Do you have fios?

[mommylamb]

DH and I are thinking of switching from our cable provider to verizon fios. Anyone out there have fios? What do you think of it?

Also, I know you can get the full house DVR, where the DVR is on one of the TVs, but you can watch things you've DVRed on your other TVs. do you also have to have some sort of box for your other TVs then? And, does that mean you can watch thing on demand from any TV, or just the TV with the master DVR?

We've been having lots of problems with cable lately, and I think we would get faster internet with fios than what we have now.

I'm just frustrated by the whole TV thing because we rarely watch TV at all, but DH is a soccer fan (he's British, so it's football in our house), and we have to get Fox Soccer and Fox Soccer plus, which means we end up having to buy a higher level package just for that, even though it's pretty much the only TV that's ever really on in the house.

[infomama]

I know a few here have it. I am considering it but I am afraid the 'true cost' is going to much more than the advertised $79 bucks (or whatever it is) a month for TV and internet.

[wellyes]

I have FIOS. To have multi-room DVR use, you have to have a set-top box for each TV. But only one box needs to be the fancy DVR one. The others can "read" from it (but, obviously, can't record stuff).

Not sure about On Demand. We only have 1 TV we use regularly --- the other is in the basement with a treadmill --- so we ended up returning the (free trial) set-top box for it before I tried that.

The price we got is $89/month for cable and internet for two years with six month of free set-top boxes for each TV including one with DVR. I also have a verizon cell phone and got the slightly better price because of that. I do not have a landline from Verizon.

Anyway, the service is fine. It looks good. We didn't have HD before so it's definitely a visual improvement. I picked FIOS because it gave me 4x the channels of the other cable option for the same price, but honestly I still only watch the same old channels I used to.

[SnuggleBuggles]

We have it. Bought it in December. We had to remember to call and cancel all the extras that they gave us when we joined b/c they were pricey!

We have the home media option that allows us to watch DVR'ed shows from any tv. That would be nice if only our main tv weren't HD while the tv in my room is not. That means any show we record in HD downstairs can not be watched upstairs unless I remember to record in non-HD. It is nice to be able to watch On Demand things. I whipped my room into the best shape ever over the holidays because I watched all of season 1 of True Blood On Demand in my room. No one bugged me because I was working. :) eta- we have a read only unit, not a full DVR, in our room. I didn't realize that and was getting so annoyed that I couldn't rewind my show that I was watching live!

Btw, the only reason we have cable is because of dh's love of sports. He wanted the sports' channels that are only available on cable...and he wanted them in HD. They do look great!

We already had Verizon for phone and internet but we just had DSL for internet. The Fios is a lot faster and a lot more expensive (it had been $14/ month). So, we have the triple play package. The cost is pretty equal, maybe a bit less, than what we were paying for the DirecTV + Tivo, phone and internet that we had before.

I hate the DVR on FIOS and will be happy to ditch it sometime. But, it really does work fine, I just preferred Tivo.

Beth

[wellyes]

I hate the DVR on FIOS and will be happy to ditch it sometime. But, it really does work fine, I just preferred Tivo.

Tell me about it. One my free DVR trial is up, I'm back to TIVO in a heartbeat. Even though it means I'll have to pay a couple hundred bucks to upgrade since my old Tivo is Series2 (too old). I hate the FIOS DVR just that much.

[mommylamb]

We have 3 TVs in our house (a 3 floor townhouse), one downstairs in our "den", one on the main level in our family room/kitchen area, and one in our bedroom. Right now with Cox cable, the only room we have the DVR or on demand capacity is our den TV, and I would really love to get on demand on the family room TV so that DS can watch sprout shows while I'm in the kitchen.

ETA: what's wrong with the fios DVR? I've never had Tivo, so I'm not used to it, so maybe I won't hate the Fios one so much. Right now we have a DVR through the cable company.

[wellyes]

I think the cost of set-top boxes is about $10-$15 / month (based on features) so just factor one that into the monthly cost when doing your comparisons.

I've only had TIVO and the FIOS DVR so I can't say for sure how the FIOS one compares to other cable DVRs. Things I don't like about the FIOS one:
1. You can tell it to record shows only shows that are currently scheduled. You can't say "whenever Top Chef starts up again, record that".
2. It dumbly records multiple showings of the same program. I get Glee on the regular day plus the same episode during its "encore" over the weekend. Which woudln't matter but.....
3. It only appears to be able to record about 15 hours of HDTV, very small capacity especially if you record sports which run long. My DVR is now about 80% stanley cup playoffs
4. You can't record some stuff 'best quality' (like, say, sports) and other stuff "low quality" (like, say, Jon Stewart) to save space.
5. You can't retrieve accidentally deleted programs like you can with the tivo
6. It doesn't know what channels you have. You could search for a movie, tell it to record it, and it'll *say* it's going to do it but it'll just record the "YOU DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THIS CHANNEL" screen for two hours.
7. The interface is slow and clunky and difficult compared to Tivo
8. It annoys me that the DVR and On Demand don't talk to one another. I have the DVR set up to record, for example, "Parenthood". Kind of a waste of time and space since that whole series is available on demand- new episodes appear next day. Not a big deal, just irritating.

When I had Tivo I watched 100% of TV through the Tivo. I never watched live TV. FIOS is set up for people who watch live TV and On Demand most of the time with occasional DVR use.

[TwinFoxes]

I have it and love it. This earlier thread may help.
http://www.windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=354432&highlight=Fios

[Cam&Clay]

Love Verizon Fios. Hate the DVR. As a former Tivo user, I cringe every time I use the DVR.

