Verizon FiOS QIP6416 DVR - Master Topic! - Page 3

I got FIOS this weekend with a 6416 box. I also have an RCA 2610 DVR with firewire. I tried to see if I could increase recording time by hooking the RCA DVR to the 6416 and could not detect anything. My TV has firewire and when I connect theRCA DVR to it I get a message box saying that it has been connected. Anyway, I remember reading in the 6416 manual somwhere where the firewire was for expanding the HDD space as well as going to the TV so I thought I would try.

It took 2 6416 boxes before the installer could get one to work. The first one came up with on SD channels and the resolution looked like 240x320 or something. It was terrible. Then it started resetting over and over so he hooked up another one. This one took like 1.5 hours to get going but it finally started working. I have had it screw up 2 times since then. Once while I was watching the bud shootout on TNTHD this weekend. I paused the thing for like 15 minutes (I have a 7 month old so enuf said there and it just started playing on its own and then FF or REW or any of those commands would not work anymore on that channel. That was frustrating. Then it reset again yesterday once while recording.... yes opra show.
Our area just got FIOS like 2 months ago and they did install what the installer called a VOD router box that talks to the motorola box via the coax. Then that VOD router box is connected to my FIOS internet wireless router via cat5. He said all VOD requests go through this box. I use MAC filtering on my wireless router that they provided for the internet and I had to input a MAC address for the 6416 and for this VOD router box as well as all my PCs. I may be saying this stuff wrong cause Im new to the HD stuff but just trying to give info here.
On a side note I had dish network with a dual tuner DVR (I think it was called a 511) and I must say while the FIOS quality and price is wonderful, the DVR menus and things are not that great. It may be that I need to get used to it but I definitly loved the way on my dish network dual tuner the tuners were completely seperate and I had a swap button to swap between them. I could use them in PIP (the tuner did the PIP, my old TV didnt even have it) and they never conflicted on recordings. It was exactly like having 2 single tuner DVRs and that was perfect. I can also say that in the 1 year or so that I had that box I never missed a show because of the guide. You guys have given me some caution here. I would hate to miss a "LOST" episode cause the thing just "LOST" it. That would really suck. But hopefully they will improve it and hopefully I will get more used to it.

Oh and the most important "LOST" functionality to having this new FIOS 6416 is that I "LOST" my 30 second skip functionality. I would like that back. If someone knows how to get that back for me I would be very greatful. I loved that function!!!

Hope I gave some helpfull info in my point of view

I expect that the 6416 will improve with updates. The menu and functionality takes some getting used to, but in terms of usability actually beats the TiVo in a couple of areas. No, you don't have direct access to the dual receivers which kind of sucks. I expect the design philosophy behind that is that the typical human couldn't deal with that concept.

The 30 second skip is not achievable through the Microsoft TV software I believe. Luckily for me the HD-TiVo didn't have this feature either (at least not available without a hack). You will just have to FF. I have gotten pretty good at doing this and then hitting the Replay button the right number of times to start exactly where I want....

The 15-minute behavior you describe is half-way normal. The QIP only gives you a 15 minutes pause buffer (yes, that does suck) and then will start playing automatically. Trying to pause or rewind in this state will give you the little "not" symbol in the top-right corner of the screen, since it just won't allow you to buffer anymore. FF should work though, and I believe I have done this in the past.

Our box has reset a couple of times over the past few weeks, but I am hoping that is due to an update of some kind. No one was actively watching anything at the time, or at least nothing critical.

What I want is for them to enable the stinking SATA or FireWire ports for disk space expansion. 160g is not enough for HD recording.

In fact it would be nice if someone out there built a hardware network device that would pretend to be a SATA device but in actuality it was a NFS or Samba mount..

