PIP - Picture in Picture function does not work on FIOS.
1kickerfish
Newbie
I wish someone had told me this fact before I switched over from Comcast. By switching to fios I took a 10+ year technological step back in time. I just got off the phone with Verizon fios tech support and the rep said he felt the same way and bought tivo boxes to replace the fios boxes so he could have PIP and a remote that will work beyond 7 feet of the TV. The saddest part of the story is that he said the Motorola boxes and remote are PIP capable and Verizon disables the function. WHAT? Yes, they disable the function the same way they disable the USB ports, and camera ports on the front of the box. It is as if they are just trying to run off their customers. "Hey it is football season so lets disable the PIP function"! This is by far the dumbest business decision I have ever heard. Does any of the verizon reps read this site and respond to the posts. I have read about a lot of issues but no resolutions. TURN ON PIP !!!!! It is not rocket science verizon.
0 Likes
Re: PIP - Picture in Picture function does not work on FIOS.
Justin46
Legend

I agree, it would be nice to have PIP.

However, it is my understanding that the Motorola STBs that Verizon uses do not support PIP period. So I think the Verizon rep was misinformed.

There is a well informed poster here, KenAF, that has posted many times that the Motorola boxes do not have any PIP functionality, with any TV provider. Here is a quote from one of his posts:

"No Motorola DVR from any cable provider supports picture-in-picture, and no picture-in-picture support is planned.  The hardware in Motorola's new QIP7216 is incapable of supporting PIP.  The hardware in the older QIP6416 could theoretically support that feature, if Verizon were to "dumb down" their interface to free up more memory, but Verizon has no interest in moving back to a plain UI, and Motorola has no interest in developing a feature for older boxes that will not work on their newer ones."

And if you go to this Verizon webpage and read the Motorola manuals on the STBs you will not find any mention of PIP (these manuals are Motorola manuals for the boxes, not Verizon-specific).

Rumor has it that Verizon will be offering a new STB sometime next year that might include PIP, but I don't think Verizon has announced anything officially.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP6416-P1, IMG 1.7C, Build 09.83
Keller, TX 76248

Re: PIP - Picture in Picture function does not work on FIOS.
PJL
Master - Level 3

@1kickerfish wrote:
I wish someone had told me this fact before I switched over from Comcast. By switching to fios I took a 10+ year technological step back in time. I just got off the phone with Verizon fios tech support and the rep said he felt the same way and bought tivo boxes to replace the fios boxes so he could have PIP and a remote that will work beyond 7 feet of the TV. The saddest part of the story is that he said the Motorola boxes and remote are PIP capable and Verizon disables the function. WHAT? Yes, they disable the function the same way they disable the USB ports, and camera ports on the front of the box. It is as if they are just trying to run off their customers. "Hey it is football season so lets disable the PIP function"! This is by far the dumbest business decision I have ever heard. Does any of the verizon reps read this site and respond to the posts. I have read about a lot of issues but no resolutions. TURN ON PIP !!!!! It is not rocket science verizon.

I just searched through the actual Motorola version of the user guide (not the Verizion documentation).  There is no mention of the ability of the STB to do PIP.  The remote can indeed control a TV's PIP function.  Verizon does not disable this function for the STB -- it doesn't exist according to Motorola's documentation. 

0 Likes
Re: PIP - Picture in Picture function does not work on FIOS.
1kickerfish
Newbie

Wrong............ Thanks for taking the time to make such a long response but you could not be more wrong.  My comcast box was a motorola and I had PIP.  As far as the technical jargon about the box tuner or tv tuners i do not know the particulars.  I do know that with my sony HD tv i had pip w/comcast and now i do not w/fios.  {please keep your posts courteous} It sure would be nice if a real tech monitored these posts.

0 Likes
Re: PIP - Picture in Picture function does not work on FIOS.
Justin46
Legend

@1kickerfish wrote:

Wrong............ Thanks for taking the time to make such a long response but you could not be more wrong.  My comcast box was a motorola and I had PIP.  As far as the technical jargon about the box tuner or tv tuners i do not know the particulars.  I do know that with my sony HD tv i had pip w/comcast and now i do not w/fios. {please keep your posts courteous}  It sure would be nice if a real tech monitored these posts.


I'm sorry, I did not see any "query" in your original post, all I saw was a rant. Two of us tried to reply civilly and what do we get in response? Trashed....

Care to tell us what model Motorla STB you had with Comcast that offered PIP?

