Philadelphia, PA - Verizon - Page 12

Wow some goodnews for me, Verizon sub-contractors have been running Fiber down my street yesterday, I Live near Villanova and its great to see the trucks out there running the Fiber lines, There is a brand new THICK LINE also higher-up then the other wires, So i am unsure if my area will have a high compacity then other areas even here at work there isnt a THICK LINE and we have decent speed. I am still Getting Provisions here for 15M/2M. When is the upgrade to 20M/5M going to take effect? I wonder to how long it will take for Verizon to open-up the FiOS to my house and to be able to have an install date? Also I had purchased an outdoor Omni-Directional Antenna from Radio Shack, And i am getting great PQ with the only issue in my way is Tree Line and Wind. But the Antenna is setup Temporarily on a pole on my deck by the pool, I am going to have it mounted on the Chimney and it should be higher then the Tree Line or just at it. So I should be getting alot more Channels also and barely being effected by the wind problem due to it being securily Connected and all. Any Other Tips, I might be buying another Outdoor Antenna as well the same type and putting it at another location near the House and combining them using a power pass splitter so i can Power them both and have them as combined signals, I highly doubt ghosting or to much signal will be an issue. But if anyone has any advice on this please pass it along. Thank you. Also JWhip Thank you and sorry for myself being a pain in the neck over asking you for the same information over and over again overtime on here. It is just i was very anxious, Also what i am wondering is if i am on the Lower Merion Rollout service or Would i be on the same as you JWhip?

LMMolineux - Try posting your antenna / reception questions over on the Philly OTA thread- you'll get a much better response (your combining technique won't work as you expect): http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...9#post10535479. Also check out the HDTV Reception Hardware forum: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=25

LM I am not sure what you mean. Send me a pm.

this thread is for Fios data and tv service in the Phila. area right? So if data is ok to talk about here I wanted to ask about what the one poster 2 up mentioned about 15/2 upgrade to 20/2.

Will that be automatic? or a choice at an additional cost. Wont be worth it if its extra. for what were paying for 15/2 they should upgrade it to 20/2 at no addition considering 15/2 is no longer such a big deal or so fast. ESpecially in europe they have lots of isp's that provide higher then those speeds for less while here 30/2 is very expensive and seems to be mostly only for businesses/offices not residential.

Also I saw someone mentioning what seems to be a downgrade in HD quality. I have noticed this too and was concerned. Is it just as my neighbors on both sides and more on my street and neighborhood got fios the signal isnt' as strong? or got messed up when they installed my neighbors? Dis Verizon just have a good HD picture in the beginning to suck ppl in and now they downgrade once your under contract?

Also why does ABC HD sometimes have so much grain and noise. I know when it had some glitches during Heroes or Lost (i cna't remember) that my friend 5-10 min away had it at the same part cus he remember when he saw mine off dvr so I figured it was an ABC HD thing, in which case they really need to get their act together, that or just the cable feed all comes from the same place in the same area for both comcast and fios?

Also, while i used to call comcast all the time with their easy to remember 800 comcast # and complain when things malfunctioned which in my experience actually always resulted in a satisfactory fix and/or credit. I jsut haven't bothered calling Verizon. Part cus i dont know the # by heart and part cus i just can't be bothered and feel like nothing really will be done.

For one thing the DVR is really unsatisfactory especially when talking about the fact that there is no swap button which becomes very inconveneint and does freeze up quite often resulting in the series of button presses to all happen at once in a row a few min later among other problems. Comcast always had a swap button that i remeber for a logn time now and when they had similiar freeze problem long time ago with dvr boxes it wasn't as bad and has been remedied for some time. Seems Fios is still after all these months still in the early stages and suffering things that comcast has long since fixed plus fios isnt even smart enough to copy comcast with swap button feature etc. cus they are so busy trying to and claiming they beat comcast that they can't even seem to match them at some things.

Where is the HD on demand, still nothing after all this time is unacceptable. i am just not really that impressed or satisfied at this point after several months of FIOS.

