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FIOS TV is almost here


KingCobra

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FYI, Verizon plans to start taking FIOS TV orders in less than a week.  December 1st was the original target date but after I spoke with them today, it has been pushed a week.  So, for those of you already on FIOS Internet, you'll have something else to consider soon.

The channel lineup and pricing looks good, but I see a problem with their HD DVR offering.  They are currently using Motorola 6400 Series HD DVR's that have 160gig hard drives.  You can fill 160gig fast so they have a capacity issue that needs to be addressed.  An easy solution would be to enable the firewire port on the DVR and allow external hard drive enclosures.  Some of the cable providers permit this, although many do not.

Pricing is at http://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/Channels/FiosTV/FiosTVpackage.aspx

The channel lineup is at http://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/Channels/FiosTV/channel.aspx

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I am interested to see how Verizon's IPTV works out.

I Currently have IPTV though Surewest's FTTH (fios) triple-play solution and the quality is so-so. For low motion scenes the quality is pretty much perfect. For high motion (like sporting events) it is horrible with lots of video artifacts (mostly ringing along the edges but some blocking as well). Surewest's target date was November 2005 to roll out HDTV over IPTV (which they have been testing for awhile now) which means they should release it any day now. Citing the quality problems with the current SDTV I am unsure if they can get the crystal-clear HDTV right but I will give it a shot when it is available.

For this new Verizon IPTV solution I would recommend to hold off until you see that there is positive feedback from people that have a large or HDTV. If you have a normal SDTV then it most likely won't pick up any quality imperfections so you don't have much to worry about. Big-Screen TVs and HDTVs will usually pick up every detail and imperfection so problems become more noticeable especially if you watch a lot of mpeg4 (xvid/divx) or lower bitrate mpeg2 (not full-quality 8Mbps DVD-9 Mpeg2) and are more sensitive to video artifacts.

Edit

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http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6286136.html?&display=Features&referral=SUPP

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/70006

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  • 2 weeks later...

Damn the extended basic id quite of a deal 34.99 it is better that the deal i get from dish network dish gives you a lot of channels but most of them are crap like 5or 6 espn or 50 cd channels this offers only the channels i want

im just wondering if they will not only take cable but sattalite as well

also does anyone know if they can beat sattaliete deal of 3 or 4 recievers for free as long as you make a one or two year contract

man this would be awosome if it takes off

they need to come to austin,tx after all we are the most wired placed in the usa according to some magazine

but if your a spanish guy i would stick with dish network's dish lationo dos you cant beat that

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Yea, it's available for my house but I haven't ordered it yet.  I need to call their technical support and chat with them about my static plan.  Apparently they are clueless about routing and ip addressing.  Supposedly the FIOS TV service only works with the dynamic residential plans.  I seriously doubt that, but I need to talk with someone that knows what they are talking about.

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I live in Flower Mound and went to the Fios TV site today.  I plugged in my phone number and it popped back a message that said "Congratulations you qualify for Fios TV".  I'm going to call this morning and see what they say.  I would be surprised if they have it available since I've seen nothing in the mail.  I would expect a big campaign to get new subscribers.

I'll let you know what they say.

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Well, I just called.  It is available and ready to set up in Flower Mound.  I had the girl on the phone lay out the price structure for me and it looks like I'll be able to get everything, e.g., all HBO's, MC, Showtime, CMX, Starz, Encore, etc.  plus a DVR for LESS then I pay now with Comcast with NO DVR!  and that's not on a limited time introductory offer.  Looks like I'll be switching.  I'll let you know how that goes.

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I had mine installed on the 24th. I was prewired and it still took them over 3 hours. They left at 9PM. My installers were not too savvy on the components I had...that's what took so long. I had dishnetwork and the HD is much more stable with FIOS. I have 3 HDDVR's and 1 standard. The remote functioning is not quite as good as dishnetwork's but I'm happy with it so far.

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I had mine installed on the 24th. I was prewired and it still took them over 3 hours. They left at 9PM. My installers were not too savvy on the components I had...that's what took so long. I had dishnetwork and the HD is much more stable with FIOS. I have 3 HDDVR's and 1 standard. The remote functioning is not quite as good as dishnetwork's but I'm happy with it so far.

Doesn't the inside cable just plug straight into the Fios ONT?  Was all that time spent on dealing with your components?  They didn't need to run new cabling in the house did they?

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Yes the inside and outside line plugs into the ONT and no they didn't have to rewire. My install team was not as good as the one that put the internet in. They left trash around and where they brought everything together in the attic they left the wiring and connector laying on the floor...not very professional. Most of the time was spent trying to get my Mitsubishi DLP and Panasonic plasma running. I eventually had to help them when I noticed the work came to a stop. In all fairness to them that portion of their job must be the most difficult. But when asked the question of why they were hooking up an S connection to the TV's...their response was that it gives you the best signal....... I told them to hook up the component cables.

They added 2 unexpected new components during the install....a D-Link VDSS-5+ ethernet switch and a Motorola network interface module which plug into your existing router. Make sure you have enough room for 2 more transformers at your power strip.

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