Suggestions for the interactive guide

[sbobcat]

I have been using FIOS TV service now for several months, and seen several iterations of the guide come through. I have a number of issues I would like to suggest for improvements.

First a suggestion about DVR and show recording. I have 2 DVRs, as we record a lot of TV and need the 4 tuners. I love that I can access recordings from either DVR as I want. However, it would be really great if I could just have a single schedule of shows set to record and let the two DVR's figure out what should record where based on the availability of tuners in the DVR's which would not produce conflicts.

I essentially need to put together my own matrix in order to figure out what set to record on which DVR based on when shows air. It would be great if the DVRs could talk to each other and intelligently figure out where to record.

A big issue I have encountered is that sometimes only part of a show will record. The biggest issue has been because for whatever reason, CBS's "Person of Interest" has only recorded 30 minutes of the show, and only the latter 30 minutes. There was no indication on the scheduled recordings view that the show would only partially record, it just showed that it would record. For most shows at least, they will either re-air the show, or I can get caught up on one of several streaming services. This is the only show that is not available as a re-run or on ANY streaming service.

If a show is going to only partially record, it should be clearly indicated, and it actually should just not record - it should show to me that there is an issue or conflict with another show recording into the 1st half of this show which would prevent a full recording. This is a huge bug in the recording logic that should be fixed.

From the menu guides, I would really  like the option to set the default menu starting point. I do not way ANY pay preview, or pay for any on demand content. I have never done that with any TV provider I have had, and I don't plan to start now, the fact that the menu always defaults to searching on demand is annoying. 

The entire menu experience feels not as if its designed to allow me to easily or quickly navigate and make the changes or selections I want, but instead it constantly wants me to basically buy a movie or TV show. There are plenty of ways to design an interface which allows you to promote your pay services and also allow me to get into the areas of the menu I need in an intuitive manner.

I do like that the DVR remembers some of my recent searches, a nice feature. It would be great for homes with multiple DVRs to allow the DVR's to act more as a "single unit" and share that information between the units so I don't have to go figuring out which DVR I previously searched for something. The search menu should also allow you to set some basic filters - when I go into search, 99% of the time I am going to search for something specific - the title of a movie or TV show. The search results should show me just that, I don't need to see actors or all the other options when I search by default - I should be able to go into advanced search to get broader or complex with what I am searching for. I should also be able to turn off searching in certain areas - like pay-per-view or on-demand options. 

P.S. - the spell check component of the post message feature should really have "FIOS" and "DVR" in the dictionary.

[22Becca22]

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@sbobcat wrote:

I have been using FIOS TV service now for several months, and seen several iterations of the guide come through. I have a number of issues I would like to suggest for improvements.

First a suggestion about DVR and show recording. I have 2 DVRs, as we record a lot of TV and need the 4 tuners. I love that I can access recordings from either DVR as I want. However, it would be really great if I could just have a single schedule of shows set to record and let the two DVR's figure out what should record where based on the availability of tuners in the DVR's which would not produce conflicts.

I essentially need to put together my own matrix in order to figure out what set to record on which DVR based on when shows air. It would be great if the DVRs could talk to each other and intelligently figure out where to record.

A big issue I have encountered is that sometimes only part of a show will record. The biggest issue has been because for whatever reason, CBS's "Person of Interest" has only recorded 30 minutes of the show, and only the latter 30 minutes. There was no indication on the scheduled recordings view that the show would only partially record, it just showed that it would record. For most shows at least, they will either re-air the show, or I can get caught up on one of several streaming services. This is the only show that is not available as a re-run or on ANY streaming service.

If a show is going to only partially record, it should be clearly indicated, and it actually should just not record - it should show to me that there is an issue or conflict with another show recording into the 1st half of this show which would prevent a full recording. This is a huge bug in the recording logic that should be fixed.

From the menu guides, I would really  like the option to set the default menu starting point. I do not way ANY pay preview, or pay for any on demand content. I have never done that with any TV provider I have had, and I don't plan to start now, the fact that the menu always defaults to searching on demand is annoying. 

The entire menu experience feels not as if its designed to allow me to easily or quickly navigate and make the changes or selections I want, but instead it constantly wants me to basically buy a movie or TV show. There are plenty of ways to design an interface which allows you to promote your pay services and also allow me to get into the areas of the menu I need in an intuitive manner.

I do like that the DVR remembers some of my recent searches, a nice feature. It would be great for homes with multiple DVRs to allow the DVR's to act more as a "single unit" and share that information between the units so I don't have to go figuring out which DVR I previously searched for something. The search menu should also allow you to set some basic filters - when I go into search, 99% of the time I am going to search for something specific - the title of a movie or TV show. The search results should show me just that, I don't need to see actors or all the other options when I search by default - I should be able to go into advanced search to get broader or complex with what I am searching for. I should also be able to turn off searching in certain areas - like pay-per-view or on-demand options. 

P.S. - the spell check component of the post message feature should really have "FIOS" and "DVR" in the dictionary.

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Hello,

Nice post!!

A couple of things:

 Suggestions for FiOS TV programming (or for any Verizon service/product/offering on the internet, telephone or TV) can be made on the 'Idea Exchange' section of the forum where it'll be noticed more by other Verizon community members as well as Verizon employees who can bring up individual ideas to the appropriate teams.

Also, forum members can vote on the posted idea for greater emphasis.

Please see:

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-Idea-Exchange-FAQs/Idea-Exchange-FAQs/td-p/231267 for more details.

The direct link to the Idea Exchange section is found here:

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Verizon-Idea-Exchange/ct-p/ideaexchange

Some of your recommendations may very well have been posted by other folks!