Fios DLB

I think the reason they called out this update is because it is an enhancement on current functionality. That is FiOS currently has DLB, sort of. You can't pause between buffers (hit pause, flip buffers, hit pause, come back). Also it only currently works if you're not recording anything. You can't flip to a recording buffer. To their credit, Verizon tossed this feature in at the last minute with their s/w, due to customer request. Glad to see that they're enhancing it in this go-round.

As for the bugs with their new s/w - no, we didn't have many. A couple annoying ones, but most have since been fixed.

BTW, I read that article, and to me the really cool stuff is the horoscopes... Sorry, couldn't resist (not sure why they will include them, but there you go). The live internet and PC streaming is the stuff that I've been waiting for. Ditto the HD feeds off the multiroom DVR. The author is clearly not totally up to speed on how fios does things - his statement that he didn't realize until just recently that they're not fully IP, e.g. - so he really glossed over this one feature. Right now their multi-room DVR doesn't feed out HD recordings. According to that article, they're going to start allowing for it - with up to 2 feeds at the same time. Again, that's another feature I've really been waiting for. And that FiOS On The Go has me intrigued (the picture shows fios service over a cell phone).

Still - there's one feature that's conspicuously absent - not really a biggie for me, but it's still pretty ironic - no caller ID. How does the phone company start a TV service and NOT offer caller ID?

west99999 said:

what do you mean you get more channels

Click to expand...

I mean I get more channels. I get more SD channels than I got on DirecTV. Part of that is the fact that fios doesn't (currently - this may be changing with all the HD they're adding) have programming tiers. You get all the non-premium stuff when you sign up. They have a sports pack that includes a handful of channels, a movie pack that includes a boatload of channels, HBO, Cinemax (for some reason, they're separate packages from the movie pack), and international channels that you can sign up for. That's it. Oh, wait, that's not it - they have a karaoke package you can sign up for too - no... I'm not kidding about that.

Granted DirecTV IS the leader in sports programming. If I were a sports nut, then I would most definitely still be a DirecTV customer. And for the time being they do have more of their channels in HD than FiOS does in most markets (although within the next couple of months that will be a wash).

Put it this way - there was a thread started on this forum a couple months ago about the SD channels that DirecTV doesn't carry. Someone put a pretty comprehensive list out there - something like 50 channels. I went through that list - FiOS has more than half of those channels. There are a couple channels that DirecTV carries that FiOS doesn't, but again, that's changing too - part of this big channel push that Verizon is doing includes many of those channels, plus others (e.g. RFD, Current, Reelz, as well as channels I've never heard of - Veria).

Also, because the movie pack is such a great deal, I opted for it. I pay $13/month for Starz, Showtime, TMC, Flix, Encore, Sundance, and IFC. Some 45 SD channels in all, plus access to their VOD offerings, and their HD channels (of which there are alot coming in this roll-out).

But even with basic cable channels, I get channels that people keep asking about here on dbstalk, such as BBC World, CSPAN-3, Funimation, Military History, American Life. Also one channel that I watch quite a bit - Fox Soccer Channel - is included in the base package with FiOS. There was much discussion on here about moving FSC out of the sports pack on DirecTV probably about a year and a half ago.

Like I said - I loved my DirecTV service. I only considered leaving when I got an HDTV, and DirecTV wanted $300 (plus s&h) for the HR20. Also I would have needed an antenna to get all the local stuff (that's another thing - I get every local HD channel and digital subchannel in the Philly market). It wasn't easy leaving. I already had fios internet service and I was really impressed with it, so that made it easier. To make sure I was making the right move, I really did my homework. One piece of which included comparing channels. I literally printed out the channel list from DirecTV, and the one from FiOS, and I did a side-by-side comparison. Complete with color-coding (blue if it was on both systems, red if it was on DirecTV but not FiOS, green if it was on FiOS but not DirecTV, plus special markings for special cases - e.g. IFC is included in the TC Plus package I had with DirecTV, but to get it on FiOS I needed to sign up for an extra pack - ditto for FSC, since I would have to get the sports package on DirecTV to get it) - my wife was ready to have me committed . When all was said and done, though, I was satisfied. There was only one channel I was losing that I cared about at all - Chiller. But there were at least half a dozen that I was ADDING that I really wanted to get.