[ADG]

I just posted this in the Roamio forum by accident. I apologize for the double post and will understand if the mods delete the other one. Thanks.


I've been an Optimum / Cablevision customer since they first started service. As we know, since Altice took over they are not terribly "enthusiastic" about their cable card support. I have a couple of questions please:

1) Does anyone with Optimum get Stingray channels on Tivo any longer?

2) I'm thinking about switching to Fios. Are they more "supportive" of cable cards than Optimum? And can someone tell me any pluses or minuses of Fios vs Optimum?

Thanks in advance.

 

[techpro2004]

fios has symetrical up/down speeds this is a huge advantage in accessing your tivo or media library remotely. It also improves browser speeds as when I had optimum, I would regularly max out my up pipe which would freeze my internet connection. Also very few channels are copy-once, just the fox movie channels and hbo. Also the big one, fios uses motorola cablecards so fios is not susceptible to this unlike optimum (Time warp could cause millions of old...). also no ta on fios.


Some reps on the phone will avoid selling you a cablecard but keep trying you can get them also they raised the price of a cablecard from $5 to $10 a few months back. fios is more expensive than optimum but you get what you pay for.

Unfortunately, I am not on optimum any longer and do not know about stingray.

 

[NashGuy]

I just posted this in the Roamio forum by accident. I apologize for the double post and will understand if the mods delete the other one. Thanks.


I've been an Optimum / Cablevision customer since they first started service. As we know, since Altice took over they are not terribly "enthusiastic" about their cable card support. I have a couple of questions please:

1) Does anyone with Optimum get Stingray channels on Tivo any longer?

2) I'm thinking about switching to Fios. Are they more "supportive" of cable cards than Optimum? And can someone tell me any pluses or minuses of Fios vs Optimum?

Thanks in advance.

Generally speaking, Verizon Fios has been one of the most supportive operators for CableCARDs. They do charge to rent each card though; I think the fee may vary by area from $5 to $10 each per month. But based on lots of comments on this forum over the years, I'd say Verizon and Comcast are the two best TV providers for CableCARD customers.

Something to be aware of is that both Optimum and Verizon Fios are gradually shifting away from QAM-based cable TV (which is the only form of TV compatible with CableCARDs). Optimum is converting homes in their footprint from cable to fiber wiring and I don't think they support QAM/CableCARD for homes that have been converted over to fiber but rather supply their TV service to those homes via streaming IPTV.

As for Fios, they've always been fiber but have always run their TV service via QAM, like traditional cable companies do. Except that they're now upgrading their network in some areas (it started a year or so ago in NYC) to support speeds of 2 Gigs. This requires a new model ONT to be installed in homes and this new ONT does not support QAM. Homes with the new ONT can only get Fios TV as a streaming IPTV service, not via QAM, and therefore they cannot make use of CableCARDs and TiVos. If your home is already wired for Fios and you have the old-style ONT, you should be fine. If your home is not yet wired, you may want to check with Verizon to ensure that they would still do your installation with the old-style ONT (maximum connection speed of 1 Gig) so that you could get a CableCARD from them to use with Fios TV.

 

[ADG]

Well, it's no longer an issue. I just called Verizon to ask a bunch of questions prior to ordering, and it turns out only internet is available at my home location. I did check availability for my address on their website and it said service IS available. Oh well, I guess I stay with Optimum.

Thanks for all the helpful responses.

 

[NashGuy]

Well, it's no longer an issue. I just called Verizon to ask a bunch of questions prior to ordering, and it turns out only internet is available at my home location. I did check availability for my address on their website and it said service IS available. Oh well, I guess I stay with Optimum.

Thanks for all the helpful responses.

So Verizon offers Fios fiber internet service at your address but NOT Fios TV service? Weird. Although I think maybe I recall reading that, in some of the recent towns that they've expanded service into, they're only offering internet, not TV, as I think they have to strike a TV franchise agreement with the local government in each place where they sell Fios TV. Is Fios internet service relatively new to your area?

