Updated FIOS TV Guide is mostly cosmetic. Still far behind the competition.
barrymilliken
Enthusiast - Level 2
  1. NO STAR RATINGS FOR MOVIES:         RCN shows star ratings for all movies (FIOS does not).  With RCN you could search movies by star ratings.  I could for example, search for only 4 star movies and program them easily for recording on my DVR.  No such thing on FIOS.
  2. DVR CAN ONLY BE PROGRAMED TO RECORD SHOWS IN THE GUIDE:  With RCN I could program the DVR to record future shows that are not yet in the current 2 week guide.  I could search for example for “Bogart”.  Even if no programs with that keyword (in the title, description or list of actors) appears in the current 2 week guide, the system will continuously look for that search criteria and find and record the program whenever it is scheduled in the future.  YOU CANNOT DO THIS with FIOS.
  3. LIMITED PAUSE TIME FOR LIVE SHOWS: With RCN you can pause live programming for up to 1 hour.  With FIOS you can pause for only 15 minutes.
  4. TYRANY OF CHANNEL NUMBERING : With RCN I could choose to display the guide alphabetically by channel NAME: I can remember names like CNN, ABC, CNN, HBO…  etc and prefer a guide that lists channels that way.  With FIOS you a stuck with yet another set of meaningless numbers.  The FIOS glossy printed guide understands this and lists the channels alphabetically. And shows a “quick key” explaining the numbering rationale.  But the FIOS people programming the on screen guide didn’t get the memo.
  5. CHANNEL CLUTTER IS STILL A PROBLEM.  Yes I can laboriously create a favorites list that does not include channels I have not subscribed to or channels in a foreign language.  But why is this not an easy setup choice?  Even if I’m showing only my favorites, any search I do includes all channels anyway.  UGH!
  6. GUIDE NAVIGATION IS AWKWARD.  In modern user interfaces there should always be a BACK function that takes you back exactly to where you were.  Similarly for any 2 way (or multiway) toggle: the last push should take you back to where you were.
  7. Another example of arbitrary limits to guide navigation:  If I’m looking at the guide I can click on DVR to see what I have recorded.  But if I’m looking at the list of DVR recordings I can’t push the favorites button to see the guide.  I have to first “exit”.  Lets face it: the default “all channels” is useless, so I always use the favorites button.  But with favorites you cannot toggle between guide formats; pushing it a second time just takes to to “all channels”.
  8. Direct TV adds special mutichannels for top sports events like the Masters, with live scoring, special focus on individual holes.  You never see anything like that on Fios.
Labels (1)
Re: Updated FIOS TV Guide is mostly cosmetic. Still far behind the competition.
UnnDunn
Contributor - Level 3

Addressing some of your points:

1. The FiOS TV Website allows you to brows the FiOS On Demand library and view TV Listings, along with star ratings for movies on demand. You can program your DVR to record shows from the site using the Remote DVR feature.

5. While watching live TV, press the Right arrow button to bring up the Modes selection. From there, you can filter channels by a number of criteria, including Subscribed Channels. In the Guide, this same functionality can be invoked by using the Options button on your remote. If you've customized the guide a certain way and you'd like to save that state so that the Guide always remembers your customizations, you have to enable the Last Viewed Guide State feature, which you'll find in the Television menu under Settings.

6. The Last button on your remote performs this function. Pressing it while in a menu or guide view will take you to the previous menu or guide you were looking at. Pressing it while watching TV will tune to the last channel you were watching, allowing you to easily toggle between two channels.

7. The On Demand, Guide, Menu, DVR and Widgets buttons are shortcuts. They will always take you to the relevant menu or screen, no matter what you are doing or watching.

Also, you can set it up such that one of your Favorites lists becomes the "master" list, if you will. This is called Flip by Favorites, and you'll find it in the Favorites menu under Settings. Once enabled, the box will only expose channels you have added to the relevant Favorites list. Channels not present in the Favorites list will not be shown anywhere; the only way to get to those channels will be to input their channel numbers manually.

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Re: Updated FIOS TV Guide is mostly cosmetic. Still far behind the competition.
nascar
Master - Level 1
I agree.

barrymilliken wrote:

  1. NO STAR RATINGS FOR MOVIES:         RCN shows star ratings for all movies (FIOS does not).  With RCN you could search movies by star ratings.  I could for example, search for only 4 star movies and program them easily for recording on my DVR.  No such thing on FIOS.
  2. DVR CAN ONLY BE PROGRAMED TO RECORD SHOWS IN THE GUIDE:  With RCN I could program the DVR to record future shows that are not yet in the current 2 week guide.  I could search for example for “Bogart”.  Even if no programs with that keyword (in the title, description or list of actors) appears in the current 2 week guide, the system will continuously look for that search criteria and find and record the program whenever it is scheduled in the future.  YOU CANNOT DO THIS with FIOS.
  3. LIMITED PAUSE TIME FOR LIVE SHOWS: With RCN you can pause live programming for up to 1 hour.  With FIOS you can pause for only 15 minutes.
  4. TYRANY OF CHANNEL NUMBERING : With RCN I could choose to display the guide alphabetically by channel NAME: I can remember names like CNN, ABC, CNN, HBO…  etc and prefer a guide that lists channels that way.  With FIOS you a stuck with yet another set of meaningless numbers.  The FIOS glossy printed guide understands this and lists the channels alphabetically. And shows a “quick key” explaining the numbering rationale.  But the FIOS people programming the on screen guide didn’t get the memo.
  5. CHANNEL CLUTTER IS STILL A PROBLEM.  Yes I can laboriously create a favorites list that does not include channels I have not subscribed to or channels in a foreign language.  But why is this not an easy setup choice?  Even if I’m showing only my favorites, any search I do includes all channels anyway.  UGH!
  6. GUIDE NAVIGATION IS AWKWARD.  In modern user interfaces there should always be a BACK function that takes you back exactly to where you were.  Similarly for any 2 way (or multiway) toggle: the last push should take you back to where you were.
  7. Another example of arbitrary limits to guide navigation:  If I’m looking at the guide I can click on DVR to see what I have recorded.  But if I’m looking at the list of DVR recordings I can’t push the favorites button to see the guide.  I have to first “exit”.  Lets face it: the default “all channels” is useless, so I always use the favorites button.  But with favorites you cannot toggle between guide formats; pushing it a second time just takes to to “all channels”.
  8. Direct TV adds special mutichannels for top sports events like the Masters, with live scoring, special focus on individual holes.  You never see anything like that on Fios.

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