Re: Is Verizon committed to being a content provider?
Ejfselmo
Newbie

Couldn't agree with you more!  I have been with Verizon for almost 8 years after a horrible experience with Comcast at the time. In the beginning Fios was competitive and "cutting edge" but now that it's gain a platform it's AWFUL!  Besides not keeping up tech wise, thier streaming app is an absolute joke!  It doesn't work more than 90% of the time and you can't even watch it outside your home!  Isn't that the whole point!  They charge so much money for horrible service and everytime I call customer service about a discount due to me receiving only 50% of what I'm paying for, they say "the systems down and we can't review discounts, can we call you back?"  And surprise surprise, they never call back!  Happened 4 times in the past 2 months, crazy.  On top of that like other users mentioned my channels go out often and I have to hard reboot by troubleshooting at least 3 times a week.  I have truly given up and I am transitioning over to xfinity as it's still Comcast but I can't even deal anymore.  Just recently my favorite channel Reelz is no longer working as it says the content provider stopped.  Over it! 

0 Likes
Re: Is Verizon committed to being a content provider?
CRobGauth
Community Leader
Community Leader

I use the app outside my home all the time.

Last time I was at my in-laws, I streamed a lot of content.

Both recorded and live.

As for Reelz, don't udnerstand the comment.

They closed the channel down.
Verizon fault?

0 Likes
Re: Is Verizon committed to being a content provider?
CRobGauth
Community Leader
Community Leader

Confused reelz with another channel that did shut down.

But I do still see reelz as active.

0 Likes
Fios vs Xfinity TV Remote & Guide - A Newly Switch User From Xfinity To Fios Customer Opinion
topdog5
Enthusiast - Level 2

Last month, I switched from Xfinity to Fios and I've been happy for the most part. Mainly because of the decreased monthly bill and increased internet speeds.

However, I have to comment on the very poor Fios TV remote and guide.

Comparing the Xfinity vs Fios tv remote and guides is like a competition between a JV high school football team vs and a pro team. It's really not even close which is what surprised me. It's like the remote and guide was an afterthought for the Fios team. Fiber optics, fiber optics, fiber optics....and oh yeah, I guess we need a remote too.

I think it's really important because you actually interact with the remote and guide more often than almost any other part of the system except possibly for picture and audio quality.

I gave it over 1 month for me to get used to the new Fios system so I wouldn't unfairly judge it. So, here are the BIG differences between the two company remotes and guides.

---------

TV Remote - The Xfinity remote has MANY benefits over Fios. Fios has the following issues:

1. Poor engineering - I assume most consumers don't realize how much engineering goes into the everyday products you use. Almost every consumer product you use is usually designed not only for cost and usage reasons but also for customer convenience.

First, the Fios remote feels big, bulky, and more poorly made compared to the Xfinity remote. Don't get me wrong, the Fios remote doesn't feel "cheap" just of lesser quality. Conversely, the Xfinity remote is lighter, smaller, and just feels better in your hand. Think the difference between a high-end mobile phone vs lower-end knockoff.

It's not just the feel that's the problem, which you may think is subjective. The Fios remote has a poor user interface. The remote buttons and functions are poorly laid out. For example, it's too easy to click the wrong option because there are too many buttons that are poorly spaced. The buttons are also harder to click. In addition, the remote just has a busy look and feel.

On the other hand, Xfinity does a much better job of design including special touches like raised etching on certain buttons to more easily differentiate between the buttons and functions. Fios tries to accomplish this by many, many different sized buttons and colors which just makes the remote bigger, longer, and more confusing to use. It's a big swing and miss for Fios here.


2. Slightly delayed reaction - The Fios remote has a slight few milliseconds delay from the time you click a button to when you see action on the tv screen. In all fairness, this may just be my unit and this also has to do with the cable box.

It is not 5 seconds or anything close and you would only notice it if you migrated from Xfinity but it is definitely noticeable and drove me crazy when I first switched to Fios. I'm more used to it now so it's not as much of an issue but I think it should be noted on this list.


3. Voice search - Call me lazy but the Xfinity remote voice search is extremely convenient, especially compared to using the Fios search guide to find a show or channels (which is very poorly conceived...but more on that later). I honestly didn't think I was going to use the Xfinity voice search that much when I first got it but it is very useful and you will miss it when you switch to Fios.


4. Backlighting - All the buttons on the Xfinity remote have subtle backlighting that turns on when you pick up the remote making it easy to view in no/low light. For some strange reason, the Fios remote only lights 5 buttons out of 47. And since the remote buttons are poorly designed (see above) it makes it hard to make your selection in no/low light situations.

Compare this to the Xfinity remote, buttons are easy to see but you really don't even need the backlighting because you could figure out your selection just from the design layout.


TV GUIDE - Again, the Xfinity remote has MANY benefits over Fios.

I'm just going to come out and say this...The Fios tv guide is REALLY BAD.

