Verizon FiOS HDTV - Page 22

I wonder if my install (scheduled for Wednesday) will get bumped out . There's at least 10" of snow and V* hasn't dug the ditch from my house to the street yet.

Yeah, I've been signed up for months for the email alert re: FiOS availability, but last Sunday we saw the same airplane, I called FiOS Monday, and they installed it Thursday. Never an email alert, though.

With all the promotions going on now I bet you could lower your Cox bill down to $100 just by asking. They are losing many folks like yourself to FIOS. The nice thing about Cox and FIOS is that once all the infrastructure is in place for both you could switch between the two at any time (unlike satelite where you have long term contracts and equipment to buy).

Get yourself a web e-mail addy which won't be affected by ISP choice.

I wish I had my FIOS already. Snow has rendered my D* dish useless. It's way up on the top of my roof and there is no way I'm going up there with all the snow. All I can do is wait for the sun to melt it.

At least I have OTA locals.

I will be flying out to your location first thing tomorrow. Hopefully they can at least get the snow pushed off of the runway by then .

I am still waiting for the first big thunderstorm opportunity to point out to my wife that the TV still works. Of course, you should really turn it off during a thunderstorm....

In terms of the conversation above with regard to getting FiOS TV is you aren't a Verizon landline customer: I cancelled my Verizon phone service after getting FiOS internet and switched over to Vonage. It is amazing how reliable a VoIP service can be when you have this much bandwidth. Not perfect, but reasonable given the price. When I called the first time to get FiOS TV service I was told, despite the internet and an express letter telling me I was eligible, the it was not available to my address yet. I found a nice post on dslreports that stated the same situation, and identified a probem Verizon was having with people who has Verizon phone service when they first signed up with FiOS but didn't when they tried to order the TV service. Basically, their system was erroring out for some reason based on this situation, and the workaround is for the rep to define a new account for you to order the TV service under. The FiOS internet and TV accounts may then be merged after the fact.

Just wanted to bring it up in case you run into this.

I checked so. cal. verizon channels list,and was happyto see that they have kcal,ktla, upn, and pbs in there HD section as well as fox cbs abc and nbc. and their movie channel selection is awsome! they need to work on their sports channels selection. if they ever get NBA league pass and show all the celtics games in hd, I'll switch from D* to verizon in a heartbeat.

does the price that they charge you for fios t.v/ include your phone and internet bill also?

Fios TV digital sound problem:::::

Been using FIOS TV for a week or so. I have one problem that others will run into. Verizon is aware of he problem but does not have an idea of when it will be fixed. Problem occurs if you use an HDMI cable to connect the Motorola HD DVR to your TV and try to use an optical or coax attachment for digital sound. What happens is you won't get digital sound. In order to get digital sound, via coax or optical connection, you will need to connect the box and your TV via composite cables and not use the HDMI cable. I disconnected the HDMI, connected using composite video connection and digital sound worked.

FIOS TV Modulator unit:::: wireless connection to internet??

Has anyone used a wireless connection to connect the Modulation unit to the internet vs. the CAT5 cable that the installler used? I was going to just get a wireless access point and eliminate the wire going across my den.

And if so did you use the USB connection or did you need to use the CAT5 connection?

are you sure you didn't mean COMPONENT cables instead of composite cables? that would make a big difference in your hd picture.

I assume you meant to write "component" rather than "composite."

I have both component and HDMI-to-DVI hooked up. Maybe I'll disconnect the HDMI-DVI and see if I now start to get digital (i.e., Dolby 5.1) from my optical connection. But ... since I don't have a HDMI input on my TV, if I'm not getting digital, then the box must be reacting to the fact that HDMI is plugged in, even though no audio signal goes to my TV.

just a thought,too bad verizon didn't use a tivo hd box all those directv hd people that have verizon in their city would probably switch to verizon.

It's not that you don't get "digital sound" out of the DVR with QIP connected, it's just that you don't get DD5.1.

This is apparently based on some bright engineer at Motorola deciding that if you had HDMI plugged in that you must be getting your sound via HDMI as well (apparently DD5.1 is available via this route). For the many of us that don't use our TVs for sound or don't have a receiver with HDMI switching (...yet!) this is a pain.

I opted to go with HDMI for better PQ. Since I have never taken the step to install side or rear speakers my loss of sound quality is lessened, although still noticable. I am hoping this will be fixed via software sometime soon. It is apparently also a problem on Motos DCT boxes.

I am a DirecTV person who is switching to FiOS despite their choice of box. I love TiVo, but the QIP is okay and likely to get better. I would primarily like more space, but after they network these that will be less of a problem. I have gotten used to how the various features on the QIP work, and for the most part you can do everything you can do on the TiVO (at least the HD TiVo). Setting recordings is actually a bit nicer on the QIP. You just hit "record" on a future program, the box immediatley adds a red record symbol to the program, and you go about your business. There is not 1-3 minute wait with the "five after five" symbol while the DVR does who knows what (I'm sure this is related to advanced TiVo features or something like that, but is somewhat annoying).

Part of me says that there is no way an "engineer" could be this ignorant and not realize that many people use a real audio system and not the set's speakers or that many displays do not have speakers. And the realistic part of me finds it very easy to believe someone actually did think of this while he was awake with a supposedly functioning brain.

TV service charges are independant of other Verizon charges - the only saving is that if you also get phone or Internet service with them, they give you a $5/mo discount.

Remember that the underlying firmware is controlled by Microsoft - they just might be that ignorant.

I get a $5 discount for having Verizon phone and Internet, but to get another $5 discount for FiOS TV, I have to sign up for 1 year with FiOS TV - otherwise, the month-to-month does not give me a $5 discount.

This is a perfect excuse for me to get that Denon 3806 I've been eyeing. HDMI switching.

makes sense to me!!LOL

based on a long article in the FiOS Hardware thread in the HD Hardware forum it seems VZ is concerned about providing good hardware & intrastructure as well as good programming. could be these problems(no 5.1 sound with HDMI, chintzy-lookuing remotes) are a consequence of getting the service up & running to as many subs as possible now to start recoupng what must be a massive investment in infrastructure. hopefully it will be refined in the near future.

jim

This is an interesting discussion concerning the problem with the QIP's DD5.1 problems. I'd like to ask that the discussion be moved to the HDTV Reception Hardware forum in the Fios TV sticky. It can be found by clicking here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=621323

Thanks!

I called verizon FiOS specifically about this.. They say that this ethernet port is not active. I even argued with them when Motorola released a press release touting the capabilities of Verizon's specific boxes, but they claimed ignorance, and that there was no way they could activate these features for me.

Well, my wife just called me to say V* is at the house to connect the fiber from the street to the house. There's still at least 5" out there and it is mostly hard, compacted snow (froze overnight). Also, earlier last week, they marked my lawn where Cox, Dominion Power, etc.. had their cables. Those markings are covered in this hard compacted snow. I just hope they don't cut anything...

Is it Verizon or a contractor?

I meant component

Contractor.

Well they connected the fiber from the street to the house. They cleared the snow and dug the ditch and buried the cable. Ground must have been pretty hard.

So, it looks like they're on schedule for the install on Wednesday. Fingers crossed.

Does anyone have the general 800 # or whatever to contact FIOS?

1-800-293-9139 (Mon - Fri, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.) to see if you can order FiOS TV.

Thanks Dave!

Just got off the phone with Verizon and unfortunately it doesn't look there are any immediate plans for FIOS. The Verizon guy who was laying cable a few weeks ago apparently gave me a bum steer when he said this month or next.