It looks like Verizon will be converting to an all digital cable TV signal starting sometime in June 2008 in the greater Philadelphia area. This means that any legacy analog TVs will no longer be able to tune to an analog station and will require a cable set-top-box or digital adapter. Thankfully it sounds like Verizon is stepping up and providing digital adapters for existing customers free of charge.

I recently had an issue with the Verizon remote and needed to reprogram it with a different TV code. While that was successful I found that the “Power Key” would no longer turn on/off both the TV and STB (set-top-box). Thankfully I was able to dig up the solution by using Google. Here are two quick configuration steps that I thought might be useful. I’ve also included the link to the original Verizon instructions.

Power Key
Power turns on or off both your STB and TV when you are in STB mode. (If you have a DVR STB, the DVR will continue to record scheduled programs when off.) However, you can reprogram how the Power Key works.

If you want the Power Key to control multiple devices at once…
1. Press and hold the STB key.
2. While holding down the STB key, press OK.
3. Release both keys. The Device Keys will blink twice.
4. Press 9 – 7 – 7. The STB key will blink twice.
5. One after the other, press each Device Key you want the Power Key to control, in the order you want them to turn on or off. Each selected Device Key will blink twice after it is pressed.
6. Press OK when done. The STB key will blink three times to indicate success in programming.

For example, to program the Power Key to turn on or off your TV, AUX and
STB, in that order with one press of the Power Key, press [STB+OK], [9-7-7],
[TV], [AUX], [STB], [OK].

Factory Reset
To reset the remote to the original factory defaults:
• Press and hold the STB key.
• While holding down the STB key, press OK.
• Release both keys. The Device Keys will blink twice.
• Press 9 – 0 – 0. The STB key will blink 3 times to indicate success in programming.

Cheers!

Reference: Verizon FiOS TV Remote Control

Update: Thursday May 29, 2007

I received two Verizon FiOS TV Digital Adapters today in the mail (I only ordered them on Monday). There are, as reported by others, Motorola DCT700s. Since the DCT700 doesn’t support MoCA there’s no Guide or Video On Demand (VoD) when it’s connected to Verizon’s network. The devices themselves are no larger than a cable modem or large analog modem.
I was able to hook up both DCT700s and then activated them over the Internet (http://www.verizon.com/fiostv/selfinstall) with the included activation code. The whole process took only about 20 minutes from the time I opened the boxes. The adapters were provided as part of Verizon’s Go Digital with FiOS TV campaign. What’s even more exciting is that the adapters were provided at no cost to existing FiOS TV customers.

As I’ve said in the past I’m very impress with the commitment that Verizon has made to their FiOS Internet and FiOS TV products. I do wish they’d bump up the speed of their basic FiOS Internet package.

Cheers!