New customer questions
btaylor_79
Newbie

Hello, I've only had FIOS TV for a few days and I have some concerns I am wondering if other people have.

 The Guide
1. On a 16x9 TV, unless you watch Full Screen, which squishes the people on

most broadcasts, you lose 2 channels of the guide.
 Even with w 4x3 screen you lose 1 channel on the bottom, but when you page you

can eventually see it.
With the 16x9 in anything but Full screen, if you page thru the guide, you lose

2 channels info each time you page.

 I have 3 16x9 tvs in my house and it's the same on all of them, along with the one 4x3 tv.

2. Full screen guide, picture in the top right corner blocks the channels on

the top right of the guide. Why can't we just get fewer channels in each page

and be able to see them all, as Directv does?

3. Guide has wrong channel listings too often. Other providers don't seem to

have this issue.

You never know who to call with an issue, and every group you get transferred to

asks you the exact same questions, your name, phone number, acct. number...

Website is not surrent and has incorrect or missing data. Download the pdf. on

the multi-room DVR, not correct... click on links and page not avavilable..

Are any of these guide issues valid and being addressed in the future?

Thanks

Brian

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Re: New customer questions
matcarl
Master - Level 1
The guide is meant for 4:3. The bottom channel you will see when you page down as you said so you lose nothing.
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Re: New customer questions
KenAF
Specialist - Level 2

As noted above, the guide is only meant to fill the center 4:3 portion of the screen.  Verizon's guide displays the same 90 minutes of program information as the DirecTV guide, they just don't stretch it to fill the 16:9 screen.

 

No cable company currently offers a 16:9 guide.  Dish Network is the only satellite provider that uses 16:9 to display more than 90 minutes of program information on the screen.

 

Verizon plans to offer a true 16:9 guide by early next year.  It may or may not require a new box.

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Re: New customer questions
btaylor_79
Newbie
This has nothing to do with the length of time shown but with the number of channels shown vertically. Verizon's guide does not fill the center of the screen on a 4x3 screen. The bottom channel is off the screen, can't be seen, unless you channel up or down.
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Re: New customer questions
Justin46
Legend

@btaylor_79 wrote:
This has nothing to do with the length of time shown but with the number of channels shown vertically. Verizon's guide does not fill the center of the screen on a 4x3 screen. The bottom channel is off the screen, can't be seen, unless you channel up or down.

Not on my TV, either on an SD or HD channel. For example. if I set the top channel visible on the Guide to 600, the bottom one I can see is 622; a very small part of the bottom of 622 is cut off, but I can completely read it. What kind of TV are you using? Is it possible that you need to adjust the overscan of your TV slightly?

I have read your initial post multiple times and I just don't understand most of what are unhappy about with the Guide.

1) I don't understand at all what you are saying about squishing people and losing two channels; when, how? Full screen or half screen, I see the same number of channels in the Guide. I have a 40" 16:9 HD TV, no issues for me, watching SD or HD channels.

2)  True, part of the data is missing, but it is the furthest out timewise. Personal preference I guess, but it doesn't bother me, if that is the part I am interested in I just go forward 1/2 hour (maybe its because I have been watching it this way for so long I just know it looks that way and just accept it).

3) Totally agree with this, just terrible that Verizon accepts the bad data from FYI Television, the Guide data provider.

Maybe you could try again to explain what you are unhappy with, perhaps it is fixable.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.6.2, Build 08.58
Keller, TX 76248

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Re: New customer questions
SHARKMAN44
Contributor - Level 1

the little video window that you see with the guide can be eliminated in settings - video.

sharkman

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Re: New customer questions
Justin46
Legend

@SHARKMAN44 wrote:

the little video window that you see with the guide can be eliminated in settings - video.

sharkman


True, I forgot about that, thanks for posting it. I am going to stick with the little window, that way I can see what is actually happening on the channel I am tuned to while viewing the Guide, but if viewing a full 90 minutes of the top three or so channels is more important you can get rid of the little window.

Thanks again sharkman.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.6.2, Build 08.58
Keller, TX 76248

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Re: New customer questions
btaylor_79
Newbie

Thanks Justin.

 Now I'll try and explain my issue with the guide size. If you have a 16:9 tv and watch it all the time in "Full" screen mode you won't see this, but when you are watching "Full" screen mode, you are not watching images in their correct proportions. This mode is for anamorphic or enhanced broadcasts. Any normal broadcast when watched in "Full" screen mode, SD or HD, will appear like the images are shorter and wider. If you watch in "Full" screen all of the time, I'm finding that people don't realize this. Compare your 4:3 screen image to your "Full" screen image.

Now, if you are not watching "Full" screen, maybe "Zoom" for example, which has the images in the correct proportions but you lose some image on the top and bottom of the screen, you can not see the last 2 channels at the bottom of the guide, and if you page up or down you still can not see them, you have to channel up or down by single channels.

I hope this makes sense, but this is more a concern for the Verizon techs on here than a debate with other users. I just can't stand the thought of trying to call them again to try to talk to someone who may know something about this. 

Anyways thanks for the replies.

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Re: New customer questions
Justin46
Legend

@btaylor_79 wrote:

Thanks Justin.

 Now I'll try and explain my issue with the guide size. If you have a 16:9 tv and watch it all the time in "Full" screen mode you won't see this, but when you are watching "Full" screen mode, you are not watching images in their correct proportions. This mode is for anamorphic or enhanced broadcasts. Any normal broadcast when watched in "Full" screen mode, SD or HD, will appear like the images are shorter and wider. If you watch in "Full" screen all of the time, I'm finding that people don't realize this. Compare your 4:3 screen image to your "Full" screen image.

Now, if you are not watching "Full" screen, maybe "Zoom" for example, which has the images in the correct proportions but you lose some image on the top and bottom of the screen, you can not see the last 2 channels at the bottom of the guide, and if you page up or down you still can not see them, you have to channel up or down by single channels.

I hope this makes sense, but this is more a concern for the Verizon techs on here than a debate with other users. I just can't stand the thought of trying to call them again to try to talk to someone who may know something about this. 

Anyways thanks for the replies.


I guess what I am struggling with is this "Full screen" that you are referring to. What is it, how do I set it, is it a TV setting or a STB setting you are talking about? What "Zoom" mode - the Aspect button on the FiOS remote, something else?

I have a 16:9 TV:

  • When I watch an HD channel with an HD (16:9) picture I don't set anything with anything (at least that I know of), I just see a picture that fills the screen, and does not appear distorted.
  • When it is an SD (4:3) picture on an HD channel  I have black bars on the side (no distortion that I know of). I know I could use the Aspect button to make it fill the screen but I don't like it that way.
  • When I watch an SD channel I have black bars on the side (again, no distortion that I know of). And again, I know I could use the Aspect button to make it fill the screen but I don't like it that way, or I could use the SD Override setting to stretch the SD picture.


    Those are the ways I like to watch the picture, with as little distortion as I can, or are you saying that watching that way it is distorted?

You do know I hope that this is a user-to-user forum. While there are some Verizon techs here, the major focus is user-to-user so I doubt they are going to take this issue forward unless it is very clear that there is a real problem and what the problem is. I don't claim to be the smartest person in the world, but if I can't understand the issue then perhaps others including the Verizon techs can't either.

If you are willing, please tell me exactly what setting(s) you are talking about - TV, STB, specific buttons, etc. I don't doubt you know what you are seeing/concerned about, but I don't, and I really would like to understand.

But if you don't want to take the time, that's ok too  Smiley Happy

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.6.2, Build 08.58
Keller, TX 76248      

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