FiOS TV Is the First to Make Pandora® Widely Available to Subscribers --- really?

[KEGardenGirl1]

SO I read this posting: 

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-at-Home/FiOS-TV-Is-the-First-to-Make-Pandora-Widely-Available-t...

Was very excited because I live in Virginia in a FIOS featured community just minutes from Verizon headquarters.  But it turns out that the Pandora Widget is not available to everyone in Virginia.   I chatted with Technical Support and the response was that it has not been deployed to our "Message Center".  Not sure what that means and they could not give me an approximate deployment date.    

Would truly appreciate any information regarding this concern.

Regards!

[Anthony_VZ]

I am sorry to hear about your troubles accessing Pandora. We here in Hampton, VA have access to the Pandora widget. I have sent you a private message to get more info on your account.

[jackmcgann]

Same here. VH06 Ma. want Pandora a lot. no love.

[mf70]

No joy in Takoma either : ZIP 20912.

Any info on rollout progress?

BTW, what is "VH06 Ma."?? If this is an organizational location, where is it listed?

Mark

[Justin46]

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@jackmcgann wrote:

Same here. VH06 Ma. want Pandora a lot. no love.

---

I have the Pandora widget here in North Texas. Seems to work reasonably well for me, I have created maybe 6 or 7 "stations" for various artists and groups. Only issue I have is that when I choose to start a station for an artist or group, sometimes the first song is not even for that artist or group! And usually, even after starting with the correct artist or group, after one, two, or three songs, it then switches to a different artist or group. Is it supposed to workt that way? Doesn't seem like it should since I made a specific selection of who I wanted to listen to.

Some people with the Pandora widget have reported stuttering or skipping while listening. I have not experienced that, but I understand that Verizon has identified an issue that needs to be resolved so they have delayed the rollout.

__________________________________
Justin
FiOS TV, Internet, and phone user
QIP7232, QIP7100-P2, IMG 1.9A
Keller, TX 76248

[Justin46]

---

@mf70 wrote:

No joy in Takoma either : ZIP 20912.

Any info on rollout progress?

BTW, what is "VH06 Ma."?? If this is an organizational location, where is it listed?

Mark

---

VHO is Video Hub Office. Here is a link to an explanation:

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/verizonfios/4.0_FiOS_Television#16492

__________________________________
Justin
FiOS TV, Internet, and phone user
QIP7232, QIP7100-P2, IMG 1.9A
Keller, TX 76248

[prisaz]

Really I thought TiVO was FiOS TV Is the First to Make Pandora® Widely Available to Subscribers --- really?

I still do not have it. Technical issues in our area.

[mf70]

jack mcgann:

you wrote:

... Only issue I have is that when I choose to start a station for an artist or group, sometimes the first song is not even for that artist or group! And usually, even after starting with the correct artist or group, after one, two, or three songs, it then switches to a different artist or group. Is it supposed to workt that way?

That is precisely how it should work. Check out the Pandora help files for a full explanation. Your artist selection is used as a seed to select similar songs, using their secret sauce ... er, algorythm. This gives you songs you didn't know about that share musical qualities with your "seed" songs. You can further refine the selection by "voting up" or "voting down" selected songs.

Justin:

You wrote:

....VHO is Video Hub Office. Here is a link to an explanation:

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/verizonfios/4.0_FiOS_Television#16492

Thanks! I'll check it out.

Also, I got a note from my enquiry direct to Pandora:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Mark,

Thanks for writing. I did a little research and it looks like Verizon FiOS has only launched Pandora support in some states so far. Verizon has stated that this service "will be available in other FiOS TV markets in the coming months". You can find some more information here: http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-at-Home/FiOS-TV-Is-the-First-to-Make-Pandora-Widely-Available-t...

Hope this helps! And that you can use the FiOS Pandora app soon.   Best,
David
Listener Support
PANDORA® internet radio
Need help? http://help.pandora.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mark

[mf70]

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/verizonfios/4.0_FiOS_Television#16492

Thanks! I'll check it out.

