sooze
join:2006-04-30
Lake Elsinore, CA
| reply to celticpride
Re: Hate the FIOS STB, my new Tivo arrived, now what?
said by celticpride :
I dont have fios tv but i have everything else with verizon,if i decide to get fios tv and get a hd tivo will they charge me the the$79.00 truck rollout fee? i thought i read somewhere that they only charge you the rollout fee,if you already have fios tv?
I'm sorry, I don't know the answer to this question. When I switched to Verizon FIOS, I started out with their STBs. I just recently decided to take the plunge and get a TiVo.
I'd post a new question, someone here must've gone with TiVo right from the beginning and will know the answer to your question.
Good luck,
Sue |
|
sooze
join:2006-04-30
Lake Elsinore, CA
| reply to emk
said by emk :
If you buy a Tivo, then call them telling them you are turning in a DVR box, and you want thm to bring a cable card, will they charge the rollout fee?
If not, I'll try the "my TV picture sux, come look at it and bring a CC with you BTW" thing some people claim to have done successfully.
I've returned a couple of STBs back to Verizon...the first one they sent out a replacement STB, I packed the bad STB back into that box and attached the label they sent and droppped it off at a UPS-type store.
The second time I sent back a STB, I was just getting rid of a 3rd box that I no longer wanted. I had to take it to a particular brand of UPS-type store (I'm sorry, right now I can't remember which one...) All I did was bring in the STB and the accessories, the store packed it up and sent back to Verizon, no cost to me.
After I get my cable cards and get my next bill, I'll let you know if I get charged the truck roll fee or not...
Hope this makes sense...
Sue |
|
wesm
tmb.org
Premium
join:1999-07-29
Lewisville, TX
| reply to celticpride
said by celticpride :
I dont have fios tv but i have everything else with verizon,if i decide to get fios tv and get a hd tivo will they charge me the the$79.00 truck rollout fee? i thought i read somewhere that they only charge you the rollout fee,if you already have fios tv? I started my subscription to FiOS TV with three TiVos (thus 3 CableCARDs) and was not charged the $79, nor any installation fee for any of the cards or outlets.
--
Opinions expressed here are mine and not my employer's. This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. |
|
SquareSlinky
Premium
join:2004-05-25
Tampa, FL
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·ViaTalk
| reply to sooze
Couple of questions on Tivo and FIOS.
If I was to have 3 tivo boxes, would I have to pay 3 subscriptions fees or is it just one?
What is the monthly fee for the HD cable card?
I was reading on the Tivo site that I could download shows off my tivo to my ipod or computer. That is a feature that is very enticing to me for when I travel. |
|
gmsbf5104
join:2003-12-16
Tampa, FL
| said by SquareSlinky  :Couple of questions on Tivo and FIOS. If I was to have 3 tivo boxes, would I have to pay 3 subscriptions fees or is it just one? You would have three subscription fees with Tivo. The first would be 12.99 monthly and the second two would be 9.99 each for monthly. There are also yearly prices and lifetime prices.
said by SquareSlinky :What is the monthly fee for the HD cable card? 3.99 a cable card which Tivo only requires one assuming you have the Tivo HD and you get the M-card.
said by SquareSlinky :I was reading on the Tivo site that I could download shows off my tivo to my ipod or computer. That is a feature that is very enticing to me for when I travel. Yeah there are a couple free options to do this or you can get Tivo Desktop plus for $25 which will convert the files for you while also automatically transferring the shows you select to your PC. |
|
KenAF
join:2006-01-23
Arlington, VA
3 edits | said by SquareSlinky :Yeah there are a couple free options to do this or you can get Tivo Desktop plus for $25 which will convert the files for you while also automatically transferring the shows you select to your PC. I like kmttg. It doesn't look as pretty as TiVo Desktop because it's a Java application (runs under Windows, OSX, Linux), but it is completely free. Here's a screenshot:
Note how it will automatically remove commercials and convert for the iPod. |
|
SquareSlinky
Premium
join:2004-05-25
Tampa, FL
·Verizon FIOS
·ViaTalk
| reply to gmsbf5104
I only need 1 M-Card? Can you elaborate what that gives me.
Let me explain what I currently have:
I currently have 1 HD DVR, 1 HD box, and 1 regular box.
Can I get HD on all 3 tv's with 1 M-Card?
Can you record 2 shows off the main box?
How about watch a recorded program upstairs while recording downstairs?
The on demand stuff is not a deal breaker here as we rarely use it, but is there a tivo option for this as well?
Sorry for all the questions. I explained some of this to my wife and she is now interested, and she is the one that watches everything and records everything. |
|
Vamp9190
join:2002-02-11
Chantilly, VA
| reply to KenAF
27.58GB for a baseball game? Wow, seems big, but I don't watch baseball, is it like 3 hours?