Think of a bad website this is WAY too busy, distracting, and hard to use. The Fios guide has a very poor screen layout cramming too much into too little space. What makes it worse is they use too many colors that adds to the overwhelming. I assume the designers made this choice with the goal of helping users distinguish between the many, many icons and displayed options.

Here Xfinity shines again by using a much more "simple is better" approach that is cleaner, easier to read, and more user-friendly.

The Fios guide also has poor navigation that forces you to go through too many screens to get what you want. There is just too much click right, click down, click right again, etc. etc. Add this to the earlier mentioned lack of voice features and poor remote design makes for a frustrating user experience. To be fair there are remote shortcuts for some functions but Fios would be better off with an all-new guide user interface design.

It's easy to see that the Xfinity guide is clearly superior to Fios by the special user experience touches. For example, Xfinity allows you to filter out the channels you do not have access to on your TV plan. Unless you have an all channels plan, this is very useful allowing a user to bypass possibly hundreds of channels you don't have access to. For all my searching, I can't find this option on Fios.

Instead, Fios seems to often be pushing upgraded services which are annoying like popups ads on a website or mobile app. For example, when you first turn on your tv/cable you are taken to a "dashboard-like" page with upselling options. You will also often see a popup movie rental reminder when you click on the Fios "On Demand" button.


I believe that difference between the Xfinity and Fios tv remote and guides comes down to this: Xfinity put time and effort behind these products and for Fios, it's just an afterthought.

I understand why. Xfinity (Comcast) was primarily a cable company. Verizon (Fios) was primarily a phone company that later added cable/internet. So it just makes sense that Xfinity would have a more mature product with a better-dedicated team behind it.

Despite my ranting and raving above, I am saying with Fios because the internet is most important to me and Fios is clearly superior in that category and my monthly bill is much cheaper. I just hope that Fios will start to invest more in the tv user experience because Xfinity is presently kicking their butt and consistently innovating in this area.

Re: Fios vs Xfinity TV Remote & Guide - A Newly Switch User From Xfinity To Fios Customer Opinio
jonjones1
Legend

Long rant about Fios not included 😀

if xfinity is the better service why the long post about what is wrong with Fios?

0 Likes
Re: Fios vs Xfinity TV Remote & Guide - A Newly Switch User From Xfinity To Fios Customer Opinio
topdog5
Enthusiast - Level 2

@jonjones wrote:

Long rant about Fios not included 😀

if xfinity is the better service why the long post about what is wrong with Fios?


Not sure I completely understand your question but my main purpose is to hopefully get the Fios team to improve their tv remotes and guide.

The secondary purpose is to share info with other Xfinity migrants.

0 Likes
Re: Fios vs Xfinity TV Remote & Guide - A Newly Switch User From Xfinity To Fios Customer Opinio
jonjones1
Legend

@topdog5 wrote:

@jonjones wrote:

Long rant about Fios not included 😀

if xfinity is the better service why the long post about what is wrong with Fios?


Not sure I completely understand your question but my main purpose is to hopefully get the Fios team to improve their tv remotes and guide.

The secondary purpose is to share info with other Xfinity migrants.


Ah ha I see.

the problem is these are customers of Verizon and the forum is customers helping customers. No one higher up in Verizon will ever see your post.

customers viewing the post are not going to change services on the post of one person which is more like a advertisement than a post for help.

0 Likes
Re: Fios vs Xfinity TV Remote & Guide - A Newly Switch User From Xfinity To Fios Customer Opinio
CRobGauth
Community Leader
Community Leader

Couple of comments:

1) FIOS absolutely allows you to change filter on guide. FIrst, go to menu, settings, system, television, last guide viewed state. Make sure that is enabled. Then hit options. A variety of options including subscribed channels.

2) You can disable all of the upselling. Go to menu, settings, system, tv recommendations. Disable them.

3) You can disable Fios Home page on power up (btw, no reason to power off as boxes consume same amount of power regardless). It should show you on the screen how to do it. Same with on demand pop up. Should be option to disable.

4) Big debate on Voice control. I personally would find it annoying if someone was sitting in the room and kept saying waht they were looking for. BTW, I beleive FIOS app supports voice control. And Alexa support is coming as well.

5) I have used Cox remotes and find FIOS pretty good. Never used Comcast but don't beleive the FIOS remote is as poorly designed as you. But that's what opinions are all about. I can't say yours is any more wrong than mine is right.

Re: Fios vs Xfinity TV Remote & Guide - A Newly Switch User From Xfinity To Fios Customer Opinio
topdog5
Enthusiast - Level 2

Thanks for the tips, especially the "last guide viewed state".  Makes a big difference.

0 Likes
Re: Fios vs Xfinity TV Remote & Guide - A Newly Switch User From Xfinity To Fios Customer Opinio
cmo220
Enthusiast - Level 2

I completely agree with pretty much everything in this thread.  I can't wait until the day I can leave Verizon.  I'll probably just pay the early termination fee, even though giving them money for nothing seems to be exactly what they are after.