Verizon FIOS TV service:

[SeaClearly]

Well as the title says I just got Verizon FIOS TV service installed today. They came and started installing it at around 8am and they just got done about ten minutes ago (about 8pm Eastern Time). Wow am I tired after this install as it took so long. For some crazy reason I never knew the internet service was available until now once I got the FIOS TV flyer in the mail. They had todo some prep work two days before the install so I watched it being done. They had about five Verizon trucks two days ago that spliced some fiber and ran it from the telephone pole to the curb of my house. Another crew with about 5 workers started digging to run the fiber underground from my curb to the back of my house where my power meter was. They just said not to touch it at all and let Verizon handle all of this. Once that was done at around 5pm on Tuesday Verizon had two trucks come out today to install an ONT (optical network terminal) and a backup battery. They installed a cat5e jack for my new internet connection as well. This got done around 3pm. They started to hookup my three HD DVR boxes and setup my computer for the internet with their DLink wireless router which is free along with the installation itself. They had a few problems getting the TV service going and that took them needing to go back into the service center to get three replacement HD DVR boxes with newer firmware as they couldn't get an IP address to get new firmware on it. I'm not sure what the problem was and the techs didn't know either as they were told what todo from the lead supervisor who was also onsite on the install itself.

Well now that I have TV service the picture quality is just stunning on both SD and HDTV programming. The best picture quality I've ever seen on any provider in the last ten years. They have an all digital lineup with tons of HDTV channels. I just looked at my lineup and here is what I get.

Im in the Tampa market by the way.

WFLA HD (NBC HD).

WEDU HD (PBS HD).

WTSP HD (CBS HD).

WFTS HD (ABC HD).

WTVT HD (Fox HD).

WTTA HD (WB HD).

WWSB HD (ABC HD out of Orlando).

I don't get UPN HD for some reason.

On the national HD side of things I get the following.

TNT HD.

Wealth HD.

NFL Network HD.

Universal HD.

ESPN HD.

ESPN 2 HD.

HDNet Movies.

HDNet (coming very very soon once a blackout issue is fixed).

Discovery HD Theater.

MTV HD (added today as a test channel).

National HD channels coming soon listed below.

InHD, InHD 2 and the InDemand sports packages such as MLB Extra Innings will be coming before the summer.

Food Network HD and HGTV HD will be coming when they launch and they have deals in place for them today.

National Geographic Channel HD is coming early this month and is in test mode today. They have a contract for this channel as of now.

Voom 15 HD suite is also coming very very soon from what they said.

They also offer HBO HD, Cinemax HD, Showtime HD, The Movie Channel HD and Starz HD. They also offer HBO On Demand, Cinemax On Demand, Showtime On Demand, The Movie Channel On Demand, Starz On Demand and Encore On Demand.

Picture quality on the HD channels just kills anything I've seen and the SD picture quality is what really blows me away. The damn OTA HD channels look better on FIOS TV than via an antenna and NBC HD looks the best on FIOS compared to via antenna. I was told that Verizon has a direct fiber feed from NBC so Verizon offers the channel in a high bandwidth and bitrate while NBC has to lower it so they can multicast their two other channels. This was what was amazong as I'm comparing my DirecTV antenna and Verizon FIOS TV and the NBC HD feed looks horrid on the antenna compared to FIOS TV. I'm sorry but I just cannot stress this enough and I'm just going nuts over this.

I also am ordering what Verizon calls their everything bundle which includes unlimited local and long distance calling to the US and Canada with all calling features plus the internet and TV services. The internet service is 15megabits per second down and 2megabits per second up and just kicks butt.

The bundle includes all premium movie channels on the TV side. My bundle with all fees, box rental charges and taxes costs at a regular price of just 196.48 and my promo price is just above 150 bucks a month for the first three months.

I get three HD DVR boxes, all premium movie channels, all HD channels, all SD channels, all premium on demand channels and the internet and phone service for under 200 bucks regular price so I'm stoked. I'm also locked into their no price increase promise until summer of 2007 (June to be more specific).

