I have 5 TV's, and one of them is HD. With my present Comcast, I have full service on all TV's about 60 channels (these are regular cable ready TV's with no boxes) and the HD set has all the channels including the digital ones and HD. I only have my one box on the HD set.

If I switch to Fios, will I still be able to get CNN, CNBC, etc on the sets without the boxes, or do I lose them?

Fios requires a box for EVERYTHING above limited basic. (Local broadcast channels and PEG access)

Fios requires a box for EVERYTHING above limited basic. (Local broadcast channels and PEG access)
Well, that sucks. I'm able to get all of the important channels on all my sets, as long as I don't mind it's not HD. If I switch to Fios, I'll have to get 4 other boxes at $20/month total more.

I believe with a year FIOS will be all digital (no analog channels). Comcast and other cable companies are also migrating to digital and reducing the availability of analog channels. I believe Comcast will be keeping some analog channels for several years, however they need to reclaim bandwidth to offer more HD channels so they probably will soon be following the Chicago model of eliminating almost all analog channels.

With FiOS, you give up the analog channels in exchange for hundreds of channels of HD capacity. You'll have to decide what's more important to you -- capacity for every new HD channel at full bitrate...or analog channels. FiOS has committed to eliminating every analog channel by Feb 17, 2009.

As noted above, Comcast also plans to eliminate the "extended basic" analog tier (but retain limited basic) in a number of markets over the next two years. By this time next year, the typical 750-860MHz cable system will find it very difficult to compete on both quality and quantity of HD if it retains 70-80 (or more) analog channels.

I would suggest you look at the overall cost of both services. Where I live, FiOS is about $20/mo cheaper than Comcast for comparable service (but with more HD channels), so both services would be about equal in price if I added four more boxes.

With FiOS, you give up the analog channels in exchange for hundreds of channels of HD capacity. You'll have to decide what's more important to you -- capacity for every new HD channel at full bitrate...or analog channels. FiOS has committed to eliminating every analog channel by Feb 17, 2009.

As noted above, Comcast also plans to eliminate the "extended basic" analog tier (but retain limited basic) in a number of markets over the next two years. By this time next year, the typical 750-860MHz cable system will find it very difficult to compete on both quality and quantity of HD if it retains 70-80 (or more) analog channels.

I would suggest you look at the overall cost of both services. Where I live, FiOS is about $20/mo cheaper than Comcast for comparable service (but with more HD channels), so both services would be about equal in price if I added four more boxes.

Comcast is matching the Fios monthly fee and still allows me to use the other analog sets, so that saves me renting boxes. When Comcast changes to all digital, I'll switch to Fios.

since I have switched to FIOS tv I notice a huge improvement in pq on SD viewing. Another big thing I notice is during sports events I dont see pixalation, like I saw when I had comcast.

since I have switched to FIOS tv I notice a huge improvement in pq on SD viewing. Another big thing I notice is during sports events I dont see pixalation, like I saw when I had comcast.

I'm feeding the output of the Comcast HD box into my HD DVI input of my set, and the pq is superb. I'm going to keep Comcast until they turn off the analog stations that I need and then will decide who is giving a better package, Comcast or Fios. In the meantime, I'm operating 5 TV's for $33 (one HD and 4 analog, which is fine with me).

Fios Tv just came to our neighborhood and I have just received my install as of yesterday. I am also a home theater installer and wanted to get the service to become familiar.

I played around a little last night and so far these are my initial comparisons:


Remote:
-No page up or page down buttons for use with the guide.
-No day + or day - buttons for use with the guide.
(It is my understanding that the new interactive guide will have these features. Not use though if they will be a soft button on the page or a way to use the hard buttons on the remote)

Note: Since the box is basically the same model as the comcast DVR, you can use the Comcast remote. You can the use the page up and down and the day +/-. Other peale have said they have bought then cheap on ebay and use them with the fios system.

-There is a button marked widgets (local traffic or weather). However, this doesn't bring up the widgets but the Yellow Triangle button does. Go figure).

-The remote seems poorly laid out. Maybe its because I am used to using the Comcast remote all of these years. But, it is very difficult to reach the menu, info, and guide buttons. They are located at the top of the remote, where the DVR controls are on the comcast remote. The DVR controls are lower on the remote for FIOS, which makes them easier to access. However, on the Comcast remote (as well as the Fios remote), you can just use the navigation arrows to control the DVR anyway.


