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TV Guide

The TV Guide that is provided by the service Verizon uses is horrible. I have had cable, Dish and now Fios. Every verison of the guide was a quantum leap better than what Fios offers. Ironically, it appears to come from the people who invented this service TV GUIDE themselves. Annenberg must be turning over in his grave. This version of TV Guide is so bereft of information.

Let's say I want to watch an episode of Entourage. I see it on the guide and click on it. It is a current episode or one from two seasons ago. No idea.

Let's say I see an episode of Dirty Jobs on the grid. Is the this weeks or last week? When did it first air? What are the topics, often it is not there.

For movies, no dates, no actors.

The Guide is just garbage.

Verizon doesn't help either by offering a variety of favorites. I don't watch MTV but my daughter does. Can't we each have our own favorites? I don't watch Lifetime, but my wife does. We used to have 4 or 5 favorites.

All in all this switch to FIOS has not been all that happy for me. The INternet is about the same speed as DSL. I lost TRU (formerly Court TV) and MSNBC.

I suspect next year I will be back to DSL and the Dish. I hope verizon monitors this forum, but I doubt it.

Comments

matcarl

Yes, the guide is bad, but it's not by TV Guide despite the logo you see in the lower left corner. It's supplied by a company called FYI Television. You will have two Favorites when they upgrade your area to IMG 1.6 within the next month. TruTV is on channel 183.

Kathleen

GeorgeCostanza wrote:
I hope verizon monitors this forum, but I doubt it.

Hello GeorgeCostanza,

As a matter of fact, yes, these Forums are monitored. Besides the additional favorites, were there any additional ideas you had? We'd be interested to know.

Regards,

Kathleen

Verizon Forums Team Administrator

Justin46

George,

I don';t know where you are, or what level of the IMG you have, but:

1) If you are looking at a specific program on the Guide, if you hit the Info button you will get more detail about the program, at least I do on IMG 1.5 (date for a movie, a few actors, whether it is new or not (not sure about the accuracy of the New flag????), episode name, etc)

2) I have truTV here, it is on channel 163, don't know why you wouldn't have it, wherever you are (I will guess NY or NJ, since I know that MSNBC is not available in some areas there due to contractual limits imposed by MSNBC and Comcast I think).

But overall, I agree with you 100%, the current Guide is very inaccurate. Some people just totally hate it, I don't, other than the content, I sometimes think it is wrong more than it is right.

Re: internet speed. What service do you have? It should be much faster than DSL. Have you run the FiOS optimizer that will set some values within Windows to take advantage of the speed? I have 15/2 service, I typically get 15/4 when I test, on most test sites. One thing I had to do recently was give up on the Verizon DNS servers, far too slow, I went to OpenDNS and it improved significantly (free service).

Hope this helps a little. Don't give up, things hopefully will get better.

Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.5.0
Keller, TX

matcarl

Justin,

TruTV is on channel 183 as I stated before not 163.

Justin46

@matcarl wrote:
Justin,
TruTV is on channel 183 as I stated before not 163.

matcarl,

I'm sorry, but you are incorrect, it is on channel 163, I am looking at it right now (Bait Car is on) - 163, 163, 163, not 183, got it? 183 is MTV Jams.

Now, it may very well be on 183 where you are, but here in North Texas it is 163. And it may very well be on 183 next week, after our channel realignment, but right now, tonight, it is on 163 (and looking at the new channel lineup effective next week, yes, it will be on 183). But not now...

Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.5.0
Keller, TX

matcarl

I just realized the difference. Your state wasn't realigned yet. It's new position will be 183. I don't know which state the original poster is in, he may be in a state that was already realigned, he'll have to check both spots.

Message Edited by matcarl on 10-03-2008 05:59 AM

NewFiosLover271

I also agree, Fios Guide does lack content~

Saw somewhere that you can get Tivo to help in this area. But you will pay out for it out of pocket. Good things, don't come cheap. $$$

Also, DishNetwork customer here. Giving Fios three more weeks to show me some updated material on its guide or back I go.Gotta love that 30 day money back guantee!

Message Edited by NewFiosLover27 on 10-03-2008 09:22 PM

Message Edited by NewFiosLover27 on 10-03-2008 09:23 PM

prisaz

Back to Dish. Even without a guide I would never go back to the clouds. Been a FIOS customer since 2005 and was beating their door down to get it then. Signed up for TV in 2007 and have not looked back. Quality in picture far out weighs the lack of a decent guide. But perhaps not for all. I suspect if VZ needed to sign with TV Guide or perhaps a Deal with TIVO, all our prices would go up. Even with picture quality, they need to stay priced below the others to make it worth it. Let me see you get 20mbps from Dishnetwork, and all three for under $200. I seem to recall with DTV it was well over a $100, VZ phone another $50 internet another $50, well there you have it. If you want to pay for the best DVR service then pony up, get a TIVO, and a cable card. I would rather not pay mega bucks for my service. But if VZ would get a better guide all would be good.

wile_e_coyote

I agree with georgecostanza and Katherine ignored most of his complaint. The TV guide is worthless. Most of the time there is a generic description of the show. Example: Show: HOW DO I LOOK Description: "Finola Hughes helps to improve the fashion of people and places." That tells me nothing about the episode, and the show does not deal with improving places. Show: FORENSIC FILES. Descrption: "Various techniques are used as experts put the pieces of the puzzle together in an effort to solve a crime." Then there's tons of shows with "No program description." And when you do have a desccription, who writes them? The grammar and spelling are atrocious. Yes, this is one area that Comcast wins hands down. So,Katherine, if you are reading these, what plans does Verizon have for improving this?

wile_e_coyote

Sorry - it's Kathleen the Administrator, not Katherine.

brw9100

The guide is often inaccurate, frequently provides a vague and useless program description, generally doesn't provide information about actors/stars of movies and lacks the dynamic capability associated with a "live" and "interactive" guide. I can go to TV Guide online and get more accurate programming information for free.