All I can say is just wow and this service is the best service to ever hit our area and I'm going to be so glad to tell Bright House Networks to shove their service up their behinds. Also I'm not sure if I said this or not but the TV service is all digital as well so that every channel they offer is digital with a digital box so I don't have to deal with that damn analog lineup. Also I had DirecTV before and Verizon's SD picture quality just ****es all over DirecTV's SD picture quality. SciFi on my 60+ inch screen is watchable now when it wasn't on any other satellite or cable provider that I had access with.

If you want to know more about this in case its in your area you can view it below.

My channel lineup for my area is below in PDF format.

http://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/Inclu...TampaLineup.pdf

http://www22.verizon.com/FiosForHome/Chann...sTVpackage.aspx

Also keep in mind that their everything package isn't listed on this website at all but its a specific package that must include the long distance to the US and Canada phone service, the 15/2 internet service and the TV service with all premium movie channels and to get this package at the price you must have "1" HD DVR on your account. Its a bundled package designed for pretty much a highend customer. Right now to get all of this stuff (internet not as fast, not as many SD or HD channels and with no all digital lineup) with my cable company Bright House Networks it would cost me at the regular price about 260 bucks a month so Verizon is a very big savings that is for sure.

[majortom1981]

IS the HD service compressed? From what I heard most carriers have compressed hd signals. I know Direct tv's and Dish networks hdtv is compressed. I have cablevision hdtv and from what I udnerstand its not as compressed as direct and dish. VErizon tv is basicall just rebroadcasting direct tv right? IS it the same service and is there hdtv compressed like direct tv's?

[TheWahbinator]

Come on go down south, I'm sick of Bellsouth+Comcast crap :crazy:

[P!P]

Awesome. I'm sure they only require minimal compression due to the fact it's carried on fiber. You don't have to worry about about signal loss or anything. Sounds awesome.

[SeaClearly]

IS the HD service compressed? From what I heard most carriers have compressed hd signals. I know Direct tv's and Dish networks hdtv is compressed. I have cablevision hdtv and from what I udnerstand its not as compressed as direct and dish. VErizon tv is basicall just rebroadcasting direct tv right? IS it the same service and is there hdtv compressed like direct tv's?

This isn't DirecTV at all. That is a marketing agreement to lower the price with a bundle. This is Verizon's own TV service delivered over fiber all the way to my home. Its all fiber from the Central Office to the back of my house so no copper or anything is used. Verizon has way more channels both SD and HD than DirecTV and I know for a fact this is Verizon's TV service as they just got a franchise agreement to offer their TV service in my area. I've started using the firewire cable and I've used a few software programs (cough cough) to extract an HD recording from HDNet and ESPN HD and all I can see is this information below.

Its in 1920x1080i for HDNet at a bitrate of 32Mbps fixed. That is what the file is that was recorded onto my hard drive on the DVR.

ESPN HD was in 1280x720p at a bitrate of 38Mbps fixed on the drive. I can only record about 10 hours on my HD DVR with the same hard drive size as my old Bright House Networks HD DVR which could record about 20 hours. So with the same drive size I'm thinking Verizon offers it in a much higher quality than BHN does as Verizons HD DVR can only store half as many hours as BHN. Also the picture quality looks much better on both HDNet and ESPN HD when compared back and forth between Bright House and Verizon.

Also Scifi is broadcast in 720x480p at a bitrate of 26Mbps and DirecTVs SciFi fee is no much worse than Verizon's and BHN analog Scifi just sucks. This is no run of the mill service and both SD and HD are vastly improved and so much so its obvious to the untrained eye. It is just that much better you can't even believe it until you see it.

[bangbang023 Veteran]

I've been hearing about their awesome prices and offerings. It's a shame they'll probably never get franchise rights here in Brooklyn.

