# Help a Premiere XL4 owner pick service: Comcast vs. Fios



## ehsfriend (Jan 22, 2005)

Have recently moved to the east coast from California. In Cali, I ran 2 TIVO Premiere XL4s each with a single comcast M-card and of course with integrated Xfinity On Demand. 

I usually despise Comcast and have had a lot of billing issues with them re: Cablecards over the years, but the service was very good overall. No pairing issues like so many others.

So here's my question for the community - is it worth switching to Fios - which has much better customer service and better internet speeds - in my new home (it is already wired for Fios) and giving up integrated On Demand OR should I stick with Comcast - which is known to have its issues.

I know it's a subjective question and depends on my use of On Demand - but I figure with Apple TV I have HBO on-demand covered so I will only be missing On Demand Kids shows and Howard Stern. I dont want to have to get a second Fios HD box at each TV


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## Teeps (Aug 16, 2001)

No experience with comcast; Time Warner is MY only option in Torrance.
I would switch to FIOS in an instant, if it was available in my 'hood.


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## bobfrank (Mar 17, 2005)

I'd go for the FIOS. Even my wife, who is not that picky about picture quality, noticed the FIOS picture was better. The internet is extremely fast and, for me, it has been very solid.

If you really need the cable company on demand you could rent one of their basic set top boxes, install a cable splitter and run the set top box output to another input on your TV. Best of both worlds.

Bob


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

FiOS all the way, not even a question for me, I was thrilled the day I got to tell Comcast "here's your hardware, I'm history" I'm not a user of OnDemand, so I never missed it.

I've loved every minute of being on Verizon FiOS, from the speed, to the channels, to the customer support, it was even part of my house hunting criteria, extra points for FiOS in the neighborhood.


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## philhu (Apr 11, 2001)

FIOS. All the way

I have had it since before day 1 (I was a tester) and have only had 1 outage in 7 years! (That was last week, my ONT terminal went bad). They fixed it in 1 day, coming out at 9pm upon my request.

I have always had interesting network needs and their techs on the phone always walked me through setting up the special stuff, like port forwarding, bridged wireless access points, etc.

FIOS also never compresses a signal. Whatever comes in from the source, goes out on the wire.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Just put in some season passes for the shows the kids would watch on-demand. I don't miss it one bit.


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## ehsfriend (Jan 22, 2005)

This is super helpful, guys. Thanks

What put me over the hump on picking Fios are these comments and the fact that Comcast claims they lost my Cablecards that I returned to their Sunnyvale office last week. I have a receipt and the business card of the store clerk at Comcast but my account still shows the equipment outstanding + they claim I have a cable modem of theirs (have used my own every minute of the past 7 yrs).

See ya Comcast.


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## NoVa (Feb 26, 2006)

I'm going to speak up for Comcast.
As much as I HATE both VZ & Commiecast, the latter has never let me down.

No outage.
No billing issues.
& the signal comes over pleasantly to my eyes.
& they're $40 cheaper per month with no issues.


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## compnurd (Oct 6, 2011)

I will speak against Fios here and you may want to go to dslreports and check out some users there... Service is great for Fios but there billing support SUCKS and so does there customer service...


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

Why is this a question? FIOS is WAY better than Comcast. Non re-compressed HD's says it all. Oh yeah, and faster internet. I'd love to have FIOS, although it's not enough to make me move another 15 minutes away to RI where they have it lol. Comcast is good for cable, but it's NOTHING compared to FIOS. You could always get one box for VOD on the main TV...


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

IN my area, the picture quality on FiOS is much better than Comcast. My parents place and my brothers place both have Comcast and every time I visit, most of the HD channels look noticeably worse.

The one bad thing about FiOS can be billing. They are many times more likely to have billing problems than Comcast. At least that has been my experience.


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## compnurd (Oct 6, 2011)

Bigg said:


> Why is this a question? FIOS is WAY better than Comcast. Non re-compressed HD's says it all. Oh yeah, and faster internet. I'd love to have FIOS, although it's not enough to make me move another 15 minutes away to RI where they have it lol. Comcast is good for cable, but it's NOTHING compared to FIOS. You could always get one box for VOD on the main TV...


Comcast does not compress picture in all markets and competes very well against them in most markets


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## Davisadm (Jan 19, 2008)

compnurd said:


> Comcast does not compress picture in all markets and competes very well against them in most markets


I would drop cable in a heartbeat if I had FIOS available.


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## compnurd (Oct 6, 2011)

Davisadm said:


> I would drop cable in a heartbeat if I had FIOS available.


I said the same thing.. 6 months later they still could not get me the right pricing package I had..


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## poofy (Jan 16, 2012)

Davisadm said:


> I would drop cable in a heartbeat if I had FIOS available.


FIOS is same as cable. Some saying the pic is better is their opinion.

I had FIOS for 1 1/2 yrs and now I have Time Warner which I really like especially for their "tv app everywhere" that I get my full tv line up on all my tablets and on Roku.


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## jay_man2 (Sep 15, 2003)

When I switched from Comcast to FiOS I immediately noticed the better picture quality.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

poofy said:


> FIOS is same as cable. Some saying the pic is better is their opinion.
> 
> I had FIOS for 1 1/2 yrs and now I have Time Warner which I really like especially for their "tv app everywhere" that I get my full tv line up on all my tablets and on Roku.


So having everything but your locals locked down to "do not copy" vs "everything is unlocked but HBO" and you chose locked down? Or does your local TWC not use that heavy handed tactic?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

poofy said:


> FIOS is same as cable. Some saying the pic is better is their opinion.
> 
> I had FIOS for 1 1/2 yrs and now I have Time Warner which I really like especially for their "tv app everywhere" that I get my full tv line up on all my tablets and on Roku.


