 alchav
join:2002-05-17
Palm Desert, CA | I told you Guys, Verizon FiOS is the Winner! I don't think it's going to be easy for any TV Provider to compete with Verizon FiOS without FTTH. The Cable Companies are having a hard time with HDTV because of the other services, Phone and Internet, that are staining their Coax Cable Network. I think the Cable Companies were banking on DOCSIS 3.0, but this still requires upgrading their Cable Network and it won't give them the same bandwidth like Fiber. |
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| Verizon isn't able to compete against cable on a large scale though. FiOS is nowhere near deployed to the amount of homes that cable is, this is why FiOS is not necessarily "the winner." Technology-wise, I believe they have a future proof technology that can be adapted quite easily. Now they just need the subscribers to reel in the dough. |
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| reply to alchav
FiOS is not the winner... last i checked cable is stealing more phone services from the phone companies than phone companies are stealing video from cable. Also Cable is going to be the #1 high speed internet provider by the end of the year. Plus Cable is turning most of the channel digital to get more room for HD while still providing more On Demand than anyone. On Demand is great and wouldn't trade it in for 100 hd channels. I can watch what i want when i want. why watch repeat movie channels and sports package hd channels when i can watch what ever i want! |
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 jmn1207Premium
join:2000-07-19
Ashburn, VA | You don't have to give up your On Demand with FiOS. They have it too, but the menu guide is about 20x faster to navigate and it never crashes the set top box and makes you wait 5 minutes while it reboots. Also, you can actually effectively search for programming. I would already be halfway through an On Demand episode of Myth Busters with FiOS before I even found and started the same show on my Comcast On Demand service.
And for movies, I'd much rather have my FiOS options than my Comcast choices. The beauty of having so many HD channels for me, is having all of the premium movie channels in HD. I don't have just one HD HBO, which has no HD On Demand, I have 14 of them that are playing HD content. This goes for all of my premium movie channels. I have multiple choices to select from and all of them are in HD, not just one version.
All I can say is, let someone try FiOS for a week and then let them try cable for a week. I can't imagine anyone taking the cable service over the FiOS service after having a chance to try them both. I just left Comcast with the best they had to offer in TV and internet, and it's not even close to what I now have with FiOS in quality and satisfaction. It's a shame this kind of quality cannot be deployed any faster than it is, but it will destroy the competition where it is available. |
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| I wish I could get Fios.
HD on demands is great and all, but your right, by the time your halfway through a mythbusters episode, I'd just find it in Comcast ugly convoluted searchless menu system. |
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| reply to Chasmn84
Fios is the winner where they are available, but their biggest problem is availability. I can't get Fios where I live, but believe me I would dump Comcast in a heartbeat if Verizon Fios was offered here.
Sure cable could turn most of their channels digital to get more room for HD, but they just aren't doing that fast enough. |
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KearnstdElf WizardPremium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ | reply to alchav
cable should dump analog totally and go fully switched digital. if people dont like it they can get Wabbit ears or goto the competition which oh darn requires a box on every TV.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports |
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 aaronwtPremium
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
 ·Verizon FiOS
| reply to Chasmn84
said by Chasmn84 :
FiOS is not the winner... last i checked cable is stealing more phone services from the phone companies than phone companies are stealing video from cable. Also Cable is going to be the #1 high speed internet provider by the end of the year. Plus Cable is turning most of the channel digital to get more room for HD while still providing more On Demand than anyone. On Demand is great and wouldn't trade it in for 100 hd channels. I can watch what i want when i want. why watch repeat movie channels and sports package hd channels when i can watch what ever i want!
That's just it. No ones On Demand has anywhere close to everything I want to watch. Most of what I want to watch is not available on any providers On Demand. So the more channels available the better so I can watch at my leisure with my seven High Definition TiVos. |
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| reply to alchav
said by alchav:I don't think it's going to be easy for any TV Provider to compete with Verizon FiOS without FTTH. The Cable Companies are having a hard time with HDTV because of the other services, Phone and Internet, that are staining their Coax Cable Network. I think the Cable Companies were banking on DOCSIS 3.0, but this still requires upgrading their Cable Network and it won't give them the same bandwidth like Fiber. I don't think that's true. I've FiOS 20/5 for internet (with TV available), but my TV provider (what you are specifically called out) is DirecTV (with three HD DVRs). |
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| reply to Chasmn84
said by Chasmn84 :
FiOS is not the winner... last i checked cable is stealing more phone services from the phone companies than phone companies are stealing video from cable.
I suspect it's cell phones that are doing most of the phone-services-stealing, with landline phones not used at all. |
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| reply to Kearnstd
said by Kearnstd:cable should dump analog totally and go fully switched digital. if people dont like it they can get Wabbit ears or goto the competition which oh darn requires a box on every TV. Anyone looking at those analog channels won't be able to see anything with "Wabbit ears" in a couple months. |
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| reply to alchav
At 2 per QAM, 100 HD channels is 300MHz of bandwidth or 50 channels.
It's doable on cable if they'd just get rid of the analog and expand to 1GHz (and put DOCSIS from 860MHz to 1GHz).
In fact FiOS uses cable TV standards for their TV service. They are an 860MHz cable system. |
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Reviews:
 ·ProLog
 ·DIRECTV
| reply to alchav
I just got a piece of mail from DirecTV today. $19.99 for 12 months + 2 free HD or DVR upgrades, + Free installation + Free one year service coverage. It's 150 channels. You can step up to the movie channels for $24.95 a month for 12 months.
I surely would do this but there's no line of sight. Wish they would pre-screen based on line of sight before sending these tantalizing deals! |
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