Verizon at Home

[#1]

My recent family vacation to a tropical island made me wonder what movies had been filmed there, and who appeared in them.

So last weekend, as the reality of the “real world” returned, I let my FiOS TV remote do the walking as I ventured into our FiOS TV Video on Demand (VOD) menu at home and started my search.

The navigational flow of the Video On Demand menu made it easy for me to find several movies filmed on the Garden Isle of Kauai where many movies have been shot. With all due respect to Elvis, I opted against watching him shake his hips hula style in Blue Hawaii or Paradise Hawaiian Style.

Having watched all the Jurassic Park movies, Avatar, Soul Surfer, Just Go With It and the classic South Pacific, all partially filmed on location on Kauai, I pressed on with my Video on Demand search and found a movie shot on the island starring funny guys Ben Stiller and Jack Black called Tropic Thunder.

While the $3.99 movie was a major let down, my experience finding it was not.

In fact, I learn something new every time I use the VOD menu. For that, I can thank the behind-the-scenes work that takes place every day with our video product development team whose job – among others – is to create a great customer experience when using FiOS TV. After the movie was finished, I used the VOD menu to search for recently issued movies which enticed me to watch a couple of free 10-minute trailers of movies that I’ve bookmarked to enjoy in their entirety soon.

With big-time movie fans in our house, my wife and daughters have become increasingly fluent in the use of the video on demand features with FiOS TV too. And the good news is that the experience will continue to get better for us and all our customers with our upcoming enhancements to the FiOS TV VOD menu.

Starting next Monday (August 6), and continuing for one week in a graduated deployment, all of our FiOS TV customers will notice several significant enhancements designed to make watching FiOS TV even more enjoyable.

The biggest changes involve our filtering, poster density and something we call barkers (think movie promotion, not tail wagging friends).

With the filtering enhancements, FiOS TV viewers will have the option to filter selected video titles by rating and content type, e.g. high definition or Flex View, and content purchase type, e.g. free, rental or purchase. In addition, customers can sort by alphabet and the release date among other choices. Simply select the “Options” button on your FiOS TV remote (or scroll up and highlight the Options icon on your FiOS TV VOD menu) and select “OK.” From there, filtering can be applied to posters by selecting any filtering option, and you will receive result updates in real-time.

By using the “B” button on the FiOS remote control, customers can search in the new VOD menu for movies. In the new menu, you’ll see that more posters have been added. Going forward, we will feature seven rows of posters with the movie title displayed underneath each poster to make it easier to spot your choices. This particular format was based upon feedback we received from customers in our FiOS testing lab and in online surveys. If you were one of those customers who submitted such feedback, pat yourself on the back.

As to the barker I mentioned, in the new VOD menu you’ll find a slightly larger screen to preview trailers from upcoming movies, TV shows and events. It is displayed in a box in the upper left corner of the VOD main menu. This easier to view barker will help you better scroll through the menu options and make choices without having to strain your eyes.

In addition to these structural enhancements, we will reduce the overall number of folder choices you’ll see for easier navigation. This will help you have a more enjoyable time as you review and select titles to watch.

While pressing the “On Demand” button on your FiOS TV remote may seem like a very ordinary activity, the enhancements we’re making to the VOD menu will deliver you an EXTRA-ordinary experience.

As to those movie selections of my recent vacation destination, I think the adult comedy-drama movie, The Descendants, with George Clooney will be my next VOD selection at home so my wife and I can revisit some of the places we just enjoyed with our kids.

What will you view next?

[#2]

Sorry Bill, but VOD still has a way to go before it will be practical to me.  Ideally it would include being able to set the DVR to record episodes of content so it wouldn't be missed if I'm away or busy with other things before certain titles expire.  Less ideally... would be nice to set an alert on content so when episodes are added or about to expire something would pop up and optionally take me to that content.  Or, at the lowest possible solution... at least having a way to jump right to VOD favorites with one button push rather than having to navigate a couple menus to get there.  Or better still... add back the actual channel Verizon FiOS removed so I could just use my DVR and have access to far more content than your limited VOD.

[#3]

How do I turn off the cover art.It takes forever to cycle through the screens and the pictures are so small as to be useless. Can we get the ability to turn this on/off please?