Just curious, how big (filesize) is a 1 hour HD show once you convert it to iPod at 640x480?
Does the conversion take a long time & can you use the PC to do other stuff, or does it totally tie up the CPU? |
|
bgtimber75
join:2006-06-23
Columbia, MD
| said by Vamp9190 :27.58GB for a baseball game? Wow, seems big, but I don't watch baseball, is it like 3 hours? Which is why 160GB just doesn't work. |
|
gmsbf5104
join:2003-12-16
Tampa, FL
| reply to SquareSlinky
said by SquareSlinky :I only need 1 M-Card? Can you elaborate what that gives me. Let me explain what I currently have: I currently have 1 HD DVR, 1 HD box, and 1 regular box. Can I get HD on all 3 tv's with 1 M-Card? You would need 1 M-card for each Tivo HD, so 3 Tivo HDs = 3 M-cards. With the M-cards you can record everything and anything in your TV package. The only thing you lose is VOD and PPV. You might be able to order PPV over the phone but I don't know since I never order PPV.
said by SquareSlinky :Can you record 2 shows off the main box? How about watch a recorded program upstairs while recording downstairs? Since each Tivo HD has two tuners you can record two shows at once on each box while also watching back a recorded show so with 3 Tivo HDs you could be recording 6 shows at once while watching something recorded previously. Each Tivo is independent of each other so what you do on one for the most part won't affect the other.
said by SquareSlinky :The on demand stuff is not a deal breaker here as we rarely use it, but is there a tivo option for this as well? Sorry for all the questions. I explained some of this to my wife and she is now interested, and she is the one that watches everything and records everything. Tivo has Netflix streaming if you have a Netflix account and also has access to Amazon Unbox for PPV. Also with some of the free programs like Streambaby you can stream content from your PC to the Tivo assuming you have it connected to your network.
I would recommend you check out the »www.tivocommunity.com forums. There are specific sections dedicated to the Series 3/Tivo HD and also threads dedicated to Tivo with Fios. |
|
KenAF
join:2006-01-23
Arlington, VA
4 edits | reply to Vamp9190
said by Vamp9190 :27.58GB for a baseball game? Wow, seems big, but I don't watch baseball, is it like 3 hours? Most sporting events are 3hrs, but I set the TiVo to pad every game by 30 minutes just in case they run into overtime (or extra innings in the case of baseball).
If you are recording the Tour de France this week, that takes 20-30GB per day depending on the amount of padding you use.
said by Vamp9190 :Just curious, how big (filesize) is a 1 hour HD show once you convert it to iPod at 640x480? With the iPod/iPhone setting, a 60-minute HD recording encodes to 350-500MB.
said by Vamp9190 :Does the conversion take a long time & can you use the PC to do other stuff, or does it totally tie up the CPU? That would depend on your computer. Encoding is very CPU intensive. Kmttg automatically detects whether you have a single core, dual-core, or quad-core processor. By default, it uses all available cores, but you can change that in settings, leaving one core to do other cpu-intensive tasks.
I upgraded my PC with one of these last week. With this quad-core CPU, encoding a 60 minute HD recording for the iPhone takes 13-15 minutes with the handbrake_iphone profile and 25-28 minutes with the ff_ipod_high_res profile. While an encode is using all four cores, I do not see any lag when browsing the web, answering email, etc.
Most cable and network programs are actually closer to 40 minutes after commercials are removed, so they take 1/3 less time to encode and 1/3 less space. |
|
sooze
join:2006-04-30
Lake Elsinore, CA
| reply to bgtimber75
said by bgtimber75 :said by Vamp9190 :27.58GB for a baseball game? Wow, seems big, but I don't watch baseball, is it like 3 hours? Which is why 160GB just doesn't work. EXACTLY the reason I'm dumping the Verizon STBs and going with TiVo...the ability to add an external hard drive.
My cable cards are being brought by Verizon tomorrow, I can't wait! |
|
sooze
join:2006-04-30
Lake Elsinore, CA
1 edit | The Verizon tech came today to install my cable cards in my 2 new TiVos.
He arrived with one M-Card and 2 S-Cards. I told him I would rather prefer M-Cards only. He was able to call another installer who was in the area and get another M-Card, so I could have two.
The install went fairly easily, the tech admitted that he'd only done a few cable card installs.
My family room TiVo was a cinch, that was the original M-Card. My bedroom TiVo was a bit of pickle. It got to the part where it said "Acquiring channel information" (or something like that) and it never finished. After trying a couple of things, we swapped the card from the family room to try and figure out if the card was bad.
He then remembered that the "other" M-Card wasn't set up right because it wasn't the original card I ordered. He went to his truck and I guess changed a few things and I thought things were right. The channel info was acquired and I checked to see if all my HD channels were coming in on the bedroom TV and they were. He did have to add a couple of attenuators to the cable too.
