FIOS TV/DVR beginner questions

Question

I'm a long time Dish subscriber that is considering switching after 10 years to FIOS TV, but after looking around at other forums, reading the scant info that I can find on the various Verizon sites, and reading the Motorola 7200 DVR manual - I still have a bunch of questions that I'm hoping some of you could answer so that myself and others can make an informed decision.  I've got the FIOS internet and am very happy with the 20/5 service - its solid as a rock and fast as greased lightning.
Signal My Dish HD is quite compressed, and prone to lots of pixelation, yellow screens, and audio drops - and also free of charge you get a loud pop whenever the channel changes from SD to HD signal, along with the unavoidable volume differences between stereo and Dolby 5.1 audio when the signal goes HD to SD.  I'm aware that most reviews indicate that the FIOS HD picture quality is hard to beat, but I'm wondering about the various audio and video problems and whether to expect a couple of dozen instances per hour show like I tolerage now on Dish?  A great picture most of the time can still be ruined by a bunch of audio drops or 5 seconds of yellow screen every half hour.  Does internet computer usage deteriorate the FIOS TV signal if you have a couple of computer users on-line while viewing or recording TV?
Content   Dish has a 100 HD channels, FIOS in my area (Portland) has around 100 HD channels, with over 90% overlap.  Dish has NBAtv, Fox Sports HD, CBC-college, and ESPNWS while FIOS has Big 10, ESPNU, and more of the movie channels in HD.  The big difference seems to be VOD, but I can't find any comprehensive info on it.  The Verizon website boasts of 11,000 monthly titles (8500 free), but you have to have some sort of user password to see the VOD choices on-line.  I don't get the "monthly" thing either, seems like it would just be a growing VOD library that accumulates more titles, but the monthly thing makes it sound like some stuff disappears from VOD over time. Does the free VOD includes the recent movies, etc. or is all that stuff Pay per View and the free stuff is all kickboxing and fishing shows?  Does anyone have a way for a non-FIOS TV subscriber to get a look at the list?  The Verizon site just shows you a couple of titles and doesn't say whether they are free or PPV so it is hard to figure out whether VOD is something that I would use or not. 
DVR's  I currently have a 60 hour HD triple tuner ( 2 SAT, one OTA) Dish DVR (722) that I think is considered one of the better ones available.  Besides the large hard drive, the unit also has a USB port that you can hang another 500G external hard drive off of after a $35 activation fee.  I understand that FIOS is not allowed to do the same thing with their DVR's because of the copyright issues with the content being carried over wires instead of beamed from a satellite, although some things I read indicated that it still may be something they enable at some point.  The other big difference is that the Dish DVR has all the outputs "hot" at the same time - meaning you can drive a bunch of TV's, SD and HD, simultaneously.  I drive one SD signal 300 feet and a second HD signal 100 feet.  I know the Motorola units that FIOS leases can only output one port at a time.
I read through the manual for the HD DVR (Motorola 7200)  but Verizon lists the same manual for the "Home Media" DVR (Motorola 7216) so I can't tell what the real differences are between the DVR offerings.
In order to watch recorded or live shows on more than one TV - do you have to have a box (STB) per TV, whether using the Home Media DVR or the regular HD DVR? 
Is the VOD content only available via the Home Media DVR, not the regular DVR?  Is the only other main difference between DVRs the remote DVR functionality (internet programming)?  I know there are some other multi-media things, pictures and music, but I'm focusing on TV.  I don't get how FIOS can call the Home Media DVR "multi-room" if you still need a STB for other TV's, isn't that the same whether using a regular DVR or the Home Media DVR?  Does anyone have a link to the actual 7216 manual?
How easy is it to change the output port?  Is it a quick software change?  My thinking is that if I hooked up a TV to HDMI, another to component, and maybe one to SD - how clunky is it to switch the output so that someone could watch TV1,2 or 3 (one at a time, of course).  I'm also assuming that the audio ports will all work simultaneously so that one could send the video to HDMI, for example, and the audio to a receiver.  So I think its only the video that is limited to a single output.
Does either DVR have an Over the Air digital antenna input? 
Is the remote control RF or IR?  Does it have the all important 30 second Forward skip button and 10 second Back skip button?
How long is the guide, a week, 2 weeks, etc?
I couldn't find much in either the manuals or the verizon website about the Interactive Media Guide.  Is the VOD included in search functions?  Are there TIVO like "season passes" and the ability to find and record new episodes of a show, etc.? 
Are there any good reviews of the DVRs, the Interactive Media Guide, or something with more detail than Verizon's sketchy descriptions or the lousy 7200 manual?
I realize a lot of my DVR questions could be answered by proper documentation on the 7216 and the Interactive Media guide, so if someone has a link to detailed info on these items, it would be much appreciated.
Thanks for any help you can provide.  I've spent a lot of time and effort getting my Dish system all figured out and the way I like it, but the quality issues and cost have me exploring options.