Also, I got a note from my enquiry direct to Pandora:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Mark,

Thanks for writing. I did a little research and it looks like Verizon FiOS has only launched Pandora support in some states so far. Verizon has stated that this service "will be available in other FiOS TV markets in the coming months". You can find some more information here: http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-at-Home/FiOS-TV-Is-the-First-to-Make-Pandora-Widely-Available-t...

Hope this helps! And that you can use the FiOS Pandora app soon.   Best,
David
Listener Support
PANDORA® internet radio
Need help? http://help.pandora.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mark

[DefTech]

Pandora is not Internet Radio, it's much smarter than that.  Like it's name suggests, it's literally a door-opener for the music aficionado.

What you've identifed as specific is nothing of the sort - a Band can have thousands, even millions of different sounds, tempos, flows, techniques, and even migrate from one genre to another.  That's a pretty broad base to start from.

Besides, anyone can create a "Pearl Jam" channel on the Internet or Satellite today, that childs play.

To really make it work, try identifying a SONG you absolutely LOVE.  Then create a channel with it.  Then another song, and another channel.  Think about your Channels in terms of life situations...a party, a road trip, dinner with the family, mowing the yard, driving to work, getting up in the morning, hanging out with Dad (pick a song that you both liked from his era), or even your 70yr old Grandmother, etc etc

Pandora will take each of those songs and find new ones, by new artists that you've NEVER heard of, that you are going to LOVE just like the original song...and bring them right to your front door (or in this case, your living room).

Then, just like Tivo, check the songs you like/dislike and you'll build an alogrithm that's catered specifically to your tastes, for each individual channel.  Then bookmark the great songs so you can go back later and buy them as you see fit.

VOILA!...Pandora, the magic music (juke)box.

Enjoy!!

p.s. I'm in NoVA and we don't have it. Yet (I guess). Fortunately, my PS3 has been streaming it to the Media Room for the last 4 years without a hitch, but it would still be nice to hear it in the other rooms!

[Justin46]

---

@DefTech wrote:

Pandora is not Internet Radio, it's much smarter than that.  Like it's name suggests, it's literally a door-opener for the music aficionado.

What you've identifed as specific is nothing of the sort - a Band can have thousands, even millions of different sounds, tempos, flows, techniques, and even migrate from one genre to another.  That's a pretty broad base to start from.

Besides, anyone can create a "Pearl Jam" channel on the Internet or Satellite today, that childs play.

To really make it work, try identifying a SONG you absolutely LOVE.  Then create a channel with it.  Then another song, and another channel.  Think about your Channels in terms of life situations...a party, a road trip, dinner with the family, mowing the yard, driving to work, getting up in the morning, hanging out with Dad (pick a song that you both liked from his era), or even your 70yr old Grandmother, etc etc

Pandora will take each of those songs and find new ones, by new artists that you've NEVER heard of, that you are going to LOVE just like the original song...and bring them right to your front door (or in this case, your living room).

Then, just like Tivo, check the songs you like/dislike and you'll build an alogrithm that's catered specifically to your tastes, for each individual channel.  Then bookmark the great songs so you can go back later and buy them as you see fit.

VOILA!...Pandora, the magic music (juke)box.

Enjoy!!

p.s. I'm in NoVA and we don't have it. Yet (I guess). Fortunately, my PS3 has been streaming it to the Media Room for the last 4 years without a hitch, but it would still be nice to hear it in the other rooms!

---

I presume your post is intended for me. If so, thanks for the explanation, I have most certainly not explored the purpose of Pandora, I actually just signed up to provide feedback to a poster here who is experiencing problems with it.

And truthfully, while what you describe sounds creative, it is most certainly NOT what I am looking for. If I create a station for an artist (or for that matter a song), I want to hear songs by that artist, not others that might be similar or whatever. So for me, Pandora is not something I am really interested in I guess. But thats ok, I learn something useful most every day

Thanks again!

__________________________________
Justin
FiOS TV, Internet, and phone user
QIP7232, QIP7100-P2, IMG 1.9A
Keller, TX 76248