CAn someone please explain to me exactly what really is better about FIOS when compared to comcast. I know the PQ is supposed to be better but truth came out that that is mostly for std chans and while some say HD was slight better most said its same and now we have reports of hD not looking as good so i wonder if comcasts isn't now better.

I mean i know getting into FIOS that the main benefit was better std def pq at the expense of losing swap button and HD on demand among other things. I thought then that the cons of FIOS when compared to comcast outweighted the pros as better std pq didnt' seem worth losing a # of other more important things but when with it anyway to try something new, thought it was slight cheaper and that it would get better an get hD on dmeand soon.


I was impressed and pleased with the additoin of the FOOD HD, HGTV, and Lifetime HD chans compared to comcast just getting the VS/Golf HD chan but other then that and maybe funimation chan which mostly plays the same stuff, i'm not sure that i would really miss FIOS at all or find the pq not as good if i switched back to Comcast. i really would love to compare them side by side on same tv from same connection at my house to see what if any difference. Unless Fios is noticeably better, it would seem comcast has the better working hddvr box and features.

As far as data well i know fiber is supposed to be better but i had a super fast connection somehow onc comcast cable modem for the lowest price because we were grandfathered in before they even had teired speed/pricing.

The 15/2 is fine but for you pay for it they need to up that to 20/2 at no price increase.

Quatre, if you are that disappiointed I would switch back to Comcast. I have none of the probles you do. The HD PQ looks great, perhaps you are just getting used to it. I have several recordings from the beginning archieved and see no loss in PQ at all. The SD PQ is no contest. I have no problems with the DVR. My Comcast box used to freeze up all the time. No such problems with FiOS. While I would like the swap function, I have no problems recording two shows at once and switching from the channel that is being recorded on the second tuner. The way the FiOS box works it that the first recording is on the second tuner, leaving the one you are watching available for channel surfing. This way, the swap feature is not really needed unles both tuners are being used at the same time. As for HD on demand, it will be offered some time this year. I could care less as I never watched on Comcast anyway. On Demand is way overated IMHO. That is what the DVR is for. As for movies, the PQ and AG on HD-DVD and Blu-Ray is way better than any HD on Demand movies have looked on Comcast that I did see. Voice your concerns with Verizon. The fact that you can't memorize thier service number is laughable. Write it down and keep it on your cable box or under a phone. Come on, that is a really lame complaint. As for the internet, for my purposes, the 5 mbs speed is enough. Don't even have the 15/2 and see no reason to at this point.

Quatre - I believe Heroes is NBC, but in any case I also saw the glitch on my DVR. Just watched it tonight. What are you using to connect the STB to your display? HDMI, component, or something else? I find it hard to believe that you are seeing grain and noise. Maybe there's something missing.

If you want to really get into the details of FiOS internet, check out the DSL reports Verizon Fiber Optics forum: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/vzfiber. There's also a Verizon FiOS TV forum, but it's a different crowd- more general purpose whereas AVS forum focuses on home theater. I'm happy with my 5/2 Mbps service.

CHeck out my thread at DSL Reports.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,18375278

Others in the DE / PA also agree with me that our HD quality has been ruined since the Sunday outage / issue. It's evident something was swapped out / replaced that is ruining the clarity.

Food HD and HBO HD looked like complete hell last night - and Movie Channel HD was having a grainy snow storm. I have a ticket open - if anyone else can call in, or use the FIOS Direct forum on DSL Reports - it'd be appreciated.

jeepmatt, You posted that there was a regional outage on Monday 5/21. That's interesting since I believe I live down the road from you and Verizon installed my service during that period. I was up and running before 4:00 with phone, internet and TV. From what the Verizon tech told me, my neighborhood was split down the middle for telephone service and Delaware Avenue (Rita's Water Ice at the 202 intersection) to Silverside Road was lit by the Talleyville CO more than 18 months ago. I'm a couple of streets closer to the Charcoal Pit and couldn't get service until May 7th. Anyway, just thought I'd chime in on this thread.

jeepmatt, I don't see it at all. HD still looks great to me. PM me with the info on your contacts and I will see what I can do as well if you continue to see a problem.

