them I did not have it. I called the number and was connected to someone who apologized and said she would activate it. She said she could not activate it for some reason, but would write down my information and would have it resolved the next day. I checked HBO and Cinemax repeatedly but it never came on. I called back the next day and someone else said they had no record of me calling. This person said they would activate it and I was given a confirmation number this time. Again I continued to check and nothing!... I called back the following day and talked to another representative, who again had no record of me calling!!! Which I don’t know how it’s possible given that I had a confirmation number. She activated it and this time it worked.

All in all, this is by far the worst experience I have had with any company’s customer service. I still have not received any sort of credit for the first months bill (per the last rep I talked to) and have wasted a lot of my cell phone minutes trying to resolve it. I was very excited to receive Fios, but did not expect all this. I would still like to be compensated on my bill for the time I spent trying to resolve Verizons error. I would also like to have my minutes used trying to resolve this credited back to my cellular account. I do not feel that I should have to front the cost to contact you, since you disconnected my home line.

If you would like to contact me my information is provided below.

Thank you,

Just an update: Two weeks since I sent this to Verizon and still no reply to my letter.

Has anyone heard or read any information about BBC America HD coming to FIOS? Today is the day the channel is being rolled out according to the ads on BBC-A SDTV. They have a couple of shows I would like to be able to watch in HD via FIOS.

Has anyone heard or read any information about BBC America HD coming to FIOS? Today is the day the channel is being rolled out according to the ads on BBC-A SDTV. They have a couple of shows I would like to be able to watch in HD via FIOS.

I heard the same. I will be checking it tonight. I have always hoped that Top Gear would be available in HD one day.

Just an update: Two weeks since I sent this to Verizon and still no reply to my letter.

Too long to be effective.

Too long to be effective.

yeah i was afraid of that too. But so much **** got screwed up, I didn't want to leave it out. oh well. I guess I'll have to let it go.

yeah i was afraid of that too. But so much **** got screwed up, I didn't want to leave it out. oh well. I guess I'll have to let it go.

Frustrating, innit? You would think they'd like to respond to customers who had nightmare issues like yours. It seems like today's corporations don't have that mindset. What can you do? You could take a chance on moving to a competitor, but who's to say it might not be a worse experience?

I've thought along these lines when having bizarre and illogical billing issues w/ Verizon, but so far, have stayed put.

Doug

Frustrating, innit? You would think they'd like to respond to customers who had nightmare issues like yours. It seems like today's corporations don't have that mindset. What can you do? You could take a chance on moving to a competitor, but who's to say it might not be a worse experience?

I've thought along these lines when having bizarre and illogical billing issues w/ Verizon, but so far, have stayed put.

Doug

I am in love with Verizon HD. I am staying put, just wish they cared.

I heard the same. I will be checking it tonight. I have always hoped that Top Gear would be available in HD one day.

We need a lot more than BBC-A HD for that to happen. Top gear isn't in HD even in the UK. Only their Polar Special was in HD.

That's not to say that a properly upconverted top gear wouldn't look a hell of a lot better. Being PAL to begin with, there are quite a few more lines to work with when upconverting.

So I was very excited about getting Fios HD and internet. You can look back and see my posts. It ended up being a horrible experience. Its very long, but this is the letter I just sent to Verizon:

To Whom It May Concern:

Firstly, I apologize for the length of this letter, but it took this long to explain this unfortunate scenario.

I recently decided to get Verizon Fios TV and Internet after visiting your store at Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax, Va. I went in to purchase a cell phone and one of the sales people sold me on Fios. I bought the cable HD package for 2 TV’s as well as internet. The salesperson also told me he would give me a .......


credited back to my cellular account. I do not feel that I should have to front the cost to contact you, since you disconnected my home line.

If you would like to contact me my information is provided below.

Thank you,


I had a poor install experience as well, they cut our phone line. But once it was running I was happy with it.

So after it was running I called to complain and was able to get a full months credit for Verizon phone service that was cut off for only 2 days, plus a month credit for wireless phone that was required to use since home phone was out and a free month of FiOS TV and Internet. In total about $200.

Yes it was a pain for 2 days, (I still had TV thankfully , loosing the phone is not a big issue to me), but I got a bunch of credit which made it worth it to me.

Yes Verizon has poor customer service but to this point I have been able to use it to my advantage by respectfully stating the delays and time to takes to get things done to get credits toward my bill

I have certainly received credits that would by far pay for the time I spent on the phone. Not perfect but it has eased the pain a lot.

Ok I see in another thread that Comcast now has HBO HD On Demand. Come on Fios get with it.

yeah that is a long letter for anybody to respond to. so long that i wonder why almost everyone that replies to it INCLUDES it in their reply message...

Thanks Lee11 for cutting it short :-)

On topic though, has anyone heard anything about Fios getting HBO On Demand?

They have HBO On Demand, do you mean in HD? Good question. I dropped HBO solely for that reason.

From what I read this morning on another thread on here, Comcast now has HBO HD On Demand as of this week.

Has anyone noticed the new services available? I mean Twitter, Facebook and other accessible web content. I tried the Facebook connection and was able to pull up several of my family's pages. It looks good and is fairly fast.

They also enabled video playback of PC content over the Media connection, will try that tonight. They also are having an HBO contest. This came out of the blue for me, was it announced other than in the Messages area?

Has anyone noticed the new services available? I mean Twitter, Facebook and other accessible web content...They also enabled video playback of PC content over the Media connection, will try that tonight. They also are having an HBO contest. This came out of the blue for me, was it announced other than in the Messages area?

I've checked out the video files; pretty cool, but they need to make a deal w/YouTube. The upgrade knocked out the audio files on my model DVR. Said it's systemwide and they're working on it.

They have HBO On Demand, do you mean in HD? Good question. I dropped HBO solely for that reason.

From what I read this morning on another thread on here, Comcast now has HBO HD On Demand as of this week.
HBO HD On-Demand was dropped by HBO over their concerns about piracy.

No one has HBO HD On-Demand. Which just sucks. Unless they are starting to roll it out again (hence the Comcrap rumor).

Well Comcast got it yesterday. Read all about it here

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=975220&page=2

Well Comcast got it yesterday. Read all about it here

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=975220&page=2

Cool - hopefully that means FIOS will get a hold of it. It was nice having it when it was still beta.

