Can someone confirm they have Windows Media Center working with FIOS TV.
pnvong
Newbie

I've been reading through the forums but I thought I would ask directly.  I'm thinking about switching from Comcast.  In the past, I would have one HD set top box for my living room.  In my bedroom, I had a Win7 64 bit Dual Tuner media center.  This media center didn't pick up the 800 plus channels and I didn't care.  I just picked up a hand full of HDs and the rest were in standard def for a total of around 100 channels.

In the past month, comcast no longer allows the use of media centers and everything must go through one of their **bleep** boxes.  To use my media center, I have to rent one of their **bleep** HD box and then feed it through my computer.

1) This method does not support 2 tuner media centers

2) You can only set your media center to record what ever channel is coming over the comcast box so you could never really use your media center like a real DVR.

Question - If I switch over to FIOS and get (1) HD box, can I go back to the old way where I can directly feed the cable into my bedroom media center and get channels?  I'm not looking for the full list of channels, I'm just looking for a lot of the basic channels and some HDs.  Or do I also need a special verizon box just to use my media center which means my DUAL tuner is useless and my DVR is useless.

Does anyone have a media center set up in their house where they can get a lot of the channels with out a set top box?

I'm in the Baltimore, MD area.

Thanks!

PHil

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Re: Can someone confirm they have Windows Media Center working with FIOS TV.
spacedebris
Master - Level 2

The simple answer is NO.

It works the same way as with comcast. If you want anything more than just a handfull of local channels, you will either need a cable card slot device (see this link for one that will be for the computer  http://forums.verizon.com/t5/FiOS-TV-Programming/Ceton-InfiniTV-4/td-p/207111  )   Or you will need a STB.

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Re: Can someone confirm they have Windows Media Center working with FIOS TV.
Berks
Newbie

FIOS does not support Windows Media Center at all. You can set WMC to channel 3 or 4 and change channels on the set top box. You won't be able to preset recordings. It's been a major disappointment to me. All in all, I'm sorry I converted from Comcast to Fios, for this and other reasons.

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Re: Can someone confirm they have Windows Media Center working with FIOS TV.
pnvong
Newbie

Thanks guys!!!  I'll stay with comcast and wait for the Ceton card to come out.

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Re: Can someone confirm they have Windows Media Center working with FIOS TV.
cwerdna
Enthusiast - Level 2

@Berks wrote:

FIOS does not support Windows Media Center at all. You can set WMC to channel 3 or 4 and change channels on the set top box. You won't be able to preset recordings. It's been a major disappointment to me. All in all, I'm sorry I converted from Comcast to Fios, for this and other reasons.


Sounds like wrong info to me. See http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r24424009-FIOS-TV-Be-SURE-cablecards-are-correctly-paired.

To get stuff that isn't in the clear, you'll probably have to use the mythical/vaporware Ceton card or end of life ATI OCUR external tuners.  I personally don't care as I'm using TiVo HD w/a CableCARD.

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