Guide/Menus:

FIOS guide is fast. The Fios cable hooks up to the router as well. The guide info as well as the clock comes over the internet connection. You also don't get hung up like I do repeatedly with Comcast. I can press buttons on the comcast remote and nothing happens (like its frozen) and then like 10 seconds later every button press I made goes at once. Really frustrating

I always thought that the Comcast Guide was just blah but the Fios guide is worse. At least with the Comcast guide you had movies in a different color than regular programs so viewing the guide was easier. On Fios, its all the same and smaller print. But there is a benefit to the smaller print, you get more listings on a page. This way you can view all of the local network channels at once to see what is one vs having to go up or down a page to view listings on the Comcast guide. Of course, the new interactive FIOS guide, from what I have seen, blows Comcast away and its really cool. It should be rolling out everywhere in the next month or two. :D

One benefit in the Fios guide is that if you enter a channel number to jump to, that doesn't exist, it will bring you to the next closest number. In the Comcast guide if you did not enter an exact channel number you are SOL and have to keep trying numbers till you get a match to jump to that section of the guide.

Unlike Comcast, FIOs groups together channels by type. Yes in my market Comcast does this for some channels like HDTV or many of the kids channels but for the most part they are all over the place. This is a great feature.

Since I am used to the comcast lineup I was finding it difficult to find channels. If you click menu and then search, you can lookup programs by the categories. If you click HDTV it will bring you to that section of the menu's. Of course this takes many button presses. Would be good if you can access this right from the guide (i.e press a soft button to jump to the various categories). Better yet, would be good if you can press a button on the remote that would take you directly to the search by category menu. Maybe this is a part of the next version of the guide but I will be making the suggestion.

DVR

Fast foward on Fios also has 4 speeds but it moves very fast. comcast, even at the fastest seemed to move minute by minute. On Fios the fastest moves like 10 min at a time. Note: While there is no real delay when viewing the guide, I did experience a slight delay when pressing stop during the fast forward, especially at the highest speed. This had caused me to overshoot the the last commercial block before the few minutes of a program and then the program ended. I then had to fast forward through it again. Of course, I zipped back to my spot in under 5 seconds. :)

Basically it appears to have the same options as the Comcast for recording programs. I will be doing a side by side comparison hopefully later this week since I will have both services at least until the end of the month.

One thing I noticed was that after I made a series recording on Fios, it showed me the upcomming programs. This at least ensures you selected the right options. i.e. you wanted first run only but now see more than that on the list.

From what I saw, the recording of a program can only be set to a particular channel. I don't remember if this was the case on Comcast or not. As I mentioned above I will compare more. There is one quirk that happens on the Comcast box that I want to see if it is repeated on the Fios box. If you set up a recording of a program for first run only and you watch it on the DVR and then delete it and that program is shown several times throught the week (ala FX programs) it will then record again on the DVR. I hope the Fios software remembers that you already watched that particular program (ala TIVO) and not record it again so that you have to delete it again.

Picture quality

Preface.
I have one HDTV and I always watch all TV programs on that TV. Once I got Comcast and saw HDTV I couldn't watch regular TV since the picture quality was so bad. My HDTV is a direct view CRT, which has by far the best PQ compared to LCD, Plasma, DLP, etc. I always thought Comcasts HD channels were suberb.

I have been hearing rave reviews about the standard definition quality on the Fios channels. I got two other boxes for my other SD tv's. I went to view the picture quality there and it was great. Pretty much all of the channels were clear and not grainy. Now I di not have a digital box to view these channels previously, they were all a direct analog connection under Comcast. Usually the digital box help somewhat since the digital signal isn't affected by noise like the analog signal. I will though do a channel comparison with HDTV between my Comcast HD-DVR box and my Fios HD-DVD box and compare.

As I said above, I rarely watched any SD programming channel on the Comcast DVR, the exception being FX and the pic quality wasn't great. I did find myself for the first time branching out beyond the HDTV channels last night and watching more SD programming on some of the other discovery stations. The quality was really good. The negative is that you have to deal with the black bars on the HD set. You can stretch the pic, via the settings on the box, like the motorolla, but the pic quality then suffers somewhat depending on the station.

As far as HDTV goes, at first glance it was difficult to notice any apparent difference between Comcast and Fios in terms or resolution.

However, my wife had pointed out that the picture looked like a You Tube video (i.e. kind of jerky movements). I did not pick it up at first but then found it difficult to watch. I found this to occur only on the HD channels and not on the SD channels. I did make a Dvr recording last night of a HD program and it seemed to playback OK (although I was very tired when I watched it so maybe the issue was still there). It possible that this is a box issue, a temp system issue or something with my install. When I watch this AM, it seemed to have gone away.
before I left the house, I unpluged the box for several min and the powered it back up. When I go home tonight I will see if it happens again. I will note that I have been watching the AVS forums as well as others well in advance of getting Fios and I have not heard anyone else complain about this so maybe it was an isolated incident.

I'll let you know more later.

If you experience jerky video, that is a bug that sometimes materializes with new installs. To fix it, turn the box off and hit menu. Switch the HD output to a different format, i.e. to 720p if you are currently set to 1080i, or 1080i if you are currently set to 720p. Then exit and go back to the channel. The problem should be fixed; you can turn off the box, press menu again, and switch back to your former resolution.