The guide is slow and lacks user feedback. For instance, when I want to browse the on-demand menu to find a program from one of the networks like ABC. I select browse, press OK, then select Broadcast Primetime. It usually takes from 2 to 4 seconds for the menu to expand to show ABC/NBC/CBS. During that time there is absolutely no indication (like a Windows hourlass) as to whether or not the menu program is working to retireve the next menu branch or my command was not received by the DVR (aside from the momentary flash of the yellow led next to the time on the DVR which I am not usually looking at). This lack of response is even more evident as you drill down to the individual program level.

NewFiosLover271

If one would opt out of the general equipment from Verizon and purchase Tivo series 3, would that improve on-screen guide content?

Message Edited by NewFiosLover27 on 10-04-2008 06:25 PM

Kathleen

Hello wile_e_coyote,

No worries about the name. In terms of the Guide, let me ask icewater if there are any plans about the Guide.

Regards,

Kathleen

Verizon Forums Team Administrator

ItsMyLife

Yes, I'm finding the guide extremely lacking in information and even flat out wrong.

Case in point, I record "America's Game" on the NFL network. It's a show about the great teams in NFL history. The guide describes it as (I'm paraphrasing as I'm at work) "commentary about baseball". Not even close.

I agree that there is much room for improvement with the guide and DVR. But I can't say I'm that surprised, all these other companies have been at it a lot longer. The DISH DVR is great, but they've been refining it for years and years.

I'm counting on Verizon to do the same and continuously refine their product. I just am realistic and don't expect it to happen over night.

NewFiosLover271

What gets me about this subject.... Has everyone at Verizon been sleeping? How long has FiosTV been available? This problem, from what I can see, started from DAY ONE! Are the people who subscribe to television service really NOT care about the programs they watch? You would think, this issue would be been taken care of, before DAY ONE!

armstrda

What's funny about this is that I came home tonight, and had a message on my box that it was updated... not sure what the update was since I was already on 1.6. However, now I noticed that How It's Made is set to tape about 40 times in the next two weeks because guess what? The new flag is set on every airing of the show!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sal56

I agree completely with all the other comments already made about the atrocious lack of information contained in the Guide. Generic descriptions are meaningless and why not have the actors listed for each movie? Often I will watch something that would not have drawn my attention because of the cast. Browsing in equally infuriating. When I had Comcast I could search days ahead OR Back if necessary. With the guide I can't even simply select a show that is coming on one minute ahead. I don't want to set a reminder, I just want to change the channel by hitting one button. But no, I need to exit out with the insufferable delay (which is even worse with VOD, by the way) and then key in my channel.

I can only hope someone at Verizon is listening; your user interface is a joke.

armstrda

One more piece of awesomeness I noticed last night while browsing... Did you know that TBS plays NEW episodes of The Office, Sex and the City, and Seinfeld? Not to mention every other show that is on TBS's guide!!! I was only aware of TBS having one original show (that comedy guy)... This guide is useless!

NewFiosLover271

Tomorrow the sun will come out.... when I say, BYE BYE Fios Guide and hello my old friend (love/hate relationship), Dish Network guide.

armstrda

I was browsing the support page today,and look what VZ has put in the help now.

The program information in the guide that was provided to Verizon was not unique, and therefore may not record properly. This can happen occassionally with a small number of programs.

Available here:

http://www22.verizon.com/ResidentialHelp/FiOSTV/Receivers/Troubleshooting/QuestionsOne/122779.htm

Small number of programs? I'm not sure how they calculate small....

Whipsnade

For me the only thing worse then the Verizon guide is their phone service. Their guide is the worst by far of any that I have seen and that's been a few. Their phone service should be an embarrassment to the company. Does anyone at Verizon even look at these things and try them?

Message Edited by Whipsnade on 10-20-2008 09:39 AM

HowlingMad

The guide data is awful. Many shows have incomplete descriptions. Something like a Friday the 13th film that would include such description: "Group of teens at a campround are..." Even when you go to the more details screen, you get the same cut off synopsis.

armstrda

I'm not trying to beat a dead horse or anything, but I thought this was pretty funny. I went to FYI's website, and this is right on their front page. I think those of us here would disagree...

FYI delivers daily, weekly, and monthly television listings to our clients in easy-to-read and easy-to-use formats. These custom and localized services are designed to meet individual client and subscriber programming interests and needs.

FYI's information technology systems offer its clients reliable, accurate, up-to-the-minute updates with quick turn-around times that will be unmatched by any other data source.

HolyRoller

I would like to see a Reminder Options. If it is there now, I missed it. I came from Comcast and there was an option to be reminded when a show started and this guide does not have that option.

DentonRealtor

The Guide is still very bad, it basically makes the DVR service very unusable! Try setting up a series recording on a favorite sports team for instance "Texas Tech" and you get EVERY college game in the world. Many Many Many times program listings are totally incorrect. The lack of information is ridiculous.

Also a very basic feature available on all other providers for years has been to select future shows and allow the box to change channels at the appropriate time to watch without recording. The other problem of limited space on the recorder might be more tolerable if you would allow this.

These problems seem to be ongoing yet I'm not finding any comments as to whether VZ is working on these or just ignoring their customers????

I agree with all the others, it really doesn't matter how great your picture quality is if the most used item and interface to the quality is marred by the faulty guide!!

Someone Please HELP US!

wile_e_coyote

DentonRealtor - they are ignoring us.

lowrider

the tv guide is no good it alwas says new when i know the show is a repeat for ex ncis on usa says it is new but it is a repeat...

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