[hillview]

We have had FIOS for about a year. We had comcast before that. The speed is about the same but it is much more reliable -- Comcast had periodic issues. We don't have DVR.
/hillary

[cuca_]

Things I don't like about the FIOS one:
1. You can tell it to record shows only shows that are currently scheduled. You can't say "whenever Top Chef starts up again, record that".

You can do this with FIOS. You have to select record series when you schedule a recording and it will record the series whenever it comes on, so it goes from season to season.


2. It dumbly records multiple showings of the same program. I get Glee on the regular day plus the same episode during its "encore" over the weekend. Which woudln't matter but.....


If you go to series options you can select first run only, and it will only record new episodes. You can also change this in the setting selection and it will apply it to all shows.


3. It only appears to be able to record about 15 hours of HDTV, very small capacity especially if you record sports which run long. My DVR is now about 80% stanley cup playoffs
4. You can't record some stuff 'best quality' (like, say, sports) and other stuff "low quality" (like, say, Jon Stewart) to save space.
5. You can't retrieve accidentally deleted programs like you can with the tivo
6. It doesn't know what channels you have. You could search for a movie, tell it to record it, and it'll *say* it's going to do it but it'll just record the "YOU DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THIS CHANNEL" screen for two hours.
7. The interface is slow and clunky and difficult compared to Tivo
8. It annoys me that the DVR and On Demand don't talk to one another. I have the DVR set up to record, for example, "Parenthood". Kind of a waste of time and space since that whole series is available on demand- new episodes appear next day. Not a big deal, just irritating.

When I had Tivo I watched 100% of TV through the Tivo. I never watched live TV. FIOS is set up for people who watch live TV and On Demand most of the time with occasional DVR use.

I agree that it has a very small capacity. We just got a 2nd DVR, because DHs sporting events take up too much of the limited space we have available.

Oh, and I prefer to DVR the series available On Demand, because you are no longer allowed to forward, rewind or pause while watching FIOS on Demand, and these are essential features for me!

Oh, and to the OP, we have had FIOS for a long time, and are pretty happy with it. This is the first DVR we've had, and it works fine. Our biggest complaint is the capacity.

HTH

[wellyes]

Things I don't like about the FIOS one:
1. You can tell it to record shows only shows that are currently scheduled. You can't say "whenever Top Chef starts up again, record that".
You can do this with FIOS. You have to select record series when you schedule a recording and it will record the series whenever it comes on, so it goes from season to season.
If the show is currently on the air, it may save the season pass, but I haven't been able to find -- for example -- So You Think You Can Dance. It starts in the summer. Not in the search menu. Hmmmm...... maybe I coudl do a keyword thing so that it'll maybe figure it out when the time comes?

I just wanted to just transfer all my tivo shows so I don't have to watch commercials to see when stuff starts.


2. It dumbly records multiple showings of the same program. I get Glee on the regular day plus the same episode during its "encore" over the weekend. Which woudln't matter but.....
If you go to series options you can select first run only, and it will only record new episodes. You can also change this in the setting selection and it will apply it to all shows.Yah but I want reruns (missed a few) just not the reruns it recorded a few days ago. Tivo knew the difference.


OK, so here's another example. I have it set to record Bones reruns, but I've seen a bunch of them. So I manually go through the 'scheduled recordings' like once a week canceling about 1/2 the recordings (based on description). But it always records a few of the ones I didn't want anyway. It's being proactive I guess? Or I just have an unusually dumb one, I don't know.

Obviously none of this is tragic or anything. I just got spoiled with Tivo.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Oh, and I prefer to DVR the series available On Demand, because you are no longer allowed to forward, rewind or pause while watching FIOS on Demand, and these are essential features for me!

Oh, and to the OP, we have had FIOS for a long time, and are pretty happy with it. This is the first DVR we've had, and it works fine. Our biggest complaint is the capacity.

HTH

I have found that the On Demand features available vary but what network the show is from. I can pause HBO stuff, fast forward Bravo things...but there is no rhyme or reason.

It was a sad day that I realized the skimpy capacity. We had been recording the Olympics. One day I checked my now playing list, which had all the shows we had been recording while the Olympics were on and planning to watch when they were over, and all my shows were gone. :( I now pay close attention to the % and delete when needed.

Beth

[maestramommy]

Our here we have a choice of Comcast, or Fairpoint. When we were making our decision the main factor was price. Fairpoint offered a lower price for higher speed. We've been very satisfied with the service.

[cuca_]

If the show is currently on the air, it may save the season pass, but I haven't been able to find -- for example -- So You Think You Can Dance. It starts in the summer. Not in the search menu. Hmmmm...... maybe I coudl do a keyword thing so that it'll maybe figure it out when the time comes?

I just wanted to just transfer all my tivo shows so I don't have to watch commercials to see when stuff starts.

Yah but I want reruns (missed a few) just not the reruns it recorded a few days ago. Tivo knew the difference.


OK, so here's another example. I have it set to record Bones reruns, but I've seen a bunch of them. So I manually go through the 'scheduled recordings' like once a week canceling about 1/2 the recordings (based on description). But it always records a few of the ones I didn't want anyway. It's being proactive I guess? Or I just have an unusually dumb one, I don't know.

Obviously none of this is tragic or anything. I just got spoiled with Tivo.

Oh, I see. You are right. Mine is as dumb as yours!