They also enabled video playback of PC content over the Media connection, will try that tonight. They also are having an HBO contest. This came out of the blue for me, was it announced other than in the Messages area?

Did you ever figure out how this works??? I am very interested to see if I can set it up. I looked briefly in the Verizon menu but could find any references to it.

Did you ever figure out how this works??? I am very interested to see if I can set it up. I looked briefly in the Verizon menu but could find any references to it.

I think it's done in Media Manager. Check in your message area (I didn't see the new message icon), they have several pointers to web sites with tutorials on how to do this. I haven't gotten to it yet.

Does anyone from MA know how to get FSN West and PrimeTicket over FIOS in your area? Are they in the exteme package there? If not, can you add the individual channels to your service?

Thanks

I think it's done in Media Manager. Check in your message area (I didn't see the new message icon), they have several pointers to web sites with tutorials on how to do this. I haven't gotten to it yet.

Its only for DVRs, but for those wondering. You just go to the verizon webpage. Download their software, pick the folder/files you want to share and it streams them to your cable box. In theory. If someone sells it works good, I may have to get one.

Does anyone from MA know how to get FSN West and PrimeTicket over FIOS in your area? Are they in the exteme package there? If not, can you add the individual channels to your service?

Thanks
If you want out-of-market RSNs you need DirecTV. The only out-of-market RSN on FiOS is YES, and that doesn't carry any of the live games even if you have the appropriate sports package.

If you want out-of-market RSNs you need DirecTV.

And even then I'm pretty sure they black out the games. Get the MLB Extra Inning package and you can watch everything.

Yeah, you can see every out of market game on MLB EI and NHL CI, but you don't get to choose which feed to watch. DirecTV does black out all live and replay of games on RSN's (with the sports pack I think), but they do show it straight through (home and away feeds) if you also purchase Extra Innings with it. In other words, if you want to watch FSN West from outside the market, be prepared to pay some bucks, and it's only possible with DirecTV.
Also, all replays of out of market baseball games are blacked out because MLB sells a package for that to watch over the internet. I'm not sure what other sports, if any, black out replays.

FIOS is beginning to test my patience in terms of not being up to speed on new HD channels. There's no excuse why we shouldn't have the likes of MSNBC HD, AMC HD, Crime and Investigation HD, NBA TV HD (the aforementioned two should have been on the Verizon lineup as promised until Verizon lied to me), TCM HD,Tru TV HD, the Comcast Channels, the rest of the Rainbow media channels, and BBC America HD, among others. Someone told me that it will take the 4th quarter of this year before we see some if not all of the previously mentioned channels. But I demand results and if Verizon wants to continue making viewers like me content, they had better get them in the next month or two. I mean, now AT&T, Comcast, and even Time Warner are stepping up their A game in terms of adding HD channels.
Get with the program and start producing HD content like none other.

Is there a way to keep my 6416 HD DVR's UI(guide) in widescreen mode, as opposed to its current 4:3 ratio? We just dropped D* & added FiOS TV to our current FiOS phone/internet. We haven't yet added a regular HD STB, but might get a Tivo HD instead, but does the 6416 have MVR capabilities or only its newer cousin the 7216?
This question has answers in the other thread that you posted it in.

FIOS is beginning to test my patience in terms of not being up to speed on new HD channels. There's no excuse why we shouldn't have the likes of MSNBC HD, AMC HD, Crime and Investigation HD, NBA TV HD (the aforementioned two should have been on the Verizon lineup as promised until Verizon lied to me), TCM HD,Tru TV HD, the Comcast Channels, the rest of the Rainbow media channels, and BBC America HD, among others. Someone told me that it will take the 4th quarter of this year before we see some if not all of the previously mentioned channels. But I demand results and if Verizon wants to continue making viewers like me content, they had better get them in the next month or two. I mean, now AT&T, Comcast, and even Time Warner are stepping up their A game in terms of adding HD channels.
Get with the program and start producing HD content like none other.

Dude, chill. They'll be here. It's hard waiting for them, but take a deep breath, watch one of the other great HD channels, and before you know it, you'll have all these channels and more.

AT&T, Comcast, and even Time Warner are stepping up their A game in terms of adding HD channels.

They are? I think that Comcast and TWC are rolling out new channels in a few markets, but they are far from being able to do that everywhere, including where I live. Where my mom lives (20 miles away), Comcast has no HD channels. Time Warner seems to be devoting their resources to try and NOT carry channels like MASN (regionally) and NFL Network. Both are reasons why I switched to Verizon- more HD than I can get elsewhere, and they don't discriminate against independent programmers.

FIOS is beginning to test my patience in terms of not being up to speed on new HD channels. There's no excuse why we shouldn't have the likes of MSNBC HD, AMC HD, Crime and Investigation HD, NBA TV HD (the aforementioned two should have been on the Verizon lineup as promised until Verizon lied to me), TCM HD,Tru TV HD, the Comcast Channels, the rest of the Rainbow media channels, and BBC America HD, among others. Someone told me that it will take the 4th quarter of this year before we see some if not all of the previously mentioned channels. But I demand results and if Verizon wants to continue making viewers like me content, they had better get them in the next month or two. I mean, now AT&T, Comcast, and even Time Warner are stepping up their A game in terms of adding HD channels.
Get with the program and start producing HD content like none other.

Huh? FIOS has more HD channels than I can watch now! Yes they are missing a few but it is a lot more than most others.

FIOS is beginning to test my patience in terms of not being up to speed on new HD channels. There's no excuse why we shouldn't have the likes of MSNBC HD, AMC HD, Crime and Investigation HD, NBA TV HD (the aforementioned two should have been on the Verizon lineup as promised until Verizon lied to me), TCM HD,Tru TV HD, the Comcast Channels, the rest of the Rainbow media channels, and BBC America HD, among others. Someone told me that it will take the 4th quarter of this year before we see some if not all of the previously mentioned channels. But I demand results and if Verizon wants to continue making viewers like me content, they had better get them in the next month or two. I mean, now AT&T, Comcast, and even Time Warner are stepping up their A game in terms of adding HD channels.
Get with the program and start producing HD content like none other.

No one has BBCA-HD, unless something has changed in the last few days. The channel launched at the beginning of the week, but no one was even broadcasting it.

I've got so many HD channels now , that I need to start removing them from my list since it takes so long to go through them. This is a stark contrast to the number of HD channels I had eight years ago, heck even just five years ago the HD channels I had were very limited.

