Verizon FiOS HDTV - Page 428

The fact of the matter is the FIOS HD DVRs have limited HD recording capacity. I travel in the country and out of the country. I work long days. After work I go to the gym for an hour or two and then I run a couple of miles. No live tv for me except for sports. So you know what happens when you do all of that socializing, traveling, working, gym, running, errands? You don't have time to watch you've recorded until you're backlogged.

Perfect example, where I lived previously I had ATT Uverse. Doing all of the stuff I mentioned above, I barely had time to watch 1 show after getting home. So guess what? I had all of the 2009-10 Gossip Girl episodes on my dvr not having watched one. So when I had free time I was able to go back and watch them without worrying that they would be deleted from my dvr b/c the capacity was too small. I didn't have to sit there for 6.5hrs to watch all of the shows. I spread it out over a period of two weeks.

So does one size fit all? No. But the capacity issues need to be resolved so that one doesn't have to manage the dvr. I don't like managing my dvr even though the Verizon FIOS DVR App for webOS is pretty good at helping me manage things on the dvr when I'm not home. I just like to let it do what it do and when I have time watch my shows.

I can certainly see where with FIOS On-Demand is essential b/c of limited recording capacity. But for me, I may have used On-Demand four times since I've had FIOS, which has only been a month. It'll prolly be more useful when the tv season starts again. For movies I just use Netflix to get the Blu-rays.

I just stated to laugh. It really hit me how very funny this who DVR "debate" is. Everyone has a different way to approach their viewing. And because someone else does it differently doesn't affect me one iota. Why does everyone need to tell their story?? It's a complete waste of time, unless wasting time is what you really want to do.

I come to this thread hoping to hear some significant news about Fios programming. Instead, it's everyone's story about their DVR. Go for a walk. Read a book. Listen to some good music. Much better than telling DVR stories.

And here's the reality. The vast majority of what's available on network tv or network like cable channels is pure crap. I can't believe anyone spends time watching most of it. A 10 hour DVR would be fine with me. The number of people on this forum who spend a very significant part of their lives watching TV and participating for hours on end in these forums just astounds me. Just listen to yourselves arguing about DVR, Tivo, etc. Res ipsa loquitur.

OK. I've got my flak jacket on. Fire away and blast me for trying to bring some sanity into your lives and get you away from the tv for a few hours each day.

So directv and comcast both have 3D. When is fios getting 3d channels?

Already too late for the world cup in 3d like directv customers have been enjoying. And I know comcast had the masters in 3d a couple months ago.

Fios for supposedly having the most bandwidth and being in the cutting edge sure seems to find itself behind the 8ball a lot like when they had less HD then anyone a year or so ago and way less on demand and no HD on demand.

I thought those early growing pains were behind fios bit here they are again the last one to the game...

I thought my post was pretty clear. Do I really need to explain myself?

Priorities. I'll be enjoying a trip to family out-of-state a couple of times during the summer, a trip through the Canadian Rockies, long summer evenings outdoors, hopefully many rounds of golf, etc. I do not attach myself to the recliner to pay homage to the TV gods nor have any desire to keep libraries of programs available on internet sources. Hulu is my friend.

I rarely view anything live (although as I type this I have the Mecum auto auction on) besides the evening news. As I said, I'd be more comfortable wtih a 250GB drive on my 6416-2.


Again, different strokes and all that, I understand. I just have to wonder how people with multi-terabites of TV programming spend their time. And I have no problem with people who want to spend their lives like that. I was just curious of the mentality and how much of that storage actually gets viewed.

Grem: If you just want Letterman's monologues, try YouTube or http://www.cbs.com/late_night/late_show/ Saves HD space. And don't tell me you have to view that few minutes in HD on your widescreen HT or it doesn't work for you.

One has to wonder wtf you're doing participating on a discussion forum.


Everyone has a different way to approach this discussion forum.


Everyone has a different way to approach their viewing.

"We need not think alike to love alike." - Frances David

"Differences challenge assumptions." - Anne Wilson Schaef

"The price of the democratic way of life is a growing appreciation of people's differences, not merely as tolerable, but as the essence of a rich and rewarding human experience." - Jerome Nathanson

Let us not forget the famous Vucan IDIC : Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations

How very highbrow of you. Sort of like a righteous and sanctimonious luddite. B/c no one posting reads, listens to good music, visits friends and family, travel, sit outside in the humid FL summer nights when it is 90 degrees or a dry 90 in Arizona, or has a job. Sorry for not catching up on back issues of Oui or the latest from John Krakauer.

