Verizon FiOS HDTV - Page 548

I thought the general thinking was H.264 can be cut by 50% to get very similar PQ... anyone?

I don't know that you can put an exact number on it. 50% IMO would however be on the conservative side. The best software encoder out there (x264), would certainly be more like 66%.

Dish Network is now, in many cases, cramming 9 HDTV Mpeg-4 streams into one 40Mbps transponder. Which to my eyes is badly bit-starved, but apparently most of their customers think it looks just dandy.

Dish also downrezzes to 1440x1080 i think. DirecTV definitely looks better than Dish. I notice it.

Motorola 2000/6000 series from FiOS don't support mpeg4. In general cable providers that move to mpeg4 will launch it first on very niche services such as foreign or 3d channels so they don't require mass box swaps. Don't expect popular services like ESPN,USA,or NICK to be transmitted from cable company in MPEG4 anytime soon.

Don't be so sure about that last part. There are serious demands for more channel capacity, and IPTV is a nonstarter for several reasons, not the least of which are all those MDUs that have centralized wiring closets and only 100Mb/s for all data combined into the home. A limit of 3 simultaneous HD streams isn't a big deal for VOD, but that won't fly for real channels.

WOW!!! I "think" DirecTV is mostly doing 5 channels per ~36 mbps transponder...

Does any one know if I decide to go with a multi-room dvr if I need to turn in the box and get a new one, or is it just a matter of them flipping a switch on a server? I have the Moto 7232 box. My concern is losing my recordings.

Also, if I do this I'll be adding a second box in the house. Does any one know if the non-dvr set top boxes continuously output both HDMI and Component? My intention is to put a PJ in the rec room and feed it with the HDMI, while having the box in the gym feeding the old HD CRT via component. Obviously I'd only watch one screen at time. I could get a switch if necessary, but this would be easier and cheaper. My rack is in the gym, so I'd use an RF remote in the rec room, the Fios remote in the gym. Is the Moto 7100 P-2 the better set top box?

I have 7232 and a 7100. The 7100 sees what I have on my 7232 .

got FiOS yesterday. anybody in the NYC area notice that the logos for MSG HD and MSG Plus HD disappeared in the channel guide?

You keep the same box. They'll flip a switch in their system the same as if you were ordering HBO over the phone.

Verizon boxes can output HDMI and Component simultaneously. However, if the HDMI handshake fails, the Component output will also be disabled until the HDMI cable is disconnected.

that's Dolan sharing the love..he probably feels Verizon has the channels now but they 'll never use his logos

Thanks Gents. Good to know. Interesting about the handshake issue. I'll see how that issue goes, it might make it worth the trouble to get a matrix switch from monoprice in the interest of WAF.

If you need a good laugh this weekend, go read the Verizon fios tv forums. They have a 4 page thread about exercise tv going away and how worked up all these housewives are about it and want to cancel Fios.

Then someone points out repeatedly that Exercise tv was shut down. But none of them notice they keep complaining about Fios.

Oh it's so nice to read a forum with informed people on it.

heck read any of the threads over there, many of them are gut splittingly funny.

Its also funny how half of the threads in the Verizon Fios TV Technical Forums relate to pixelation and poor PQ in the last few weeks.
However, we can't talk about that in this thread. You will get blamed for being an employee for the compilation

Nothing has changed about the way Verizon distributes channels. Bitrates are the same as they have always been for years. I record a lot of FiOS material across all the channels and keep an eye on bitrates and file sizes - I see no changes.

So I don't know what's up with all the pixelation complaining either. Unless with 2012 a bunch of networks formerly being distributed natively in MPEG-2 have switched to H.264 and Verizon is now having to re-encode them to MPEG-2... and doing a poor job of it.

a lot of content providers have been changing from mpeg2 to 4 as the technology matures and equipment prices come down. they save money or stuff twice as much content on uplink transponder. ESPN has been the most high profile and big changovers. the re-encoding that everyone calls it is actually called transcoding and is done by the IRD. so whether u have comcast or fios, they are both using the same type IRD that ESPN or whoever provide to receive and transcode content.