Huh? FIOS has more HD channels than I can watch now! Yes they are missing a few but it is a lot more than most others.

OMFG! The world is coming to an end! We agree on something, lol.

I had forgotten how much better the FIOS HD selection is compared to Comcast. I was over a friend's house last week and realized how behind Comcast is in terms of HD programming. Also, I wasn't a big fan of the FIOS OSG to begin with, but the Comcast version now looks antiquated to me. I stll think the guide information is better on Comcast, plus I like the feature when you hit the guide button twice and that channel's listings are brought up for the next 24 hours. Besides that, I do not miss Comcast one bit.

...Get with the program and start producing HD content like none other.
As others have stated, FiOS is already there. Name another provider that has anything close to their content as it now exists? Yes, I would like to add the other channels, and don't understand the omission of MSNBC since it's a national affiliate, but I'm not "missing" the others. With over 100 channels now, if you can't find one to watch, throw in a DVD! Hell, I grew up with only 3 channels and watching the test pattern until the programming began! You must be a young guy!

Hell, I grew up with only 3 channels and watching the test pattern until the programming began! You must be a young guy!

You had it easy! When we were kids, we had to stand on our parents' shoulders and use a telescope to look in the window of the control room of the local affiliates 20 miles away!
;)
Doug

OMFG! The world is coming to an end! We agree on something, lol.

Don't get too excited, your still from Pittsburgh! :D

As others have stated, FiOS is already there. Name another provider that has anything close to their content as it now exists? Yes, I would like to add the other channels, and don't understand the omission of MSNBC since it's a national affiliate, but I'm not "missing" the others. With over 100 channels now, if you can't find one to watch, throw in a DVD! Hell, I grew up with only 3 channels and watching the test pattern until the programming began! You must be a young guy!

I remember when getting UHF stations was a big deal... Also, my dad put a rotor on the roof antenna so that we could get both Philly and NYC stations!

I remember when getting UHF stations was a big deal... Also, my dad put a rotor on the roof antenna so that we could get both Philly and NYC stations!

Same here, except that I was the one who put the rotor up.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i64d7e42a898297d755d8508dc39f37c9

Epix lands first carriage deal
Verizon on board for October launch

By Georg Szalai

July 28, 2009, 08:58 AM ET
NEW YORK - Epix, the premium TV service that is a joint venture between Viacom, Lionsgate and MGM, has reached its first carriage deal with Verizon Communications' FiOS TV.

Viacom president and CEO Philippe Dauman announced the deal in his company's earnings call Tuesday morning.

He said a detailed announcement will come later in the day and promised more distribution deals "in the near future."

He reiterated that Epix will launch in October.

The Wall Street Journal had reported early Tuesday that FiOS was getting close to a carriage deal. Dauman lauded FiOS for its "significant presence" in such key markets as New York, LA and Washington DC.
He said the deal gives Verizon a lot of flexibility to offer Epix a la carte and in bundles with its broadband offers. The two firms also plan to create a mobile Epix offer that they can market to Verizon's VCast subscribers, he said.

Dauman also said Viacom is "about done with our advertising upfront." He said he is happy with volume and ad prices, but didn't immediately provide further details.

Management said ad trends strengthened late in the second quarter, but executives wouldn't say if the current third quarter is seeing a continuation of these trends. The slow-moving upfront has affected visibility, and the quarter has just started, Dauman said.
Epix lands first carriage deal
Verizon on board for October launch

By Georg Szalai

July 28, 2009, 08:58 AM ET
NEW YORK - Epix, the premium TV service that is a joint venture between Viacom, Lionsgate and MGM, has reached its first carriage deal with Verizon Communications' FiOS TV.

Viacom president and CEO Philippe Dauman announced the deal in his company's earnings call Tuesday morning.

He said a detailed announcement will come later in the day and promised more distribution deals "in the near future."

He reiterated that Epix will launch in October.

The Wall Street Journal had reported early Tuesday that FiOS was getting close to a carriage deal. Dauman lauded FiOS for its "significant presence" in such key markets as New York, LA and Washington DC.
He said the deal gives Verizon a lot of flexibility to offer Epix a la carte and in bundles with its broadband offers. The two firms also plan to create a mobile Epix offer that they can market to Verizon's VCast subscribers, he said.

Dauman also said Viacom is "about done with our advertising upfront." He said he is happy with volume and ad prices, but didn't immediately provide further details.

Management said ad trends strengthened late in the second quarter, but executives wouldn't say if the current third quarter is seeing a continuation of these trends. The slow-moving upfront has affected visibility, and the quarter has just started, Dauman said.

I remember when getting UHF stations was a big deal....
Exactly! Channels 17, 29, and 48 joined the recent addition of Channel 12, all totaling a grand 7 channels! My first viewing experience was on a 9" Philco in the early '50s, and when we got that 19" B&W set, man, were we in high cotton!

...when we got that 19" B&W set, man, were we in high cotton!

Yep. 19" B&W Motorola here.

Yep. 19" B&W Motorola here.


I think ours was a Philco

Verizon To Be First Distribution Partner Of Premium Multi-Platform Channel EPIX

Deal Gives Verizon's FiOS TV Customers Access to Three of the Industry's Premier Motion Picture Libraries as Well as Top First-Run Movies and Original Programming in HD from Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate

New York, NY, July 28, 2009 – EPIX™ announced today it has reached its first multi-platform distribution agreement, with Verizon, bringing top current Hollywood releases, 15,000 films from three of the top motion picture libraries, cutting-edge original programming and special events to Verizon's FiOS TV customers around the nation. EPIX subscribers can get their programming delivered anytime, anywhere, across multiple platforms, including FiOS TV's channel lineup and on-demand offering - in both SD and HD, via FiOS Internet, and delivered to wireless devices. EPIX is the new premium entertainment joint venture formed by Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B), its Paramount Pictures unit, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) and Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF).

Upon the launch with Verizon, FiOS TV customers will gain immediate access to feature films on EPIX including Paramount's release of Lucasfilms' Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Marvel's Iron Man, and the studio's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Cloverfield; MGM's Pink Panther 2; and Lionsgate's My Bloody Valentine 3-D, the Saw and the Tyler Perry franchises. The venture will showcase dozens of recent releases from Paramount, Paramount Vantage, MGM, United Artists and Lionsgate, along with thousands of classic films. EPIX will also have the rights to all 17 re-mastered James Bond movies as well as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

Among the most unique and compelling features provided on demand and online will be access to directors' script notes, outtakes, auditions and other unique extras including trivia and games, which will give consumers unfettered access to behind-the-scenes development of these films.