[figgy]

IS the HD service compressed? From what I heard most carriers have compressed hd signals. I know Direct tv's and Dish networks hdtv is compressed. I have cablevision hdtv and from what I udnerstand its not as compressed as direct and dish. VErizon tv is basicall just rebroadcasting direct tv right? IS it the same service and is there hdtv compressed like direct tv's?

No way you are going to get uncompressed HDTV from any provider.

You need a 700Mbit connection just for uncompressed 720p

FIOS is a 30MBit connection with HDTV delivered as MPEG2 compressed video now.

And VC1 compressed next year.

[bangbang023 Veteran]

No way you are going to get uncompressed HDTV from any provider.

You need a 700Mbit connection just for uncompressed 720p

FIOS is a 30MBit connection with HDTV delivered as MPEG2 compressed video now.

And VC1 compressed next year.

yeah and directv is making the transition to mpeg4 as we speak.

[SeaClearly]

I've been hearing about their awesome prices and offerings. It's a shame they'll probably never get franchise rights here in Brooklyn.

I never did much research on this service and all I knew was that this was a brand new service and I was given a great bundle and regular price and that was enough to sway me to switch (after I saw the channel lineup of course). First I never dreamed the install would be this much trouble (I wasn't upset with it just trouble in how much work was involved on Verizon's part). Also they bent over backwards to make sure I was happy even offering a further discount because of the four hours extra wait on the boxes. They had a tech stay onsite during those four hours so I wouldn't worry if they would just call it quits and say they are sorry. This was their choice and I said nothing to hint I wanted this. That was customer service. I didn't accept the discount as I felt I was getting a great deal as it was considering the cost of service for what I got and the cost of that install. They offered to give me the movie package for free for 12 months. They were just great in everything and the picture quality was a pure bonus as I felt if picture quality was the same as BHN I would be better with an all digital lineup, more digital and HD channels plus more On Demand offerings.

This is just an amazing service and its worth every hastle it could cause and I don't think I could ever get rid of this service now considering the picture quality. For those of you who have HDTV could you ever go without HDTV if you can get it. If you answered No to this question than that is exactly how I feel about FIOS TV. Once you see the offerings and most of all the picture quality you cannot stettle for anything less.

[Stunna]

will the picture be that much better with the new codecs?

[bangbang023 Veteran]

will the picture be that much better with the new codecs?

Depending on the quality of your set, you may be able to notice slight differences. The real benefit comes in the freeing up of bandwidth for more HD content.

[Konstanov]

Thinking about getting this but I still got a contract with Directv for seven months. But I have everything else Verizon love how they didnt outsource customer service either.

[SeaClearly]

Thinking about getting this but I still got a contract with Directv for seven months. But I have everything else Verizon love how they didnt outsource customer service either.

I love that part as well. They also have a seperate FIOS service call center for FIOS only customers. I swear this supervisor was so nice and tried so hard to make sure I was happy that I almost wanted to ask him if he would kiss my butt and see if he did it. I swear they were that nice even with the small stuff like if the router was fine or do I want them to run an eithernet jack into another room. I will say this much they are trying very very very very hard to provide great customer support and its showing and its surely impressing me. I couldn't imagine any company paying a tech to stay at a customers house during an install for four hours doing nothing but waiting for other techs to get and bring back new boxes. Most companies like BHN for example would just say they are sorry but they must come out the next day with the new boxes. I don't even want to imagine how much they spent to obtain me as a customer but I won't ever leave this company ever if they keep this attitude.

[SeaClearly]

Also on a side note I did talk to the supervisor and some of the techs about the technicial side of this service and this is what I've been told. First they don't need to compress any channel but they do compress them so that DVR customers can actually record something and because the DVRs don't have encoders in them that must be done upfront before the signal is sent. He did say that the bitrate is about twice as high as Bright House Networks and about three times higher than DirecTVs HDTV programming. He also said that their SD content is about four times higher in bitrate than BHNs and DirecTVs SD programming. The quality does indeed look that much better.

