StevenA
12-21-2006, 12:16 PM
It's been a week since I got Verizon FiOS cable/internet/phone installed. (The installation took about four hours.) Here are some random thoughts on the service so far.
- I had bought my Samsung 1080p HDTV about a month earlier, and was watching the local HD channels over the air using an old Radio Shack double bow-tie antenna that I had laying around. As far as I can tell, there doesn't seem to be any difference in picture quality between OTA and FiOS, for both HD and SD channels.
- I got the HD set-top box with DVR. The Motorola QIP6416 DVR that Verizon provides has been getting luke-warm reviews mainly due to its small hard drive, but having never had a DVR before, I'm going giddy over it. The other night I was watching a show when I got a phone call. I was able to pause the tv, take the phone call, and then resume watching without missing anything. That may be old hat to some of you, but it's a major "WOW" factor for me.
- Speaking of set-top boxes, why do we still call them that? Most sets sold today are thin form and have no place on top to put a box. I guess that's an ananachronism that will stick around for some time, like "dialing" a phone number.
- The day after the installation I found out that my phone was practically unusable. It was getting a lot of static and picking up radio station WFLA on the line. The Verizon technician came out, and said that the problem was that my house is not too far from the Oldsmar antenna farm (about 4-5 miles) and the phone lines pick up the radio signals. He said that my old copper wire phone line operated at 50-something volts and was able to filter out the radio signals, while the new phone system uses 40-something volts and could not filter out the signals. It's a common problem for houses near the antenna farm, and the solution was simple. The technician added a small RF filter to the circuit and viola, my phone is working fine again.
- It's impossible to get a live person from Verizon during the weekend in order to report a problem. However, it is possible to schedule a service technician to come out via their web site. I signed up for a service technician at 8:30 Saturday morning, and he was at my house around 10:30.
- You can get the analog channels (below channel 50) without the need for a STB, so I am still able to use my 20+ year old tv that the HD set replaced in my bedroom without having to pay for an additional box, at least until the analog channels go away. About the only things I watch there are the late news and Jay Leno.
- There's a lot of duplication in the channel lineup. The local stations all have both their analog and digital channels included, including at least some of the digital sub-channels. However, even some of the standard cable channels are listed twice, such as Comedy Central. What's up with that?
- I tried to watch a Tampa Bay Lightning game that was broadcast in HD over the weekend, but both the picture and sound were so broken up that I finally gave up and switched to the SD channel. I hope that's not going to be a regular occurrence.
- Over to the internet side of things, I was disappointed to find out that Verizon will only allow you to store e-mail online for a maximum of 30 days. The e-mail is then deleted, so if you haven't downloaded your messages you lose them. Since Verizon allocates 2 GB of storage space for e-mail to each user, and you can buy more space if needed, I don't see what the problem is with leaving e-mail indefinitely as long as you have the space for it. This is a particular problem for me because my home computer died last fall. I'm currently using a temporary computer while waiting for Microsoft Vista to come out, and until then I don't want to download personal files on to this computer.
- Verizon internet offers a choice of either Yahoo or MSN for free premium services and content. I haven't picked one yet. I don't know if one is any better than the other or if it's even worth bothering with.
- Verizon's current deal for free installation and activation, a $10 discount on the internet service for the first three months, and no contract requirement is really a GREAT deal. My former internet service provider, Rapid Systems, is a Verizon reseller and also offers FiOS where available, but they only offer internet service, have installation and activation fees that run to over $200, and they require a one year contract.
- I had bought my Samsung 1080p HDTV about a month earlier, and was watching the local HD channels over the air using an old Radio Shack double bow-tie antenna that I had laying around. As far as I can tell, there doesn't seem to be any difference in picture quality between OTA and FiOS, for both HD and SD channels.
- I got the HD set-top box with DVR. The Motorola QIP6416 DVR that Verizon provides has been getting luke-warm reviews mainly due to its small hard drive, but having never had a DVR before, I'm going giddy over it. The other night I was watching a show when I got a phone call. I was able to pause the tv, take the phone call, and then resume watching without missing anything. That may be old hat to some of you, but it's a major "WOW" factor for me.
- Speaking of set-top boxes, why do we still call them that? Most sets sold today are thin form and have no place on top to put a box. I guess that's an ananachronism that will stick around for some time, like "dialing" a phone number.
- The day after the installation I found out that my phone was practically unusable. It was getting a lot of static and picking up radio station WFLA on the line. The Verizon technician came out, and said that the problem was that my house is not too far from the Oldsmar antenna farm (about 4-5 miles) and the phone lines pick up the radio signals. He said that my old copper wire phone line operated at 50-something volts and was able to filter out the radio signals, while the new phone system uses 40-something volts and could not filter out the signals. It's a common problem for houses near the antenna farm, and the solution was simple. The technician added a small RF filter to the circuit and viola, my phone is working fine again.
- It's impossible to get a live person from Verizon during the weekend in order to report a problem. However, it is possible to schedule a service technician to come out via their web site. I signed up for a service technician at 8:30 Saturday morning, and he was at my house around 10:30.
- You can get the analog channels (below channel 50) without the need for a STB, so I am still able to use my 20+ year old tv that the HD set replaced in my bedroom without having to pay for an additional box, at least until the analog channels go away. About the only things I watch there are the late news and Jay Leno.
- There's a lot of duplication in the channel lineup. The local stations all have both their analog and digital channels included, including at least some of the digital sub-channels. However, even some of the standard cable channels are listed twice, such as Comedy Central. What's up with that?
- I tried to watch a Tampa Bay Lightning game that was broadcast in HD over the weekend, but both the picture and sound were so broken up that I finally gave up and switched to the SD channel. I hope that's not going to be a regular occurrence.
- Over to the internet side of things, I was disappointed to find out that Verizon will only allow you to store e-mail online for a maximum of 30 days. The e-mail is then deleted, so if you haven't downloaded your messages you lose them. Since Verizon allocates 2 GB of storage space for e-mail to each user, and you can buy more space if needed, I don't see what the problem is with leaving e-mail indefinitely as long as you have the space for it. This is a particular problem for me because my home computer died last fall. I'm currently using a temporary computer while waiting for Microsoft Vista to come out, and until then I don't want to download personal files on to this computer.
- Verizon internet offers a choice of either Yahoo or MSN for free premium services and content. I haven't picked one yet. I don't know if one is any better than the other or if it's even worth bothering with.
- Verizon's current deal for free installation and activation, a $10 discount on the internet service for the first three months, and no contract requirement is really a GREAT deal. My former internet service provider, Rapid Systems, is a Verizon reseller and also offers FiOS where available, but they only offer internet service, have installation and activation fees that run to over $200, and they require a one year contract.