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FIOS first impressions

Discussion in 'Community Broadband & Computers' started by hornerjo, Nov 20, 2008.

  1. Mr. Linux

    Mr. Linux Senior Member & Moderator Forum Staff

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    Check your Windows Firewall; it's probably set to block everything and thus your DVR can't 'talk' to your desktop.
     
  2. Villager

    Villager Ashburn Village Resident

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    True! When I read this I remembered that the instructions said to set your firewall software to allow their program to work. You just have to add the .exe file to the firewall exceptions list.
     
  3. sri_n

    sri_n Member

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    Yep, that's the first thing I checked. It looks fine to me.
     
  4. Villager

    Villager Ashburn Village Resident

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    Huh. Sorry I couldn't help you out!
     
  5. Villager

    Villager Ashburn Village Resident

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    Here's something that we recently realized: We have an HD receiver in our living room and recorded a show in HD on it. While we were watching it we decided to watch the rest in the bedroom instead. We were unable to do so because the TV and receiver in the bedroom are not HD and the show was in HD. So just because there is a potential to watch recorded shows on any TV in the house, keep in mind that if it is recorded in HD then you can only watch it on a TV with an HD receiver.

    This isn't surprising, but it didn't occur to us originally.
     
  6. redon1

    redon1 aka Aphioni

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    we are going to be next in the fios tv and internet family- moving over from dish network and comcast, respectively. any other converts from dish care to share their experiences- good bad and ugly? any pitfalls we should look out for?
     
  7. volvo_nut

    volvo_nut New Member

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    Now that Comcast is charging to have a digital box at every TV, we are giving more consideration to FIOS.

    We've got 8 TVs throughout the house and garage making the cost advantage of Comcast disappear with the new fees. I am going to call Comcast and see if they have a counter offer before we switch.
     
  8. wahoogeek

    wahoogeek New Member

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    let me know how that goes. I have had great success in getting comcast to make a deal by waving the FIOS flag -- right now we pay $60 for internet and HD TV with movie and sports package.
     
  9. volvo_nut

    volvo_nut New Member

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    Why does Verizon charge to hook up TVs with existing coax?

    "Each TV you want to view FiOS TV on needs to be connected by Verizon. Installation is free for the first 3 TVs with existing coax connections"

    It is $19.99 per TV with coax already. What do that do, add an adapter?
     
  10. Villager

    Villager Ashburn Village Resident

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    The tech makes sure everything is hooked up properly to the network. Some people probably could do this themselves but many people probably need it done on their behalf. There might be more to it but I don't know.
     
  11. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    When you have 8 TVs you're going to be paying no matter where you go.

    You have to accept that you are paying for a service per station. Even in the pure analog world, you were SUPPOSED to be paying additional per TV. Most providers include a certain number of stations included in the base price (like 1 or 2... your FIOS example showed 3) but it's not going to be 8 :)

    Comcast will allow you to get some basic channels over analog still.. but you will need their adaptor box to get some channels, and a true STB to get all your offered channels.

    If your TVs have a digital tuner, you can skip the adaptor and STB, but managing the channels will suck as they are all over the place.

    As all services move to digital, either accept paying 5-10 per TV or hope that digital tuners will get you all the stations you want.

    For DTV... they rent the boxes cheap... required per TV
    For Cable.. you can get analog and some digital w/o a STB if you have a QAM tuner
    For FIOS.. you need a STB per TV. I'm seeing some postings that say you can get some channels via QAM w/o a STB - but nothing about analog support.

    So if your various TVs don't have a QAM tuner - you'll need a set top box for each or if you want all the channels you have access to.
     
  12. razng2grtboys

    razng2grtboys New Member

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    I love my Verizon FiOS, especially the 'Home Media DVR'. I can watch shows recorded on the DVR on any TV in the house. You just have to be sure that when you record from a HD channel that your playback is on an HDTV...if you're not sure where you'll watch it just record from a Standard Definition channel.

    I did just run into another gotcha that I'd like to share with everyone:

    If you plan on adding a 2nd DVR it cannot talk to the other Home Media DVR so you will only be able to watch shows recorded on that particular DVR. I didn't know this before I swapped my STB with another DVR...I'm now returning the DVR.
     
  13. GeauxTigers

    GeauxTigers Member

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    I thought Comcast ended this or is currently phasing it out and will require an adapter for every TV regardless requiring not a full STB, but a small adapter that does at least give you a remote/guide.

    My FIOS install required either an STB or an adapter for every TV. The adapter is identical to the ones I've seen in Comcast installs. It costs $3/month and $20 initial.
     
  14. Tech Head

    Tech Head New Member

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    I'm thinking of switching my Home Media DVR to a TivoHD. I understand Fios offers cablecards for Tivo. Anybody here using Tivo with Fios? What are your experiences?
     
  15. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    They are transitioning now - but it's mostly about killing off analog support. AFAIK you can still use a QAM tuner for digital channels - but having just tried that myself, I don't know how anyone could stand it unless there TV allows full programability over the channel mappings. I recently got a free Vizio TV and it discovered everything - but it was unusable due to the channel layout.

    And there are still a few (very few) basic channels on the analog band.

    Have you tried it with just a QAM tuner? I haven't.. only going on forum postings I found.
     
  16. GeauxTigers

    GeauxTigers Member

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    I just tried this and it works but well beyond the level of tolerance as you suggest. I downloaded the fios channel mapping and could navigate to each that was not encrypted. The auto-program seemed to work as well but unless you care to memorize the 6-digit number of each channel and how that maps to the respective fios channel, it's fairly useless, not to mention having to type in 7 digits (xx-xxxx) to go to a station is a bit much.

    I could find none on fios.


    Not until just now.
     
  17. volvo_nut

    volvo_nut New Member

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    I don't recall ever hearing that in either PA or VA for basic cable. This has been the advantage of analog cable, any jack in the house could have local channels and basic cable. Premium channels required a box. Well, that's all history now.

    I did a scan with my Toshiba TV and it found 46 analog and 78 digital.

    4 = analog NBC 4
    4-011 = digital NBC 4
    75-001 = Weather Channel
    80-001 = channel guide
    81-011 = Bravo
    83-005 = History Channel
    84-007 = SyFy
    85-009 = CNN

    It doesn't appear as though i can type in 84007 and go to 84-007 so I need to see if there is an alternate way to enter a digital channel number, otherwise its a climb up and down the lineup.
     
  18. GeauxTigers

    GeauxTigers Member

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    On my Mitsubishi there is a somewhat hidden way to enter the "-" into the number so you can go to the digital channels directly. While entering numbers, one of the adjacent keys will insert the "-" but it's not labeled as such so you have to either stumble across it or find it in the manual. I suspect your TV has similar. Check your manual.
     
  19. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    Go back and look at old pricing, etc.. you'll find fees for additional hook-ups, etc. They were just never strict about it - because they never had a way to be. But if they had to service your house, they would potentially bring it up.

    The move to digital helped the cable shops in this regard... forcing people to use STBs. Now in pure digital worlds... the window of opportunity just closed all together.

    They've always referred to your hook-ups as primary TV, and additional TVs.
     

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