In addition, Verizon will give FiOS TV customers access to a preview of EPIX on-demand and epixhd.com in the coming weeks. FiOS TV customers will be able to access EPIX content simply by pressing the "On Demand" button on their remote control, by choosing "VOD" in FiOS TV's interactive media guide main menu, or by selecting channel 900 (FiOS TV's VOD channel). FiOS TV customers will be able to access EPIX content online by going to epixhd.com and providing their FiOS TV account information.

"EPIX is a unique brand that we look forward to offering our customers on multiple platforms, with exclusive programming and movie content that isn't available anywhere else," said Terry Denson, vice president of content strategy and acquisition for Verizon. "Once again, we're giving our subscribers the content they want, when they want it and where they want it – whether on FiOS TV, FiOS Internet or on a Verizon Wireless mobile device – making Verizon a one-stop destination for consumers' overall video entertainment."

Mark Greenberg, president of EPIX, added "Verizon and EPIX share a common goal: entertain America anytime, anywhere, making this an ideal partnership. Both brands understand that today's consumers want interaction and access to exclusive content – and the option of doing it all under one roof. Together, we can provide a unique experience that no other brand is delivering. EPIX will build upon Verizon's longstanding commitment to leadership in technology and providing subscribers with the most exciting entertainment experience available."

FiOS TV offers a broad collection of programming, with 500 all-digital channels, including more than 115 HD channels, and more than 15,000 VOD titles per month – 70 percent of which are free. FiOS TV VOD also features more than 1,400 HD titles per month, more than 1,100 of which are free. In addition, FiOS TV offers an innovative Interactive Media Guide with next-generation, personalized interactive services, including free Facebook and Twitter social media applications, news and entertainment widgets, ESPN Fantasy Football, a robust search engine, and many other features.

About EPIX
EPIX is a joint venture between Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B), its Paramount Pictures unit, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) and Lionsgate (NYSE: LGF). In the Fourth Quarter of 2009, EPIX will launch its next-generation premium entertainment channel, video on demand and Internet service that combines new and classic feature films and original programming, including series, music and comedy specials. The joint-venture will control all rights to EPIX's programming.

EPIX will have exclusive access to Paramount, Paramount Vantage, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies released theatrically on or after January 1, 2008 and MGM, United Artists and Lionsgate titles released theatrically on or after January 1, 2009. It will also have access to more than 15,000 motion picture titles spanning the vast libraries of the studios and will feature new original television series and live event programming. Differentiating itself from existing networks, EPIX will deliver content on multiple platforms and include interactivity that will significantly enhance the entertainment experience. Viacom will provide operational support, including marketing and affiliate services through its MTV Networks division.

Follow the EPIX twitter feed at http://www.twitter.com/EpixHD.

Verizon To Be First Distribution Partner Of Premium Multi-Platform Channel EPIX
Nice...OK, how much?

I chose a premium feature film the other evening for $7.99...I would expect that anything "first run" will be in that neighborhood...Uptown pricing, not the 'hood!

I think ours was a Philco
Ours also! Until the middle '50s, my father worked for Philco in Philadelphia, and with the "employee discount", the reason we had the first TV on the block.

Nice...OK, how much?

from previous info, I can see it being in the Movie package...

Epix wants operators to include it in their packages of digital, movie or HD channels — it wouldn't appear as a separate charge on customers' bills the way premium services usually do. Epix will sweeten the deal by making the channel's movies and shows available to their video-on-demand services.

from previous info, I can see it being in the Movie package...

Epix wants operators to include it in their packages of digital, movie or HD channels — it wouldn't appear as a separate charge on customers' bills the way premium services usually do. Epix will sweeten the deal by making the channel's movies and shows available to their video-on-demand services.
Yes, but which movie package? Will it be included with HDNet/HDNet Movies and MGM-HD(which I already have), or will you have to pony up and pick up a premium package like HBO/SHO or something- if the later is the case, I don't think I'll pick it up. I have to see what the channel has to offer and how much it costs.

maybe this helps...

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22781046-

It will surely be in the Starz/Showtime/TMC/Encore package.

It will surely be in the Starz/Showtime/TMC/Encore package.Then it surely won't be for me. I'm not up for paying for it- I'm already paying $130/mos, isn't that enough already? I don't watch most of the channels as it is. The only thing that this probably means is the end of MGM-HD.

Ours also! Until the middle '50s, my father worked for Philco in Philadelphia, and with the "employee discount", the reason we had the first TV on the block.

My grandfather made the first TV in our neighborhood. I remember little of it but do remember that to watch TV you lifted the lid on the top of the cabinet and watched a reflection of the picture tube on a mirror flat mounted on the bottom of the lid.

My grandfather made the first TV in our neighborhood. I remember little of it but do remember that to watch TV you lifted the lid on the top of the cabinet and watched a reflection of the picture tube on a mirror flat mounted on the bottom of the lid.

hey it's just like dlp! without the color wheel :)

My grandfather made the first TV in our neighborhood. I remember little of it but do remember that to watch TV you lifted the lid on the top of the cabinet and watched a reflection of the picture tube on a mirror flat mounted on the bottom of the lid.

ok, you win!!! :p

In the mi-60's I had an Oliver bass amp with a 15" speaker. To turn it on, you had to push a button and the amp chassis would rise out of the speaker cabinet! Engineers in those days were into the hideaway concept.

Then it surely won't be for me. I'm not up for paying for it- I'm already paying $130/mos, isn't that enough already? I don't watch most of the channels as it is. The only thing that this probably means is the end of MGM-HD.

And perhaps the Fox Movie Channel as well. Now the big question...will the movies be in OAR or cropped?

Verizon To Be First Distribution Partner Of Premium Multi-Platform Channel EPIX

EPIX subscribers can get their programming delivered anytime, anywhere, across multiple platforms, including FiOS TV's channel lineup and on-demand offering - in both SD and HD, via FiOS Internet, and delivered to wireless devices.

OK, I don't have FIOS TV, but I do have FIOS Internet. How is this going to work? Am I going to have to watch it on my PC, or will there be a STB (like for vudu?) that connects to my TV?

ok, you win!!! :p....
Not so fast, I may be about his age or older. Did he help gather the animals two by two??? ;)

OK, I don't have FIOS TV, but I do have FIOS Internet. How is this going to work? Am I going to have to watch it on my PC, or will there be a STB (like for vudu?) that connects to my TV?

