is there a release date?? Verizon FiOS set-top boxes getting a new HD guide, external storage

[kenlaw1975]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/18/verizon-fios-set-top-boxes-getting-a-new-hd-guide-external-stor/

[prisaz]

We are all waiting for answers. And what happens to the non HD guide. Is there going to be support for two guide formats? Not everyone monitors tweets 24/7. But here is another article.

http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2010-08/the-q4-verizon-fios-tv-updates-esata-hd-ui/

[Keyboards]

Verizon never reveals in advance the exact dates.  The changes you are referring to are in IMG V 1.9, yet V 1.8 was supposed (rumored) to be released a while ago and has had several aborted distributions.  1.9 will not be released until 1.8 is in place across the whole footprint and who knows when (if?) that will happen anytime soon.

[prisaz]

Update on the At Home Blog. Just hours ago. 1.8 is in the release stages now. There is also information on what it has. Has no external drive support, but says 1.9 due later this year, following on the heals of 1.8. 1.8 must be deployed prior to the 1.9 release. This is do to infrastructure changes that are required for 1.9 from what I have read elsewhere.

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-at-Home/FiOS-TV-IMG-1-8-Release-Notes/ba-p/234356

[ekem015]

The @FiOSTV Twitter says Q4 for 1.9, which will include the 16:9 guide and eSATA. The 1.8 update is more minor and is coming out within the next week or so.

[spacedebris]

My friend at Verizon said 1.8 has already been released in some area's. They are just doing this one slower than previous updates. When they first started, they would update everyone, everywhere. Then there were major problems. So the next few times they did it a region at a time. Worked better but still had issues. Now they are doing it just a few thousand customers at a time. This is making for a much smoother transition. He says this is starting in NY and the tentative schedule is to have it all out by end of September / beginning of October.

The 1.8 is laying the foundation needed to roll out the 1.9.

Previous experience says that when Verizon says Q4 it will generally be late in the quarter before the layout. But since they say they are rolling out some 3d channels for the Christmas season, I would guess that 1.9 and 3d programming will probably be done together.

[prisaz]

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@spacedebris wrote:

My friend at Verizon said 1.8 has already been released in some area's. They are just doing this one slower than previous updates. When they first started, they would update everyone, everywhere. Then there were major problems. So the next few times they did it a region at a time. Worked better but still had issues. Now they are doing it just a few thousand customers at a time. This is making for a much smoother transition. He says this is starting in NY and the tentative schedule is to have it all out by end of September / beginning of October.

The 1.8 is laying the foundation needed to roll out the 1.9.

Previous experience says that when Verizon says Q4 it will generally be late in the quarter before the layout. But since they say they are rolling out some 3d channels for the Christmas season, I would guess that 1.9 and 3d programming will probably be done together.

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Same as what I have heard. Good post.

[alden]

The guestion is: are current DVR boxes equiped with a hardware to support external ESATA HD? USB ports for current 6416 dvr's are not incorporated with system - you cannot use for now USB ports. So external HD storage  may not be available with 6416 DVR even if 1.9 software will be released. Nobody at Verizon knows the answer for this.

[spacedebris]

The official announcement does not say anything about USB. Only e-sata. And from what I understand the USB ports are actually physically disabled. If this is all accurate, then it would stand to reason that only the 7xxx series boxes will be able to have external storage added. Meaning anyone with a 6xxx box, would need to exchange it for a 7xxx series. But this is just me thinking logically. And Verizon has a habit of not being logical.