I called the tech support yesterday because of the dreaded known HDMI not passing DD5.1 and they were no help. I got some guy that said that that is the way its supposed to work and your TV should pass it to the AV reciever. I told him that so far I have heard of no one who makes a TV that does that yet. He was just trying to get me off the phone. Anyway he didnt know anything about motorola pushing new firmware to fix the problem but I have read in other threads that they are for FIOS but I could not confirm it yesterday so I dont know what to think. I think it really sucks that we have this wonderful digital signal for both audio and video and they make us choose one or the other but not both. Its like some little childrens lesson about not being greedy or something

I'm with you on this.. I'm guessing people are having the same concern that I'm starting to have.. I'm running out of space, and the dvr tends to fill up relatively quickly. The high bitrate mpeg2 feeds sure take up alot of space, and if you record an hd sporting event or movie + the dang commercials, you can only keep a handful at one time before the harddrive starts to fill up.. I'm certianly glad fios does have good pq, but it takes up alot of space.

Allowing the usb/firewire ports to accept an external hdd enclosure would sure be nice. Heck, I could just power it on for certain things when I wanted to watch them or record a certain show if the main hdd starts to fill up. I guess a switch to mpeg4 is the real answer eventually, but that doesn't look like it'll happen for a while. If HD content really does start to take off however, 160gig hdds are not going to cut it w/ mpeg2. I have never had a tivo/dvr before, but do they usually use 160gig hdds? I suppose the simplest/cheapest fix to this problem is start stuffing dvr's with larger hdd's, guess we'll see.

The HD TiVO has a 250GB drive. With D*'s low bitrate this holds a large amount of low-quality "HD" video.

I would also like to add a drive to this puppy. Two things that may be coming in relief of this for me are:

1. In the "spring" FiOS is supposed to turn on the networking ability of these boxes. Only one of the three in my house really holds the important programming, but the ability to network the boxes together will allow me to spread out the load and still be able to watch the programming on the big screen.

2. Eventually I believe VOD will be the norm rather than the exception. To the extent this grows over time you will have less reason to record something on your local hard drive, since you will be able to access it over the net.

I am all-in-all pleased with the QIP, even vs. my HD-TiVo. It has a lot of features and differences that I prefer, and then a few that I don't. I guess that is probably par for the course.

To add to the ongoing saga of missed recording events using the Fios DVR, I have had most of my problems with recording Lost. I try to record both Lost and Invasion back-to-back. Since they are on the same channel, the DVR uses one tuner for one and the other tuner for the other during the overlap phase. This should work in theory, and has worked on occasion.

However, what has happened TWICE now is that Lost will fail to record at all, and the DVR will display Invasion as recording TWICE... After the recording is done, I will see two separate, identical listings of Invasion in the listing of recorded programs. I am not sure if it has actually recorded Invasion twice, or just listed it twice in the recordings list. Nevertheless, it is very annoying that Lost can't be made to record on this DVR. Happily, I have a backup of Lost being recorded directly off my antenna using a windows media center PC which records it nicely in high definition.

Interesting what's going on with my QIP box now. I've completely stopped using "record series" after my previous post and have just been setting up manual recordings. However, last night I set the box up to record Instant Star on The N at whatever time it was on. It didn't record, so I figured I must have done something. Tonight, since it reairs all weekend, I set it up to record from 9-10 since the episode descriptions for the two episodes were vague. So I selected two shows to record, 9-9:30 and 9:30-10. In addition, last night I recorded two movies on two different channels.

Well, the two movies recorded without a problem. Instant Star, however, was missing again. Both episodes. And in a belated reply to a question earlier, yes, I know what I'm doing. Every night I check and double check the scheduled list. Instant Star appeared, as did the show I was having trouble with using the "record series" feature. As far as I'm concerned, if it shows up in "Scheduled Recordings" right before I turn the box off and go to bed, there's nothing I'm doing wrong.

Now that I can't even rely on manual recordings, this is starting to get frustrating. It's odd it's only happened with manual records for the same show on the same network, but there's no question that it was set up to record them and didn't. They need to release an updated firmware fixing this and the 5.1 with HDMI problem ASAP. It's getting tiresome being unable to rely on the box to record shows.

Not really an issue with the test patterns themselves, but I am having an overscan issue. My DVD's input into my set via component appears to be spot on for aspect settings, but the QIP6416 via HDMI overscans the image and I cannot get it set correctly. Even if I make changes in my aspect settings to accomodate it as best I can, the changes are global on my RPTV and it has an adverse effect on my DVD's settings.

In order, here's the images of
(1) what it should be showing
(2) what it is showing now and
(3) what it looks like with the best changesthat I can make.

