Directv or Verizon FIOS

Status
Please reply by conversation.

siersema

New Member
Original poster
Feb 16, 2006
2
0
I see in threads where Directv is going to leased model and some people are getting new HD DVR H20 for free. I am in an area with FIOS for Internet service (awesome to say the least). Verizon has announced that they are going to provide cable/sat like service in video. Pricing seems to be very aggressive.

Does going to the D* leased model mean that I am locked into a 2 year contract? Has anyone switch to the Verizon video service and want to share their experience?

:hungry:
 
if fios tv is available, i've read lots of people going that way. Thing is, not sure how their dvr is and unsure if tivo 3 will work with it.
 
Also, to get FIOS, your house has to be re-cabled with fiber optics if I remember (very expensive). And if later on you want to change providers......they can't use the fiber-optics, the shared law only applies to copper.
But I'd love to read FIOS customers that are getting full FIOS....things do change...

Barney
 
What is it that makes FIOS so much better than any other cable system, or satellite provider?

Most cable companies are using fiber optic for delivery now. Ours does, and the PQ is still grainy and horrible. You put the signal on a HD set and it looks even worse, than a SD set. It amplifies the grainy signal and it looks pretty bad.
 
lou_do,

The cable companies infrastructure is based on a 100MB per neighborhood loop, so if everyone on that loop has cable internet, you will be limited (bottlenecked, neighborhood wide) to 100Mb total, at some point they are crammed into the cable companies CO, a bad thing if half the neighborhood is a warez/slingbox monkey, cable companies use what is called edge service (a form of caching) to mitigate the performance issues.

FIOS otoh, would be different in that the bottle neck would not be limited in that way, so no matter what the people around you is comsuming bandwidth-wise, you won't be affected at the neighborhood loop (because there is no local loop limited to 100Mb, the limit, if any would be at the CO, which has FAR greater capacity than 100Mb loop).

This is was/is a selling point on DSL, since it is a dedicated connection (like FIOS), otoh, cable internet is NOT dedicated (that is why one person with concast cable (for example) might get great speeds, while someone else with the exact same setup in a different neighborhood gets crap speeds) and before cable companies used encryption (and/or pppoe(a)) with hubs (not switches), one could get into a neighbors unfirewalled (at one time very common) computer, look at their shares, print to their printers, you could even change your MAC addy on your interface and pretend to be the gateway sending spoofed arps..which is why cable kind of took off a bit slow, security conscience people did not like pre-encryption/unswitched cable internet, and why dsl hung in so long...anyhow, hope that helped.
 
Last edited:
damaged said:
lou_do,

The cable companies infrastructure is based on a 100MB per neighborhood loop, so if everyone on that loop has cable internet, you will be limited (bottlenecked, neighborhood wide) to 100Mb total, at some point they are crammed into the cable companies CO, a bad thing if half the neighborhood is a warez/slingbox monkey, cable companies use what is called edge service (a form of caching) to mitigate the performance issues.

FIOS otoh, would be different in that the bottle neck would not be limited in that way, so no matter what the people around you is comsuming bandwidth-wise, you won't be affected at the neighborhood loop (because there is no local loop limited to 100Mb, the limit, if any would be at the CO, which has FAR greater capacity than 100Mb loop).

This is was/is a selling point on DSL, since it is a dedicated connection (like FIOS), otoh, cable internet is NOT dedicated (that is why one person with concast cable (for example) might get great speeds, while someone else with the exact same setup in a different neighborhood gets crap speeds) and before cable companies used encryption, one could get into a neighbors unfirewalled (at one time very common) computer, look at their shares, print to their printers, you could even change your MAC addy on your interface and pretend to be the gateway sending spoofed arps..which is why cable kind of took off a bit slow, security conscience people did not like pre-encryption cable internet, and why dsl hung in so long...anyhow, hope that helped.

