Share Your Ideas with Verizon

[#1]

I would like to see FiOS TV drop the SD version of any stations that are available in HD. It is a waste of coax bandwidth to have both SD and HD versions of the same station. As for customers that still have SD displays, in my experience I have not had issues viewing the HD channels on an SD display.

[#2]

Actually, kspinka, I can't speak for others but I know I chose not to respond to/address the comment that thefoxbox made. That comment purely deals with channel mappings and a convenience factor for not having to select a higher order channel number for the equivalent HD channel (when one has an HD TV), effectively masking the SD version of a channel that is available in SD and HD. It does nothing to free up bandwidth that is used by broadcasting in both SD and HD, which was the entire point of my original post and succinctly captured in the subject line. I asked that this thread be locked for further comment so that it would not get muddied, but I guess there is no such luck.

[#3]

WE need BOTH HD and SD available.  I have an HD TV downstairs, but an older SD TV in my bedroom.  Watching the HD stations on the older set gives me a much smaller frame with black bars on the sides. 

[#4]

I don't have an SD TV set, but I don't like the idea of getting rid of the SD channels either. I think it's a terrible idea. I like being able to save space on the DVR by recording SD content if I don't care about the picture quality (for instance, if I'm watching an old program which doesn't look good in HD anyway, or a stand-up comedy special, etc.).

[#5]

menton11 and Ike1, if you don’t like this then simply don’t vote for it. If you really feel the need for a counter measure then create your own “idea” for staying in the stone age, or better yet, an idea on how to have the best of both worlds, including increasing HD content. I personally would like to see FiOS move to IPTV.

At any rate, as new technology is introduced and then accepted into the market the old technology often has to be deprecated at some point. The fact that one can still use an SD display to view HD content with the downscaling in the HD cable boxes is a nice way of keeping the SD sets from being totally useless. As for letter/pillar boxing, it depends on the scaling options the HD STB offers. I understand that the FiOS STBs may not offer as broad of a section of scaling options as maybe they should. Regardless, the industry move from 4:3 to 16:9 has been in play for a very long time now.

I personally own a mix of HD and SD displays only after over a decade of avoiding HD altogether because of immature and overpriced display technology, lack of content, and access issues. As these issues have subsided I finally got on the HD bandwagon. Part of this move was switching to FiOS TV, which heavily markets its HD TV content. Everyday more programs are produced and broadcast in HD, including stand-up comedy, which flat out provide a better experience if produced with HD release in mind. I moved to FiOS because I wanted the most HD content with the best picture possible (the QAM256 modulation helps). If the content is available in HD I want FiOS to bring it to me! I’m also the person who prefers to watch the 1080 res version of a YouTube video, if available.

The fact that we are using a fiber to the home service should speak to us wanting advanced technology. Sure there are going to be historic programs that were never produced for HD and will remain at lower resolutions. However, saying an entire channel allotment should remain in place exclusively for the lesser quality media, on an advanced service like FiOS, at the expense of accommodating the higher quality media that can be downscaled if needed, especially after so many years of HD being in the market and becoming so well adopted, seems more than just a little archaic.

And yes, typically you need more storage capacity for higher quality media. It’s a price we pay. I am quite surprised at the relatively small capacity hard drives a lot of the DVRs come with.

[#6]

I don't have an HD box or TV and don't want one yet.  I noticed that commercials that are in HD are chopped off at the right and left sides of the screen.  If that's what would happen, then it wouldn't work for me.

[#7]

PaQuilter, I am not sure what you are qualifying as "HD commercials" on SD channels. By definition (pun intended) the SD channel cannot send anything greater than SD. As with any content formatted for TV, SD or HD, it's possible that the broadcaster cropped the original image source material (films often have a larger image size than even 1080 HD) in a less than ideal manner, but that wouldn't have anything to do with your SD box doing any sort of downscaling, zoom, etc.

Anyway, as noted in previous posts in this thread, the expectation for dropping SD channels would be that Verizon have all HD boxes in the field and that they would offer appropriate downscaling options in said HD boxes for people with SD TVs. 

[#8]

When we signed up about 2 months ago they set us up with the multiroom DVRHD like we asked but when I looked at the saved order on line they had set our bedroom up with a SD box. I talked to someone in tech chat about that verifying I understood this box to be non HD and he said I was right it wasn't. What sense is that when both my TVs are flat screen HDTVs. Fios didn't even ask just did it. I went into the order and changed it to an HD set top box.

LOL Fios spell check doesn't recognize the word Fios.

[#9]

Verizon's guide leaves so much to be desired. The hd channels should replace the sd versions and be in some sort of logical order. All kids channels sd and hd should be together. Good lord what a mess. Please fix ASAP.

[#10]

Would be nice for one of the guide options to be all unique channels with HD being preferred.

Now you can pick subscribed and HD (not to mention others).

But would be nice to have a canned option to pick all of my subscribed channels with only showing the HD version if both HD and SD are available.

[#11]

Enough with having separate channel numbers for HD. If I want to watch a channel in HD I should be able to do so. For example, I live in NYC if I want to watch CBS channel 2, I should be able to go to channel 2 and watch it in HD. I should not have to go to channel 502 to watch it or press the "C" button to do so. Another example is TBS it's channel 52 but to watch it in HD you have to go to channel 552. I find this ridiculous. If you have an HD STB you should get the channels in HD automatically. If you have an SD STB then the channel will be in SD. I came from Directv and so far I'm a little disappointed in the TV service from Fios. The only reason I haven't switched back to Directv is because I hear a lot of good things about the new DVR media server coming out. I hope Fios listens to my idea. Just think if they do this will free up a lot of channels to bring us more entertainment.