Thanks for showing us the way on a internet forum and a thread dedicated to talking about HDTV. What people choose to do with their own time is not for me to judge or try to go all righteous and wonder what you do with your time. I couldn't care less. If you're here to talk about FIOS and it's DVR cool. If you want to go all highbrow, well this may not be the place for it.

I've heard of the possibility of ESPN 3D coming online in time for the end of the World Cup. Verizon will be removing four movie channels at the end of June, so room will become available. I'm not sure if a firmware update would be required for 3D.

On a side note: Did Verizon implement an HD splicer system? I tuned to ESPNHD at around 1:55 PM, I tuned in time to see two HD ads; neither had the BottomLine. I didn't see any ads with a BottomLine, so for all I know, the ads could have aired nationwide. The ads were for two large companies, and had no localized info. The BottomLine appeared as soon as the commercials ended.

Watching in Montgomery County, MD (near DC).

It's not uncommon to have commercials on ESPN without the ticker. Not sure what their criteria is for when to show it vs when not to.

Commercials without the ticker are generally inserted by the cable or satellite provider rather than by ESPN.

The entire point of having a lot of storage is so you can record multiple things so you have a variety of choices when you sit down to watch TV. I record dozens of hours of TV each week, but only view a small percentage of the contnet recorded. When I sit down to watch TV, I want to have a wide range of content available to watch, so there will alwas be something available that I'm in the mood to watch.
So I have many Terabytes of storage for my TiVo recordings, between the drives on my TiVo Premieres, My five 1.5TB hard Drive RAID 5 setup on my TiVo Desktop PC, and my fort two terabytes of storage available on my WHS.

I don't want to watch TV live(since I don't want to watch commercials) and I want to have something to watch each time I decide to sit down and watch TV. And I also have no desire to watch SD, like with Hulu. I 've been watching HD for nine years now, and in 2010, I only want watch HD content. I also have no desire to spend any Summer evening outside. I would rather spend the middle of the Summer day outside than the evening.

ESPN 3D is not in the current plans.

This is FiOS, this is big!

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/V...rywhere-108983

OK, that's cool for you. Thanks for letting me have your point of view but it's not my cup of tea. I guess we each choose to spend our spare/valuable time differently. Makes the world go 'round.

Yes, that's key. It applies to many things discussed in these forums: DVRs; 3D; reality programming; old movies; vampire programming; the importance of black levels; 5.1 vs. 7.1; etc.

Sometimes people use the word TiVo when they mean generic DVR. I was confused because, to me, TiVo brand DVRs are much more attractive than generic FiOS DVRs. Many advantages in addition to storage space. Also I have had a TiVo of one sort or another for about 10 yrs. If I had rented a FiOS DVR for all those years (assuming it was available), I would have paid out about 4x what my TiVos cost me. So when I read "over hyped" I get confused myself!

I don't want to simply extol TiVo's virtues in this thread since that's not the purpose. But I do read comments where people say stuff like "switched from P.O.S. FiOS DVR and couldn't be happier". I don't read people saying the converse. I read that the best non-TiVo DVR is from Dish, but I have no personal experience with it.

Yes I meant Tivo because the Fios DVR is enough to satisfy my needs. Notice I said My Needs. However your math does not add up. Unless you get Tivo service free after you buy it, you will never come out ahead. The only advantage to it is that you own it and could still use it with other providers, however if you stay with the same company then the service fee in addition to the CableCard fee is not much different than the rental fee of the cable co's own box which adds up to not much of a savings if any after all.

That's not the case - generally break-even is about 3 1/2 - 4 years - but this isn't the thread to discuss that math.

For those affected by the application of copy protection (TiVo MRV, transferring recording to a PC or Mac via TiVo Desktop, kmttg, etc.) in your area, please help put the pressure on Verizon/Frontier to get rid of this crap. Call and email VZ. Call TiVo (assuming you have one). Complain to your local cable regulatory body. Make this show up on Verizon's radar and force them to issue an explanation as to why they went from no CP to putting it on random channels (but not all channels >100).

So far, we know it affects WA, OR and possibly IN. It doesn't appear to affect MA and other areas not being transitioned to Frontier Communications.

