At last, my location got access to the latest in broadcast alternatives, and we recently connected to Verizon’s latest Fiber-optic FIOS TV. The waiting list in my state is especially long, so while I signed up last month, it wasn’t installed until last week. We had a 15Mb up/down FIOS connection already. (an exclusive service costing an extra $10 monthly) and have been pretty content with that
Installation to connect my TV was a breeze because I currently had internet with Verizon FIOS. The technician installed the cables by taking my existing coax splitter and splitting the signal before the router. The coax enters from outside the house, splits and runs into all the rooms, with one downstream cable attaching to the Verizon Internet Router’s Coax connector. From that location the router speaks TCP/IP over RJ-45 and supplies your home, however it also can display IP addresses over Coax to the DVR. (DVRs) that comes included along with your FiOS TV Bundle.
While the interface is really intuitive, in addition it comes with lots of innovative shortcuts that you’ll find while using it. When you’re watching TV, selecting the buttons marked up, down, left or right will take you those directions. (which serves as a timesaver) It is very easy to navigate to different modes. For example, pressing the up button takes you to the TV Guide split screen mode with the TV picture shown on the left, and pressing the down button takes you to the half-screen floating TV guide. If you press “Guide” a single time, it delivers the full-screen menu, while hitting it two times takes you to a split-screen. A small popup window opens when you hit “info” once, and if you hit it again, the information page fills the screen.
The DVR can store approximately 17 hours of HD TV or 60 hours of standard TV. (Similar Defintion) or whatever mix of the two you can take care of. It functions like any other DVR where you can mark every recording to be saved. (not deleted in an automatic manner) You may fix yourself in a queue with the last x recordings. It’s possible to choose just the latest programs, or every show, with reruns included.
The price for core package is 43$ a month. For this you get several DVR options ranging from standard HD, standard DVR and HD DVR. Cable was costing us close to $60 and we don’t watch enough TV to justify spending that much. Premium channels cost the same as with cable, most likely since HBO and Showtime set their own costs, rather than the provider.
Overall, I can report that we’ve been thoroughly pleased! The quality of the picture is outstanding, the set-top box works well, and I believe that Verizon will keep updating the boxes with the newest software features and even more On-Demand Movies. It is my opinion that the first month of Verizon FIOS TV in my state has set the stage right for its great progress. It is recommended over local cable if you can get it.