Just like ESPN 360, I suspect.

Anybody having audio sync issues on ESPN2?

OK, I don't have FIOS TV, but I do have FIOS Internet. How is this going to work? Am I going to have to watch it on my PC, or will there be a STB (like for vudu?) that connects to my TV?No. If you read the article, if I gather correctly, it's just for people with PC's, and you'll need both the provider's cable TV EPIX and their broadband internet to have access to their movie download service (so for FIOS you'll need EPIX and FIOS internet). Actually, Vudu seems much superior as they offer 1080p/5.1 movies, and Epix only offers 720p movies.

I guess it might be good if the movies were accessible from mobile devices, but otherwise it seems mostly useless.

No, it's for everyone. It will be a linear channel. It will have on-demand programming. It will have an online component, which I assume will be similar to ESPN 360. And it will make content available on Verizon Wireless phones.

Movies that we should expect to see shortly after launch: Upon the launch with Verizon, FiOS TV customers will gain immediate access to feature films on EPIX including Paramount's release of Lucasfilms' Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Marvel's Iron Man, and the studio's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Cloverfield; MGM's Pink Panther 2; and Lionsgate's My Bloody Valentine 3-D, the Saw and the Tyler Perry franchises. The venture will showcase dozens of recent releases from Paramount, Paramount Vantage, MGM, United Artists and Lionsgate, along with thousands of classic films. EPIX will also have the rights to all 17 re-mastered James Bond movies as well as Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.


Glad it's coming to a tier I already subscribe to. The only films from the Paramount library currently in the premium rotation are, to my knowledge, the Star Trek films on HBO and Cinemax.

Just like ESPN 360, I suspect.

Uh, I'm not into sports as much as I was in my younger days. I had never heard of ESPN 360 until just now. How does that work?

Just go to espn360.com from your FiOS Internet connection. It's similar to Hulu but only accessible if your Internet provider pays the fee. There is no additional fee to subs, however. At least, not Verizon subs.

Uh, I'm not into sports as much as I was in my younger days. I had never heard of ESPN 360 until just now. How does that work?

Haven't you ever seen the Billy Mays commercials for it? :D:D

Go to YouTube and do a search using these keywords: "espn 360 commercial billy mays"

Are we being invaded by aliens like the TV scenes in the movie "Independence Day". Our Verizon channels are all pixelating with freezes, sounds drops, etc. here in Northern VA.

Are we being invaded by aliens like the TV scenes in the movie "Independence Day". Our Verizon channels are all pixelating with freezes, sounds drops, etc. here in Northern VA.

Not seeing it here but I would try the local thread to see if anyone else is experiencing the same problem in your area.

Are we being invaded by aliens like the TV scenes in the movie "Independence Day". Our Verizon channels are all pixelating with freezes, sounds drops, etc. here in Northern VA.

Same thing happening to me in Sterling. Ever since Tuesday, my 6216 has been having all kinds of problems. If it's off for more than a few hours (overnight, during the day), it needs to be hard booted. I get audio only, if at all, and neither the buttons nor remote respond to anything. It's on 1.6.2.

Not seeing it here but I would try the local thread to see if anyone else is experiencing the same problem in your area.

I'll concur with that - no problem in my neck of the woods.

same thing happening to me in sterling. Ever since tuesday, my 6216 has been having all kinds of problems. If it's off for more than a few hours (overnight, during the day), it needs to be hard booted. I get audio only, if at all, and neither the buttons nor remote respond to anything. It's on 1.6.2.

+1

Had to reboot (ie unplug) my SD settop box last night as it was only producing audio. HDDVR box seems ok.

Just got my service hooked up tonight, and I have to post that this is exceptionally good. I am moving from D*, and this is so much better. The guide response is immediate, channel changing is too, and definitely, the picture quality is noticeably better than D* on NESN, TCM, and HDNet movies.

The interface is modern, not like D*, much more intuitive, and again, response time is good, not like the incredibly slow D* HD and HDDVR boxes - I am comparing with my verizon HD (not DVR) box. The color coding is intelligent and useful, and the visual indicators work very well.

I'm getting a Tivo delivered on tuesday and assuming that setup goes well, I am going to be a long term fios tv customer.

Anyone know what happened to the YES network tonight? It's gone from my channel guide.

Anyone know what happened to the YES network tonight? It's gone from my channel guide.

If it's any consolation, the Yankees just gave up 4 runs in the 7th, and are losing to the White Sox in the 8th, 10-5.

Not sure this is the best place to post but here goes:

I currently have Direct TV. I love the things they have done with the remote/HDDDVR control, the HD programs, etc. There are several things that irk me about DirecTV. They really messed up the brick work on my home and told me to go out and pay for a repair appraisal, w/o my knowledge signed me up for a monthly maintenance program, promissed me a certain HDDVR to replaced one of their defective models then changed their mind, etc.

My neighborhood has been optically wired for Verizon Fios for some time now and they are really persistent in trying to get folks to join up. I have no experience lately with Verizon Fios but early on I tried Verizon's dial-up internet which was such a mess so I cancelled.

If any of you have or have had experience with both DirecTV HD and Verizon HD Fios I really want to know what your opinions are, how you would compare them, what they offer/deliver etc. including picture quality, reliability, service, fees, flexibility of programing, remote control ease of use, etc.

I'm not looking to bash anyone just want to get a good comparison before I decide whether to stay with DirectTV or jump ship to Verizon.

Thanks for your help-

Not sure this is the best place to post but here goes:

I currently have Direct TV. I love the things they have done with the remote/HDDDVR control, the HD programs, etc. There are several things that irk me about DirecTV. They really messed up the brick work on my home and told me to go out and pay for a repair appraisal, w/o my knowledge signed me up for a monthly maintenance program, promissed me a certain HDDVR to replaced one of their defective models then changed their mind, etc.

My neighborhood has been optically wired for Verizon Fios for some time now and they are really persistent in trying to get folks to join up. I have no experience lately with Verizon Fios but early on I tried Verizon's dial-up internet which was such a mess so I cancelled.

If any of you have or have had experience with both DirecTV HD and Verizon HD Fios I really want to know what your opinions are, how you would compare them, what they offer/deliver etc. including picture quality, reliability, service, fees, flexibility of programing, remote control ease of use, etc.