If the problem persists, then it is signal related and FiOS needs to come back out to fix it.

Unlike Comcast, FiOS allows you to remove channels from their guide. Hit Settings, choose Channel Lineup, and remove the channels you do not want to see from the guide. When you use channel +/-, the box also skips the channels you have removed. My FiOS guide has less than 35 channels.

Btw, in the new guide, the channel +/- buttons double as page +/- as on Tivo. All customers should have the new guide by the end of August. Under that new guide, you use the 'Fav' button to pull up your customized channel list.

Thanks for the tip I will try that tonight.

I had the installer at the house for 4 hrs trying to figure out why the clock won't update and the guide is not appearing as well. Basically he thought it would update later. When I came home last night I still had no guide or menu so I decided to bypass my structured wiring coax amp. Whoala. I immediatly had the clock and then the guide. I believe that the signals are sent via Ip to the box and I guess this doesn't pass through this amp. Don't know if this happens with other structured wiring amplifiers but obviosly is a problem with Home Director.

Btw, in the new guide, the channel +/- buttons double as page +/- as on Tivo.

What about day+ and day-? any way to do this.


Hit Settings, choose Channel Lineup, and remove the channels you do not want to see from the guide. When you use channel +/-, the box also skips the channels you have removed. My FiOS guide has less than 35 channels.

I assume this is with the new media guide since if you hit channel up now if take you out of the guide and switched to the next channel.


Since I am used to the comcast lineup I was finding it difficult to find channels. If you click menu and then search, you can lookup programs by the categories. If you click HDTV it will bring you to that section of the menu's. Of course this takes many button presses. Would be good if you can access this right from the guide (i.e press a soft button to jump to the various categories). Better yet, would be good if you can press a button on the remote that would take you directly to the search by category menu. Maybe this is a part of the next version of the guide but I will be making the suggestion.

Not sure if you already have the new IMG. If so, do they have anything like this? I read that they are making the IMG with fewer menu's to dig through. Not sure if they did anything to quickly get to the catergory list. I think it would be cool to allow the customers to define specific jump to pages.

I know you got those 4 colored buttons on the bottom of the remote. Pretty much they do nothing now. The exception is the yellow button. On the old guide this brings up the widgets. Of course there is a widgets button on the remote that does nothing so hopefully this will be moved here with the new remote. :). If you were able to go into the settings of the IMG and specify a particular IMG page to access via one of those buttons that would be cool. This would allow customers to customize the way that they use the system and remote.

I wish that they had an online/virtual working version of the guide so that other customers outside the areas of those that have the new guide can play with it and also give their input as well.

I did a comparison last night of Comcast HD and SD programming to Fios.

My TV has 2 HDMI inputs on it and I connected one to each DVR. I also made sure that the picture setting were set exactly the same for both inputs.

In regards to HDTV, the Fios picture was brighter than the comcast. The Comcast also seemed a little softer. I always found the Comcast HDTV pic Quality great but the Fios pic is slightly better on my TV anyway.

As far as SD goes, it is no contest. The Fios winns hands down. I compared a few SD stations. One of the was WNBC (4). The Fios pic was clear and smooth, the Comcast picture was alot more grainy. especially if you are sitting closer to the set. I also viewed FX. I watch alot of programs on this station and have always been annoyed at Comcasts PQ on this station. Again, Fios blew in away.

As I said previously, I can really se myself watching more SD channels again because they are watchable on FIOS.

Features on the DVR seem the same between the two boxes.

One feature I like about is that it will tell you the remaining amount of time left in a particular program when you view the station or click info.

One feature that Comcast seems to have over Fios is that you get a screen saver after a few minuted if the screen is paused, or if it is sitting on a static page (i.e. you selected cinemax and you do not have a subscription). This will prevent screen burn in for those of us that have CRT's and Plasmas. This is a feature that FIos needs to add and maybe has in the new media guide.

I want to correct one thing I said previously. I thought that if you clicked Menu and then search that you can view the stations sorted by category. You can see some categories here but not all. The paper Fios programming guide/station lineup is grouped by particular categories. i.e. movies. home, sports, religion, kids, pop culture, etc. This is great.

However, this needs and should be translated to the IMG. This makes finding particular blocks of channels easier. i.e. I want to see if anything is on FX, I have to scan through to find it instead of bringing up stations by category. You should be able to click on search and then see all of the categories. In fact you should also be able to hide some of them as well. Also, the guide should be color coded by category as well when searching the guide. You also should be able to jump through the guide from category to category. This would be perfect. Yes you can set favorites in the new IMG but sometime you just want to scan to see what else is on and going to a particular category would be ideal.