Thanks, for taking the time to explain this. I see you talk about Cable Internet, is it this same method they use to deliver their TV signals, making it better than regular cable? Or is it that they deliver the TV signal via the Internet Cable?
 
lou_do said:
Or is it that they deliver the TV signal via the Internet Cable?

You're welcome, and you're close :)

Actually, they are one and the same, the 'internet' share of the cable uses the frequency range not used by the normal cableTV signal, much like a diplexor shares a tv signal with a satellite signal. Cable internet uses the preexisting cableTV infrastructure. DSL works the same way over copper, it just uses unused frequencies that voice doesn't use or need.
 
Barney said:
Also, to get FIOS, your house has to be re-cabled with fiber optics if I remember (very expensive). And if later on you want to change providers......they can't use the fiber-optics, the shared law only applies to copper.
But I'd love to read FIOS customers that are getting full FIOS....things do change...

Barney

This is incorrect. You do not have to wire your house with fiber to use FiOS. You can use your existing coax cable wiring in your house. FiOS is actually FTTP (Fiber to the premises), in other words, Verizon runs fiber to your house, and then it is connected to an ONT which takes the optical signals on the fiber and converts them back to electrical signals. I currently have FiOS phone AND internet service, and did not have to make any changes to my existing wiring in my house. I am anxiously waiting for their TV service to be made available in my area so I can give D* the boot.
 
Depends on exactly what DTV does.

Currently you can return all your equipment and be rid of the DirecTV 2yr committment (as always check your contract, it could vary).

Reportedly there will be a pro-rated charge with the leased equipment - but I guess we will know details on or before 3/1.
 
FIOS Update

Just to bring poeple up to date on my studies.

I had fiber brought up to my house several months ago when they first offered moving from DSL to FIOS. This was for Internet and one phone line. I had them install the box inside the garage (for security reasons so no one can tamper with my circuit). The cost to me was only $70 because I wanted a wireless router as well.

Now for differences. D* has 155 basic channels - FIOS has 180. D* has 31 movie channels and FIOS has 68 (HBO, Showtime, Encore, Cinemax, and Starz). HD is difficult yet to determine since I do not have the service installed and customer sales rep number is missing. PPV or on demand movies has yet to be explored.

You can see what they have for channel lineup for Southern California at http://www22.verizon.com/FiOSForHome/Includes/FiOSTV/SouthernCalifornia.pdf

I don't watch sports that much and can see that D* has better sports package.

Pricing for my package a D* runs about $110 per month for all movies, all channels except sports. FIOS looks like in the $80 range for more channels.

Would love to find out how much FIOS is in HD. Reading about other FIOS features, they are rumored to have ability to record 6 programs at one time on their servers for you that plays on any TV set with FIOS connection.

As to differences with cable, sat and FIOS - enough was said above. Fiber is going to be the wave of the future for fully connected and networked homes. It is only for urban/suburban areas and rural will continue with sat being the best solution.
 
^^^ That's unbelievable, siersema. I wish BellSouth would do this but Duane Ackerman (CEO) has said he's not going to invest in fiber optic. So it looks like the southeast US is stuck w/ our current options for a long time to come.
 
YankeeFan said:
This is incorrect. You do not have to wire your house with fiber to use FiOS. You can use your existing coax cable wiring in your house. FiOS is actually FTTP (Fiber to the premises), in other words, Verizon runs fiber to your house, and then it is connected to an ONT which takes the optical signals on the fiber and converts them back to electrical signals. I currently have FiOS phone AND internet service, and did not have to make any changes to my existing wiring in my house. I am anxiously waiting for their TV service to be made available in my area so I can give D* the boot.

Thanks for the correction YankeeFan. I don't think my area will be getting this option though. SBC/AT&T are very busy in my area (have SBC DSL)...so I think what we'll see here is IPTV....