I'm not looking to bash anyone just want to get a good comparison before I decide whether to stay with DirectTV or jump ship to Verizon.

Thanks for your help-Well, seeing as everyone's experience varies so wildly from geographic location in particular, I think you'd get a better idea by posting in the local forum FIOS thread appropriate to your area.

Me? I live in a condo, so the only general problem I've had with Verizon is them not showing up 2 consecutive times on a set customer service call (but Comcast pulled the same kind of crap too).

Anyone know what happened to the YES network tonight? It's gone from my channel guide.
The national YES HD channel on 595 is accessible and showing in the guide here in North Texas.

Got a present from Verizon in the mail yesterday - a new power adapter for my Actiontec M1424 router. Nothing in the letter or installation instructions that came with it says why this was necessary. Just so I could continue to "enjoy" uninterrupted service. The web link doesn't give any clues to the "why", either.

Anyone know if the old ones have been failing or have become dangerous? You'd think if there was a hazard involved that would have been noted. Just curious.

Heard on another website (dsl cable forum) that MSNBC HD won't be coming to Fios anytime soon, atleast not this year. I find this unacceptable and demand to know the answers why. I better receive at least 50 new HD channels between now and the end of the year.

Heard on another website (dsl cable forum) that MSNBC HD won't be coming to Fios anytime soon, atleast not this year. I find this unacceptable and demand to know the answers why. I better receive at least 50 new HD channels between now and the end of the year.

Or what? You'll go to an alternative provider with fewer HD channels and worse quality?

Scary threat...

Heard on another website (dsl cable forum) that MSNBC HD won't be coming to Fios anytime soon, atleast not this year. I find this unacceptable and demand to know the answers why. I better receive at least 50 new HD channels between now and the end of the year.

Do you really need MSNBC? You can avoid the middleman and just go directly to their sources. Here are a few URLs to get you started:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_National_Committee

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

http://moveon.org/

http://www.dailykos.com/

Heard on another website (dsl cable forum) that MSNBC HD won't be coming to Fios anytime soon, atleast not this year. I find this unacceptable and demand to know the answers why. I better receive at least 50 new HD channels between now and the end of the year.
Well I demand you get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich.

Cablevision has exclusive rights to MSNBC in the NYC area, just another anticompetitive practice employed by the Dolan family. Verizon likes to maintain a consistent lineup nationwide, so presumably they won't carry MSNBC until that exclusivity expires or is stuck down by a court.

Do you really need MSNBC? You can avoid the middleman and just go directly to their sources. Here are a few URLs to get you started:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_National_Committee

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

http://moveon.org/

http://www.dailykos.com/


LOL, You forgot the Huffingtonpost.com another Propaganda arm of the DNC. I find it funny that folks care about all those brainwashing and propaganda arms that are called cable news networks. oh I am not a Republican or Democrat because I believe both are full of SHR$$%.

LOL, You forgot the Huffingtonpost.com another Propaganda arm of the DNC. I find it funny that folks care about all those brainwashing and propaganda arms that are called cable news networks. oh I am not a Republican or Democrat because I believe both are full of SHR$$%.

Well, I'm not a Republican or a Democrat and I believe you are full of SHR$$%.

Got a present from Verizon in the mail yesterday - a new power adapter for my Actiontec M1424 router. Nothing in the letter or installation instructions that came with it says why this was necessary. Just so I could continue to "enjoy" uninterrupted service. The web link doesn't give any clues to the "why", either.

Anyone know if the old ones have been failing or have become dangerous? You'd think if there was a hazard involved that would have been noted. Just curious.

got the same thing. ironically, the one they sent me DOES NOT WORK! wonder if I should bother calling them to get a replacement.

Think I'll stick with DirecTV. At least for now.

Heard on another website (dsl cable forum) that MSNBC HD won't be coming to Fios anytime soon, atleast not this year. I find this unacceptable and demand to know the answers why. I better receive at least 50 new HD channels between now and the end of the year.

And if you don't receive the answers or get at least 50 new HD channels (can you list those 50 channels?) before the end of the year, you'll do what? Switch to Dish or DirecTV or to your local cable? No one, and I do mean no one, will care the slightest bit.

I smell a troll!

Got a present from Verizon in the mail yesterday - a new power adapter for my Actiontec M1424 router. Nothing in the letter or installation instructions that came with it says why this was necessary. Just so I could continue to "enjoy" uninterrupted service. The web link doesn't give any clues to the "why", either.

Anyone know if the old ones have been failing or have become dangerous? You'd think if there was a hazard involved that would have been noted. Just curious.Many have had the power supply on their older MI424WR fail. It could be a preemptive action to replace unreliable power supplies.

Not sure this is the best place to post but here goes:

I currently have Direct TV. I love the things they have done with the remote/HDDDVR control, the HD programs, etc. There are several things that irk me about DirecTV. They really messed up the brick work on my home and told me to go out and pay for a repair appraisal, w/o my knowledge signed me up for a monthly maintenance program, promissed me a certain HDDVR to replaced one of their defective models then changed their mind, etc.

My neighborhood has been optically wired for Verizon Fios for some time now and they are really persistent in trying to get folks to join up. I have no experience lately with Verizon Fios but early on I tried Verizon's dial-up internet which was such a mess so I cancelled.

If any of you have or have had experience with both DirecTV HD and Verizon HD Fios I really want to know what your opinions are, how you would compare them, what they offer/deliver etc. including picture quality, reliability, service, fees, flexibility of programing, remote control ease of use, etc.

I'm not looking to bash anyone just want to get a good comparison before I decide whether to stay with DirectTV or jump ship to Verizon.

Thanks for your help-

I am in the process of making this switch right now. I have both services until my tivo is hooked up and I am sure it's working. As others have posted, apparently where you live affects the comparison, but in my case, the PQ with Fios is noticeably better than D*, on both SD and HD channels. Not a huge difference, but particularly in fast motion scenes you can see more blocking effects on the D* output. YMMV

Regarding the STB's, I do not have the FIOS DVR, but I had both the H21 and the HR21 (DVR) from D*, as well as an old SD box. The FIOS HD (non-DVR) receiver is a LOT better than the H21. The interface is snappy, channel changes also, and the menu interface is excellent - it is very professional, making the D* interface (including the speed) seem downright amateurish - as if it's some guy in a garage, there really is that big a difference. The visual appearance of the FIOS interface is terrific, and the menus are well laid out and well designed. It is far, far better than D*; really, it's like comparing a Ferrari to a Nissan.

