FiOS Quantum TV - mistake?

[stcain]

I had two TVs each with a QIP7232P2 DVR with 160gb of storage connected and a 2TB external SATA drive connected to one of them. And they could both view and play each other's recordings.

I ordered the upgrade to Quantum TV because I wanted the 6 tuner capability so I figured I'd get two 6 tuner DVRs and be able to reconnect my 2TB SATA drive to one of them.

From Verizon I received one VMS1100 with 1TB storage that I connected last night, only to find it doesn't support external SATA. And when I opened the other box I found an IPC1100P2 that I haven't connected yet but looks like it has no internal storage, apparently it just connects to the VMS1100 to schedule and view recordings? Am I correct about the IPC1100P2's capabilities?

If true then I went from 2.3TB of storage and two independent DVRs that could view each other's recordings to 1TB of storage and only one independent DVR and another box that can just schedule and view recordings? If I had to I'd keep the 2nd QIP7232P2 and send back the IPC1100P2 but it looks like the VMS1100 and the QIP7232P2 can't view and play each other's recordings like I did with two QIP7232P2s. And I'm worried about getting billed $650 for the 2nd box if I don't send it back to Verizon now.

Feeling like I got screwed. Can anyone answer my questions?

[CRobGauth]

Couple of things:

1) You can't mix Quantum and 7XXX series boxes.

2) Yes, the IPC is just a slave to the VMS.

3) Last word from Verizon is that they felt the VMS met or exceeded the offerings of other cable providers.

So they don't intend to add eSATA support at this time.

BTW, any swap of the DVR would cause you to lose everyting on external drive as it was married to a particular DVR.

So if the DVR it was connected to died, you would have lost everything on theexternal drive at that time.

[stcain · Accepted solution]

Thanks, one **bleep** off Verizon customer here. They need to enable the **bleep** eSATA port. I didn't care about the data on the drive, I knew it would be wiped when reconnecting to a new box so watched and deleted all it's content. But now only having 1TB of storage after previously having 2.3TB I'm constantly back to filling up the single drive again with two people recording programs. So my Quantum "upgrade" feels more like a downgrade!

[Brubaker1]

Rob, it's no doubt true that Verizon feels their Quantum service meets or exceeds the competition. It's also pretty much irrelevant. The question that ought to be asked and answered is whether it meets the needs of Verizon subscribers. The clear answer is that for many, myself included, the inability to connect eSATA drives is a huge shortfall.

With two DVRs and two external drives, I now have 500gb each, plus 1tb each, for a total of 3tb storage. Going to Quantum, even with two units, I would have just 2tb. Yes, I'd go from 4 tuners to 12, but what's the use of an extreme number of tuners if there's no storage available?