 nixie21
Premium Member
join:2004-08-19
Harrington Park, NJ |
nixie21
Premium Member
2014-Jul-16 11:48 am
Question about OptimumI have been a fios customer for almost 8 years. I am moving and the Fios rep I spoke to pissed me off, so I am looking at options. I am in Northern Bergen county New Jersey.
How does the picture quality compare?
My biggest concern is the internet speed. Yes, 50/25 for both services, but I know Cable 'slows' down depending on the amount of traffic while fios does not. I download movies and tv shows. Kids play online games with ipads, ps3.... Will I really notice any difference at this speed?
Is it worth the change overall? I am sure retention we try to make me happy and match the price or get to within $20.
THoughts?
THanks so much! |
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 WK2
Premium Member
join:2006-12-28
united state |
WK2
Premium Member
2014-Jul-16 12:00 pm
Picture quality I have found to be pretty good. As Optimum continues to evolve, they are getting to be the same in terms of quality.
With the internet, it is much better on OOL now than it used to be. With Docsis 3 modems, the slowdowns are gone for the most part. Netflix and youtube seems to work better on Optimum compared to Fios.
If you change to Optimum, I don't think you would regret it. |
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 MuDvAyNe
Premium Member
join:2002-03-02
Brooklyn, NY |
to nixie21
I had the same concerns you had when I switched back. My internet speed use to drop to 1mb from 5pm until midnight. This was during the 2.0 modem days and 15/2 internet. I switched back a year and a half ago and haven't had a problem since. Rock solid 101/35 24/7. |
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nixie21
Premium Member
join:2004-08-19
Harrington Park, NJ |
nixie21
Premium Member
2014-Jul-16 1:01 pm
Thanks for the responses. I have a little time to decide... |
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WK2
Premium Member
join:2006-12-28
united state |
WK2
Premium Member
2014-Jul-16 2:35 pm
You can get Optimum and if you don't like it you can switch to Fios. |
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 mack1951Universal Soldier
join:2000-04-18
Bayonne, NJ |
to nixie21
I have FIOS at home and OOL at work. Ever since DOCSIS 3 and better upload speeds I don't see a bit of difference between the two. I would go with the one that gives you the best price. As far as picture quality I think FIOS sd channels have better quality then Optimum but if you don't watch much sd then not an issue the HD looks the same to me. Since you have been with FIOS 8 years I don't have to tell you about their billing department which can be a nightmare, never had a problem with OOL in that department. |
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Boooost to nixie21
Anon
2014-Jul-16 5:13 pm
to nixie21
I get 120 Mbps / 40 Mbps around the clock with Optimum. No slowdowns.
I've never seen a FIOS picture, but the opening of Doctor Who is heavily pixilated on Optimum. It looks terrible. Optimum compresses the picture so much, it can't keep up with the original video source.
Optimum service dies within an hour of a power failure. My co-workers with FIOS says their service runs forever during a power failure. They also say there's no way they'd ever switch back to Optimum, no matter how cheap it was.
Having said that, Optimum has no contract. They may even have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Note that Optimum will charge you an installation fee and a fee for porting your phone number. So you're probably looking at $80 out of pocket just for that. |
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to nixie21
I recently switched from Optimum triple-play to FiOS triple-play.
I have/had 15/5 Internet on both services and have not noticed any real difference between them. The actual download speed for FiOS is higher than Optimum (about 25 mpbs vs. about 18 mbps for Optimum).
FiOS just recently announced that they are upgrading all 15/5 users to 15/15 for free, and their new entry level speed will be 25/25 (you will no longer be able to get 15/5 or 15/15 as a new customer). I am not sure what the actual download speed for the 25/25 tier will be, but since 15/5 was actually 25 mbps (if you have TV service), I assume it will be similarly increased for the 25/25 service.
As for TV picture quality, FiOS is definitely better than Optimum. I know this because I use a CableCard with Windows Media Center and on some channels, recordings of the same series episodes are significantly larger than they were on Optimum.
The local broadcast networks seem to be about the same bitrate, but many of the other cable channels have a higher bitrate. The premium movie channels have the least difference (in some cases they are the same) with the other cable channels being up to 80% higher bitrate. As a quick example, the History Channel is about 10 to 11 mbps on Optimum while it is around 17 mbps on FiOS.
While I appreciate the higher quality, the increase disk space usage can be a disadvantage. |
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jades
join:2013-04-01
New York, NY |
to nixie21
I don't think that one rep who pissed you off should be the cause of you not wanting to use that provider. Optimum also has dumb reps that will piss you off. Ever called their tech support line?
I don't judge my service based off customer support. At the end of the day, how often are you speaking to them? Once every 5 years for a dumb question?
If you are happy with fios, definitely stick to it. We recently switched from optimum to fios, and I can't go back. Period. HD on fios is so much more crisp than optimum. I feel like I am downgrading when I watch optimum tv at a friend or family's house, especially when the World Cup was on.
