FIOS - How to get to work 100% with Sage

[srothwell]

So I now have the option of getting FIOS TV here at home.

Is there anyone who has this, especially with HD channels. If so, what did you do to get it working and what did it cost.

Right now I have Comcast analog cable (2 PVR-250s) and unencrypted QAM channels that I pick up on 2 On-AirGT's.

I actually get UniversalHD, DiscoveryHD, MTVHD, National Geographic HD, Encore, MoviePlex, Game Show Network and BBC America all fro free becuase they're unencrypted.

How will I do this with FIOS TV? Comcast's analog signals suck. I understand with FIOS TV all you get on analog is just the bare bones local channels. Anything else has to come from a set top box.

Hoe does this box work with Sage, but I am most interested how I get HD channels from FIOS TV into Sage.

Thanks!

stacy

[mattdcknsn]

I have had FIOS for about 8 months now. The PQ is a ton better than cable and directTV. the HD portion is another story. I did test out some QAM usage with EVO and I did get the locals no problem I also got a couple of the newer channels they just added to their lineup (FoodTV HD and Lifetime movie network HD) but the others were scrambled. I am thinking about getting an HDHomerun to get the locals.

their STBs are difficult, the serial port is turned off. The SD box I have is it being tuned via USB-UIRT. I had some problems tuning it initially but got it to work.

I did play around with their HD box and I was able to get FW working to change the channels. I was having some problems streaming via FW but that might have just been my setup.

Hope that helps.

[srothwell]

Originally Posted by mattdcknsn

I have had FIOS for about 8 months now. The PQ is a ton better than cable and directTV. the HD portion is another story. I did test out some QAM usage with EVO and I did get the locals no problem I also got a couple of the newer channels they just added to their lineup (FoodTV HD and Lifetime movie network HD) but the others were scrambled. I am thinking about getting an HDHomerun to get the locals.

their STBs are difficult, the serial port is turned off. The SD box I have is it being tuned via USB-UIRT. I had some problems tuning it initially but got it to work.

I did play around with their HD box and I was able to get FW working to change the channels. I was having some problems streaming via FW but that might have just been my setup.

Hope that helps.

So basically if I want HD (at least the stuff you have to pay for) I'm out of luck with FIOS TV?

[mattdcknsn]

Yeah, I use OTA for my HD. sorry.

[Kev]

Originally Posted by mattdcknsn

I did play around with their HD box and I was able to get FW working to change the channels. I was having some problems streaming via FW but that might have just been my setup.
Hope that helps.

Would the FW chanel changing work on the SD box? Even if the FW video transder is difficult or not possible, the channel changing would still be very nice.

[mattdcknsn]

The SD box I have does not have a FW port. I think its called a Motorola QIP 2500-2. It does have a serial port (turned off) and a USB port (haven't had the opportunity to try it out. All that being said the UIRT has only messed up a couple of times since I got it setup.

[litkaj]

When I decided I wanted HD I just bought a TiVo Series 3 and ordered a pair of CableCARDs. I still keep around the Sage system because it can play all of my music and videos from my server.

In any case, back to your question, you're not going to get HD from FIOS TV without a Vista CableCARD system (at least, not reliably, and certainly not on all of the channels). You can use the SD boxes (currently QIP2500-3) piped into your PVR-250 cards for pretty good PQ. The boxes issued more than a month ago shipped with the serial port disabled. That said, if you have the boxes reinitialized they will reboot with the serial port active.

[mattdcknsn]

Originally Posted by litkaj

The boxes issued more than a month ago shipped with the serial port disabled. That said, if you have the boxes reinitialized they will reboot with the serial port active.

How do you get them reinitialized? I have had them go in there and reboot them but I dont think they have reinitialized.

[Ponchera]

So has anyone gotten this working? FIOS HD Payed channels with Sage and not buying the so expensive R5000 box ?

[mikesm]

There have been several reports of folks using a DCP501 with a R5000-HD mod successfully with Verizon FIOS. If I had FIOS, that's what I would do.

Thanks,
mike

[fyodor]

You should try doing a search for "fios" and "firewire" . I'm pretty sure that people have gotten the two working together.