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Why I won't give Verizon my TV money....

Dear Verizon,

I have your Fios internet service and LOVE it. In fact, I am even thinking about upgrading to the next faster speed available.

With that said, I am just wondering when you are going to start listening to your customers, or in my case, potential customer; and do whatever it takes to allow an external hard drive to be connected to your DVR's, especially the HD ones that will now only allow about 20 hours of HD recording. Even though I get at least one postcard in the mail per week with the latest Fios Internet/TV/Phone offer, I won't even give it a second thought until you either put in at least a 1gig hard drive in your DVR's or turn on the ESATA port on all of them and allow the hook up of an external hard drive. Just like I have done with my DirecTv DVR that increased my capacity from 30 hours of HD programming to at least 300 with a 1.5tb drive, which cost less than $150 for the hard drive and enclosure. And it was a snap to install.

It appears you would rather have customers upset with what you are offering, and not being the best for word of mouth advertising, or have them go to Tivo, or something else and spend $500 to $750 or more for another HD DVR that will increase their recording capacity, but lose some of the functionality that makes Fios attractive, such as on-demand programming. And have them upset that you weren't willing to make a very simple fix available.

Seriously, this has been an issue since Fios TV was launched based on what I have read in these very Verizon forums as well as many other online tech forums, and you are still not addressing this. My question is WHY?

And why can't you be a little more honest in your advertising materials? Seriously, you send out postcards and have online advertising all over the internet with these wonderful offers, but anyone with half a brain knows that these great offers are for someone with one tv only that would be hooked up. Even then, I bet the wonderful one or two year offer DOES NOT include the rental cost of the DVR or STB, that's all the part of the teeny tiny small print that says something about other fees, etc. I think it's just wrong. And don't feel like it's exclusive to Verizon, everyone does it, and I think it should be stopped. IMHO

And now I jump off my soap box and wish everyone a great upcoming week.

Comments

spacedebris

1st, you wasted your time posting this here as this is a peer-to-peer forum. Verizon doesnt read it. That is unless you were just wanting to rant and get feedback from customers. Then job accomplished Smiley Wink

2nd. As has repeatedly been said, the Verizon DVR cant have external drives connected to them. They are physically incapable of having that done at this time. Now it has been said that Verizon is working on getting a couple new DVR's where one of them at least is rumored to have external drive ability. However it seems the rollout on them has been held off. I dont know why, I would guess that they either are having to test further to make sure they work or are waiting for the manufacturer to make enough of them to meet the demands of Verizon.

Now if you dont want to wait there is always the 3rd party boxes. Verizon will never offer everything that everyone wants. If they dont offer what you want, you can go out and find a dvr that does have what you want. For example TIVO. Yes you have to pay a subscription for them but with what you save between a Verizon DVR and a Cable card for a TIVO it pretty much comes out a wash in the end. In fact if you do it like I did, the TIVO ends up costing less in the long run.

Its like buying a car. If it doesnt come with what you want, you go to the aftermarket and get what you want. Simple as that. Yes you have to work at it a little, but to get the custom system that you want, that is what you have to do. Just think of Verizon as the starting point and make it your own.

CRobGauth

@spacedebris wrote:
1st, you wasted your time posting this here as this is a peer-to-peer forum. Verizon doesnt read it. That is unless you were just wanting to rant and get feedback from customers. Then job accomplished
2nd. As has repeatedly been said, the Verizon DVR cant have external drives connected to them. They are physically incapable of having that done at this time. Now it has been said that Verizon is working on getting a couple new DVR's where one of them at least is rumored to have external drive ability. However it seems the rollout on them has been held off. I dont know why, I would guess that they either are having to test further to make sure they work or are waiting for the manufacturer to make enough of them to meet the demands of Verizon.
Now if you dont want to wait there is always the 3rd party boxes. Verizon will never offer everything that everyone wants. If they dont offer what you want, you can go out and find a dvr that does have what you want. For example TIVO. Yes you have to pay a subscription for them but with what you save between a Verizon DVR and a Cable card for a TIVO it pretty much comes out a wash in the end. In fact if you do it like I did, the TIVO ends up costing less in the long run.
Its like buying a car. If it doesnt come with what you want, you go to the aftermarket and get what you want. Simple as that. Yes you have to work at it a little, but to get the custom system that you want, that is what you have to do. Just think of Verizon as the starting point and make it your own.

3rd. I don't think that any of the other cable providers have a DVR that is bigger than FIOS. At least not that are in general deployment.