Answer 1

Does FIOS internet usage affect FIOS TV signal quality? (I have 20/5 service).  Negative.  The FiOS signal itself is only affected by physical damage and or equipment failure on our network equipment.  Now if you you are talking inside of your house signal(there is a difference).  VOD on FiOS is a strictly data service and is very bandwidth intensive due to the large size of the file itself.  That is why we recommend you only watch one HDVOD at a time as the MOCA network in your house can't really handle two running at the same time with 100% QoS. So if I understand you correctly, VOD could be affected by heavy home network useage (or simultaneous VOD requests) but DVR recordings or live TVnot, or just less likely? That is correct.  VOD services can be affected by heavy home data network useage.  The live TV and subsequent recordings made of the liveTV to a DVR will not be affected by heavy home network useage. 
Are there any futher plans for external hard drives and/or the HD DVR's to talk with each other?  My manager has informed we are actively researching a solution to this problem.  When or if anything will come of the research has yet to be seen. 
How hard is it to switch outputs on the DVR (I'm assuming it is a software menu change)?  Could it be programmed into a learning remote (keystroke macro) so that you hit one button for TV1, another for TV2, etc.?  Last time i checked this was IMG 1.3.  At that time all of the outputs were consistently on.  There is no switching the output like there is switching a tuner on a TiVO.  When i tested this in my video lab i hooked up a QIP6416 via HDMI and Component.  Each output would show the same channel on either input ont the TV.  Each output will only display whatever channel you have the STB currently tuned to.  If this is not what you mean feel free to correct me. That is what I mean, my current config is one DVR hooked to SD TV1 via cable, HD TV2 via HDMI, and HD TV3 via component - and all three get signal simultaneously.  I was told by a FIOS tech that only one output is "hot" at a time on the FIOS DVR.  I understand that you can't watch channel X on TV1 and channel Y on TV2 simultaneously, but I'm wondering if you can watch channel X on TV1,2, etc.  I went and tested on our QIP6416 model and unfortunatly you cannot only one output is 'hot" at this stage of IMG releases. From the looks of it the outputs are in a heirarchy hdmi ->component->s-video->composite->RF. 
Can the IR remotes be programmed to run just DVR1 or just DVR2 if you put two in the same room (i.e. different code set for remote 1 and remote 2)? I note about 4 different remotes shown on the FIOS website, does the HD DVR have RF capability or will only IR remotes work with it?  No the FiOS remotes are pre-programmed to work on every single FiOS STB.  You could take your FiOS remote to another FiOS user's home and control their STB.  Makes for some interesting fun. But it is all IR, right?  The DVR's won't accept an RF remote signal?  It is all IR. 
Can channels be locked out on the guide so you don't see them, both adult and ones that you just aren't interested in? If you can lock them out of the guide, does that mean they won't show up in searches as well?  There is currently no way to remove channels from the normal guide.  We used to support this feature with our old guide produced by microsoft but the feature was left out of IMG.  We have given the option for customers to setup multiple channel lists in guide format under the favorites option.  You can set the guide button to pull up the first of those lists instead of the guide itself.  You can lock the channels out but the titles will still be readable by anyone looking. 
The "Welcome kit" PDF talks about being able to resolve timer conflicts for series, but I assume you can also assign priority to one time events and/or access a general recording schedule where you can manually resolve conflicts as well.  Is that correct?  Does the recording automatically pad sporting events with extra time on the end or do you have to set that up manually with each sporting event?  Yes our recording schedule does will recognize recording conflicts.  There will be a marker on the program in the guide informing you of a recording problem.  There is also a section in the menu of the dvr that will show you the entire recording schedule with any conflicts.  Yes you can set priority to whatever you want.  No we do not pad for sporting events.  That is something you will have do manually.  Unfortunatly i do not see this changing anytime soon as it appears to be a limitation of our current guide data producer. 
No OTA tuner in any FIOS DVR, correct?  Correct.
The VOD descriptions say movies are "rented for 24 hours", but on the VOD list it shows a lot of older movies for free on top of the TV series,sporting events, etc..  Are these all just previews or is there a good inventory of free movies?  In all honesty the free VOD movie selections are pretty limited and most of them are independent flicks or trailers.  As soon as our HD on demand library is at an acceptable volume i believe we will be working in improving this aspect of VOD.  The subscription based movie packages is where it is at though.  The movie packages have pretty sizeable libraries that you get access to for free with the packages.  Personally, i am partial to the Showtime on demand library(lots of good series).  Please keep in mind though that our VOD library will change very frequently.  VOD content is provided to us by the network that wishes to put it up.  They can also will us to take it down as well.  
I'll probably think of a few more, but that's it for now.
TheSanchez
Verizon Telecom
Verizon Content Management Center
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