Re: Future of FIOS TV? Time to switch back to satellite?
10nisman94
Contributor - Level 1

Just so you guys know, several SD channels are expected to go to an IPTV format by the end of the year. This would be seamless on Verizon boxes, but TIVO users would no longer be able to recieve these channels, at least until the "home gateway" in 2012. Another planned improvement is phasing out all qip 2xxx and 6xxx boxes to enable a switch to MPEG 4 encoding , which would enable 3 "uncompressed" HD channels per QAM easily. All of this is expected by the end of this year, along with the new 7232 DVR with external expansion support enabled and a true 16:9 Guide. Whether any of this is actually done by christmas, is anybody's guess.

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Re: Future of FIOS TV? Time to switch back to satellite?
philhu
Contributor - Level 2

Ok

So, lets get this straight.

Verizon is rolling out, moist likely in less than 7 months, a change that will make TIVO boxes not work, because some channels are going to IPTV format.

Is this legal?  Are Verizon and Tivo engineers working on this 'feature'?  Or is Verizon doing it to kill Tivos working on their cable.  The LAW says a cable franchise MUST make a way available for a third party box to operate on their cable system.  This is why the SDV came out.

If Verizon is planning this in 7 months, there is MORE THAN ENOUGH time to give specs or at least a 'heads-up'  to Tivo and MOZY to get their equipment compatible.  And I still think that Verizon is REQUIRED to have a unit available to make it work for 3rd parties, at their product launch time.

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Re: Future of FIOS TV? Time to switch back to satellite?
aaronwtfios1
Contributor - Level 1

As long as it's only SD channels I don't care. But if they move  bunch of HD channels and I can't receive them with my five TiVo Premieres on FiOS, I will be dumping FiOS TV. There is no way I will use their carppy DVR. Even if FiOS offered me free service for life I wouldn't use thier DVR. It is that bad , and the TiVo is better by leaps and bounds over the FiOS DVR.

Re: Future of FIOS TV? Time to switch back to satellite?
10nisman94
Contributor - Level 1

No, no requirement exists, look at AT&T U-verse, it doesn't work with TiVO. The "everything compatible" is supposed to happen by late 2012 with the AllVid solution proposed by the FCC. I think that most of the SD channels that move to IP will either be low viewership (internationals), or have HD counterparts, which will still be cable card accessable.

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Re: Future of FIOS TV? Time to switch back to satellite?
spacedebris
Master - Level 2

to address the space issue. No Verizon is not out of bandwidth for QAM. Fios is not even using half the bandwidth they have available for Video yet. (and it keeps increasing each time they upgrade to a new transmission system). No the hold up in adding channels and such are hardware based (getting the hardware to carry the channels), software based. (creating the software to incorporate the new channels), and negotiation based (negotiating with the channels themselves to carry them. this is the most complicated part of it.)

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Re: Future of FIOS TV? Time to switch back to satellite?
psumatt1
Contributor - Level 2
SPACE- I hate to tell you but you are wrong.
Re: Future of FIOS TV? Time to switch back to satellite?
10nisman94
Contributor - Level 1

space: they have 8-10 QAMs open, but they are all reserved for locals, so for all intensive purposes, they are out of space.

Re: Future of FIOS TV? Time to switch back to satellite?
philhu
Contributor - Level 2

maybe that is why they are pulling all the west coast movie channel feeds.....

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