Switching to FIOS on my Premiere XL

Here's how it worked for me:

I did steps 1-4 just like you listed.

Then:

5) Bring up the CableCard setup page on the Tivo.
6) Verizon tech installs the M-Card in the Tivo, and then uses his tech laptop to authorize the M-Card (takes 10-20 minutes) -- he'll have an app that talks to the Verizon back-end equipment to authorize your card and possibly pair it with your Tivo.
7) Once he says it's authorized, test your channels to see that you're getting everything expected (including the premium channels).

[Regarding your fuzziness on step 3, just follow the instructions on the guided setup -- it will be obvious when you get there.]

By the way, where are you at?

I was going to post this the other day, but I ran out of day!

FIOS Installation
The FIOS installer was here yesterday. I performed the steps outlined in the beginning of the thread. Went through the guided setup again - selecting "Verizon FIOS Queens" as my provider. It's the only thing that looked correct. Using the Verizon channel listings off the website, I proceeded with the guided setup by answering the questions about what channels I receive etc. The unit went online, connected and downloaded the info, and loaded it. It finished and informed me that I have enough of the guide to get me through the next day or so and that the box will continue to update yada yada. It informed me that I could press the Tivo Central button but would not receive any of the premium digital channels until the M-card was activated. When I did that I got a blank screen and the unit was unresponsive to commands from the remote. I heard the famous Tivo sound (be-doop), but nothing was appearing on the screen - it was just blank. Scary. But I proceeded.
We then took the new FIOS cable card and inserted it in to the Tivo Premiere so we could get all the numbers off the card - including the Host ID. The M-card configuration screen now appeared even though it was just blank a minute ago, so I know the box wasn't frozen. This is clearly a bug. I had my iPhone on me, so I took a picture of the screen as I like to keep a photo of the configuration numbers on the M-card just in case.
Next, the installer copied some numbers down and then we went downstairs and unplugged my Internet router from the ONT and hooked up his router temporarily. He claimed he had to add his router in order to get his tech laptop online so he could provision the M-card for my Tivo. I let him spin his wheels with that; it took him a long time to get through connecting and provisioning his router and to get through the configuration in order to activate the card. It was painful to watch.
After he was done, we went back upstairs (my stuff is directly below my entertainment system in the basement) and observed that the guide was displaying and I could channel surf. I surfed around a bit to verify that the channels looked correct and at first glance all appeared well.
We went back downstairs and he proceeded to muddle his way through his horrible software on his horrible Panasonic Win-doh's PC running XP in order to take his router out of my configuration. That again took him a chunk of time. They really need to update the process for these poor guys. It was so painful to watch. In the end, he was successful.
We plugged my Airport Extreme Base Station back in to the ethernet port on the ONT and all was well on the network side. My digital voice service was also working as before.
We went back upstairs and surfed around on the Tivo and the picture looks at least as good if not better than Cablevision. I shook his hand and sent Mr. FIOS Installer on his way.
I went back to my Tivo and pressed the Tivo Central button and a blank screen came up and the Tivo became unresponsive as before. I heard the be-doop and saw the lights change on the front panel, but nothing on the screen. I power-cycle my plasma; still nothing. So I rebooted my Tivo. It came back up and jumped right to the M-Card configuration screen where it appeared to be hung. No response from the remote. Now I was upset because this looks like a Tivo problem and all I did was rerun the guided setup to change providers and all this starts happening!
I, once again, rebooted the Tivo. Now Tivo Central appears as normal and all seems to be operating. I'll have to go through the channels and setup the guide to my liking as there are ton more channels and thus some of them I won't want in the guide. But it all seems to be behaving as before. But now I'm on FIOS and the picture seems great. All-in-all, it was stressful and a long day of fooling around with TiVO and all. It just shouldn't be this hard. Tivo really needs to improve the experience of configuration if they are to survive.

Picture Quality Seems Different
After surfing around a bit, I do notice a difference in the picture. The Cablevision HD image, let's say for example on CNN HD seemed to be a bit "louder" as in very high contrast and raging sharpness where the FIOS HD is a bit "lower" as in less contrast and softer sharpness. I think it's a good picture but it definitely seems different. I also notice, for example on CNN HD, that the commercials are in letterbox a lot and of course the commercials seem like a different mix - lending to the whole "different" feel to FIOS HD. Does anyone have any input on my observations about picture quality on FIOS HD vs Cablevision's HD? I'm curious.
I'll continue to surf and will probably get used to the new feeling of FIOS HD.

hstaniloff said:

I'll confirm that they are giving me a multi-stream card, but I think they are since I was able to flip-flop between tuners.
I won't use their router and I won't have it on my network. Just how much equipment do we all need in our homes??? Absurd.
I think it's a bad M-card.
It seemed like a lot of the channels were working, but hey, who has the time to go through every channel while the tech is tapping his foot to leave to his next job?
Do I just yank out the card while the Tivo is powered-up and shove the new card in? I hope so... Then I'm assuming he will go through his provisioning again on his crappy tech equipment. I pin the tech equipment at 15 years old. Takes forever...

Click to expand...

You should use your tivo's diagnostic screen to see what the power percentage is and the SNR on various channels that are causing problems. FIOS tech will check the power to match the motorola boxes. Tivos have picky tuners and should have the power in the 75% to 95% range and SNRs about 31db or so. If they are all set to 100% then your signal is too "hot" and you should add an attenuator. A hot signal can cause the channels to come and go as the OOB ( Out of Band ) signal may not be tuned properly, all the time. If the tech is coming he should have attenuators and also a low-pass filter, the low pass filter removes the MOCA signal before it gets to the Tivo. There are lots of threads on Tivo HD and FIOS installations, they apply to the Premier as well.

Personally I have no problems with the Actiontec router, I don't use its wireless but use my old wireless router as a wireless access point.

They do not need the Actiontec router to reset a cablecard. The reset signal is sent on the OOB channel from their head-end.

And with FIOS you can remove and install the M-card without a problem, this will reset the cablecard. It may take up to 5 minutes to program your channels.