Verizon FIOS TV now available- should I get it?

[CanadianEh]

These policies and regulations are so anti-consumer. There is no reason why we can't record HD. Why is it that we never went through this crap with the VCR? It's distributing it to others (copyright violation) that should be illegal.

[vorius]

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

These policies and regulations are so anti-consumer. There is no reason why we can't record HD. Why is it that we never went through this crap with the VCR? It's distributing it to others (copyright violation) that should be illegal.

They allow us to record them.... when we pay them a monthly $15 fee for their HD DVR which has extremely restricted access, that is...



But the Verizon guys are coming to my house this Wednesday. Wish me luck !

Once I get the boxes I'll still have to send one out to the R5000 guys to get modded

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

Well you could connect the STB via component. The loss in vid quality from HDMI to component is very small IMO.

I've thought about this as a possibility, but I was not able to find a reasonably cheap (<$200) capture card that has an MPEG encoder and component inputs.

Does anyone know of such a card?

--John

[lobosrul]

Originally Posted by jpwegas

I've thought about this as a possibility, but I was not able to find a reasonably cheap (<$200) capture card that has an MPEG encoder and component inputs.

Does anyone know of such a card?

--John

I meant connecting the Verizon STB to the TV via component, and the HTPC to the TV via HDMI.

As far as a device to encode from component in, thats been discussed here. Its not feasible for anything under $1000.

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

I meant connecting the Verizon STB to the TV via component, and the HTPC to the TV via HDMI.

As far as a device to encode from component in, thats been discussed here. Its not feasible for anything under $1000.

Which seems sort of backwards since most tuners have to deconstruct the signal from analog broadcast/cable or composite or S-Video into something that is basically the component signal (Y'PbPr or YCbCr) anyway in order to encode it into MPEG.

Seems like it should cost less.

--John

[lobosrul]

Originally Posted by jpwegas

Which seems sort of backwards since most tuners have to deconstruct the signal from analog broadcast/cable or composite or S-Video into something that is basically the component signal (Y'PbPr or YCbCr) anyway in order to encode it into MPEG.

Seems like it should cost less.

--John

I should add there are (I think) some devices that encode from component for fairly cheap, but none of them are more than 480i (maybe a 480p device or 2 out there). Its doing HDTV encoding thats expensive, even though there was a thread about a single chip encoder out there. But no one has made a board for it. Judging by the cost of the r5000 i bet theres plenty of people out there willing to pay over $300 for a card or USB device that will do HDTV encoding from component. My guess is such a device is being blocked by the MPAA.

[jdamore]

Originally Posted by vorius

But the Verizon guys are coming to my house this Wednesday. Wish me luck !

Once I get the boxes I'll still have to send one out to the R5000 guys to get modded

Good Luck! Please keep us posted. I might take this route if it goes well.

[vorius]

The Verizon guy was here yesterday and set everything up in about an hour and a half, since most of the infrastructure was already set when they installed FIOS Internet here a couple years ago.

I ordered 3 SD STBs and 1 HD STB for 3 TVs. The TV hooked up to my HTPC gets both a SD and an HD STB. I plan on sending the SD box to the guys @ r5000 to be modded so I can hook it up to Sage.

In the meantime I wanted to see how it would look if I hooked up the HD STB to my HTPC via coax. The regular channels look good but the HD channels looked just like the regular ones. I guess the higher resolution was lost in the coax output? Not sure...

[mattdcknsn]

Originally Posted by vorius

In the meantime I wanted to see how it would look if I hooked up the HD STB to my HTPC via coax. The regular channels look good but the HD channels looked just like the regular ones. I guess the higher resolution was lost in the coax output? Not sure...

It does not transmit HD over the COAX, you could try firewire. I set it up on my Verizon STB a little while ago but it wasn't worth the effort for me. Only the locals were unencrypted and I get those via OTA.

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by mattdcknsn

It does not transmit HD over the COAX, you could try firewire. I set it up on my Verizon STB a little while ago but it wasn't worth the effort for me. Only the locals were unencrypted and I get those via OTA.

If it doesn't transmit over coax then how are you able to recieve HD with your HDhomerun?

[bcjenkins]

It doesn't transmit out of the box via the RF output. It does come out of the wall via coax though.

B

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

I should add there are (I think) some devices that encode from component for fairly cheap, but none of them are more than 480i (maybe a 480p device or 2 out there). Its doing HDTV encoding thats expensive, even though there was a thread about a single chip encoder out there. But no one has made a board for it. Judging by the cost of the r5000 i bet theres plenty of people out there willing to pay over $300 for a card or USB device that will do HDTV encoding from component. My guess is such a device is being blocked by the MPAA.