 

[pl1]

So Verizon offers Fios fiber internet service at your address but NOT Fios TV service? Weird. Although I think maybe I recall reading that, in some of the recent towns that they've expanded service into, they're only offering internet, not TV, as I think they have to strike a TV franchise agreement with the local government in each place where they sell Fios TV. Is Fios internet service relatively new to your area?

Also, in some areas, they are offering mult-gig ONTs that can't do Voice or TV (yet?).

[2G Fios] Multigigabit Fios + Calix ONT + Verizon Router CR1000A

Dear fellow community members, Beginning on Feb 8, 2022, VZ offers symmetrical multigigabit Fios subscription up to 2Gbps (typ. 2048, low 1500, high 2300Mbps) in select areas of the New York City. To learn more, please visit https://www.verizon.com/home/2-gigabit-internet/ The initial rollout...

community.verizon.com

EDIT: Although, I wonder if some customers are offered a choice of multi-gig and no voice & TV, or fiber with voice and TV at the same location.

 

[ADG]

What the cs rep on the phone said is that Internet service is available, but digital tv and high speed internet are not. And no, to the best of my knowledge FIOS service is not new to the area. However, this is the first time I've bothered to look into it so I don't really know when they ran the cables / fiber.

 

[cwoody222]

So Verizon offers Fios fiber internet service at your address but NOT Fios TV service? Weird. Although I think maybe I recall reading that, in some of the recent towns that they've expanded service into, they're only offering internet, not TV, as I think they have to strike a TV franchise agreement with the local government in each place where they sell Fios TV. Is Fios internet service relatively new to your area?

This is exactly the case.

In some areas it was beneficial for them to run fiber to offer internet but they do not have a tv franchise agreement so they can’t offer tv.

 

[NashGuy]

Also, in some areas, they are offering mult-gig ONTs that can't do Voice or TV (yet?).

[2G Fios] Multigigabit Fios + Calix ONT + Verizon Router CR1000A

Dear fellow community members, Beginning on Feb 8, 2022, VZ offers symmetrical multigigabit Fios subscription up to 2Gbps (typ. 2048, low 1500, high 2300Mbps) in select areas of the New York City. To learn more, please visit https://www.verizon.com/home/2-gigabit-internet/ The initial rollout...

community.verizon.com

EDIT: Although, I wonder if some customers are offered a choice of multi-gig and no voice & TV, or fiber with voice and TV at the same location.

For those customers who have the new multi-gig ONT (and therefore cannot access QAM TV), they're now offering Fios TV as a purely IPTV service delivered through their own custom Android TV box. I think packages and pricing may be different from their traditional QAM-based Fios TV. I think it automatically includes cloud DVR service.

No idea if they're offering voice service via the new ONT. I also don't know if the new multi-gig ONT is mandatory for new installations in certain areas.

 

[NashGuy]

What the cs rep on the phone said is that Internet service is available, but digital tv and high speed internet are not. And no, to the best of my knowledge FIOS service is not new to the area. However, this is the first time I've bothered to look into it so I don't really know when they ran the cables / fiber.

If they're saying that internet, but not high speed internet, is available at your location, then it sounds like they only offer DSL service there (over traditional copper telephone landlines), not Fios. Fios is always over fiber and supports speeds starting at around 300 Mbps, up to 1 gig or faster. So it sounds like the rep is saying that Verizon did not upgrade your neighborhood from DSL to fiber. That's true of about 1/3 of the homes with a wired Verizon connection.

 

[ADG]

Perhaps I misunderstood. Regardless, problem solved. Thanks.

 

[wmcbrine]

No idea if they're offering voice service via the new ONT.

Their preferred phone offering has been VoIP for a long time (Fios Digital Voice). I dunno if they'll need a separate ATA for it with the multi-gig ONT, but they should be able to arrange something. (?)