Verizon FiOS HDTV - Page 550

Definitely this! That is about the only thing I miss from Comcast. Ok, that, and PIP.

My comcast address is what I used for all of my banking and financial stuff for many years until I got a gmail account and started using that. When I canceled comcast, I still continued to receive mail from my comcast account for easily 6 months, maybe more. It was quite comical to me. At that point, since I already had gmail as a mainplace, the comcast account received mostly mail I didn't care about and I kept wondering when it would finally turn off so I wouldn't get email on it anymore!

Yes, 6xxx boxes would have to be phased out. The swap-out can be a soft roll-out, where only those with premium channels are initially forced to MPEG-4 boxes.

What makes the Cisco CHS-435 best?

Insisted on a 7232 last week for new FIOS install instead of the 6000-series brought. The newer model was delivered from a garage while the installer ran a fiber right up to my viewing couch. Guess most in my Manhattan 21-story building will have 6000-series DVRs. My Ultimate HD package has 135+ HDs but hope IPTV or other techniques will accelerate HD channel additions. -- John

Ran a fiber right up to your viewing couch? What does that mean?

The light-to-electronics conversion box (plus battery backup), fed by the hallway fiber drop, is on a shelf right next to my viewing location, the router atop my computer about 9 feet away. -- John

It was among the first boxes to get 1.9, which suggests to me that it will be among the first boxes to get future updates.

If for no other reason, that makes it "better" than the Motorola boxes in my mind.

FYI, Verizon calls that conversion box an Optical Network Terminal (ONT).

Yes, thanks. Often prefer translating corporate gobbledegook into something more understandable. -- John

That is what those interfaces are called. It is not corporate gobblygook. They aren't specific to Verizon.

When I sit in my living room and look out my window I see my ONT. I prefer it on the outside. Battery backup is in the garage.

Nice work, John. Recently, lots of others in your same situation have tried to insist on 7232 but got stuck with the 6000 series. Just so happened during my install back in Feb the 7232 was not on "ration" lockdown, so all new installs were getting them

Have you hooked up an eSata drive yet?

^^^Might try an external drive later, Scott, if the 500 GB becomes overloaded. My former more-limited 8300HD never reached >50% full, though, because I usually view/delete recordings within a few days. -- John

I may be mistaken but I think that they do not offer the Motorola and Cisco boxes in the same VHO. In other words you get one or the other but not both, so you don't have an option of which to request. At least that is how I remember it.

I do not use an external drive but I believe I have read other posts that indicated you have to use one that does not got into sleep mode, so that it is always availalbe to the STB. I assume that this is especially true if you are setting up a scheduled recording.

Is anyone paying an amount other than $4.00 for a cable card? Seems excessive. Thanks

I have one of the boxes that will acccomodate an external hard drive to increase capacity. I added a generic eSata drive and it worked well, adding quite a bit of storage..the catch is, it only worked for a couple of days, then failed.

Could someone who is using eSata to expand capacity kindly tell me what drive you are using successfully and consistently? I am willing to spend some dollars to go beyond 25 hours, but I want to make sure I get a drive that will work all the time.

Any recommendations will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

You can have Motorola & Cisco STB's within and servicing the same VHO (VHO8 for example) - but cannot mix them within an individual home.

DNW, I think there is a list of "compatable" eSATA drives somewhere on the myVerizon website. A good place to start anyway.

Two things...
1. I could not find it on the site, and
2. I was more interested in 'real life' experience, things that people have really found workable.

Thanks.

I'm using the Western Digital My DVR Expander 1.0 TB connected to the 7232with no problem

I am using an Iomega Professional 1TB Drive. I bought it pre Thailand floods for under half it's current price. No real problems with it. A little noisier than the internal drive, but barely noticeable. BTW, I have two of them. After opening both, they had different drives in the same chassis. I think one was a Hitachi, the other a Seagate drive.

Here is the information on the expansion drives that I found.

"We plan to continually increase the number of qualified units, but at launch we will support Western Digital My Book AV DVR Expander 500GB and 1TB. A 2TB drive is currently in qualification as well as drives from other manufacturers. As those are qualified we will publish them on www.verizon.com.".

This was in the April 2011 announcement

I got 2 of the Iomega 2TB's. Not sure it was the best move.

I'd go with one of these http://wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=150
and a Vantec case.

I think it's an outrage, but it's what Frontier FiOS also charges. And its hard to believe that Verizon would have different rates for different cities. Why would they bother, they're not a motley collection of disparate systems like Comcast is?

I have a Comcast doc that says an unreturned CableCARD is $30. So that sets an upper limit on the cost of those things. And we know that the FCC said something a few years ago about how charges for these had to be reasonable.

No, $4/mo on a device that costs under $30 retail is not reasonable.

Verizon does charge different rates for different cities.

NYC gets to bundle the 150/65 Mbps Internet package for $10-30 more a month depending on what services you're subscribed to + subscribers to the ultimate tier get all the premium channels for free.

NYC has their own pricing structure; everywhere else should be the same (+/- local taxes). CableCards are $3.99/mo. Unreturned card fee is listed as $100.

Just got an email notice from Verizon that Cinemax is being added to the Ultimate bundle, so there should be a drop in price for those of us who have Ultimate+HBO/Cinemax currently. I'll believe it when it actually shows up on my bill.

Cinemax has been part of the Ultimate bundle for months. I get SHO/EPIX/MAX.

Matt, what's your impression of the two boxes? Do you prefer one over the other?

Ken-
I haven't actually seen the Cisco's in person - but heard from a few friends' that got them. Based on their feedback pretty solid - I also heard they were a LOT more cost friendly than the Moto's from VZ's standpoint.