FIOS newbie question

[jdezego]

Sadly, even though I worked for Verizon developing software for the FIOS infrastructure, I have never had FIOS and no one can seem to give a simple answer to this question:

WHAT CHANNELS WILL I GET WITHOUT A BOX?

I am putting one box in the living room, and do not want another box upstairs in the master bedroom. With cable you get like 100 channels without a box. One person tells me I'll get a bunch of channels, another person says I'll get none. Verizon support hardly speaks English and also couldn't give a convincing answer.

Keep in mind the TV that will not have a box does have a QAM tuner.

Thanks.

[lasagna]

Varies by area ... but you would only get the channels which are delivered in clear QAM.  For my particular area, it's most of the local channels found below channel 49 -- keeping in mind that they aren't delivered analog or even on the normal QAM channels -- mine are up near the top of the number range for channel possibilities.

Cable systems used to deliver a mix of analog and digital signals and the "extra" channels you could get were the unencrypted analog channels.  Many providers (Comcast among them) are gradually moving their systems over to all digital and when they do that in an area, they drop the analog signals (which makes them then operate much like FiOS).

Your best bet is to get another STB ... if you don't need the channel guide and VOD, you can get the adapter which runs something like $3.99/month and is smaller than the full size STB..

[jdezego]

Thanks! I guess I'll wait and see what happens when I plug in. If the channels I do get aren't good enough I might look into the adapter you're talking about. I don't want a full-blown box because there's no place to put it. The TV is mounted to the wall all by itself. No shelf or anything anywhere near it. We'll see.

[prisaz]

If your TV does not have a tuner that handles QAM, you will not receive anything. So you may wish to plan ahead. The DCT-700 digital adaptor is for standard definition only, but is rather small. Remember that there is no channel guide with that adapter. If the TV on the wall is DCR (digital cable ready) you can rent a cable card for $3.99 a month. If the TV is DCR you can probably tune the local channels on the TV without a cable card around channel 70 or something on QAM. You would need to do a scan. Remember with a cable card you will not have any Verizon options other than tuning your subscribed channels.