# New FiOS Customer



## bcab17 (Jan 22, 2008)

After several years with DTV, I'm now a Verizon FiOS Quantum TV customer. After only 5 days with the new service, the picture quality is really excellent, I really like the media server and IP client system (I did not have the DTV Genie and client service, but I'm told it is a similar concept). I have a couple of observations and questions.

Does the "D" button (green diamond shape) do anything? I have not yet seen a prompt for it on any screen. I know that if you hold the button for something like 5 seconds, it takes you the diagnostic menu. Is that it's main (or only) function?

I see that the video res output is set to 1080p (it's either the default or the installer set them up that way). My first inclination is to set them to 1080i...isn't that the resolution for FiOS HD content? I'm just wondering if I should change it or just leave it alone.

I'm having a bit of a hard time using fast forward with recorded programs. DTV's fast forward automatically backs up about 5 seconds when you press play, so you rarely miss anything (but you catch the last few seconds of the commercial you were skipping). With FiOS, fast forward actually seems to jump a little further forward when the play button is pressed (which doesn't make any sense to me). Is that inherent in these boxes or am I doing something wrong? I have actually changed the "repeat" (or skip back) button to only go back 10 seconds, and I find that after almost every time I fast forward through commercials, I have to use the skip back button so that I don't miss any part of the show...not great.

I have also noticed that if I try to use the "skip forward" button while watching a recorded show that is still in progress (still recording), the skip forward function doesn't seem to work. It actually goes back to a previous spot...very odd.

Another thing I have noticed is that there is no red light on the FiOS boxes to indicate that a recording is going on. Every recording I've tried has worked, but it would be nice to have a visual confirmation.

Any advice from FiOS veterans would be greatly appreciated.


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## jpl (Jul 9, 2006)

I can answer some of these:

On the D button... no. In fact, I didn't realize that you can use it to get to the diagnostic menu (that's a new feature for me - it used to require a more elaborate set of steps to get to that menu). Maybe there will be some future functionality, but I don't think D does anything else.

FiOS has no 1080p programming. The programming will either be 1080i or 720p. Whether you leave the resolution at 1080p or change it to 1080i, or change it to something else really depends on what looks best on your system. I have mine set to 1080p too, and I think it looks fine. There is also an option to display in native resolution.

On the ffwding... that's a newly introduced bug. It used to work just like what you had with DirecTV - it would jump back on hitting play. I know it works like that on their other DVRs (I've had all the moto DVRs over time). I don't recall it ever working on the VMS. Their initial s/w release for the VMS was based on an older version of the s/w that they used elsewhere - but there was some functionality that wasn't there. Even with the latest s/w update, though, there are still some things that currently don't work on the VMS that work on their other platforms (e.g. eSATA expansion). I know that their goal is to get all the platforms working consistently. Which means that the VMS will eventually get this functionality. I just don't know when. I can tell you that Verizon is all about consistency. They're very big with consistency across markets, and across platforms, to the greatest extent possible. So I don't doubt that the feature will eventually get added. And they've been darn aggressive in updates to the VMS (I just got my 4th s/w update since getting the VMS in March).

I would recommend using the jump fwd button instead to get through the commercials. I have my jump fwd set to 30 seconds and the jump back to 10, so if I jump fwd too far, I just hit the jump back. The response is darn near instantaneous. I can't recall the last time I used ffwd to get through commercials, to be honest. As for ffwd not working with actively recording programming - that's another bug, and was JUST introduced with this latest s/w release (check out dslreports - they have a very long thread on the system - and there's one thread on all the bugs that the new s/w release introduced - this was one of them). Again, that will be fixed, and hopefully soon. It's an annoying one.

The older boxes have red lights for recording. The newer boxes (the VMS, and the 7232 DVR) still have recording lights, but they're just not red. I've learned to just look at the location of the record light, instead of the color of the light to determine if it's recording. That being said, if you don't always see that light on... guess what? Yup - it's a bug that was also introduced with this latest s/w release. I can't recall seeing it, but lots of others have. Again, no idea when it'll be fixed, but given how responsive Verizon has been with these boxes, I would expect an update pretty darn soon. What IS nice about this set-up, btw, is that when it's working correctly, not only does the VMS itself tell you it's recording, but so do the IP boxes.

Sounds like you've just been plagued with some of the annoying bugs that have been hit with the latest s/w update. If you would like to see the bug thread, you can go here:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r29456745-Quantum-New-Features-and-qFeaturesq-bugs-in-the-New-Quantum-update


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## bcab17 (Jan 22, 2008)

Thanks for the reply. I. too, hope that "bug fixes" are coming soon. I've tried the jump ahead option instead of FF, but I guess I would rather use two button pushes (FF, then PLAY) instead of multiple "skip ahead" button pushed (some commercial blocks are unbelievably long). And...since we rarely watch shows with commercials "live" (except sports), we very often start playback of a recorded show while it's still recording. So the "skip forward" bug has taken that option away.


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