I'm in VHO11 (Pittsburgh) and just noticed tonight that the layout of OnDemand has been revamped. Everything is quite a bit smaller and taking better advantage of the screen real estate that HD offers.

I was thinking one of my kids had changed a setting. I thought it was a bit slower. But I was in a rush to find a kids movie that would end somewhat near their bedtime.

It doesn't matter if you call it re-encoding or transcoding, because in all fielded products it's the same thing. All of the "transcoders" out there decode all the way to baseband and then encode the uncompressed YCbCr data just like any other encoder.

In the early days of H.264 deployment, there were folks trying to create transcoders that attempted to reuse the information (like motion vectors) in the original bitstream to avoid a complete decode and encode. None of these schemes were able to compete with a complete decode and encode architecture quality wise, and have now all been abandoned.

The Motorola DSR-6100 IRD that ESPN uses for their downlink customers contains an encoder that is almost identical to the Motorola SE-3000 encoder that FOX uses for their network uplink.

Ron

I'm noticing a lot of video/audio glitches with ESPN HD lately...the video/audio freezes for a quick second...anyone else seeing this? (I'm in VHO5- NYC)

I'm also getting it on some of the movie channels too..and lag in sporting events, especially hockey where the game plays in slow motion for a few seconds

so far no issues on Tennis Channel but it's weird watching games as if a slo mo replay and it's the same on MSG HD or non HD, CBS,NBC, FOX, etc and movies freezing up like a defective disc, sometimes I have to switch to another channel to get back in sync

wonder if the recent 1.9 update has anything to do with it...the lags are really annoying for me as they sometimes happen a lot during programs

I have had this same problem with the picture freezing and audio drop outs since the introduction of the 1.9 update. I'm in Northern NJ.

Sure but bottom line whether it be comcast, fios, or cablevision, they are all using the same equipment to receive an mpeg4 signal and retransmit in mpeg2

I noticed a funny error in the guide over the weekend. I was surfing and landed on Repo Men on one of the movie channels. It's the 2011(?) flick w/ Jude Law and Forest Whitaker. However, the guide listed Repo Man, the 1984 punk classic.

Doug

how much extra is the ultimate package compared to extreme HD and why isn't the Tennis Channel part of the extreme package. you would think after it being off for five months they would give a preview of it to extreme HD viewers

Sure we can. The PQ from Fios blows. It used to be pristine. Now it is just as lousy as Comcrap, yet they continue to raise prices.

I'm so fed up, that I am considering going OTA for networks and ATV and or Google TV for the other stuff.

Here there is still a night and day difference between FiOS and Comcast. And Comcast here has already gone digital. It makes me want to vomit everytime I see the Comcast picture at my brothers or parents. FiOS doesn't look anywhere close to what Comcast looks like.

It's funny that people always want to make a blanket statement and blast an entire provider when they don't even know if their problem is isolated to their area, equipment, etc.

I may not watch on Pioneer Kuro bees-knees television, but FiOS look pretty damn good on my 58" and 42" plasma televisions that I purchased after reading different threads here and on HDJunkies and a lot better as the same feeds on Comcast in my area. The channels that look disgusting are the ones that came from the source like that--channels such as AMC-HD. I don't see any pixelation/macroblocking/techi-term on FoodNetwork and that is a channel I watch almost exclusively when I'm not watching sports. We watch a lot of sports in my house and I thought I was going to have to cancel FiOS when I kept getting pixelation and what appeared to be loss of signal completely while watching a few football games this year. Then I was at a friend's house who has Comcast and he was having the same thing happening right in front of me eyes.

FiOS also offers more HD channels than comcast in my area. Satellite TV is not even on the table for me, as I like to see TV during a storm and a lot of people in my area have problems with DTV and Dish when the weather is bad.

Not saying FiOS is great, but all of these services have things they do well and things they do not so well. Nothing is perfect.

No one is saying people can't discuss issues. This is the HDTV thread, naturally people are going to discuss the quality of the HD picture.