Is Remote DVR real of fictional?

[Redfran]

Hello,

I'm hoping someone can help me get my remote DVR access to work. I've searched the forums and it seems that every Remote DVR post ends without a real solution. And the Fios website is so unintuitive, that it's practically useless regarding help for the DVR setup. I'm beginning to wonder if this new feature is really usable!

Here's my situation. I set up my remote DVR online. I received an email confirmation "congratulating" me on the successful activation. I log on to  https://www36.verizon.com/fiostv/web/ and click on "my set-top boxes." It says my box is "remote DVR enabled" and even shows the current drive space recording time. So far, so good.

But when I click on the "DVR" button, it just brings me back to homepage. Is clicking on the "DVR" button how you are supposed to tape shows remotely. Or, am I missing something? I was assuming there would be a giant "Remotely Program your DVR NOW" button or something obvious. But since I don't see anything like that, I tried clicking on the "DVR" button. No luck. When I click on "Favorites," it also brings me back to the homepage.

My set-top box is obviously being recognized, but I just can't seem to find out how to actually use the remote DVR function.

When I was Googling for solutions, I saw that having a second router could cause Remote DVR not to work. I'm on a Mac and I have an Airport. Could that be the cause of all my problems? I was doubting it since on the Verizon website, it clearly says that my set-top box is "DVR enabled." I would think you wouldn't even get that far if you had a router issue. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks again.

Redfran 

[Justin46]

When you are looking at the display of your DVR showing the space used, just below that there are three icons: DVR, Favorites, and Parental Controls. You can click on any of those to see your current recording schedule, see and change if desired your Favorites setup, and set your parental stuff.

To set up a recording, click on the TV Listings entry in the menu on the left side, find the program you want to record, and click on it. You will then see more details about the episode and have the option to record that specific episode or record the series.

Hope this gets you on the road, the Remote DVR works pretty well I think, once you figure out how to use it

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.6.2, Build 08.58
Keller, TX 76248  

[Redfran]

Hi Justin,

Thanks so much for your speedy reply. Unfortunately, when I click on any of the icons (DVR, Favorites, Parental Controls), it just brings me right back to the previous page (http://www36.verizon.com/fiostv/web/members/home.aspx). It's a cruel joke.

And when I click on the TV Listings tab on the left side, it does bring up the guide. However, when I select a show there is no option to record it. Even when I click "more information," I only get "cast, credits," "plot summary," and the long list of episodes. No recording option anywhere.

I know some folks had to wait a few days before they were able to get the remote DVR to work. Today is the 4th day since I received my email confirmation, so I figured it should be working by now.  I guess I can call Verizon, but that's always a last resort. I haven't had the best success rate with phone support. I find the forums much more responsive and helpful.

If there's anything else you can think of, I'm all ears.

Redfran 

[Justin46]

Redfran,

Unfortunately I really can't think of anything. When I registered my DVR for remote access I went and signed up and had it available in about 90 minutes I think. 

When you go into the Menu on the DVR itself, do you see an entry for FiOS TV Remote DVR under Settings? I am guessing you must or you wouldn't see the remote support activated on the website, just wondering. Also, do you have the Multi-Room DVR or just the regular one? I do not have Multi-Room support so that might be a difference.

Here is the link I use to get to the remote DVR service: http://www36.verizon.com/fiostv/web/Default.aspx. It is slightly different from yours. I then enter my login info and select the verizon.net button. Once logged in I click on the My Set-Top Boxes entry or the DVR entry in the menu on the left and I see the DVR (and other STBs), and those buttons work. It also offers me the option to change the name of the STB; have you tried that, and does it work (I have changed the names on all of my STBs successfully)?

I wish I could help, but mine worked from the beginning, no real effort on my part. It sounds like maybe the remote service did not get completely implemented for you, and yes, you are probably going to have to call the FSC. One tip that has helped me in the past when calling: say the word "agent" at each of the prompts, it will generally get you to a live person faster than trying to go through all of the prompts.

Good luck.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.6.2, Build 08.58
Keller, TX 76248

[Redfran · Accepted solution]

Success!

I don't know exactly what it was that caused the remote DVR to start working, but here's what I did.

I noticed that on the DVR itself, under settings, I didn't see a "Remote DVR" entry (thanks, Justin!). So I unplugged my Set-Top box and my ActionTec Router.

Then, I checked under settings again and voila, I saw the "Remote DVR" entry listed. It also listed my confirmation code which apparently you don't need because when I logged back on to Verizon, my remote DVR was working!

The only other thing I did differently (other then unplugging the box and router) was to log on and check "verizon.com" instead of "verizon.net." I had been checking ".net,"  but under the confirmation code on my DVR, it said "Verizon.com." I know people have said to use "verizon.net," but I decided to give the ".com" a try.  So I'm not exactly sure if it was rebooting the equipment or just logging on differently, but either way ... now I'm a believer! 

Justin, thanks for your help. 

[Justin46]

Hey Redfran, glad it is now working! 

