Series 3 Verizon FIOS HD compat?

[rifleman69]

Originally Posted by aaronwt

So far this has only been in areas being converted to Frontier.
I have not heard of anyone outside of future Frontier areas having any issues yet. I know I have not seen anything in my area yet either.

It's coming, straight from Verizon's mouth.

[aaronwt]

Originally Posted by rifleman69

It's coming, straight from Verizon's mouth.

I better order my larger drives soon then.

Although I wouldn't call this response that was posted straight from Verizons' mouth. If that was the case then many other things would have happened in the past based on info "straight from Verizons' mouth"

[rifleman69]

Originally Posted by aaronwt

I better order my larger drives soon then.

Although I wouldn't call this response that was posted straight from Verizons' mouth. If that was the case then many other things would have happened in the past based on info "straight from Verizons' mouth"

I would, it was obtained by our local franchising authority. Can't be more black and white than that. It is however a canned answer as the exact same terminology has been given out by Verizon to other subscribers...including those not in the Frontier footprint. Legal told them what to say and not say obviously.

[eagle104]

Just finally got Fios installed, was holding out due to a DT Tivo, and the cablecard part went flawlessly. As I was in the bedroom hooking up the STB to my gimped now 1 tuner DT Tivo he got the Tivo HD going. I have a free 6 months new Media HD DVR FIOS box to get me through till I guess I can figure out how to procede with a new TIVO for the bedroom.

[BrownSanta]

i just had fios installed yesterday and my s3 is up and running without any issues. obviously no vod but thats not really that important to me.

my biggest complaint is learning all the new channels since they arent the same as comcast.

[richsadams]

Originally Posted by BrownSanta

i just had fios installed yesterday and my s3 is up and running without any issues. obviously no vod but thats not really that important to me.

my biggest complaint is learning all the new channels since they arent the same as comcast.

Welcome to the forum! Congrats and enjoy...I know you will!

[Rdian06]

Forgive me for not searching the thread fully. Did go through the last 6 or so pages and didn't find what I was looking for.

I'm getting ready to switch to FIOS and was trying to figure out how much I'm going to get charged for CableCards.

I have two S3 OLED units which I know require two cards each. Do they charge the same rate for each card or is there a discounted rate for the second card in each TiVo.

I just got a TiVo Premiere which will replace one of the S3's which will mean I'll only need 3 cards instead of 4. Trying to figure what the cost savings will be if get another Premiere to replace the second S3.

[SoBayJake]

Originally Posted by Rdian06

Forgive me for not searching the thread fully. Did go through the last 6 or so pages and didn't find what I was looking for.

I'm getting ready to switch to FIOS and was trying to figure out how much I'm going to get charged for CableCards.

I have two S3 OLED units which I know require two cards each. Do they charge the same rate for each card or is there a discounted rate for the second card in each TiVo.

I just got a TiVo Premiere which will replace one of the S3's which will mean I'll only need 3 cards instead of 4. Trying to figure what the cost savings will be if get another Premiere to replace the second S3.

All CableCARDs from FiOS are $3.99 each (plus taxes). A truck-roll for JUST CC installation is free, and they are free at the time of FiOS installation too.

[Ron Tobin]

Originally Posted by Rdian06

Forgive me for not searching the thread fully. Did go through the last 6 or so pages and didn't find what I was looking for.

I'm getting ready to switch to FIOS and was trying to figure out how much I'm going to get charged for CableCards.

I have two S3 OLED units which I know require two cards each. Do they charge the same rate for each card or is there a discounted rate for the second card in each TiVo.

I just got a TiVo Premiere which will replace one of the S3's which will mean I'll only need 3 cards instead of 4. Trying to figure what the cost savings will be if get another Premiere to replace the second S3.

I just got a TiVo Premiere, too, and had to have a truck roll for delivery of the M Card for the Premiere. They get $3.99 for the M card.

I'm selling my Tivo S3 w/lifetime service (it's on Ebay now) and I need to return the 2 S cards from that unit. I was paying $2.99 for each of those cards. As I'm writing this I'm wondering if perhaps I should hold on to the S3 instead of renting the Verizon HD box.

My understanding is that there's no charge for a truck roll just to install the cable card.

[wmcbrine]

I just moved, and I'm wondering myself if I'll end up paying the old $3 or new $4 rate for the old cards I kept. (As a Fios subscriber, when you move, they essentially set you up as a new account.) But I know I'll pay $4 for the new card in my Premie. The Rent Is Too Damn High™, either way.

[kidfried]

I'm switching form Cablevision OptimumTV to Verizon Fios TV with a TivoHD and I just purchased a Motorola M-Card cable card so that I will not have to rent the Verizon cable card.

I inquired about doing this with verizon's customer service live chat. Here's what they said:
Dan(14:00:54): one last question. Since I have a cable card. Will I be able to return the Verizon one when the service man comes over so I don't have to pay the rental fee each month
Angela(14:01:24): No. You must order Verizon's cable card and it must be installed by Verizon.

Basically they require you rent their card. Is this consistent with what everyone else has experienced?

[wkearney99]

I don't know that you can get away with not renting a card. I've never heard of being able to buy one.