I don't know exactly how it happened, but in the confusion what with swapping cards and all, my family room TV is now no longer receiving all my HD channels (specifically SpeedHD and MavTV.) I didn't figure it out until after the tech had left. (This was the card that originally in the bedroom and was a problem.)
I'm pretty sure it's just something that needs to be done on Verizon's side. The tech called me before he arrived so I have his phone number, I'm gonna call him tomorrow and let him know that the HD channels aren't coming in on one of my TVs. I'm hoping he can just do something on his side and it won't require another trip to my house.
And he did say that Verizon does charge for a truck roll. If it's after the initial install and they need to come back, they'll charge the truck roll fee. I'm hoping that it just never shows up on my bill.
All in all, not a bad experience providing that it's an easy fix to get my all my HD channels working on *both* my TVs. I'm loving my TiVos so far!
Sue |
|
aaronwt
Premium
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
·Verizon FIOS
| reply to sooze
I'm going to replace my eight single stream cable cards soon with four multistream cable cards. I guess I'll need to tell them that I need six so they will have two extra just in case. Then once they install them I will tell them to take back the extra two and the eight I currently have. |
|
Surf City Ed
@qwest.net | reply to sooze
Should have bought the Moxi....zero percent financing going on......excellent pix quality....
a friend who is a tivo user was amazed at everything about it.
It blows Tivo...... |
|
JeepMatt
Delaware Fios
Premium
join:2001-12-28
Wilmington, DE | reply to sooze
Sooze-
I'd call in to the FSC and ask them to send a hit to the cable cards - most likely just a refresh issue.
--
"ONE team - ONE city - ONE dream!!" |
|
KenAF
join:2006-01-23
Arlington, VA
2 edits | reply to Surf City Ed
said by Surf City Ed :
Should have bought the Moxi....zero percent financing going on......excellent pix quality....
a friend who is a tivo user was amazed at everything about it.
It blows Tivo......
Moxi and TiVo each have their advantages. Moxi is inferior in some ways and superior in others.
Moxi and TiVo have different design priorities. Moxi provides more features and options for liveTV viewing and display, whereas TiVo provides more features and options for recording. If you watch 60% liveTV and 40% recorded, you may be happier with Moxi; if you watch 20% liveTV and 80% recorded, then you'll probably be happier with TiVo.
Comparisons of TiVo and Moxi: Engadget Review (podcast comments at 51:20) | Engadget Preview | Gizmodo | Zatz Not Funny
Video Demos of Moxi: Demo for Engadget | CrunchGear Review
Video Demos of TiVo: Basic functionality | Netflix, Youtube, etc | Viewing computer videos |
|
sooze
join:2006-04-30
Lake Elsinore, CA
| reply to aaronwt
said by aaronwt :I'm going to replace my eight single stream cable cards soon with four multistream cable cards. I guess I'll need to tell them that I need six so they will have two extra just in case. Then once they install them I will tell them to take back the extra two and the eight I currently have. I don't know what to tell you to tell the CSR. Maybe put in the "notes" (if there is one) that you want M-Cards. My cable cards were installed yesterday (July 8, 2009) and the installer brought one M-Card and two S-Cards for my two TiVos, so S-Cards are still out there. My installer was able to get another M-Card from another closeby installer, so I did get two M-Cards. However, I'm still having troubles with not getting all my HD channels with the second M-Card.
Come to think of it, the installer called my before arriving...maybe ask him when he calls if he's bringing M-Cards?
Good luck with your install! |
|
aaronwt
Premium
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
·Verizon FIOS
| reply to Surf City Ed
said by Surf City Ed :
Should have bought the Moxi....zero percent financing going on......excellent pix quality....
a friend who is a tivo user was amazed at everything about it.
It blows Tivo......
So is the picture quality any different? It shouldn't be. |
|
sooze
join:2006-04-30
Lake Elsinore, CA
| reply to sooze
Well, it's not gonna be an easy fix. 
I got on the phone today with Verizon customer service. The tech asked for the serial number of the card that wasn't working. I read it off and it turns out that the installer got the serial number of the card wrong! The tech seemed to think that it was going to be a big deal, had to talk to billing, etc. and put me on hold a few times. He finally came back and said that it shouild all be okay, but that his software was running very slowly and he'd call me after he activated my card (with the right serial number.)
Three hours later I had received no call and I was still only receiving the very low level channels. I called back and talked to another CSR. She did the same thing, had to talk to billing, etc, etc and put me on hold. She finally came back and said that she couldn't activate the card that they'd have to send another installer to my house.
So now I get the pleasure of waiting for another installer to come!
Sue |
|