Fios will always win with speed, especially with upload which is extremely useful these days where we are all working with pictures and videos
Lastly for those who are saying they get over 100% of their speeds all the time, try using your internet on Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening. My 101/35 connection used to go down to 35/20. No joke. I have history results to prove it. Fiber will always win hands down no matter what
Netflix- I don't use netflix so I can't provide experiences. Yes, many fios users are complaining, but since you use them now, you already know how it is, and things should get better once their interconnection deal kicks in |
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MuDvAyNe
Premium Member
join:2002-03-02
Brooklyn, NY |
MuDvAyNe
Premium Member
2014-Jul-25 1:18 am
said by jades:Lastly for those who are saying they get over 100% of their speeds all the time, try using your internet on Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening. My 101/35 connection used to go down to 35/20. No joke. I have history results to prove it. Fiber will always win hands down no matter what I get 100% + of my speeds all the time even on Sundays. How long ago did you have Optimum? The last few years they have upgraded the plant a lot and have fixed these speed issues. You do realize that Optimum is Fiber also right? Verizon's drop from the pole to the home is Fiber and Optimum is Coax. Once Verizon's drop hits the house it's coax. The 100% fiber optic network is just a gimmick. |
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Boooost
Anon
2014-Jul-25 6:36 am
said by MuDvAyNe:The 100% fiber optic network is just a gimmick. Wrong. |
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 mbernste
MVM
join:2001-06-30
Piscataway, NJ |
to MuDvAyNe
said by MuDvAyNe:Verizon's drop from the pole to the home is Fiber and Optimum is Coax. This is incorrect. Optimum is fiber to the node. The lines on the poles, including the line from the pole to the house is coax. Verizon is fiber from the head-end/office to the drop at the side of your house (the ONT), which makes it 100% fiber. In the house it uses a MOCA network, just like cable does. Early installs of FiOS used ethernet within the house or an Ethernet to MOCA bridge. |
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jades
join:2013-04-01
New York, NY |
to nixie21
In addition to the above replies, my house gets an Ethernet handoff from the ONT, not a coax handoff (for the internet service)
And I only switched out of optimum 3 months ago, however, we had fios in my office for much longer, and during that time frame, I had zero issues with fios and 4 incidents with optimum including two outages. None of these incidents were related to my equipment
If you don't have issues now, wait a little longer when more people in your area discover netflix and video streaming, and you'll see what I'm talking about |
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1 recommendation |
said by jades:In addition to the above replies, my house gets an Ethernet handoff from the ONT, not a coax handoff (for the internet service)
And I only switched out of optimum 3 months ago, however, we had fios in my office for much longer, and during that time frame, I had zero issues with fios and 4 incidents with optimum including two outages. None of these incidents were related to my equipment
If you don't have issues now, wait a little longer when more people in your area discover netflix and video streaming, and you'll see what I'm talking about It's very rare that people use Netflix streaming as an argument against CV, who averages the best score among major MSOs (Google Fiber scores slightly higher, but very small userbase) while Verizon is in the news repeatedly about the poor Netflix performance. The whole "in theory you will have future problems when bandwidth consumption increases" is a poor argument because bandwidth availability will increase as either additional downstream channels are added, nodes are split, or other changes happen. Make your decisions based on what is happening now not what is not guaranteed to happen in the future. |
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to nixie21
I get my full speeds 24/7 no slow downs. In fact I get faster speeds than 100Mbps advertized. All for a price cheaper than FIOS lower speed tier. Picture quality is really good. Sure there might be a couple of channels that get a little weak on a rare occasion, but that's about it. Multi-room works really good too imo. I had one small issue with the Multi room DVR a few months back, but Cablevsion fixed the problem in less than a day. 24 hr 7 days a week Tech support from people in the US in the state I'm in. Can't ask much better than that. |
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to nixie21
OOL doesn't throttle Netflix like Verizon, who makes up lame peering excuses and is conveniently not a member of the Open Connect CDN (Content Delivery Network). » www.netflix.com/openconnect |
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Boooost
Anon
2014-Jul-25 5:43 pm
But OOL throttles uploads, so you can't max-out your upload with a single connection. |
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jades
join:2013-04-01
New York, NY |
to frdrizzt
said by frdrizzt:It's very rare that people use Netflix streaming as an argument against CV, who averages the best score among major MSOs (Google Fiber scores slightly higher, but very small userbase) while Verizon is in the news repeatedly about the poor Netflix performance. To clarify the netflix streaming argument - what I meant to say was that if everyone starts streaming ANYTHING (netflix, hulu, whatever it is; I just used netflix because it is the most popular), it will cause congestion issues on the node which then causes the customer to get slowed |
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Streaming is actually pretty low bandwidth considering how much potential bandwidth each household could use. Congestion issues on OOL are largely a thing of the past. It's an outdated argument. |
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to nixie21
Do you use the DVR at all? If so you may want to search the web for Optimum DVR Plus and look at the experiences people are having. This is one of the things that keeps me away from Optimum. |
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MuDvAyNe
Premium Member
join:2002-03-02
Brooklyn, NY |
MuDvAyNe
Premium Member
2014-Jul-28 9:44 pm
said by DarienRedSox:Do you use the DVR at all? If so you may want to search the web for Optimum DVR Plus and look at the experiences people are having. This is one of the things that keeps me away from Optimum. They still have DVR boxes. |
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nixie21
Premium Member
join:2004-08-19
Harrington Park, NJ |
nixie21
Premium Member
2014-Jul-29 9:28 am
Thanks for all the replies. I spoke to Verizon, and although they can not beat optimum's price or even match it, they did give me a good deal with some extras so I will stay with FIOS.
Thanks again, you were all helpful! |
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