Their database needs to be updated to allow a given card number to operate. I don't think they'd allow a card to be active without there also being a monthly rental for it. I suppose anything's possible, like their database of active cards could be separate from monthly billing. But you'd end up with an orphaned card that doesn't exist in their database. From what I've encountered with field techs and cablecard activations there seems to be a very precise number of steps they have to follow in order to get them working. I'd also think tying an active card to a billing account would also prevent field techs from inappropriately activating service.

I'd have to imagine at some point their database would get purged of any cards not associated with active accounts. So eventually any orphaned cards would be deactivated. At least that's what a sensible revenue-generating system would do. I can't testify that Verizon does much that could be even remotely called sensible but they do know how to bill for things.

I guess they could associate your card with a monthly billing. But why bother? You'd be paying the same monthly fee regardless.

As for live chat, they couldn't reliably tell you if water was wet.

[richsadams]

Originally Posted by kidfried

Basically they require you rent their card. Is this consistent with what everyone else has experienced?

Yes. The cards are proprietary.

[wkearney99]

Originally Posted by richsadams

Yes. The cards are proprietary.

I don't think the cards are proprietary. I think they've just 'regular' cablecards. What's important is that their ID numbers be entered into Verizon's database in order for them to be activated and function. Now, it may be possible that Verizon has schemed to have the cards uniquely identifiable, but I doubt it.

[richsadams]

Originally Posted by wkearney99

I don't think the cards are proprietary. I think they've just 'regular' cablecards. What's important is that their ID numbers be entered into Verizon's database in order for them to be activated and function. Now, it may be possible that Verizon has schemed to have the cards uniquely identifiable, but I doubt it.

Agreed, they are standard cable cards, but they are identified as Verizon's and VZ won't use any cards but their own, so for all intents and purposes they are proprietary.

[emkorial]

Originally Posted by aaronwt

I better order my larger drives soon then.

Although I wouldn't call this response that was posted straight from Verizons' mouth. If that was the case then many other things would have happened in the past based on info "straight from Verizons' mouth"

I personally doubt it's going to happen, FIOS is losing customers and losing money, pissing off existing customers isn't good for the bottom line.

I rarely MRV anyway, but if Fios did do this I'd kick them to the curb and go to Comcast. Fios isn;t that great anyway, looks great on paper, in reality, it's the same as any other cable service: overpriced and doesn't deliver what is advertised.

[SoBayJake]

Originally Posted by emkorial

I personally doubt it's going to happen, FIOS is losing customers and losing money, pissing off existing customers isn't good for the bottom line.

I rarely MRV anyway, but if Fios did do this I'd kick them to the curb and go to Comcast. Fios isn;t that great anyway, looks great on paper, in reality, it's the same as any other cable service: overpriced and doesn't deliver what is advertised.

Aside from billing nightmares, what don't they deliver? I get all the channels I am supposed to get, picture quality is excellent, and my download speeds are correct.

[wmcbrine]

Originally Posted by emkorial

FIOS is losing customers and losing money

Where do you get that from?

[kidfried]

fyi my verizon tech was not super knowledgable, he said my motorola card was the exact same as he uses with fios, but he had not been told that i had requested a cable card rental for some reason and did not have one with him. He tried to activate mine but told me he could not and I'd have to request a rental. I'll feel it out one more time with verizon on the phone. Certainly is illogical to have to pay their rental fee when all they have to do is activate and validate my card.

[SoBayJake]

Originally Posted by kidfried

fyi my verizon tech was not super knowledgable, he said my motorola card was the exact same as he uses with fios, but he had not been told that i had requested a cable card rental for some reason and did not have one with him. He tried to activate mine but told me he could not and I'd have to request a rental. I'll feel it out one more time with verizon on the phone. Certainly is illogical to have to pay their rental fee when all they have to do is activate and validate my card.

I don't know how CableCARDS work exactly, but if they have an embedded secret, then they might have to come from the cable co inventory.

The Verizon Headend might not know how to communicate with a non-Verizon CC. The CC interface to the STB is standard, but the CA (conditional access) system might not be. The CA portion is proprietary.

[richsadams]

My money says there's cable card rental fee's in the OP's future.

[pieler8]

My tivo series 3 HD isn't receiving any premium channels. The locals are coming in fine.

fios tech re-paired the m card. on the conditional access screen i'm seeing this

Con: Yes EBCP: Yes Val: V 0x00

Nothing else below that.

Would anyone know the problem?

[pieler8]

Originally Posted by pieler8

My tivo series 3 HD isn't receiving any premium channels. The locals are coming in fine.

fios tech re-paired the m card. on the conditional access screen i'm seeing this

Con: Yes EBCP: Yes Val: V 0x00

Nothing else below that.

Would anyone know the problem?

ignore this, just did a manual update to 11.0k, fixed it!

[kurtster]

Originally Posted by emkorial

I personally doubt it's going to happen, FIOS is losing customers and losing money, pissing off existing customers isn't good for the bottom line.

