New York, NY - Verizon - Page 14

Sorry, yes, you're right about that. What I meant to say was FIOS vs. TWC is not a night and day difference.

While I still say that FIOS HD PQ is an improvement over TWC HD, I didn't switch because of it alone. Probably wouldn't have if it was the only factor. There are still enough compression artifacts with FIOS that bother me. Serious movie watching is blu-ray only. Service, $$$ saved, internet speeds were more important to me.

No troll here, I have been critical over TWC service in the past, but honestly there is not a big difference in HD picture quality, and SD pq is noticeably softer.... still I would not switch back to TWC due to internet, more HD channels, and lower cost.

God forbid people speak out about fios they all become trolls.
Maybe they should all be blowhards!!!

Recall lots of earlier comments, from FIOS users nationwide, just the opposite: SD being superior in PQ to other sources. Recall there are super head ends for different areas; hard to understand why NYC's would be worse. Here's a bit-rate table for FIOS (not NYC) someone posted earlier. -- John

Question: is there any way to utilize both tuners at the same time (i.e pause one channel and switch back and forth to the other)? I could do this with TW.

Overall, I'm very happy with the service. Internet is blazing fast and many more HD channels than TW.

can anyone answer this....... in the past when switching from sd to hd, or vice versa, there would be a lag...the screen would flash twice as it went from one to the other....then a few weeks ago when changing channels it would be immediate...no lag going from sd to hd..... all of a sudden it is now doing the lag thing again.....any explanations?

Sounds like the box is outputting SD as 480p and the lag you're experiencing is the box and TV changing resolutions and renegotiating the HDCP connection. I forget the exact menu entry, but theres a setting that allows you to stretch SD or output SD as 480p. I have it set to stretch and I get little or no lag.

almost, but not quite the right answer. Check your SD override setting un the video settup screen.

I prefer setting the override to 480I, but this leads to a lag when going from sd to hd. If you set it to 1080I it will upconvert your SD channels, eliminating lag when swithcing from SD to HD. The con to this is your box does the upconvert, rather than your TV when viewing SD. I prefer to let the TV since they usually do a little better job than the boxes. It also allows me to use the stretch modes in my TV rather than the boxes.

my tv is a pioneer pdp-5045 which is native of 720p........shouldn't i set the fios box to output 720p?

i want to understand this.......
just set box to output at 720p....set 4:3 to stretch, and the lag has dissapeared.....
question is why the handshake lag issue when the signal is still going through an hdmi cable....also, will the lag come back if i set 4:3 pulldown to 480i or 480p?

I just got FIOS installed on Saturday and so far I am very happy. I switched from Cablevision and the picture quality is much better on both SD and HD content. I'm using a Tivo HD on a Panasonic 58" plasma and I do find the SD channels to be a little soft, but much cleaner and less pixelated than they were on cable. The amount of HD content far outweighs Cablevision and I hardly ever watch SD content now anyway. I have run into a few issues with pixelation on only 1 HD channel so far. My signal is coming in a little hot for the Tivo (37-38db), so I will add a 6db attenuator if the problem continues. I'm using the Verizon Motorola Dvr in my bedroom and it actually seems really nice compared to my old Scientific Atlanta box.

Internet speeds are also a nice improvement over cable. I consistently test at very very close to the 20mb. Usually in the high 19mb range using the speakeasy test, and this speed remains constant when downloading from usenet.

I'm sure others like me watch this forum for news of FiOS in their area.
Here in Somers, NY (next to Yorktown) the trucks have been rolling 6 days a week to finish the fiber. I am hopeful this agreement will help my town sign their agreement soon.

From the North County News
http://ncnlocal.com/news/ncn_news1.asp

Yorktown signs Verizon agreement
By Anna Lillian Moser


The Yorktown Town Board, in a unanimous 5-0 vote, has agreed to a 15-year cable television contract with Verizon.
Dozens of residents, most Verizon employees living in the area, gathered for a public hearing on the matter Tuesday night, the majority of whom spoke out in favor of the deal. Many of Verizon's employees talked about the benefits of the company's new fiber-optic cable system, FiOS.

