Any New FIOS TV Reports?

[timmac]

I've been watching for some reporting on FIOS TV service. Is anyone ready to report on the quality of service? How is the HD? Is it full resolution? Is there a DVR? How many tuners? Are they using tuners or IP? Is the report of 6 channel simultaneous recording truth or myth? Is there any report of frame rates? How is the VOD? Any info would be good. Thanks

 

[cdru]

You can find more reports over at DSLReports.com in the FiOS forum, but from what I've heard, overall reviews have been positive. There is a HD DVR for 12.95/month inclusive of HD programming. It has 2 tuners and I'm not sure if it has the ability to record OTA HD content. Locals should be in HD if available anyways so the usefulness would be limited. No SD DVR is currently available. The tuners use a combination of IP and more traditional "digital cable" technologies. VOD is IP based while the rest is not. The 6-channel DVR was more a myth then a reality as it ends up, but the DVR is suppose to be able to stream to non-DVR receivers eventually.

 

[drsiebling]

I just spoke with someone in the tech support office at Verizon and had a pretty in-depth conversation about bitrates and resolutions. First off, they are extremely competent in tech support. The guy I spoke with really knew what he was talking about.

So, here's the good info: They guarantee 1920x1080 resolution on all HD channels with bitrates above 13. That should be sufficient and, if it holds, will do a lot of damage to the likes of Dish Network and Directv with their new HD lite crap.

With a little luck, Verizon will start installing FiOS in my neighborhood later this month. If Dish doesn't correct their resolution issues and offer some compelling new HD content, I'm gone.

Anyone else in North Texas want to chime in with some info on the actual functionality of the DVR? How's the user interface?

 

[cdru]

So, here's the good info: They guarantee 1920x1080 resolution on all HD channels with bitrates above 13.

If he actually said that, I'm guessing he is feeding you a line of bull. Verizon would never "guarantee" anything like that as circumstances change. Also, what if the content provider doesn't provide 1920x1080 resolution (cough Fox cough).

 

[drsiebling]

Allow me to amend my previous statement. He did say that they were not going to down-rez any channels and will transmit all channels at the resolution that they are getting from the source. Currently all of the non-OTA channels are being sent out at 1920x1080.

 

[RScottyL]

I've been watching for some reporting on FIOS TV service. Is anyone ready to report on the quality of service? How is the HD? Is it full resolution? Is there a DVR? How many tuners? Are they using tuners or IP? Is the report of 6 channel simultaneous recording truth or myth? Is there any report of frame rates? How is the VOD? Any info would be good. Thanks

As mentioned, you can get some good information and reviews here:

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/vzfiber

I personally have FIOS TV, and I was the first in Irving, TX to have it installed. I am very pleased with the picture quality. I tried capturing from IEE1394 from the STB, but 5C is enabled, otherwise I would let you know what type of bitrates we are getting.

I do have the DVR, and it has two tuners. The only thing different from the Comcast version, is you can actually swap tuners with the swap button at the bottom of the remote manually. With this one, you just record something, and you can change channels with the remote. The 6 tuner thing is a myth.

As far as the VOD, it is very nice, but not much in the offering yet.