Michael McNamara

technology, networking, virtualization and IP telephony

Verizon FiOS TV to utilize MPEG-4 H.264

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Verizon FiOS TV will start utilizing MPEG-4 (H.264) to encode some of their channels beginning sometime after April 15, 2013. The use of MPEG-4 isn’t completely new to Verizon FiOS TV, last year around April 2012 they started carrying all the MLB Extra Innings channels along with a few other premium channels in MPEG-4, this year they are expanding the number of channels they are encoding in MPEG-4 so a larger number of their customers will be impacted.

It’s my current understanding that if you have a QIP-6200 or QIP-6416 STB that you’ll need a replacement assuming you have a package that allows access to any of the channels mentioned below.

VerizonSTB-MPG4-all

You can check whether or not you need to order a replacement by going through the STB menus, Menu -> Customer Support -> Set Top Box Exchange.

Cheers!

Verizon FiOS and Customer Support

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VerizonActiontecGen3I’m a Verizon FiOS Internet and TV (and Verizon Wireless) customer. I’ve been using Verizon FiOS Internet since 2006 and Verizon FiOS TV since 2008 here in the Philadelphia suburbs. I’m happy to say that I’ve been very pleased with the service – even though the prices have gone up significantly since my original post in 2008. You actually get an Internet connection with 25Mbps up and 25Mbps down and the picture quality of their High Definition channels is superb.

Over the past two months I started experiencing intermittent connectivity problems with my Verizon FiOS Internet service. I noticed that I would loose all Internet access once sometimes twice a night during the evenings. The service would drop out for usually 2-3 minutes at a time although on January 5th it dropped out for about 15-20 minutes right in the middle of a gaming session with some friends while playing Planetside 2.

VerizonSupportTweetI posted to Twitter that I was having difficulty with my Verizon FiOS Internet service and @VerizonSupport replied to my tweet. Yes, they actually replied to my tweet!

Long story short they asked me to fill out a very short web form and two days later they shipped a replacement Verizon Wireless Router (BHR) – thanks Adam! I installed the replacement router last night and so far so good.

Let me commend Verizon for their use of social networking… fantastic way to connect with their users and cut through all the red tape.

I’m another very satisfied Verizon FiOS customer!

Cheers!

Verizon FiOS Upgrade

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I’ve been extremely busy over the last three months both personally and professionally and the lack of posts on my blog has begun to show. So today I thought I would post a quick blurb around my Verizon FiOS experiences.

Last week I finally made the time to renew my contract with Verizon for their FiOS TV Extreme HD and FiOS Internet 25/25. I also added Verizon’s Home Media (Multi-Room) DVR replacing the older QIP 6416 DVR with a new QIP 7416 HD DVR STB. I’ve been very happy with the service Verizon has provided over the past 30 months. Over that period I’ve only experienced two service outages, I can’t say the same of my previous experiences with Comcast. As you can expect I’m a very serious power user and I do a LOT of work from home over SSL/VPN/SSH. So I’m very aware of my Internet performance and I’m very excited to tell you that when you purchase Verizon’s FiOS Internet 25/25 (25Mbps up/25Mbps down) you can actually expect to get 25/25. There’s something to be said about an Internet connection when you can download Call of Duty: Black Ops which weighs in at just over 8GB at a blazing 3.1MB/s in under 40 minutes.

Verizon also just announced Verizon Flex View which allows Verizon FiOS subscribers to access On demand content via your desktop, laptop or mobile device. I’m curious though if Verizon’s Flex View is just centered around paid content or if they allow access to their entire On demand library. And let’s not forget about Verizon’s Media Manager which is a great little application for sharing your computer based content with your Verizon FiOS set top boxes and ultimately your TVs. I’ll be honest and say that I haven’t tried either Verizon’s Flex View or Media Manager just yet (no time) but Call of Duty: Black Ops just finished downloading so it’s time to go kick the tires on that game. :)

Cheers!

Verizon FiOS TV Channel Re-alignment

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It appears that Verizon is going to be performing a channel re-alignment on September 11, 2008 here in the Philadelphia, PA suburbs. I know there have been all sorts of discussions on the Internet about the date, some receiving notification that the date of the conversion was September 2 and some September 11. I just noticed on the FiOS TV Guide this morning that almost all the channels now list their “new” channel number along with the date that the channel will change (move).

In a recent post I mentioned how Verizon was doing away with all the analog channels. They were doing this for a number of reasons, one obvious reason was to meet the government’s mandate of going all digital by February 2009, and another was to help free up “space” for additional HD stations. I believe there are suppose to be quite a few new HD stations added in the channel re-alignment.

I’ve also heard quite a bit of discussion about the terrible compression that Comcast is currently inflicting on a great many of their HD channels. If you have FiOS TV/Internet service available in your area I would suggest you strongly consider making the switch. I’ve been very pleased with the service and reliability to date.

Cheers!

Update: Wednesday September 10, 2008
I’ve managed to locate the new TV channel lineup for Southeastern Pennsylvania on Verizon’s website.

Update: Thursday September 18, 2008
The channel re-alignment occurred just as promised. I’m fairly pleased with the new channel lineup and I hear that there are going to be quite a few new HD channels added in the coming months so I’m really excited.

Verizon FiOS TV – Remote Control

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imageIt 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!

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