I'm sure you'll be as impressed as I am at its speed, said Mike Sheridan, a Yorktown resident and Verizon employee. A yes [vote] tonight is an investment in our future.
The franchise agreement - which took 14 months to negotiate - would allow Verizon to install FiOS cable throughout Yorktown. Today, only 45 percent of the town is able to receive FiOS. Under the agreement Verizon will provide access to the entire town.
Verizon would also provide four public access stations, giving the Lakeland Central School District and the Yorktown Central School District their own channels.

The contract also calls for providing all public buildings within 300 feet of the roadside with free installation. It would also provide Yorktown with $177,000 worth of grants paid in installations. It's up to the town, however, what to do with the money. Leo Sposato, Yorktown School District's director of communications, suggested that the town board look toward providing the school districts with funding for new equipment.

This is a 15-year contract; that's a long time, Sposato said, adding that technology changes rapidly and he didn't want the school districts to be working with archaic media equipment 15 years from now.

Not everyone at the public hearing supported the contract. Francis McVetty, a member of the town's cable TV committee, said that the town should hold off on the agreement until the entire cable committee could weigh in and that Cablevision, Verizon's competitor, could be contacted.
I think we should put this agreement on hold and see what Cablevision has to offer, McVetty said.

According to Councilman Nick Bianco, Cablevision was contacted but refused to negotiate with the town until the Verizon agreement was adopted.
Andrew Fisher, a Cortlandt resident, said his community was victimized by the installation of FiOS cable by Verizon. Fisher claimed that Verizon had subcontracted out the installation of lines, resulting in Internet, phone and existing cable lines being cut and roads being damaged.

I have no idea what type of compression each company uses, but I see little difference between Verizon and TWC HD. If pressed for an answer, I'd lean toward TWC, but the difference is negligible in my opinion.

As for SD, I find the Verizon picture softer. Whether that is good or bad depends on your personal preference.

Now for some bad news. I signed up for the Triple Freedom package and I'm now starting to regret it. I have had nothing but trouble with my FiOS internet service. I have a few days left before my cancellation period and I am strongly considering cancelling the package. I never had any such issues with my Verizon DSL. Your mileage may vary of course. But in my case I'm dealing with rampant downtime of my internet service, and that's unacceptable. Too bad, since the TV and phone services (after an installation hitch) have been fine.

Both my internet and TV-HD connection from Verizon have been rock-solid for the past month now. No issues whatsoever.

Yes, of course. It actually went down for good yesterday and it has been a NIGHTMARE dealing with Verizon tech and customer support in my area. Just incredibly frustrating. But this is nothing new to me. My former Verizon DSL service was rock solid but the few times I did have problems, it was always a struggle dealing with them.

Just to be clear, the TV service, which is what I assume most people here care about, has been just fine. It's my internet service that has been very problematic.

Here's a post by bfdtv, who compared his Verizon (Wash. D.C. area) with Comcast. He mentions Verizon stuffing fewer channels into each 6-MHz-wide frequency slot (his area), providing a higher bit rate/channel, and using a higher resolution as well. NYC TWC subscriber Berk32 has prepared a spread sheet mapping all TWC channels and frequencies so you can count the channel density/slot. Entering a STB's diagnostic mode reveals this information, and if the channels are spread all over the place Excel's SORT function should let you group data by frequencies.

Also, here's one method of using cable DVRs for measuring the average bit rates for programs by recording how much STB hard disc space they require. And here's bfdtv's bit rate tables comparing various SD/HD program sources on his FIOS.

It would be interesting to see how the NYC-area Verizon rates and channel densities/frequency slot compare with other sources. Currently getting both RCN and TWC here and find the SD picture quality quite disappointing. PQ-wise SD has been going steadily down hill IMO. Best comparison might be from someone who's also using a big-dish system, able to compare bit rates and format resolutions direct from sources versus one or more cable systems. -- John

It would be interesting to see a more up to date chart.

I just wanted to confirm what I am pretty sure was said earlier, which is that FIOS tv can be installed while simultaneously keeping the TWC Triple Play. Then at least in the short term, I can have both TWC HD and Fios HD running ultimately from my receiver, and have two separate DVRs.

