Menu & Guide options ,channels
safesinger
Newbie

Just got Fios installed yesterday.

While I do enjoy the UI and the channels get very good clarity I have a few suggestions.

I am not sure if anyone moderates these forums that may be able to pass this information on or not still I will post the suggestions.

Firstly the fact that all the channels I do not get still are there for me to pass through while channel surfing this is just to much if I do not get these channels they should automatically not be there for me to pass through since I do not get these channels.

Also the menu & guide display at 4:3 ratio will cause burn in for alot of people. I and most others today have 16:9 ratio televisions this should be fixed ASAP. Or atleast have an option to adjust this.

Was also told that when I ordered that the basic package included what my old provider does but this is untrue channels like WGN, Investigation Discovery even national geograpic requires me to pay even more $$.

Right now what i ordered is what i paid at BH but it seems I get alot less channels. The channels plus more were considered basic expanded not Extreme.

Sorry these channels are not extreme they should be part of the basic package since BH offerings are as well. If you plan to compete with cable this should be changed immediately.

Luckily I am on no contract for the 1st year I will probably use it for that time period but most likely will go back to my local cable company.

I used to watch Investigative Discovery all the time and to pay $60 nore than what my local cable company charges for the same programming  is crazy there just isn't enough here to justify these charges.

Sure the picture is clearer, and multiroom DVR along with some apps to record from mobile or PC is cool but these few things do not justify the cost to get the channels I was used to for $60 more a month.

Channels that were considered basic expanded on cable but are considered extreme on Fios

Discovery Health

Investigative Discovery

Bio

Natgeo channel

History International

Smithsonian

Nick Toons

Turner classic

MTV2

BBC

Chiller

G4

Sleuth

Plus more this is a big loss of channels that were not considered extreme and cost an extra $60 a month at Fios.

Sure the Extreme HD package has other channels included but the ones listed should be in the basic option.

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Re: Menu & Guide options ,channels
lasagna
Community Leader
Community Leader

If you haven't already ... spend some time with the "favorites" feature.    There are two groupings of favorites you can define.  I have one set programmed to be all the channels I get (and have any interest in ever watching -- for example, while I get several spanish language and shopping channels, I have no interest in them and thus I don't include them in my favorites).   Once you set this up, you can then set the channel up/down button to flip by Favorites so it skips over any channels you don't get or don't want to see.

This doesn't affect the guide, but does make general channel surfing more palatable.

As for the channels in their packages ... caveat emptor ... the first thing I did when I was considering a switch was go to the web site and download the channel guide and tier mapping (has all those little colored dots on it which shows you which channels are in which packages) and married that up against my cable provider.   In my case, my TV bill dropped by over $20/month when I switched to FiOS ... so everyone's use case is different.  What you see as an unacceptable bundling arrangement on FiOS end may for others result in a selection which more closely matches what they're interested in and thus saves them money.  YMMV.

As for your comments as others have said throughout posts to this forum ... this is a user to user peer forum.  You would be better to address comments you want Verizon to see to them via other avenues.

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Re: Menu & Guide options ,channels
Justin46
Legend

Here is a link to a thread about setting up Favorites, maybe the information there will help:

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/FiOS-TV-Technical-Assistance/Exploiting-FiOS-TV-Favorites/td-p/9935

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP6416-P1, IMG 1.7.1, Build 09.97
Keller, TX 76248

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Re: Menu & Guide options ,channels
matcarl
Master - Level 1

@safesinger wrote:

Also the menu & guide display at 4:3 ratio will cause burn in for alot of people. I and most others today have 16:9 ratio televisions this should be fixed ASAP. Or atleast have an option to adjust this.

Burn? Please, how long does someone leave the guide on? Anyway they are working on making 16:9 an option.

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Re: Menu & Guide options ,channels
lasagna
Community Leader
Community Leader

... and burn really isn't an issue on today's generation of TV sets.  Possibly some plasma models, but not even there really.  Burn is something which takes prolonged exposure from a static image and even then would have nothing to do with 4:3 vs 16:9.

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Re: Menu & Guide options ,channels
safesinger
Newbie

Yeah I will go through the guide stuff today and figure out what I will do with the channels.

Since this is user to user I should not have mentioned the whole package issue I have just wanted to vent a little.

Yeah burn in isn't as prominent as it was with older TV's.

I had a HD projection TV up until 2009 and Bright house guide was the same until recently it was 4:3 on a 16:9 tv while I did not keep it on guide all the time from prolonged going to guide it did cause line burn in on the sides of the screen had a 4:3 burn in on screen from the guide.

After years of using guide it did eventually cause burn-in.

Now I use a LCDTV and I realize it's much harder to get burn -in on these but would rather not chance it.

I have seen LCDtv's get burn-in my 26" Sanyo in my bedroom has TNT with circle around it burned into the right bottom corner.

Like I said there are some great things that come with Fios like Media server is a very very cool feature love that I can stream xvid/Divx,Pictures ,Mp3's and Internet radio right from the Cablebox.

And the wife loves that she can record from work many times when we had cable she asked me to record a show and I forgot..Not good!  

Must admit Fios picture quality is much better than my local cable company provided.

I've heard others say there's no difference but in my case there was a difference even the wife noticed and usually she can't tell that stuff.

So far there is quite a bit of positives that do out weigh the negative. 

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Re: Menu & Guide options ,channels
tns
Master - Level 2

A 16x9 guide is reportedly coming. 

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Re: Menu & Guide options ,channels
vircotto
Newbie

Thank you, Justin.  Brand new to FiOS and this is exactly what I was looking for.

(And thanks to safesinger for bringing up the topic.)

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