I don't know if it's my set or the QIP that's causing the problem. Any suggestions?

With FiOS TV comming to my area (Murrieta) next week I need to know one thing before I order it. Currently I have D*TV with TiVo and love the search capabilities (Wish Lists). Is there something comparable with FiOS and the 6416?

Has anyone had any success passing recorded non-5C content to their PCs through firewire? I am only able to do it live, but not with recorded content (I've tested it for the same channels and shows). I am thinking that Verizon is causing all recorded content to be 5C. Does anyone know for sure?

The Verizon FiOS DVR (6416) has search capability and season passes. I don't believe it has the Wishlist capability though.

In other words, you can do a search (typing in the title, or part of the title) and if there are any matches, and the match is a series, you can get a season pass.

If you do a search and there aren't any hits, it won't let you save it as a wish list to record programs that might match the search in the future.

I could be wrong though...

Anybody else on "wishlists" on the 6416?

Could you pass the email address along to me? Maybe another voice may speed things along. No problem if you'd rather not.

I would like to bring up the issue with HDNet as well as a couple of other channel requests.

What confirmation that Fios Tv is starting next week? I have not been a to find anything concrete just speculation.

Verizon had a promo at Original Grazianos in Murrieta on Sunday 2/19/06 giving away free food to promote FiOS TV. They have it there already. Guests were given flyers on FiOS including the channel line up (same stuff found on Verizon FiOS webpage). I was told that FiOS TV is available in Murrieta now but not official until Feb 28.

Back to the SATA - doesn't that stand for Serial ATA? Has anybody actually tried hooking up an external SATA disk to the 6416? You can buy a SATA disk enclosure and 250Gb drive for about $130.

After a little investigation, the 6416 may work with an SATA II drive. Fortunately, the asking price for a 250Gb SATA II drive is around the same as a 250Gb SATA150 drive.

THere has been discussions on the 6412 thread in here about it. They have tried it on a 6412 phase 3 with sata and hdmi and said it didnt work. Also they said it was up to the provider to enable the port. Somehow with the support I have gotten from FIOS (almost 0 technical ability) I would say that they dont have this feature enabled. You can try it though and let us know if it works. I for one am getting real upset with my system. It keeps freezing up at critical times, pops up with stupid messages about recordings going on when only one tuner is used. Im thinking of going back to my Dish dual tuner DVR. Then content sucked and it wa much more expensive but the DVR was soooo much more reliable. And I had a 30 second skip. I miss that button sooo much!!!!

I have just gotten my FIOS TV installed w/the 6416 STB. Previously , I had a HR15 DVR , no HD, D*, hooked to my new HL-R5668 Samsung. It was S-Video. The image filled the screen even though it was not great quality. After setting up the FIOS, HDMI, the screen is compressed on the sides unless the image is in HD. I hooked up the S-Video again, and the image was crushed down top and sides and obviously, was poor quality. I tired component w/the same results. The tech said he had never seen this before and left. I have tried all set up options in the Sammy and the Motorola with no luck. Any ideas? Is this to be expected w/the Moto box? The options for aspect in the Sammy are only 16:9 and 4:3 now. All the Zoom and Panorama options are unavailable...greyed out. I have seen a lot of posts about bad boxs..........

I would definitely recommend the HDMI connection. Disconnect your S-Video cable. No reason at all to use it. Get your STB User Guide and read carefully the section beginning on page 11 "Optimizing Your Set-Top for High-Definition TV," paying particular attention to page 16. I would employ the procedure described at the bottom of the page to make sure your settings are automatically configured. You should be feeding your Samsung a 720p signal. The only aspects available will be 16:9 and 4:3. It is normal for your Zoom and Panorama options to be grayed out.

Are you happy with your HD image? If so, then your setup should be proper. On regular cable channels, you can manipulate the screen size if you wish by adjusting the 4:3 Override settings. The normal setting is off.

Welcome to AVS.

