Verizon's FiOS TV expansions: August 23, 2008

Maybe you haven't noticed, but Verizon has been throwing FiOS TV to Washington cities on a really regular basis. This week, we see Woodway awarding the carrier with a video franchise, while nine more New Jersey cities -- including parts of Salem County, the city of Camden and the city of Paterson -- get the luxury of ordering. Finally, we've got much of Stafford County, Virginia expecting to receive the fiber-based programming service in the future, though Verizon only promises that rollouts will begin "later this summer," with the rest of the place having to wait anywhere between a few months and a few years to get covered. We'll see you next week -- here's to hoping your neck of the woods gets covered within the next seven days.

Read - Virginia expansion
Read - New Jersey expansion
Read - Washington expansion

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 23rd 2008 8:52AM]

Don't be so excited about FiOS TV. I was, I have it now, its just ok. DVR is barely ok. The HD selection is weak considering the bandwidth capabilities. The menu guide is a pain and the channel numbers all got changed and their now using FOUR digit channel numbers! uhg. There is no way to view only the channels you have in your package (other than putting every channel in your package as favorites), the guide is not always correct (causing the DVR to record the wrong show) and you have to reboot it like a PC when it locks up. Oh, and Verizon doesn't recommend using the HDMI because it doesn't always work correctly (picture but no sound or sound but no picture) and they are correct. Seriously thinking of switching to DirecTV HD, but keeping FiOS internet of course.

[jcostom Posted Aug 23rd 2008 10:17AM]

While fios tv isn't the ultimate in tv nirvana (and nobody's there yet), it's not as bad as this guy makes it out.

First off, never use the cable company's DVR, it always sucks. The only CC DVR I'd think of using is the Comcast one that's getting rolled out with TiVo inside. That's why when we got our HDTV back in June we dumped DirecTV. Taking their half-baked crappy HD DVR didn't even enter our radar. And with our other option as Comcast with their over-compressed not-quite-HD, that left FiOS. We're using a TiVO HD with a pair of Cable Cards. Works great.

As for the 4-digit channel numbers, we just got the guide for the new lineup here in South Jersey (rolls on 9/8, supposedly). The only 4-digit channel numbers are for:

1. PPV & Subscription Sports
2. International Premiums
3. Spanish Lanuage Channels (La Conexion)
4. Those stupid digital music channels

Do you watch a lot of TV in Mandarin or Farsi?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 23rd 2008 11:36AM]

When will Verizon start offering FiOS in OH? OH passed the state wide video franchise law last year and ATT jumped on it right away with their U-Verse. They have a significant coverage area for local phone service. Can't understand why Verizon is ignoring us.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 24th 2008 12:07PM]

I have a similar situation in CT, ATT is in a lot of cities and towns already and Fios is only in Greenwich. Wondering when they are going to be branch out of Greenwich.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 7th 2008 2:02PM]

Any word on FIOS TV coming to Connecticut? I hate Cablevision's lineup. But I don't want to sign up for a seperate internet and video provider.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 23rd 2008 12:58PM]

I have Verizon FiOs and I absolutely love it!
The new channel lineup went into effect for us on Wed. The only 4 digit channels are stupid useless ones. The HD channels changed from the 800's to the 500's-700's. I use the DVR and I have no problem with it, my guide is always right, and when you lose power, you don't have to wait hours for the guide to load, it takes less than one minute.
The only thing I want is more HD channels, we got some on Wednesday but I still want more.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 23rd 2008 2:25PM]

HDMI issues with the boxes aren't restricted to Verizon, Comcast's boxes (also provided by Motorolla) are also a problem. The fix is to hard reboot the box by unplugging it and plugging it back in. I blame HDCP.

As for Ohio, I wouldn't hold my breath. I expect that Verizon will continue expanding contiguous service. Hopefully Boston will grant a license soon, but Verizon hasn't run their internet fiber to all sections of the city yet, and I expect that they won't get a license until they do (the area that I'm moving to, Orient Heights, hasn't got either Verizon or RCN fiber to it yet, and RCN already has a license, so I expect that the City wants Verizon to actually run their lines as incentive to get the license instead of cherry picking and leaving everything else to Comcast like RCN did).

They just rolled out the massive block of new channels where I currently live and it's a good assortment. The quantity is competitive with both RCN and Comcast and the internet speeds (what really brings people to the service aside from escaping Comcast) are much higher than any other provider offers in the market.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 24th 2008 2:08AM]

They have FIOS in Tampa and i've seen advertisements closer to where i live in Orlando. Has there been any word on if they are expanding at all in Florida anymore?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 26th 2008 2:58PM]

The street by street construction schedule for all of Virginia is available at:
http://www22.verizon.com/about/community/va/files/VAFTTP_AugSep08.pdf

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 26th 2008 3:18PM]

What IS it with this lame-ness of their multi-room DVR:
"• Programs recorded in Hi-Def cannot be played back on remote
Set Top Boxes.
• HD Set Top Boxes (model 6200) cannot be used as part of a
Multi-Room network."

Seems any of US would need multiple DVR's, still.