Michael McNamara

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!

I've been a Verizon FiOS Internet customer for almost two years now and have enjoyed the service. I had been a Comcast Cable Modem customer prior to the Verizon FiOS Internet installation but had grown frustrated with the large amount of packet loss, frequent disconnects and the poor bandwidth/throughput.

The time came today to cut the last ties with Comcast. The Verizon technician and myself had everything installed and cabled within 60 minutes. I should explain that my house is only eight years old and was cabled with RG-6 to every room in the house. We also replaced the original D-Link Wireless eXtreme G router with a Verizon Actiontec MI424WR router (pictured to the right). I had heard of some horror stories with the Actiontec MI424WR router and anyone using AT&T's Call Vantage VoIP service. It just happens that I'm an AT&T CV customer and a happy one at that. Thankfully though it looks like Verizon and Actiontec have worked out the problems that were affecting the MGCP protocol that AT&T uses.

Once the technician had registered the Motorola set top boxes with the Verzion backend systems everything came right up. I went with the following equipment;

• (2) Motorola QIP6200 HD
• (1) Motorola QIP6416 HD DVR
• (1) Motorola QIP2500 SD
  

I have three HD TVs in the house and a few SD TVs as well. The QIP6416 HD DVR was placed in the family room attached to a Sony KV-30HS420 26" Widescreen HD CRT (this beast is almost 200lbs). One of the QIP6200s was placed in the basement attached to a Hitachi 51" 51SWX20B HD Projection TV. The second QIP6200 was attached to a Samsung 19" LNT1953H HD LCD. The QIP2500 was connected to an old RCA TV.

It looks like I'll be saving about 25% over what I was paying Comcast.

I'm happy to recommend Verizon's FiOS service to anyone that might be so lucky to have FiOS available in their area. The picture quality is awesome and the price is right too!

Cheers!

Update: February 23, 2008

I've had Verizon's FiOS TV for almost a month now. The entire family including myself are generally very pleased with the service. I still need to refer to the channel guide in order to find a specific channel or station because there are just so many channels. I've observed a few occasions where the program data contained in the guide was wrong but that's to be expected from time to time. I was disappointed when I set the DVR to record Lost and it recorded 30 minutes of Jerry Seinfeld along with the first 30 minutes of Lost.

I would agree with those folks that call the Verizon FiOS Interactive Guide very "busy". There is a lot going on and it's sometimes difficult to focus and read through the content with it being so busy.

On another note I've only had one issue with the Verizon Actiontec MI424WR router. It seems from time to time that the router is unable to resolve DNS requests. If I statically configure my PC to use the Verizon DNS servers directly I don't have any issues.

Cheers!

Update: May 2, 2008

I jut recently received a letter from Verizon informing me about a change in Verizon FiOS TV that may impact my service.

Over the next year, Verizon will continue to improve the Verizon FiOS TV experience by transitioning all analog FiOS TV channels to a 100% digital format. In addition to extending the quality of digital to all TVs in your home, this change will enable Verizon to bring you even more of the great HD and special interest content you've come to expect from FiOS TV. Customers subscribing to Verizon FiOS TV will experience this transition to an all-digital service beginning in June. Shortly after this transition, you'll see even more great content from Verizon.

It seems that Verizon will be providing FREE equipment to all current subscribers that still have analog TVs connected in their house.

This should be very interesting period as the looming all-digital conversion gets closer.

Cheers!