Verizon FIOS TV

[Mistergq]

Does anyone have Verizon FIOS TV yet? I think its in the Dallas area.

I want to know if you have to use a settop box to record programs? If you don't have to use the box, how many channels do you have with regular coax? Is the box supported with IRblaster? I am sure I have more questions, but let me know scare you away!

Basically, I should have FIOS TV within the next 6 months, and I am just planning ahead...mostly in excitement that I can get rid of Comcast!

[queonda]

I don't have it but looking at the website, looks like regular cable. You can record lower channels (analog) without the box. For all the digital, you need the box. The box can be controled with a supported IR blaster or you maybe able to connect with RS-232.

BTV is only supporting HDTV OTA (over the air), not CABLE HDTV.

[Mistergq]

thanks for the quick reply. Your analysis matches mine.

question is how far do the analog channels go up. Do they stop at 50 or do they continue to 99. However, SciFi and many of the other channels I want are 150 or higher. I think that means I am going to need to have two boxes to be able to record simultaneous program that often happens. Considering each box is 4 bucks a month, I think we can afford that!!!

[crush157]

I don't think FiOS is cable. As I was reading about this a couple of months ago, it is internet, TV, phone delivered over Fiber to the house. I believe everything is transmitted digitally and you need their box to decode. You would need to hook the STB from Verizon throught SVID out to your capture card of choice. This means no use of the internal tuner on the capture card.

[cat6man]

in NJ, FIOS is terminated with a converter box that converts the optical signal from the fiber into an electrical cable format that feeds into your existing coax in the house.......this then would go to a stb or cable-card equipped tv.

1. they do not run the fiber to your tv. by converting, they use the wiring already in your house
2. the converter box also breaks out data to a verizon-branded dlink router, that feeds your home LAN/WAN

[Mistergq]

Thanks for the post cat6man. Do you know how many channels the coax cable gets without stb?

[cat6man]

i don't have it (a friend does) though we have fios wires on our street......

i would guess it would be similar to the current comcast service here......i
don't think they are pushing the bandwidth very hard (yet....), they're just
trying to get an initial rollout and the differentiator is the higher download speed compared to cable........don't see them differentiating themselves on the tv side for now

[crush157]

I did not know they converted it to coax. Thanks

[Rich A]

Our local supplier here is COX. Our neighborhood is 100 percent fibre optic and (lucky for me) all wires and optical cables are buried.

It is a fact that the feeds from the street to your house are indeed coaxial cable. Every so often down the street you will see a box. (in my case a small box sticking out of the ground) In that box is where the fibre optics are converted to an RF signal.

If they supplied fibre optic directly to your house, then no one could receive any of their services without an expensive fibre to RF converter.

Note, this has nothing to do with cable descramblers or digital to analog or other set top boxes the cable company can have for the consumer. It is only a medium adapter, that converts a light-based signal to an RF based signal.

The light-based transmissions are generally only used at the main distribution level of the cable companies.

[cat6man]

rich,

it is different with verizon here....there IS fiber to the house, and the fiber to coax converter is inside the house

verizon is biting the bullet and going fiber all the way into the home!
more expensive but they obviously feel the time is right to jump on the
bandwidth wagon and differentiate themselves from cable.

sorry, but you've got the 'old' fiber to the curb system architecture....hopefully someday they'll run fiber to your house (does cox have conduit buried?)

i actually was involved in an old 'hybrid fiber coax' project many years ago....

(industry rumours are that it is costing $2000/pop in infrastructure/labor but they are going after the triple play [video/tv, phone, data])

[Rich A]

In my case they put the converters in the ground between every few houses. I'm lucky cuz the box is in my front yard, so the only coax is from it about 20 meters to my house.

My neighbors have longer runs. I also have all my eggs in one basket. Phone, Cable and Internet are all off that fibre line.

I suppose the best way would be for each home to have their own fibre to RF converter .. like you have, but that would be more expensive to the provider for sure. Your setup sound more quality based .. (I'm jealous) But then remember my system was installed many years ago. First with all RF, and then (maybe 15?) years ago to fibre. I remember at the time we were one of the first in the country to have a fibre system.

When they first installed the fibre I looked at the cable going into my house and could have sworn it was fibre. It was a big orange cable .. well over a 1/2 inch in diameter. One day while a tech was in the area I questioned him about it and found out it was some kind of low loss direct burial coaxial. I got a look at it myself where he was working, and it was indeed coax. For the longest time prior to that I used to say that I had fibre directly to my house.

Your system is obviously newer ...

[cat6man]

actually, i still have comcast cable.....

verizon has been wiring my town (and street) but have yet
to offer data or TV........data has been turned on in some towns
such as morristown, nj where a friend of mine has the fios-data service (and how i learned the details about fiber into the house).

i don't think they have turned on the tv anywhere around here yet.
verizon is scheduled to go before our town council next week to ask for a
tv contract......they are also working the state legislature for a statewide
license (which would take negotiating power away from my town....we might
not be able to negotiate for goodies, such as free data to town schools and community access channels, if the state supercedes us)

[FoaMDarT]

Hey guys. I read this article the other day that explained Verizon's FiOS in pretty good detail:
http://t1rex.blogspot.com/2006/06/ve...-fiber-to.html

It's good read.
-Jeremy

[Joe The Dude]

I was relieved to hear that they are putting a backup battery in the box outside of the house, so the phone, internet, and TV signals will continue on into your house even when the power goes out.

That was my main concern.

Now I just have to wait until they roll out this service in my area.

[Mistergq]

Thanks Jeremy for the link. Interesting read.