A couple of final points - 1) this is a "user-to-user" forum. You should not expect any responses from Verizon techs unless perhaps you actually ask an intelligent question within their areas of expertise to answer. And 2) trashing the people you are looking to for help is generally not the best way to get help.

Edit: I went to the Comcast website and searched for PIP or "picture-in-picture." I found references to it, and wiring diagrams to set it up, but very clearly the Comcast DVR did not support PIP, it was using a TV that supported PIP. Basically all I could find was using a splitter to deliver two different connections to the TV that had built-in PIP support. I found nothing else.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP6416-P1, IMG 1.7C, Build 09.83
Keller, TX 76248

Re: PIP - Picture in Picture function does not work on FIOS.
1kickerfish
Newbie

Justin, You just validated that comcast works.  """""Basically all I could find was using a splitter to deliver two different connections to the TV that had built-in PIP support. """""  Regardless of how --- you now agree that comcast works!!!      Fios does not.  There is no work around to get PIP with my DRV.  The DVR has dual tuners, and my TV has dual tuners, but verizon has disabled this function.  Probably so they can charge for it in the future.  As far as the forum, many other companies do monitor their community forums to keep in touch with the issues at hand.  Verizon does not care.  They lie to their prospective customers about the great improvements they will get over comcast, and as soon as you are signed up they ignore you completely.     

0 Likes
Re: PIP - Picture in Picture function does not work on FIOS.
KaLin
Khoros Partner
Khoros Partner

Hi 1kickerfish,

This is a peer-to-peer forum, meant mostly for the exchange of ideas and tips between members. While there are a couple of tech support people who occasionally post here, this issue may not be within their realm of expertise. We have forwarded many of the forum suggestions and concerns to the appropriate parties for review. Verizon is listening and we value your feedback, even if we can't always respond directly.

Regards

Re: PIP - Picture in Picture function does not work on FIOS.
Justin46
Legend

@1kickerfish wrote:

Justin, You just validated that comcast works.  """""Basically all I could find was using a splitter to deliver two different connections to the TV that had built-in PIP support. """""  Regardless of how --- you now agree that comcast works!!!      Fios does not.  There is no work around to get PIP with my DRV.  The DVR has dual tuners, and my TV has dual tuners, but verizon has disabled this function.  Probably so they can charge for it in the future.  As far as the forum, many other companies do monitor their community forums to keep in touch with the issues at hand.  Verizon does not care.  They lie to their prospective customers about the great improvements they will get over comcast, and as soon as you are signed up they ignore you completely.     


Verizon has not disabled any function, period. You most certainly can get PIP with FiOS as long as your TV has 1) PIP functionality and 2) you have either a TV with a QAM tuner or you get another STB.

The Comcast technique is to put a splitter in front of the STB and route the 2nd coax directly to the antenna connecton on the TV: Link (just ignore the VCR if you don't have one). Thus the TV has two inputs available for the PIP - from the STB, and from the coax without any STB. This will work for now with Comcast because they apparently still deliver an analog signal (will disappear sometime in the future, probably soon).

You can accomplish the same thing with FiOS. However, FiOS does not deliver an analog signal, all signals are digital, so you need 1) a TV with a QAM tuner, or 2) you need another STB. You can get the DCT700 digital adapter for $4/month to do this.

I think you should make an effort to understand the current technology of the FiOS system, and understand where all cable systems are going in the future. Or you can just go back to Comcast and I suppose be happy (and I really think you should do so, your mind appears to be totally closed to reality).

End of my participation in this useless thread.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP6416-P1, IMG 1.7C, Build 09.83
Keller, TX 76248

Re: PIP - Picture in Picture function does not work on FIOS.
Hubrisnxs
Legend

PIP will work with FiOS and a PIP enabled TV.  

It's not supported by verizon tech support, but other users have been able to get it to work.  

One user has it set up like this.  
From the wall, the coaxial is connected to a one-to-three way splitter. One is connected to the modem/router. The second is connected to the cable box and subsequently the HDMI input behind the TV. The third is connected to the coaxial input behind the TV.

After the analog to digital conversion though, he is going to have to do one of two things,  use off air for your second channel which works great or pitch the extra 3.99 for a dct 700 digital tuner to be your 2nd pip channel.

Re: PIP - Picture in Picture function does not work on FIOS.
Hubrisnxs
Legend

if you're tv is newer with a QAM digital tuner like mentioned earlier, the PIP will work with that too.