Any pointers for the 480i component in? I have seen one or two that do just 480i but were still $300+.

--John

[gblinckmann]

Originally Posted by CanadianEh

Why is it that we never went through this crap with the VCR?

I think we did. Or, something close. Early on with cable TV, the cable companies wanted everybody to rent cable boxes for every TV that got hooked up. The government stepped in to stop that, as I remember. Cable-ready devices came out quickly that could included their own tuners and could tune in anything except premium content.

Why this couldn't happen today, I don't know. I don't see a reason why I shouldn't be able to receive the digital version of the Sci-Fi channel and record it myself. When cable systems drop analog, there will be screams (again) from consumers about needing cable boxes.

[sleonard]

Originally Posted by gblinckmann

I think we did. Or, something close. Early on with cable TV, the cable companies wanted everybody to rent cable boxes for every TV that got hooked up. The government stepped in to stop that, as I remember. Cable-ready devices came out quickly that could included their own tuners and could tune in anything except premium content.

Why this couldn't happen today, I don't know. I don't see a reason why I shouldn't be able to receive the digital version of the Sci-Fi channel and record it myself. When cable systems drop analog, there will be screams (again) from consumers about needing cable boxes.

Not only that but the Studios sued over the release of the VCR. They lost at the Supreme Court in the case that has defined fair use ever since. The studios are now pushing to redefine that decision in light of new technology.

S

[jpwegas]

Originally Posted by gblinckmann

I think we did. Or, something close. Early on with cable TV, the cable companies wanted everybody to rent cable boxes for every TV that got hooked up. The government stepped in to stop that, as I remember. Cable-ready devices came out quickly that could included their own tuners and could tune in anything except premium content.

Why this couldn't happen today, I don't know. I don't see a reason why I shouldn't be able to receive the digital version of the Sci-Fi channel and record it myself. When cable systems drop analog, there will be screams (again) from consumers about needing cable boxes.

Things are still getting played out in this area. If you have heard any stories of people trying to get CableCards installed in their TVs, you know that it is a complete pain for even for the "early adopter" people who know what's going on. For the masses, this is going to be a colossal PITA for the users and the cable companies. I think they will have to rethink this model and how much it's really costing them in customer service expenses.

But remember, cable systems won't drop analog for a long time. Even when the OTA analog stops (which I suspect will be delayed past the current date, anyway), there is nothing forcing the cable companies to stop sending analog signals down their wires. The cable companies can (and will) continue to pump analog signals because that's still what the majority of their customer's equipment supports. In fact, one of the reasonings for the current OTA end date is that most US households have cable and won't need to do anything - their provider will do the conversion to analog on their end.

--John

[lobosrul]

Originally Posted by jpwegas

Things are still getting played out in this area. If you have heard any stories of people trying to get CableCards installed in their TVs, you know that it is a complete pain for even for the "early adopter" people who know what's going on. For the masses, this is going to be a colossal PITA for the users and the cable companies. I think they will have to rethink this model and how much it's really costing them in customer service expenses.

But remember, cable systems won't drop analog for a long time. Even when the OTA analog stops (which I suspect will be delayed past the current date, anyway), there is nothing forcing the cable companies to stop sending analog signals down their wires. The cable companies can (and will) continue to pump analog signals because that's still what the majority of their customer's equipment supports. In fact, one of the reasonings for the current OTA end date is that most US households have cable and won't need to do anything - their provider will do the conversion to analog on their end.

--John

If the situation was truly analogous to the 1980s, then congress would be forcing the cable co's to broadcast via clear QAM. And indeed if that was the case there would be a really compelling reason to stick with cable instead of going to sat. Or maybe possibly allowing consumers to buy a cable card, instead of being forced to rent one per TV at the same price as a box.

Your that right the analog shutoff is OTA only, however the cable co's will be going all digital as well, or they wont be able to carry nearly as many HD channels as sat.

[vorius]

Well, I got the modified STB back from the guys at R5000 pretty quickly after I sent it to them couple weeks ago but have been so busy that only today have I been able to try using it.

I can't get it working right now after following the instructions on the web site. I was able to install the USB device and alter my SageTV properties for it but when I try to watch TV it keeps showing No Signal and eventually crashes SageTV. I am trying to figure out what I did wrong and I sent them an email. They are good with replying quickly so I hope I get get this working soon.

Hmm I wonder if this requires SageTV version 6?

[vorius]

Alright cool! It's starting to work out now I had a few things set totally wrong and now I get picture, only problem is I am not getting audio. The guys at R5000 say I should check my SageTV settings on this to make sure they are OK.

Can anyone help me out with this part? What do you think I would I need to do in Sage?