Here are the channels that (for me) suddenly have copy protection (started 6/8) when I never saw it on any of my channels on Extreme HD prior to that date.
100 CNN, 102 CNBC, 105 CNNI, 120 DSCP, 191 G4, 569 HDNET 104 BLOOM, 128 HISTP, 140 LIFEP, 141 LMN, 53 FXP,71 ESPNCL, 101 HLN, 127 HI, 165 HGTVP, 190 COMEDYP, 250 DISNP, 602 CNBCHD, 780 DISNHD, 221 CMTVP, 189 BBCA

This really sucks. Tonight "The Pixar Story" aired on CNBC and I'll likely want to archive it by transferring to my PC, but now CNBC has !#@#$ copy protection on it!

And even quicker for those of us that got discounts. Then add in the fact that I have much more storage, and can also transfer any recording from FiOS to another TiVo(on my account)or to a PC for burning to a BD(or even a DVD) and the FiOS DVR can't come anywhere close to what TiVo gives you.

And with the TiVo i have no missed recordings. It just works and records my shows. IN nine years of using TiVos I've missed less recordings than poeple I know with FiOS or Comcast DVRs have missed in just a few months of use.

I'll have to check out some of those. Although the only SD channel I watch is BBCA, and I know that has not been copy protected here. Otherwise I'll check out the HD channels. But looking on my list, I see some HDnet programs on my other TiVos and it's showing no restrction from transfer. I'll need to check out 602 and 780 since I don't normally record shows from those channels.

I don't see 600(CNNHD) on your list but I see CNNSD onit . I know 600 is not restricted here since I record shows daily from CNNHD and have no problems trasnferrring them when I want to watch them.

I've noticed using a direct connection to a computer via Firewire that all the Tuner HD Channels are locked from recording.

CNBC HD is flagged as copy freely, CNN HD is flagged as copy once and will record but not play back.

Now that's copy protection!

If your area isn't being transitioned to Frontier Communications, then it's not likely they've put on any copy protection. So far, we believe it's confined only to states being transitioned to Frontier. We know it has affected multiple people in WA (besides myself) and OR.

You either need to check via the shortcut at www.tivo.com/copyprotection or look at a recording made after 6/8, when this whole CP debacle started. It coincided w/an outage on 6/7 that was known to affect WA, OR and IN. Unclear if others were involved.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...25#post7999925 is someone in MA (not going to Frontier, AFAIK) who still has no CP, fortunately.

There's a running thread at http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb...d.php?t=450307 on this topic.

Can anyone tell me which DVRs FIOS is currently providing to new subscribers? Weren't they supposed to be coming out with an improved box?

The current DVR's in use are the Motorola QIP 6416 and 7216.

A date for the release of the new and improved eco-friendly STB hasn't been announced yet. The article doesn't state the model number but it's the 7232.

http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-...-launches.html

Disregarding bicker1's post following yours, I think it is on topic to compare FiOS DVRs to 3rd party competition in a FiOS thread, so I will respond to this.

I recently got FiOS and the following prices are directly off their "sales order form". Of course there are often sales and promotions so YMMV. Also, so far, FiOS doesn't seem to charge any "digital outlet" fees, or anything like that, which Comcast does. That makes price comparisons much easier.

Verizon DVR rental $16/mo. Verizon CableCARD rental $4/mo. TiVo HD purchase at recent closeout at BlockBuster $100, plus $300 lifetime service (for existing customers) = $400. Breakeven at about 33 months.

Buying a new TiVo Premiere for $300 and then have an existing customer activate for you (to make lifetime $300 instead of $400) means breakeven at about 50 months.

Once you're past breakeven the ROI on the TiVos is very very good.

There's a lot to be said for not laying out $400 to $600 up front. There's a lot to be said for being able to tell Verizon "fix it" if you have a problem with their DVR. But there's also a lot to be said for the advantages of the TiVo, such as larger disk capacity and smarter recording capability.

Edit: upon further reflection, I think the advantages of the TiVo are most evident with lifetime service. I don't agree that you will "never" come out ahead with a different TiVo service plan. But I agree the math is much less favorable to TiVo.

Discussion of DVRs really belongs in the Verizon FiOS Installation & Hardware - Master Topic! thread in the HDTV Technical forum.

How dare you try to bring order and appropriateness to this thread

The thread participants aren't capable of being guided by courtesy and common sense.

OK, I've doused myself with flame retardant, so fire away.