I rarely MRV anyway, but if Fios did do this I'd kick them to the curb and go to Comcast. Fios isn;t that great anyway, looks great on paper, in reality, it's the same as any other cable service: overpriced and doesn't deliver what is advertised.

I'm going back to FIOS. Comcast is killing me with the fee hikes over time. I started with $99/month with Starz and HBO, now I'm up to $170/mo. $18 of that is for 4 cable cards without ever doing anything to change my service. They also won't let me transfer HBO or Starz content from my HDXL to my Series 3. FIOS had no such restriction when I was with them.

[Revolutionary]

Wow, I forgot all about this thread. Almost 2 years on, and there's still no sign of the dreaded 0x02 flag on my FIOS channels.

[Phantom Gremlin]

Originally Posted by Revolutionary

Wow, I forgot all about this thread. Almost 2 years on, and there's still no sign of the dreaded 0x02 flag on my FIOS channels.

Move to Frontier-land, you'll get all the 0x02 flags on FiOS that you could ever desire.

I'd like to believe that the stock market rewards Verizon for its (relative) competence as compared to Frontier, as manifested by the differing Copy Control Information flags in the two systems. But it's probably much simpler than that. Frontier is (probably) just utterly inept. They recently cut their dividend (for the 2nd time in two years). They haven't yet gone bankrupt, but that's what happened to two other entities, Fairpoint Communications and Hawaiian Telecom, that Verizon previously sold subscribers to.

[vurbano]

Originally Posted by Revolutionary

Wow, I forgot all about this thread. Almost 2 years on, and there's still no sign of the dreaded 0x02 flag on my FIOS channels.

you know i think its still on only one channel. the silly HUBHD channel that I never watch anyway. And never will as long as its there.

[das335]

I recently kicked the Verizon DVR to the curb and added a cablecard to my TiVO HD. I did the self-install and it took about 10 minutes to get the cablecard up and running. No issues.

Just prior to all of this, I had a router/ONT issue and had both replaced. To eliminate any questions, I removed a 2nd Actiontec router I used as a MoCa switch and replaced it with my old Motorola NIM 100.

When I connected the TiVo to the Verizon cable feed, I used the TV output coax jack on the NIM 100, since it was available.

Ok, here is the mystery. Today I decide to cleanup some of the cables left over after removing the Verizon DVR. Bad Idea. 4 hours later and a lot of TiVo restarts, I finally got everything working "normally" again with my original cable connection from the NIM 100.

It appears that the NIM 100 TV output has the MoCa frequencies filtered out. When I look at signal strengths using this setup, I get mostly 90 - 100 with a SNR of 36 - 37.

If I simply use the signal straight from the Verizon connection thru a cable company provided 2-way splitter, I get signal strengths of 40 -70 and several of the channels (600,602,603,619...) show 0 for strength.

I searched and found a lot on using a low pass filter (LPF) and saw that some people had used a satellite diplexor as an alternative. I had a Radio Shack one available so I gave it a try. The results where similar to the 2-way splitter test. I still had low signal strengths (< 70) and saw pixellation on several channels (SNR about 26). Most of the missing channels were still not found.


Finally , here are the questions:

1) Can anyone verify that the NIM 100 does block the MoCa frequencies (like a LPF) on its TV output jack ?

2) Can I use 2 way splitters that are rated for 5-900 MHZ to block (or filter) MoCa frequencies on the output side ?

3) When I restart the TiVo (with it connected to the NIM TV output), I often get a "Acquiring Channel Information, please wait" type message and it takes about 10 minutes to get to Live TV. Is this normal ?

I have used my TiVo HD with antenna for about 3 years with almost no problems so I am a bit spoiled.


I will try and get a LPF from Verizon but I need to have a backup in case the NIM 100 stops working. I hope to run cat-6 wiring in the future and reuse the NIM 100 in another room.

Sorry for rambling, it was a long and unproductive day

[shamilian]

Originally Posted by das335

Finally , here are the questions:

1) Can anyone verify that the NIM 100 does block the MoCa frequencies (like a LPF) on its TV output jack ?

2) Can I use 2 way splitters that are rated for 5-900 MHZ to block (or filter) MoCa frequencies on the output side ?

3) When I restart the TiVo (with it connected to the NIM TV output), I often get a "Acquiring Channel Information, please wait" type message and it takes about 10 minutes to get to Live TV. Is this normal ?


I will try and get a LPF from Verizon but I need to have a backup in case the NIM 100 stops working. I hope to run cat-6 wiring in the future and reuse the NIM 100 in another room.

Sorry for rambling, it was a long and unproductive day

1) It likely has an internal diplexer.

2) No, Just because they say what they do between 50-900MHz they say nothing about what happens outside that range.

3) That is a long time check your OOB signal level

I called the FIOS help line and request the LPF. They provided an in-line filter that filters above 860MHz.

First check the signal strength without the splitter ( they can be bad, so can cable connections ). Check at various channels using the DVR diag screen and note the frequencies not the channel numbers.

If you have a few bad channels ( in nearby frequencies) that usually means that you have a bad connection/cable/splitter....

[das335]

Thanks for the info. I will get a Low Pass Filter (LPF) and see how it works. Things are fine right now but I want to have options.