I would like to point out that if you use the HDMI (at least for my 6416) I have the same DD5.1 bug as the 6412 phase 3 box where I get no surround sound out of any audio outputs when I use HDMI. If you dont have a surround receiver then ignore this but If you do you will most likely find (unless you have some firmware upgrade that finally fixes the problem) that you will not get dolby 5.1 surround

Thanks for the info. I believe though I should set the STB at 1080i since this Sammy is a 1080p set... or shold it still be set @ 720p? I will check the 5.1DD w/the HDMI. Does it work OK if I use component? I downloaded the Moto manual and I think if I set the 4:3 ovrd to "Stretch" it will solve my problem.

Thanks again. This is a great forum.

The picture in HD is beautiful. I just want full screen in SD also! I hope this does it.

Interesting - I have my 4:3 ovrd set to 480p. It looks ok. Maybe I'll try "stretch" to see if it looks any better.

1080i sounds like the right setting for your Sammy.

My bad. I apologize for glossing over the fact that your Sammy was a 1080p. That is one reason it is difficult to give hard-and-fast advice on these forums because of the wide differences in capabilities of equipment involved. Still, did you try the procedure outlined on page 16 of the STB manual? I am curious to know what the automatic configuration defaults to. It should eliminate any guesswork about what resolution is best for you. Since you're happy with the HD picture, then 1080i is probably the way to go.


It is true you will not presently get DD5.1 when using the HDMI connection if your AV receiver does not have HDMI switching. In my case I decided to stay all-digital with the video and accept Pro Logic sound processing for the present while I wait for the price to drop on AV receivers with HDMI switching. Using component will get you your DD5.1, but I didn't want to lose in my case an extra 2.5 percent of overscan by going component versus HDMI. It is unfortunate we have to make these types of compromises.

I only miss one feature that mt TiVo had that my 6416 doesn't and that's the ability to switch antennas. I could watch 2 shows at once by switching and backing up if I missed anything important. If I use the last button on the 6416 it stops recording when you go to the other channel.

Oh, I didn't get an STB users guide. Did Verizon give you one when they installed? All I got was the Verizon guide book that has some stuff about the DVR but nothing on how to set the output resolution.

I managed to get two. PM me your mailing address and I'll drop one in the mail to you. I guess it shows how early in the game it is when Motorola doesn't even have the User Guide on their website to download. Verizon installers ought to be passing them out as well. Hopefully most are. Poster rpd indicated he downloaded one but I will be darned if I can find it. Perhaps if he is still following this thread, he can provide a link.

I found one for the 6412. I wonder if the setup is the same. I'll give it a try and if it doesn't work I'll send you my address. Thanks Bill.

Nope, the menu on the 6412 looks nothing like what I get on the 6416.

Can some just tell me how to get to those settings on the 6416? When I go into setup and pick STB options there is nothing about output resolution.

Yes, I downloaded the DCT User Guide last night and it was not applicable in all respects.

With your TV on and your 6416 plugged in and turned off, press the MENU key on either your remote or on the front panel. That will get you where you want to be. The following is verbatim from the User Guide:


Incidentally, I was fooling around with my settings recently and succeeded in "locking up" the 6416. I had to unplug it to restore it to operating condition. I am connected by HDMI and in that mode the TV and the 6416 "exchange information to automatically determine the best possible TV TYPE and HDMI/YPbPr OUTPUT settings." To cause the TV and STB to re-exchange information to restore the automatic settings, select RESTORE ALL DEFAULTS. Note that this only works when connected by DVI/HDMI. Press the right arrow key to accomplish the RESTORE ALL DEFAULTS action. I am sending your User Guide out this morning.

Thanks Bill, I appreciate the info and the guide.

The guide I downloaded was for the DCT 6416, not QIP. The setup menu looked the same and I was able to cure my problem. The solution was not in setting the 4:3 ovrd to stretch. This had no effect. In fact, no setting changes I made had any effect!!. I finally went to "restore defaults" and everything started working as it should. Screen fills with 4:3 content, HD set @ 1080i looks fantasatic, and digital non HD looks very nice also! When viewing HD, the side bars still appear w/4:3 broadcast, commercials etc. This I expected.
I went to some very high end component cables and optical audio and the 5.1DD works great. I will hook the HDMI up for PIP.
This STB appeared to be used. I went to look at some recorded TV last night and found that Super Bowl XL was in the queue! Not in VOD, but in the Recorded TV. The whole game! I am wondering if I will have more issues with this box. It may be a return.