Washington, DC - Verizon - Page 8

The reported add date for the rest of the HD channels for our market is November 13. But this may be the date that expanding to the 100 HD channel set is to be done for all 3 markets in our VHO: Washington metro, Anne Arundel/Howard County, and Baltimore.

The reason I wonder if we will see HD channels added before then is that Verizon added 24 QAM channels (at channels 29-52) late last week to the Sterling CO. The sub-channels are encrypted, but 23 of the QAM channels have only 2 sub-channels which indicates they are likely HD sub-channels. There are also other QAM channels with 1 or 2 sub-channels that don't match up to the 49 HD channels that are active here. So if other COs in the Washington Metro now have QAM channels in the 29-52 range, we may be getting close to seeing a bunch of new HD channels suddenly show up.

That would be great. It's always nice to see some more HD content added. Now if they could work out a way to add some of the sports subscription packages, that'd be great. I know the Major League Baseball network is supposed to come online sometime in January. I'd love to be able to get it, but after seeing that DirecTV and the cable co.s now have a part ownership in it, I'm not expecting to see it anytime soon.

Thanks for the quick reply afiggatt. Lets hope we some more stuff soon.

You may have missed the pretty reliable posts that Verizon has signed an agreement to carry NHL network and Center Ice package. The reports are that Verizon will be adding NHL network - SD & HD - sometime in November.

However, for those who have not been following the Fios threads, to get (or keep) the new national HD channels when they are added you will need to sign up for the Extreme HD package. I took care of that last Friday when I switched to the bundle of HD Extreme, 20/5 net speed, and Freedom Essentials for the phone. If the CSR is correct, my monthly bill should drop by around $20.

Wow, I totally missed that NHL news. Thats great. As for you price going down by $20, mine went up $5. But I figured between the speed bump on the connection and the HD channels that were coming in that it was reasonable. Thanks for the good news on the NHL. That'll be great.

Verizon Fios has added new channels for NHL Center Ice at channels 1475 to 1488. The channels are now listed as NHL 1 to NHL 14 and if the scrolling notice on channel 49 is correct, will have programming available for subscription by tonight. Verizon has signed a contract to carry the NHL network SD and HD channels which will reportedly be added nationwide to all Fios markets in November. I expect we would get NHL HD either with or shortly after the expansion to 100 HD channels gets here. So the hockey fans on Fios should be happy.

The new HD channels were announced this morning, and arrived sometime within the past three hours.

Since I subscribed to the HD Extreme Package, all of the many HBO and Cinemax HD channels are active for the next month.

Got to go now ... tons of HD stuff to watch.

Yes, around 103 or 104 channels here. It does still show a couple of channels as coming soon in the FIOS HD STB guide.

Wow I just called to inquire about Extreme HD and ended up wiht a new triple play bundle including Extreme HD (which includes Sports which was formerly $7.99) and an upgrade to 20/5 internet (from my 5/2), all for a total of $110 before HD DVR rentals. My old rate was $107.98 for the triple play and sports package. So for $2 I am getting a ridiculous internet package and more HD. FIOS rules.

yeah i called and ended up getting the same deal and saving ten dollars. we had HBO & showtime/starz for 31 a month and for 30 a month we got all 3. cised!

does anyone have any dirt on when the nhl network will be added? im gettin restless

It looks like I'm a few months behind, but I just got on board with the 20/5 + HD Extreme package. No price change from what I was paying for 5/2 ($110).

For any suffering Nats fans out there, it looks like MASNHD is now live on channel 577, so we can watch them try to lose less than 100 in high def at least some of the time (since MASN HD is shared with the O's).

I'm looking at getting a new PC and would like a desktop that I can plug my FiOS into WITHOUT getting another box.

Questions:

1. Is this possible?
2. Which PCI tuner should I get in order to view ALL of my channels?
3. Is a cablecard required? (I saw on VZ's site that they are available for like $3.99/mo)

Thanks.

If you don't mind me answering out of order:

3. Yes. Only the local channels (and a few others) would be viewable by a non-CableCard (ClearQAM) tuner.

1. Yes, but I believe your only option is Windows Media Center (built into most editions of Windows 7) for CableCard support. I love it personally, but it's not for everyone. Best resource would probably be "The Green Button" : http://thegreenbutton.com.

2. The only internal CableCard tuner I know of that is available right now is made by a company called Ceton. It's very new, and availability is probably still somewhat limited, but people have been able to get them: http://www.cetoncorp.com/. There are monstrous threads at The Green Button about the Ceton card as well. Thousands of posts. It's a big deal in the Media Center community

Posts from main Washington, DC HDTV topic moved here.

I currently have Cox for cable and broadband Internet. I've been looking at the FIOS alternative and have a few questions.

One of my concerns is how many unencrypted channels can you receive without a STB? I have a Cox STB for my main 55" Plasma in the family room and have to other smaller HDTVs in the kitchen and master bedroom. I don't need the full suite of channels in the other rooms so I use the direct coaxial cable connection to my to the HDTVs (which have QAM tunners) and they pick up all the analog and unencrypted digital channels. With those connections, I get all the basic analog channels (non-premium). I was pleasantly surprised to find that I also receive a large number of digital HD stations also. Not just the local station broadcasts you get OTA, but stations like DisneyHD, IonHD, LmnHD, etc... I don't why or how long, but when I rescanned about two weeks ago, they popped up and I'm still getting them!

My question is how many unencrypted digital channels will I get with FIOS if I only connect straight to my HDTV and do not use a STB? The literature on the Verizon website seems to indicate that I will only get the digital broadcast from local stations that you would get OTA. Is that right? What about the basic non-premium analog stations you would get with cable?

The answer may be different at different locations. I have more than 80 digital channels without using an STB, on my FIOS cable. Five of these are in HD

I did a search and it looks like the Fredericksburg/Spotsylvania FiOS thread has been merged into this thread? In case I'm mistaken, I apologize for misplacing this but: after eons of requests, Spotsy FiOS now offers Richmond's WTVR 6 in both SD and HD.

Anyone know if NoVA FiOS (Arlington) supports "copy freely" for CableCard recordings in Windows Media Center? If so, is it for all non-premium channels, or just the locals? Thanks!

Hello,

This will probably be somewhat off-topic, but the thread isn't too action-packed these days anyway. I'm looking to use Verizon FiOS for my Internet access when I move to the area in a week and a half. What difference is there between residential and business class service? The prices and speeds look basically the same other than the activation fee for the business class, unless you get a static IP, not counting the introductory reduced rate for residential.

Thanks.

- Trip