Chips-
The issue was actually on Sunday - it affected most of the Philly area. So if you got hooked up Monday, you're good to go - and luckily missed the problem. And yes, i'm serviced out of Talleyville. Glad to see you got hooked up!

JWhip-
I'm working with the Verizon Direct forum folks on DSLReports - I do have a ticket # open as well. But others on DSLReports - in West Chester and Middletown, DE - agree with me regarding the HD quality.

It's most noticeable on TNT HD, Food, HGTV, Lifetime Movie, HBO, and The Movie Channel. In fact, The Movie Channel looks downright awful - all grainy and washed out.

You can watch the channels just fine - it's just that they are very cloudy looking and washed out.

We are having none of these problems in Yardley, and checked just now by running through all the channels to see their content.

Well it's happening in Wilmington, DE - Middletown, DE and West Chester - so not sure what to tell you!

Be glad you're okay, I guess.

Does Verizon have any sort of roll-out schedule? I live in Haddon Township, NJ (near Cherry Hill, NJ). I've seen both Cherry Hill and Haddon Township both being areas that are going to get FIOS, but I can't seem to find out when that is going to happen.

-Dan

With jeepmatt's soft HD problem (sorry, don't see it here tonight), I was wondering if any of the HD channels broadcast a test pattern. I remember that someone did a while back, but don't know who it was and if it's still available.

I was thinking that it would be useful to record on my HD DVR and save it for calibrating my display. You can use FF, pause, etc. to skip through the patterns and hold where needed.

HdNet, isually on weekday mornings.

Hey all-

VZ actually called me at my home last night - they did some work - didn't realize the issues I brought up were there - and at some point late yesterday afternoon - the correction was made.
Food HD has that popping vivid look to it once again!

Have a good holiday weekend all!

Geek - another brutal Phillies loss. Ugh.

Either they are doing more work today - or things were switched back..

but the HD quality looks bad again this morning.

And last night here the picture was freezing and then jumping to catch up. Very annoying! Perhaps this is somewhat universal to the entire system???

I must be missing the pixelation. So far, nothing on the channels I watched today (WTXF-DT for Phillies). Will keep an eye out.

JWhip - Tnx for the HDnet test pattern info. Will track it down and see what it looks like.

No problems here.

JWhip - Did a quick search for the HD test patterns and it looks like they moved to the weekend. Next scheduled broadcast is this Sunday, 6:50 AM. Will setup the DVR as soon as it rolls onto the program guide. http://www.hd.net/originals.html

Just in time to get ready for the HDNet live coverage of the NASA space shuttle launch on June 8th, 6 PM (current status).

No pixelation tonight. In fact, the Phillies game on CW57 looked as good as Sportsnet. I noticed a new high-home (?) camera shot that was focused on the pitcher mound. I have no idea why they didn't pan back to show both the pitcher and batter- it would have been interesting to see at least once.

Jeepmatt, looking at your Broadband postings, it looks like you are still having the same issues. You are welcome to check out my set up as all the HD channels look great here. Razor sharp CSN, TNT, ESPN, HDNet, HGTV, Food, etc. I do not get any movie channels so I can't compare those.

JWhip-
Yeah, still awful (as of this morning) here in DE.

It's apparently an issue only affecting certain CO's out of the Philly headend.

I'm about at my wits end. The picture looked just awful this morning.

All dull, grainy, and blurry every time a scene changed.

Has Verizon sent a tech to your home to verify the picture quality? I'd insist they do that!

Does anyone know if/when they will be running FIOS to the Pottstown area? I looked at the google "I have FIOS" map, and it looks like the have N, W, SW, and S areas of the Philly Suburbs covered, but not the NW. If Coatesville has it, we should too!

were did you see this map
always more help to provide links to something you reference

is this what you were using...

http://www.broadbandreports.com/gmaps/fios

Yeah...that's the one I was looking at. I didn't link it because I thought I just saw it a couple of pages back in this thread.