Try Fios, you might really like it. In my case, it is also cheaper than D*.

Think I'll stick with DirecTV. At least for now.

Wow, you didn't wait long did you. I wish I hadn't taken the time to write out a thoughtful response to you.

:rolleyes:

Think I'll stick with DirecTV. At least for now.
So much fun to write you had to do it twice??? :rolleyes:

I wouldnt go back to DirecTV if you paid me too. Horrible equipment, unreliable picture, yearly price increases and steadily declining PQ.

If it's any consolation, the Yankees just gave up 4 runs in the 7th, and are losing to the White Sox in the 8th, 10-5.

Ken, for games like that I'd be happy missing the YES channel! ;)

OK, it's obvious that I flew off the handle when I posted my vents and boy,did I get a plethora of flack for it. My apologies to you all. I'm just a bit irritated about the fact that Verizon did not add channels such as the remaining Turner channels (TCM HD, Tru TV,etc.), the Comcast channels, and Rainbow media channels. And while I was livid about the odds that MSNBC HD won't come to Fios anytime soon, I would still like to see most ,if not all of them added to the lineup. Are we at least going to get BBC America in HD anytime soon?

"I'm just a bit irritated about the fact that Verizon did not add channels such as the remaining Turner channels (TCM HD, Tru TV,etc.), the Comcast channels, and Rainbow media channels."

Yuda-
All in good time. Rumors are for more HD the beginning of Q4. However, don't count on the Rainbow media channels. Also, MSNBC HD and BBC HD are NOT in the 2009 plans.

Nobody added BBC America HD so I can't feel so bad about that one.

considering verizon triple bundle with HD now starts at $120 before tax and box rental, which is more expensive than any cable company's bundle I know of, people SHOULD expect to get as many HD channels as available.

anyway, I never understand this "if you don't like it, don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out" attitude. like it's some sort of personal insult to have someone say they're not happy with what they're getting. are you customers or cult members? how is dumping on someone who think they should be getting more going to help improve things for you?

...are you customers or cult members?....
A little of both. The reason he was dumped on was that he stated the FiOS HD content was inferior, yet wants to stay with a company that has 1/2 of the content, and a compressed signal. Where's the logic to that?

If we got the Time Warner (Cartoon Network, HLN, TCM, TruTV) and the Comcast channels (E, G4, Style) missing in HD by the end of the year, I would be more than content.

I would bet BBC America doesn't see much in the way of carriage agreements until Discovery launches OWN next year. They've also launched Investigation Discovery HD, so there's a set of three channels I'd expect Verizon will pick up given how quickly they added the Discovery networks after they launched.

But my most-wanted channel is definitely MSNBC HD. That Cablevision stuff annoys me to no end. Hopefully the fact that Cablevision is spinning off MSG into a separate entity means that Verizon will finally be able to work something out for the Rainbow Media channels and MSG HD sometime next year.

I wonder what the odds are that Verizon will carry every possible HD channel by the end of 2010? We're only about 20-25 channels short right now, and it seems like a few more are coming sometime in Q4 this year.

But my most-wanted channel is definitely MSNBC HD.

Seriously? You need to get out more... The content is the same, who cares if the talking head is in HD or not?

I don't particularly. I only care less about the other remaining channels, which I never watch. MSNBC is my only remaining connection to SDTV.

Seriously? You need to get out more... The content is the same, who cares if the talking head is in HD or not?

That's strange reasoning. Who cares if anything is in HD or not? If you like the channel, why not have it in the highest PQ available?

Doug

Haven't you ever seen the Billy Mays commercials for it? :D:D

Go to YouTube and do a search using these keywords: "espn 360 commercial billy mays"

Commercial? Is that one of those annoying interruptions in programming that I skip over? Don't watch 'em.

That's strange reasoning. Who cares if anything is in HD or not? If you like the channel, why not have it in the highest PQ available?

Doug

Because the content is what matters. Watching sports, HD matters. Watching movies, HD matters. Watching a talking head, HD is irrelevent.

What possible benefit could watching MSNBC in HD have over the SD version? Especially over the ~20 other pending HD channels, many with content that actually benefits from HD?

Wow, you didn't wait long did you. I wish I hadn't taken the time to write out a thoughtful response to you.

:rolleyes:

Thanks for the info!

You may have changed my mind!

considering verizon triple bundle with HD now starts at $120 before tax and box rental, which is more expensive than any cable company's bundle I know of, people SHOULD expect to get as many HD channels as available.

anyway, I never understand this "if you don't like it, don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out" attitude. like it's some sort of personal insult to have someone say they're not happy with what they're getting. are you customers or cult members? how is dumping on someone who think they should be getting more going to help improve things for you?

$120 to START? Mine may be $126.99 but includes 121 HD channels. :)

Because the content is what matters. Watching sports, HD matters. Watching movies, HD matters. Watching a talking head, HD is irrelevent.

What possible benefit could watching MSNBC in HD have over the SD version? Especially over the ~20 other pending HD channels, many with content that actually benefits from HD?

I know I would rather watch MSNBC in HD almost any day over 99.9% of what is shown on ESPN.
The ESPN channels are some my least watched channels. And if I don't watch it, then it would be irrelevant to me. But to each their own. What is important to one person, might not be to another.

What possible benefit could watching Volleyball, Curling, or ping Pong in HD have over the SD version?:D

I know I would rather watch MSNBC in HD almost any day over 99.9% of what is shown on ESPN.
The ESPN channels are some my least watched channels. And if I don't watch it, then it would be irrelevant to me. But to each their own. What is important to one person, might not be to another.

What possible benefit could watching Volleyball, Curling, or ping Pong in HD have over the SD version?:D

I agree with you, and I never watch ESPN or other sports channels.

BUT - I am open-minded enough to recognize that sports has significant benefits when transmitted and viewed in HD versus SD. As does movies, as does most any plot-driven television show.

The same can not be said at all about talking-head news channels. There is absolutely no benefit to it being in HD. Just because you watch it, doesn't mean there is any improvement in the HD version.

This sounds like the argument for color newspapers...

Your definition of "open minded" is a bit specious given the circumstances.

