FiOS on the way

[beetsnotbeats]

Now this is comcastic.
 
 The Montgomery and Prince George's county councils approved agreements yesterday allowing Verizon Communications Inc. to begin selling its fiber-optic television service, ushering in competition and the possibility of lower prices for thousands of cable viewers in suburban Maryland.
 
 The company said it plans to begin offering its FiOS television service by the end of this month in parts of Montgomery and to portions of Prince George's in January.

[eros]

I've had it for a few months and can wholeheartedly recommend it.  The whole package saves me about $15 per month, plus I now have a 15 megabit connection.
 
 The only drawback is the DVR they use - it's not quite as nice as Tivo.

[chaz]

I went from comcast to fios and as much as I hate to say it, as soon as i'm eligable for "new customer" discounts again, i'm going back to comcast.  Picture quality is somewhat better on Fios and programming is about equal.  But I do have two huge beefs with Fios:
 
 The DVR totally sucks.  Hard drive is too small, don't really care for the interface, but mostly the IR recievers on the damn box are just weak.  You have to be right in front of the damn thing for it to register a command, whether with the supplied remote or the universal I use.  This is a fairly common complaint with these motorola boxes.
 
 Secondly, I hate that in order to get more than the local channels and a few others (TBS and a few spanish stations) you have to have a cable box.  With comcast just plug it in and you've got 1-99.
 
 The on demand offerings are pretty weak too.  On the upside, they do have MTV HD if you want to watch Fall Out Boy or Missy Elliot in concert 20 times a week.
 
 I really wanted to love Fios TV but now I'm just waiting to switch back.  Dig the Internet service though.  Fast, cheap and rock solid.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by eros:
  The only drawback is the DVR they use - it's not quite as nice as Tivo.

Originally posted by Señor Carlos:
  The DVR totally sucks.  Hard drive is too small, don't really care for the interface, but mostly the IR recievers on the damn box are just weak.  

TiVo Series 3 is FiOS compatible.

[HoyaSaxa03]

i take it this isn't available in DC?

[chaz]

Originally posted by vansmack:
   

Originally posted by eros:
  The only drawback is the DVR they use - it's not quite as nice as Tivo.

Originally posted by Señor Carlos:
  The DVR totally sucks.  Hard drive is too small, don't really care for the interface, but mostly the IR recievers on the damn box are just weak.  

TiVo Series 3 is FiOS compatible. [/b]

But costs about about a grand, right?
 This is interesting though...when you say it's compatible does that mean it can totally replace my fios cable box?

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Señor Carlos:
  But costs about about a grand, right?

Something like that - $800 plus a service fee.
 
 

Originally posted by Señor Carlos:
 
 This is interesting though...when you say it's compatible does that mean it can totally replace my fios cable box?

Yes.  You would get a cable card rom Verizon instead, stick that in your TiVo and operate FiOS TV via TiVo remote.

[chaz]

Originally posted by vansmack:
   

Originally posted by Señor Carlos:
  But costs about about a grand, right?

Something like that - $800 plus a service fee.
 
   

Originally posted by Señor Carlos:
 
 This is interesting though...when you say it's compatible does that mean it can totally replace my fios cable box?

Yes.  You would get a cable card rom Verizon instead, stick that in your TiVo and operate FiOS TV via TiVo remote. [/b]

Yeah i did a little research and cable cards are 2.95/month, but no VOD and no on screen guide with the card, so that kind of kills it for me.
 
 I did just accept a new job today though with my first ever signing bonus...there's gotta be something I can spend that money on.....

[HoyaSaxa03]

Originally posted by Señor Carlos:
 ... no on screen guide with the card, so that kind of kills it for me.

the tivo GUI is infinitely better than any on screen guide

[chaz]

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
   

Originally posted by Señor Carlos:
 ... no on screen guide with the card, so that kind of kills it for me.

the tivo GUI is infinitely better than any on screen guide [/b]

So Tivo downloads program info for whatever provider you have?  This is getting intriguing, though the VOD thing is a drag and I'm reading lots of chatter about problems with the Fios cable card in the Tivo box getting along.  
 
 Oh well, another thing to occupy my gear fetish.

[eros]

Originally posted by Señor Carlos:
 The on demand offerings are pretty weak too.

I guess one man's feast is another's famine (or however the saying goes).  I came from zero VOD with DirecTV so I think the FiOS VOD is fantastic.  Pretty much everything from HBO this month and lots of stuff for my kid.
 
 Also, FiOS has DirecTV beat hands down when it comes to HD offering.  DirecTV is so strapped for bandwidth that they are compressing the crap out of everything.  I'm guessing FiOS has room to spare as far as what HD channels they can offer.

[HoyaSaxa03]

i'm actually thinking about making the move from directv to comcast (and chucking my tivo for the comcast dvr) after the NFL season (can't give up the ticket!)
 
 am i retarded?
 
 i'm looking forward to on-demand stuff and paying less for my DVR (tivo is great, but $13 a month is really absurd)

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Señor Carlos:
  Yeah i did a little research and cable cards are 2.95/month, but no VOD and no on screen guide with the card, so that kind of kills it for me.

CableCard 2.0 should be out any month, and that would allow for VOD.  Of course, verizon promised they'd be out in November, so don't hold your breath.

[chaz]

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa08:
  i'm actually thinking about making the move from directv to comcast (and chucking my tivo for the comcast dvr) after the NFL season (can't give up the ticket!)
 
 am i retarded?
 
 i'm looking forward to on-demand stuff and paying less for my DVR (tivo is great, but $13 a month is really absurd)

Yeah the tivo subscription sux.  Find out what kind of DVR they have where you live...the SA 8300HD is decent, but some areas have those motorola boxes which i've grown to hate.  The 4 tuners (2 hd and 2 sd) in the SA box is very nice.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Señor Carlos:
  So Tivo downloads program info for whatever provider you have?  

Yes.