Just switched to Verizon FIOS Ultimate yesterday...already have concerns

[Budge2]

I am a long time subscriber from one of Verizon's satellite competitors (I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say which one).  I signed up for the 2 year contract on the Ultimate Triple Play bundle and had it installed yesterday.  The internet and the phone work flawlessly, but I already have some concerns about FIOS tv.

Coming from a different service provider, I was expecting there to be some differences (some better and some worse).  However, some of the negative differences are really bothering me.  I'm hoping someone can help me fix these issues.

1.  THE GUIDE - My old service allowed me to hide SD content in the guide if an HD channel was available.  Why would I want to watch the same show in SD?  The old guide also grayed out channels I wasn't subscribed to.  The Verizon guide shows me everything, as if it's available, and then tells me to order it when I click the channel.  There doesn't seem to be any indicator that I'm not subscribed to a channel before I choose it.  Any solutions for this?

2.  SD vs. HD Channels - I honestly do not understand why the SD and HD channels are separated by 500 channels.  My kids like to watch the kid channels, and they used to just channel up and down in that range.  Now, they have to jump from 250 all the way to 770 if they want to catch the 3 HD kids channels.  Our old service had more of their channels in HD and they were all (SD and HD) in one place.  I guess there's no workaround for this one unless you can scroll through favorites (maybe?).  The same is true for my wife and I.  We tend to scroll through a range until we find something we want to watch.  I'm either going to scroll through the HD channels or the SD channels, but not both.  If I decide to scroll through HD programming, how many channels am I passing up on because they're not listed in the same place?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  I'm willing to try to make this work, but I still consider myself on a 30 day TRIAL if the experience proves too painful.

[Budge2]

Surely I'm not the first person to have these issue.  Anyone?

[davelanger]

You have the option to view only HD stations in the guide. You can also have a view only the channels you subscribe to

from another thread

First, this only works if you have the new 1.9 Guide.  If you still have 1.8, you will have to wait.

Go to Menu, Settings, Television, and then you will see something like "Last Viewed Guide State" all the way near the bottom.  Click on enable.

Then, go into Guide, hit Options, select "Subscribed," and your Guide view will stay on subscribed channels.  You won't have to use Favorites again.  It will stay on subscribed until you change it to something else.  For instance, if you do hit the Favorites button, you will get your Favorites channels in the Guide menu.  Then, you will have to go back in and select Subscribed channels.  You can also set it to only view HD channels and other selections.  It is up to you.  With subscribed channels, you will still see PPV channels and such because you do still have the ability to purchase movies and events from those channels, but it will block out the channels that are not in your tier or that you don't pay for like HBO, Cinemax, etc.

[Budge2]

Thank you davelanger.  I didn't know about those options in the menu.  I just tried them out (so I must have 1.9) and they work.  Now if I could just get both options to be enabled at the same time, I'd be thrilled and ready to keep FIOS.

I hope I'm not sounding too picky.  It's just that if I use the HD only option, I cannot see any of the SD channels even if there isn't an HD version of it, right?  This feature would have been more useful if it blocked SD duplicates instead of all SD channels.

Sorry for the rant.  Thanks again for your help.

[FiOS_Fan_01844]

Thanks for that. My peeve was the guide always reverting to all channels when I only want to see my subscribed channels.

Similar issue though, is Channel Up/Down hitting unsubscribed channels. FRUSTRATING!

When I channel UP/DOWN, I see "Mode: All Channels" in the lower right-hand corner of the screen, with the "Options" button, but hitting Options doesn't give me the option I need.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[CRobGauth]

see the comments above about setting the guide to remember last state.

[CRobGauth]

This has been brought up plenty of times before.

Best thing to do is go to the new idea forum (http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Share-Your-Ideas-with-Verizon/idb-p/ideas) and find the post about HD vs SD. Add your vote.

[tns]

Most of the country has IMG 1.9 on their boxes, hopefully the rest of us get it tomorrow.  With 1.9 there is a button, I think "C", that can be pressed on SD channels that will switch to the HD channel if it is available.