This is a disagreement about preferences--what you think benefits from an HD presentation. It is absolutely pointless. You don't think news coverage benefits from HD? Good for you, but no one cares and it is not the purpose of this thread to debate what should be in HD.

Your definition of "open minded" is a bit specious given the circumstances.

This is a disagreement about preferences--what you think benefits from an HD presentation. It is absolutely pointless. You don't think news coverage benefits from HD? Good for you, but no one cares and it is not the purpose of this thread to debate what should be in HD.

Talking-head news does not benefit from HD. The bulk of MSNBC is a head in the middle of the screen, tickers, and occaisional low-quality video clips.

It's not subjective, it's actually measurable.

I rarely watch television news these days but don't a lot of the HD broadcasts include extra information on the sides? I remember CNN doing this during the presidential debates, and I think some of the financial channels do this as well though I'm not sure. Seems reasonable to want the news in HD just the same as everything else.

Was flipping around last night, and the Yankees/Toronto game was on YES HD...and that was live correct (around 9 eastern time)? Did they forget to flip the switch by mistake? Guide shows Centerstage was supposed to be on.

Kinda hoping something changed that we can see all of the Yankees games but I got a feeling someone made a one time boo boo last night

Talking-head news does not benefit from HD. The bulk of MSNBC is a head in the middle of the screen, tickers, and occaisional low-quality video clips.

It's not subjective, it's actually measurable.

CNN HD has their in-studio shots in HD, w/ extract content like you mentioned on the sides. So, you've seen MSNBC HD and they don't do this?

I expect we'll gradually start to see remote shots in HD as the remote HW is updated.

Doug

It's being reported on DSL Reports that the Rainbow media channels are a go for Q42009.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r22823660-AMC-WE-IFC-FUSE-HD-all-coming-to-VZ-in-4Q09

Talking-head news does not benefit from HD. ".

Sigh... Sounds familiar.

At the advent of consumer Stereophonic sound, there were also those that told "everone else" the types of music "they" listened to that didn't "need" to be in Stereo,
& People that explained which types TV shows that really didn't benefit from being in color.....
OH, let' not forget that "If man were meant to fly he'd have wings", "calculators will make all students stupid" ....:D :D

I don't understand why you're so against news in HD...why watch it in SD if you can watch it in HD? To answer your question, there are advantages to news in HD:

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/photo/127853-MSNBC_HD_Dayside_2_360x203.jpg

Glad to hear that the rainbow channels are coming in Q4. But I have to agree with Matt that MSNBC HD is among the channels I really want. Guess we'll have to wait until sometime in 2010 on that one.

Glad to hear that the rainbow channels are coming in Q4. But I have to agree with Matt that MSNBC HD is among the channels I really want. Guess we'll have to wait until sometime in 2010 on that one.

Cox RI announced MSNBC-HD will be added August 12th :(

I know it's all a matter of opinion, but I won't be losing one bit of sleep over not having another 24 hour news channel in HD. I think the last time I tuned to a 24 hr news network was to watch election night coverage.

If I want pure information about what's going on, I'll turn to the web (even if it's the same news outlet that are on TV.) If I want to watch a bunch of hostile idiots yelling at each other, I'll watch Springer. 24 hour news networks embody some of our worst cultural traits. It's an all you can eat buffet of little nutritional value that keeps you full, but bloated an unhealthy.

It amazes me that people can stomach 8 hours of Michael Jackson death coverage, follow financial 'gurus' like lemmings off a cliff, or watch hosts abuse their guests to further their own agenda rather than actually debate.

Sorry for the rant, if you haven't already guessed I don't hold 24 hr TV news networks in very high regard. I would probably go so far as to say they cause more harm than good. When news tries to become entertainment, we all lose.

What possible benefit could watching MSNBC in HD have over the SD version?No sidebars. Less burn-in.

No sidebars. Less burn-in.

Okay, so for the 72 people that still have TV's that can get burn in, you're right.

I feel the pain about not having MSNBC in HD. Last fall I wanted FNC in HD before election night, and with two weeks to spare it came on. Almost the entire FNC day is in HD!

From what I hear, only shows out of DC are in 16:9 HD on MSNBC, just like CNN? Maybe in this economy, the suits at CNN and NBC think news in HD is a non hurry up situation anyway!

I get my FIOS hooked up Sat...looking forward to it!

I agree, talking head shows don't get ANY of my attention, SD or HD. I can read and form my own opinion.

Sports/Movies/ in HD, that's the ticket. That said, after posting this, I fail to see how it relates to this thread...other than to comment on something I had read here. Carry on.

considering verizon triple bundle with HD now starts at $120 before tax and box rental, which is more expensive than any cable company's bundle I know of, people SHOULD expect to get as many HD channels as available.
In my area, triple play HD starts at $109.99 and has more HD channels than comcast here and better pq than directTV and dish. It's fun to gripe about what one doesn't have, but do they take the time to look at what they do have? AND at $109.99, $10 more than comcast, I have faster upload and download, which I actually do use. Comcast has more on demand hd but we don't utilize that service anyway. And I'm another person that could honestly care less about MSNBC HD. Your TV experience is just that, your personal experience. If the service works for you, good--praise it, and if it doesn't than switch to the provider that gives you the best for your money. If you insist on perfection, than cancel it all and use an antenna, because none of the providers are perfect.

I guess i'm just trying to say, its not that a person isn't allowed to come in here and dump on fios--far from it. And I'm not saying fios is the best either. i'm just saying its your money so do what you need to with your money, but be logical about it. As someone pointed out, a person complaining about lack of hd channels and then threatening to switch to a provider with less content doesn't make a lot of sense. Not many "thinking people" are going to side with bad logic...

I have Motorola dual tuner DVR from verizon and lately some of the HD channels like Science, Animal Planet, History and some sports channels have lot of digital noise (like small cubes intermittently on random locations on the screen and audio dropouts) Other channels like discovery, tbs, tnt, National Georgraphic are perfect. I tested with 3 different hdmi cables and still have the issue. Called verizon and they are sending a new STB. They tried everything like resetting the STB, unplug etc but nothing worked. Any advise. Area 33610 Tampa, FL. TV is Panasonic P50G10.

I feel the pain about not having MSNBC in HD....
And no AMC to watch the beginning of Mad Men Season 3 on the 16th! I at least hope the picture quality is as good as some other SD channels, but I may need to move to a smaller screen to view the series!