Am I right?

Hello,
For all the people who switched to FIOS from TWC in NYC, have you noticed that during football games the animated graphics, and information screens on the broadcast look much softer? During the Jet Game on sunday I had to squint to read some the player names when they showed the teams roster. There are definate times that I think the pic on TWC was sharper. I am starting to think that maybe it is the horrible Motorola Box that is the problem.

^^^By DVRing HDNet's Saturday 10 am ET test patterns, or viewing live, you can see what 1080i effective resolution (resolvable detail) is being delivered by TWC and Verizon. Using this technique , I've found my parallel RCN and TWC subscriptions deliver about the same resolution . Using YPbPr STB outputs to a Zektor switcher. This measurement is only for HDNet's channel, but it provides a numerical comparison between HDNet delivery sources and STBs; display capabilities, such as true 1080i/p, are a factor, of course. Coupled with the channel density/frequency slot and bit-rate mapping techniques I outlined just above it can supplement overall PQ comparisons. -- John

I noticed the same thing too, on certain channels TWC HD content looked sharper.

I am definitely regretting "making the switch" Between the less than stellar HD picture, bad SD picture and all around terrible customer service (employees are constantly clueless), I'm not happy at all. I'll be going back to TWC eventually. BTW, Staten Island here.

Yeah, me too ......after my year is up!

Any news on whether this area gets MSNBC at year's end or if the Cablevision exclusive contract to it includes the HD feed which should be up by Spring?

for the people who are saying they regretted switching and "will eventually go back" - have you had fios for more than 90 days? You have 3 months to decide on whether to keep or cancel with no penalty fees. I'm on SI as well, I'm slated to get it installed in a few weeks - my brother in law has had it for about a month and he's got a 42" Aquos set - the HD looks stellar, basically crystal clear. The SD programming looked good too, definitely smoother but that might have been due to his stretch settings - but it looked a lot better than the SD programming I see on my old-school CRT Sony 36" Trinitron (HD capable).

I'm just wondering why you wouldn't just drop it now, why wait the year? I'd rather pay more and be happy than pay less and feel slighted. My two cents.

Well, add me to the list of people who regret switching. For those who haven't read my posts above regarding my issues, I signed up for the Triple Freedom FiOS package and have been having problems with my internet service right from the start. I know most people here are only interested in TV and I can report that portion of the package has been fine.

But in trying to get my internet service repaired I have had the most frustrating experience I've ever had trying to get something repaired. Customer service has been HORRID. Now Time Warner, which I switched from, doesn't exactly have the greatest customer service either, but the Verizon FiOS department has been tenfold worse. I don't know if readers want me to recount my experience in full detail but I've encountered a complete lack of urgency or genuine concern, generally inefficient almost stupid behavior, overt incompetence, and sometimes rudeness. After about 2 weeks, many hours on the phone, several days of leaving work early and one day of taking the entire day off just to deal with this repair, my service is still not fixed. One customer agent told me to read my Terms of Service and that it does not guarantee an internet connection that is always up. This was in response to the problem that my internet connection goes down every 20-30 minutes at least.

I often work from home and require VPN'ing into my corporate network. An internet connection that disconnects every 20-30 min is absolutely worthless to me. Not that this kind of internet connection reliability is acceptable for ANY paying customer. I still can't get over that one rep telling me to read my Terms of Service.

I always say this, but it bears repeating that your mileage may vary. My experience, for one, has been incredibly frustrating. I am now just past my 2 week cancellation period and I'm not sure what options I have in canceling my service (I signed up for one of those 1-year contracts). I guess if you are lucky to get everything set up perfectly, then maybe you'll be pleased. But if you ask me, I cannot recommend getting into any sort of contract with Verizon. Their customer/tech support is a headache you don't want to deal with. And you could wind up stuck with it for a year.

After 15 days there are steep cancellation fees, my negative sentiments regarding FIOS are being echoed by a few of my neighbors (Bayside Queens), although friends in Nassau county absolutely love their FIOS and would never switch back to cable.

So much for the promise land.