He also said that Verizon unlike any cable company has two superheadends. One is in Tampa by the way. These superheadends take in all the programming via satellite and send them down their network to each fiber ready central office. This means that if one headend goes down they can switchover to the other headend on the fly without a service stoppage. Also the sunspots issue won't be a problem with Verizon like with cable and satellite companies as they can switch over to the other superheadend and back. This system is designed to give 99.9% uptime. Also they will always need todo maintance but they can swithover to the alternate superheadend while they do their stuff and rotate back and forth.

They also said that all VOD services and IP based services which use a little device called a NIM I think which is directly connected to "one" digital TV box and the other boxes are connected together via MOCA (multimedia over coax). They plan to offer multiroom HD and SD viewing in the summer to fall with Moca. Now from what the tech said and I can't verify this but he said when I start a VOD show such as one from Starz On Demand it would be sent as an IP stream as data so they will bump up my internet speeds higher and higher so I can keep my internet speeds. From what the guy said when I start a VOD service my total household internet speed is jumped to 30Mbps down until VOD is stopped. I will still get 15Mbps down on my internet as the other extra 15Mbps is only used for VOD use only.

He also said that they are using switched video technology so that only channels that are tuned in are sent down the fiber pipe so that results in being able to offer uncompressed SD and HD offerings if they wanted todo so and it allows them to offer an unlimited amount pretty much of both SD "and" HD channels. They would offer everything uncompressed if it didn't limit the DVR to one hour of recording but they had to pick a tradeoff and they felt that once they enable multiroom viewing the DVR space issue won't be as much of a problem. They are also planning on offering a DVR with a 300GB hard drive soon but they felt it best to offer the 160GB HD DVR than offer none at all for the next several months until they can get the new boxes. They will also soon support external drives via both USB2.0 and SATA.

This stuff is just so new and cool that I figured you all wanted to know about it.

[Jon 5]

All of that sounds soooo awesome. I don't have any cable or satellite now but would love to have it but FIOS sounds even better. Too bad it won't be available here in Iowa for quite some time (I'm just guessing since I kind of doubt Iowa is a real priority).

[Matt]

FIOS TV looks promising. I wonder when SBC will get off their feet and start delivering more services so Road Runner can also pick up the pace.

[Klownicle]

Sarasota, FL

Ill never get fios :( Sarasota is being *itchy about FiOS and where Verizon will put it, I have to move to Manatee if I want to get it. Good to hear them going out with it thoe, Progress is Progress! Can't wait. Thanks for the review! Sounds like definality gold.

[ROM3000]

SeaClearly, we had FiOS internet service installed in September and it is just awesome. Verizon did a great job with using fiber optic cables to transmit their data. Fiber optics are the future of technology and it looks very promising. We have 5 Mbps down/2 Mbps up and I don't see any need for more than that. The speed increase from ADSL is definitely noticible and we had 3 Mbps down/1.5 Mbps up before.

Verizon has awesome customer service. When the installer came to our house, he mixed up some wire with the backup battery, so the internet and phone service were running off the battery instead of the wall. I called them and they came in less than an hour to fix the problem. It was very quick and I was back up and running in no time.

We have DirecTV right now with only SD channels. Verizon definitely has some good package prices with HD channels, so we might consider switching when our contract is up.

Sea Cleary, after the television programming gets to the house, is it sent through a fiber optic line, CAT 5e line, or coax line to your receivers?

[AndyD]

I've been hearing about their awesome prices and offerings. It's a shame they'll probably never get franchise rights here in Brooklyn.

What do you mean by "franchise" rights? I'm hoping to switch over from RCN to this when it is available

[Rudy]

they should come to Canada....shaw sucks :(

[SeaClearly]

What do you mean by "franchise" rights? I'm hoping to switch over from RCN to this when it is available

Verizon can offer internet service without doing anything more than just installing the fiber lines. Now for Verizon to offer TV service they must get a franchise agreement with your city before they can offer you TV service. So because I'm in Temple Terrace now I can get TV service but if I lived say in the city of Tampa I cannot get FIOS TV service because the city of Tampa doesn't have a franchise deal with Verizon. This must be done city by city but work is being done to get statewide franchise deals similiar to what Texas has. Any customer who has fiber installed in Texas can get TV service right away without waiting for their city to deny or allow Verizon to offer TV service in their city. I hope this gives you some insight.