I have never understood why I needed to click on one of the radio buttons, but I have always used .net because that is where my email address is, guess I will try .com and see if it makes any difference for me.

FWIW, my guess would be that rebooting the DVR fixed the problem; since you didn't see the remote dvr before and now do see it, that suggests to me that the the activation had not been fully completed. But then what do I know......

See, FiOS isn't so bad 

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.6.2, Build 08.58
Keller, TX 76248

[Justin46]

I just logged in using .com instead of .net and it appeared to make no difference, I can manage the DVR either way. So, to someone at Verizon, what is the difference? And if there really isn't any difference, why make me click on one of them? Thanks.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
IMG 1.6.2, Build 08.58
Keller, TX 76248

[Redfran]

Hey Justin,

Just for kicks, I tried to log in using .net this time and my remote DVR function DID NOT work (which is odd because, I'm also a .net customer).  So I logged on again using the .com radio buttom and sure enough, remote DVR was back. Weird.

I'd be curious to know what the difference is as well.

Thanks again for your time.

Redfran 

[CharlesH]

The reasoning is this...not all the TV customers have Internet from us, so they would have never made a verizon.net account.  So you have the option to create your vz.com account.  Now...WHYYYYY is this like this, I have no idea and I know they are on the way to migrating like...everything soon enough but yeah...

[Redfran]

I guess that sort of explains it. But what's still odd, is that I AM a FIOS internet customer and yet the .net button didn't work for me. I had to use .com.

Oh well. Thanks for the explanation about why there are 2 buttons, though. 

Redfran 

[barryvabeach]

Justin, you are the man,  I think.   I get everything from FIOS ,  and while the service is great, if I gave someone a budget of $250 million and 2 years to work on it with the goal to make a website as unintuitive and frustrating as possibile, I don't anyone could do a better job than the current site.  I have used the dvr remote 3 or 4 times, but tired to use it a dozen times and each time I stumbled all over the site, signed in on a screen, then was asked to sign in on the very next screen again, got to the mysterious .com or .net option ( with no explanation of which was for what ) and often every once in a while stumbled on the right page, and used the remote dvr, more often I just gave up.  The few times I got in, I  saved that page as a favorite, but when I would try to access the favorite again, it would be a different page ( because I didn't save the page until I got in, I wasn't saving the login page.  I just used the link you provided and it has worked twice in a row.   YOU ARE THE MAN.    Of course,  why you can't find that link when you search for remote dvr on the support page ???.   Thanks   Barry

[Justin46]

Barry,

"...and it has worked twice in a row..."

If it works three times in a row I am off the hook, any failure must be somebody elses fault, right? 

Seriously, I do hope it continues to work for you. I do not use it very often, but a couple of times I have been up at our lake house and realized that I had failed to set it to record something I wanted, the remote DVR function saved the day for me.

I developed and supported a website for the last 5 years for a property owners association, plus I was in the technical side of the computer business for 37 years, so I do have some background in software and website design and support. It just drives me nuts to visit websites that are more enamored with glitzy graphics and flash and whatever other crap they can come up with rather than presenting the data I really need or ensuring that page navigation is easy and obvious and that links work.

I suspect in Verizon's case the problem goes back to their ancestry of being just a phone company with the relatively limited functionality needed to support that, then adding wireless and DSL and FiOS, etc, and not ever stopping to go back and do an overall re-design to accomodate all of the stuff they now have. I think instead they just kept adding on, and we got the mess we have now. And IMO their phone ordering and support system suffers from the same patchwork design and implementation.

I have had some private conversations with some Verizon website folks, tried to explain some of the issues I see, but I am really not sure I got through to them. Maybe so, I can hope. But of course it is now such a large and convoluted mess that the effort to make it work properly would be very large and expensive. So who knows whether we will see any significant improvements.  

Here is a link to a thread I created some time ago with links to a variety of Verizon website areas: Link. Originally this post was stickied to be at the top of the My Verizon (My Account) forum but it lost its stickiness somehow. Some people have posted some additional information in the thread, but since I do not have any ability to update the original post I cannot update the chart. But maybe you will find some other links in there that might help you in the future.

Anyway, I wish you good luck, and thanks for the nice comment.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP6416, IMG 1.6.2, Build 08.58
Keller, TX 76248

[kennyz]

My problems with the Remote DVR started when I had to switch DVR's. Since then I have called Support at least 5 times over the course of 3 weeks and every time I try to access it I get  "Set Top Box is not Responding". The Tech Support people (who have been very nice and are embarrassed they can't fix the problem) keep sending Tickets to the Remote DVR Group (whoever they are) and I have been told numerous times they would get back to me and they NEVER DO. I have been told this is a problem in all of Texas (which I don't believe). I was always able to use the remote DVR from the first day until I got the new box. Everyone has told me it is just a coincidence that I started having the problems.

This has been a running joke in my house and I can't believe after all of these calls that no one knows what the problem is and can fix it.

PS: I guess I should be happy the **bleep** TV works.