Barney
 
I live in a FIOS cmmunity and have blazing FIOS internet. For TV/HDTV I'm sticking with D*. My reason - NFL Sunday Ticket and the FOX Sports Channel packages. If it wasn't for that I'd switch to FIOS TV, if for no other reason just for the convenience of one provider and one bill. Some of my neighbors have FIOS-TV and are happy with the PQ and the overall quality of service.

The sports offerings on FIOS TV are weak and for me that's a deal killer. If sports aren't a big deal for you, FIOS TV might be a good way to go.
 
YankeeFan said:
This is incorrect. You do not have to wire your house with fiber to use FiOS. You can use your existing coax cable wiring in your house. FiOS is actually FTTP (Fiber to the premises), in other words, Verizon runs fiber to your house, and then it is connected to an ONT which takes the optical signals on the fiber and converts them back to electrical signals. I currently have FiOS phone AND internet service, and did not have to make any changes to my existing wiring in my house. I am anxiously waiting for their TV service to be made available in my area so I can give D* the boot.

This is precisely correct. I have Fios for www and telephone. Love it. Everything I've seen about theFios TV offerings look good. Great DVR, low prices, good reliability, tons of Programming.

Another option can't be bad!
 
Last edited:
Barney said:
Also, to get FIOS, your house has to be re-cabled with fiber optics if I remember (very expensive). And if later on you want to change providers......they can't use the fiber-optics, the shared law only applies to copper.
But I'd love to read FIOS customers that are getting full FIOS....things do change...

Barney

I think you have to get a Fiber terminating device outside your house. Then it will be RG6 inside the house. I'm pretty sure Verizon is not pulling SM or MM fibers inside of houses.

To the OP, if you can get Fios with TV then get it. It's a no brainer. The bandwidth of the meduim (fiber) just can not be touched.
 
siersema said:
--SNIP Fiber is going to be the wave of the future for fully connected and networked homes. It is only for urban/suburban areas and rural will continue with sat being the best solution.

QFT. Once the actuall physical install is done, fiber just has too much going for it. It's inherently secure, want more B/W than the typical 10G that Single Mode will give you, upgrade to DWDM but keep using the same fiber.

Cable could have killed both E* & D* & be will on their way to killing the RBOC's (the Bellsouths, Verizons et al) of the world if they had just not did the half-assed buildout of fiber to the nodes instead of the premises.

Now that Verizon is doing this, all the analysts are doing their best to kill them, becuase they can 't see past the next 15 minutes results.
 
Barney said:
Thanks for the correction YankeeFan. I don't think my area will be getting this option though. SBC/AT&T are very busy in my area (have SBC DSL)...so I think what we'll see here is IPTV....

Barney

Barney, do you know how they plan to deliver IPTV? I live in the heart of BS territory & they are doing so trial tests of IPTV on the North side of Atlanta with selected employees. BS is trying to use DSL, but with say 19Mbs required for just one full rez HD channel, I just don't see how they can do it.
 
I work for Verizon FTTP and Fios is the way of the future. Competitive price for the Net, TV, Phone. I would def. recommend Fios TV if you can get it...
 
Last edited:
lovswr said:
Barney, do you know how they plan to deliver IPTV? I live in the heart of BS territory & they are doing so trial tests of IPTV on the North side of Atlanta with selected employees. BS is trying to use DSL, but with say 19Mbs required for just one full rez HD channel, I just don't see how they can do it.

Not real sure yet, AT&T (SBC) is doing beta testing in San Antonio now (they have been running tests with MPEG4 decoders for over a year that I know of). But they run fiber optics to a "hub?" & from there use cable to areas/homes. They will have to use our existing coax cable (only 1% of homes are wired with ethernet--a number I was given), wireless HD is still a dream, & how they will feed more than one monitor is freaking 'em out (my friends words). My friend also said it'll be around 18 months for this area...unless they work some things out faster....hope something breaks loose soon......
 
Status
Please reply by conversation.
***

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)

Latest posts