Sea Cleary, after the television programming gets to the house, is it sent through a fiber optic line, CAT 5e line, or coax line to your receivers?

It uses the existing coax cables in your home. Also in case you wanted to know I was offered a FIOS internet service offering that was 1.5Mbps down and 768Kbps UP for only 14.95/month but I wanted the 15 plan because I download alot of linux distros so that extra speed saves me tons of time.

[Jeremy1]

I wish Verizon served my area. I'd love to get FIOS.

I doubt AT&T will ever offer something that awesome. :(

[quick]

WOW that FN rocks... They really went all out to set you up, all those workers and days just for one house??

I wish i had this in my area, SBC/AT&T is gonna be the only thing maybe in a few years that will be similar here.

I wish i could get all those HD Chans you mentioned along with the coming soon ones... friggin DirecTV doesn't even have TNT HD yet (yes i know who owns that network). DirecTV is damn slow, we need more HD channels already!!

[AndyD]

It uses the existing coax cables in your home. Also in case you wanted to know I was offered a FIOS internet service offering that was 1.5Mbps down and 768Kbps UP for only 14.95/month but I wanted the 15 plan because I download alot of linux distros so that extra speed saves me tons of time.

So Verizon uses coax installed in a building to get their service to tenants? Makes sense but now I'm concerned. I don't think FIOS will ever be an option for me if that's the case as I think RCN has a contract with my building and I highly doubt they will let anyone else on that cable.

[SeaClearly]

So Verizon uses coax installed in a building to get their service to tenants? Makes sense but now I'm concerned. I don't think FIOS will ever be an option for me if that's the case as I think RCN has a contract with my building and I highly doubt they will let anyone else on that cable.

First I need to clarify a few things first. Now I'm a single family home so my existing coax wiring can be used for the TV service. Now Verizon is just starting to roll out an MDU (multiple dwelling unit) optical network terminal that is designed for apartment complexes and condos. The problem today is that the internet requires a cat5e jack and they are very hard to install in condo/apartment units and they are also hard to get the owners to agree to have this done as well. Now the new MDUs can use the existing phone jacks for phone service (as the current ONTs do today) and the existing coax cables for the TV service. Now the new ONTs can offer the internet service using the phone lines using VDSL2 and this can offer all service levels without a problem as it will still be fiber from the CO to the building so the copper from the ONT to your actual condo/apartment can handle all the data fine as its a very short distance. So that is the plan for apartments/condos.

Also the FCC doesn't allow any cable, satellite or phone company to have an exclusive contract with an apartment complex or condo. Even if your place has a contract that is exclusive Verizon can take that contract to court and win very quickly as its illegal to have this type of contract. Now that doesn't mean Verizon can access private property without the owners approval so with that said to run the fiber from the street curb to each building requires Verizon getting approval from the owner of the complex first. I hope this helps you out and also keep in mind that this service will only be offered to customers now and into the future if that customer has access to Verizon local phone service. If you don't have local phone service access from Verizon you will never see FIOS. Right now Verizon is the only company doing fiber to the home. AT&T has a project lightspeed that is fiber to the node which doesn't go all the way to your house and this service has a max limit of 20Mbps down for all service options. So that bandwidth has to be used for phone, internet and video services. The downside of this is that for an HDTV customer the system can just barely handle one stream of HDTV by itself. That means if its HDTV you can only watch one HDTV channel and use your phone. Internet service or another room of TV cannot be used at the sametime as one room is viewing an HDTV channel as they have no bandwidth left. That is a big downside to this service so this offering will be for a customer who has no HDTV sets with no more than three rooms of SDTVs who wants 5Mbps internet service.