So what do you do for TV viewing? And is it better than FIOS?

spacedebris

Well, there are a few out there. Direct TV for example, does have a dvr that has a 500gb hard drive out now that records about 70 hours of HD content. (just upgraded mine at my other house). Granted I still dislike the DTV graphic interface. I Much prefer my TIVO, and my Verizon DVR interface is also better in my opinion. But for size, Cable companies are starting to get larger drives and Verizon will follow suit. Its just a matter of time.

id2nv2nj2ca

Hi spacedebris. Thank you for your feedback. I realize this is a peer to peer forum, but I have also spent enough time in these Fios forums to see that Verizon does indeed monitor them, as evidenced by the fact that I have seen posts by employees. In that regard, I was hoping one of these Verizon monitors would see this and address it, since as you said yourself, it has been rumored that this feature was going to be available for a couple years now at least. And yet, customers that want that capability don't have it, and potential customers like me won't get it until it is addressed.

Perhaps addressing my thoughts to Dear Verizon was over the top, and yes; I was ranting. Ranting at the fact that Verizon has had their Fios TV service for what, at least 5 years, and this recording capacity has been an issue since it's inception.

From what I have read, albeit from other "peers" just like you and me, there is, best case scenario, an ESATA port on all of the Fios DVR's that is simply not "activated", or worst case, a USB Port that could be configured for this purpose. If that is NOT true, that does take away quite a bit of my frustration in that it wouldn't be just a simple firmware upgrade as has been stated elsewhere, and would require all new boxes to be built or a modification of some sort to the existing ones.

The way I look at it, it seems like this Fios TV thing is really pretty cool with all the features and capabilities it has, and I would love to have it. And as I stated in my original post, using a third party device like Tivo causes you to lose some features like On Demand, unless that isn't true. And I am not independently wealthy enough to go out and shell out the $500 to $750 up front to buy another box and cable cards, or whatever is required to achieve the ultimate goal, which is more than 20 hours of HD recording. And even if I bought one of those very pricey boxes, would I still have the capability of watching anything I have recorded on up to 15 different TV's as I have read is possible with the Multiroom DVR?

What they need to come out with is a DVR that has at least a 1tb hard drive installed and the capability to record 4 different programs at once. If AT&T has figured out how to do it with their Uverse or whatever it's called, Verizon should certainly be able to do it with their fiber optic capabilities. Now that would really be worth having, eh?

Again, thanks for the feedback. Have a great week.

id2nv2nj2ca

My bad. I just looked at some of the older posts I referenced and realized that the people I thought were employees were simply forum moderators with the Verizon logo underneath their names, making it look like (or at least made me think) they were employees. Sorry about that. It's too bad that Verizon doesn't have actual employees here monitoring things and can chime in on these type of issues.

Hubrisnxs

@id2nv2nj2ca wrote:
From what I have read, albeit from other "peers" just like you and me, there is, best case scenario, an ESATA port on all of the Fios DVR's that is simply not "activated", or worst case, a USB Port that could be configured for this purpose. If that is NOT true, that does take away quite a bit of my frustration in that it wouldn't be just a simple firmware upgrade as has been stated elsewhere, and would require all new boxes to be built or a modification of some sort to the existing ones.

The current DVR's don't have the memory or the CPU to handle opening up those ports for use. that is why the Esata upgrade and activation will be with the new 7232 models that are slated to be released late this year.

unfortunately a firmware upgrade is not "all" that is needed, it's also a hardware upgrade.

id2nv2nj2ca

Thank you for this information. I am NOT technically savvy at all, so I don't know about memory and cpu's etc. What I do know is, I have had my DirecTv DVR going on 3 years or so, and it has always had the capability to add an external hard drive. Fios, supposedly the most technologically advanced system on the planet still doesn't after 5 years or so. And just today, I get another envelope in the mail offering the Triple Play for $99.99 a month and touting their 40 HD channels. DirecTv has 130 or so.

I don't get it, how Fios is so great at providing the fastest internet speeds available to a household and yet has only 30% the amount of HD channels as DirecTv and still, after how many years, still has DVR's that only allow 20 hours of HD recording.

Isn't it funny that we keep hearing the new DVR with expanded recording time or external drive functionality will be realeased soon, at the end of the year, at the beginning of next year, etc. etc. etc.? Reminds me very much of the rumors that Verizon Wireless is going to be selling the iPhone this year, or the first part of 2011. Like we haven't heard that rumor, albeit with different dates for the last two years. Maybe someone could provide a link that doesn't require jumping through hoops to contact Verizon directly, where they can actually speak with some authority and based on knowlege and not just rumors. Would that be too much to ask?

If it isn't obvious, I really do want Fios TV, mainly because it does sound like the greatest thing to hit home entertainment since the DVR. And maybe it's somewhat pathetic that there are so many things on TV that I would like to record and watch when the time is available that 20 hours just isn't enough.

10nisman94

@Hubrisnxs wrote:
The current DVR's don't have the memory or the CPU to handle opening up those ports for use. that is why the Esata upgrade and activation will be with the new 7232 models that are slated to be released late this year.
unfortunately a firmware upgrade is not "all" that is needed, it's also a hardware upgrade.

That particular point may not be true. Statements have been made to the contrary by the FIOSTV twitter rep.

SidR

I agree. I think Verizon should be more upfront with their pricing. It appears customers are paying vastly different amounts for the same service.

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