I know it depends on the area, but in mine there is an obvious difference. Anytime there is a fast pan, fast movement, or bright flash, the Comcast picture will break up like crazy. Of course you still have some issues with the FiOS picture, but nothing like what happens on Comcast around here. When the video is over compressed you get more blocking artifacts. And when my 75+ year old mom can even notice the difference, it is very obvious.


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## JWhites (May 15, 2013)

ehsfriend said:


> Have recently moved to the east coast from California. In Cali, I ran 2 TIVO Premiere XL4s each with a single comcast M-card and of course with integrated Xfinity On Demand.
> 
> I usually despise Comcast and have had a lot of billing issues with them re: Cablecards over the years, but the service was very good overall. No pairing issues like so many others.
> 
> ...


Ok. I have Comcast and have the video on demand service on my two TiVo's. If you can get a better price for television and internet with FiOS and you don't care about the video on demand service from FiOS, then go for it since your place is already wired up. Just remember that you won't be able to use any of the interactive channels, and you'll have to call in to order any pay per view programming instead of from the box. I'm running a full MoCA network in the same manner a Verizon FiOS household is set up, including their Revision I Actiontec FiOS MoCA enabled router, and my Premiere 4 with it's built in MoCA works fine with it, as well as my Premiere with it's MoCA adapter. As you know Verizon uses MoCA for their set top boxes to communicate and download the electronic guide (just like the Premiere 4 does).


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## JWhites (May 15, 2013)

dianebrat said:


> ...it was even part of my house hunting criteria, extra points for FiOS in the neighborhood.


Same here, either a Comcast or FiOS connection is a requirement for me, no exceptions. Sadly it's hard to do this from another state.


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## JWhites (May 15, 2013)

aaronwt said:


> IN my area, the picture quality on FiOS is much better than Comcast. My parents place and my brothers place both have Comcast and every time I visit, most of the HD channels look noticeably worse.
> 
> The one bad thing about FiOS can be billing. They are many times more likely to have billing problems than Comcast. At least that has been my experience.


I've done a lot of home theater installations in my time both professionally and on the side, and 9 times out of 10 the "bad picture" that is seen is either because the wrong video connection is used, ie coax or composite or s video instead of component or HDMI, or because the picture settings are all screwed up and not set correctly, and I mean set with an HD video calibration disc, not "eyeballed"

After I finish, the picture looks amazing to both the customer and myself, and in fact the customer who was considering replacing their HDTV because of the poor image quality decided NOT to and I got one_ nice _tip.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

compnurd said:


> Comcast does not compress picture in all markets and competes very well against them in most markets


AFAIK, they triple channel nationally and satellite link an identical picture to all of their systems.



poofy said:


> FIOS is same as cable. Some saying the pic is better is their opinion.


Compared to Comcast, it is a fact that FIOS has a better picture. FIOS doesn't re-compress, while Comcast is triple-channeling. Not sure how TWC does it, but there is no debate with Comcast. You can prove it with side by sides, you can prove it with files of the same show recorded off of FIOS that will be quite a bit bigger than from Comcast, etc, etc.



JWhites said:


> Same here, either a Comcast or FiOS connection is a requirement for me, no exceptions. Sadly it's hard to do this from another state.


Yeah, I plan on moving up to the Boston area eventually, and FIOS will be an absolute must when house-hunting.



JWhites said:


> After I finish, the picture looks amazing to both the customer and myself, and in fact the customer who was considering replacing their HDTV because of the poor image quality decided NOT to and I got one_ nice _tip.


That has nothing to do with anything here. You might be able to hide some of the poor quality of Comcast's over-compression, although a well calibrated HT setup will likely make it worse, but you're fundamentally starting with a poorer picture, so you can never get it back up to the level that you would have if you had the higher quality picture in the first place.

Also, in terms of VOD, VOD is pretty useless if you use a TiVo the way it's intended to be used, and record everything and then have it stored locally, ready to watch.


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## JWhites (May 15, 2013)

Bigg said:


> That has nothing to do with anything here. You might be able to hide some of the poor quality of Comcast's over-compression, although a well calibrated HT setup will likely make it worse, but you're fundamentally starting with a poorer picture, so you can never get it back up to the level that you would have if you had the higher quality picture in the first place.
> 
> Also, in terms of VOD, VOD is pretty useless if you use a TiVo the way it's intended to be used, and record everything and then have it stored locally, ready to watch.


I'm just pointing out that sometimes a legitimately high quality picture can be messed up with a cruddy setup, regardless if it's Comcast, FiOS, or even Blu-ray. For example, if you're using a 1980's tv console (and yes I've been to customers homes who ARE using these still), or a poorly calibrated HDTV, both are gonna display a picture worse then in reality the signal actually is. I'm not disagreeing with you that bad picture in equals bad picture out, just adding that good picture in can also equal bad picture out in some cases.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

JWhites said:


> I've done a lot of home theater installations in my time both professionally and on the side, and 9 times out of 10 the "bad picture" that is seen is either because the wrong video connection is used, ie coax or composite or s video instead of component or HDMI, or because the picture settings are all screwed up and not set correctly, and I mean set with an HD video calibration disc, not "eyeballed"
> 
> After I finish, the picture looks amazing to both the customer and myself, and in fact the customer who was considering replacing their HDTV because of the poor image quality decided NOT to and I got one_ nice _tip.


Yes I've fixed several setups, at friends places, from Comcast and FiOS where they used the wrong connections when they set things up.

For my personal setups, I use an X-Rite Display 3 PRO Colorimeter, with Chromapure software, to calibrate.


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## JWhites (May 15, 2013)

Came across this posting a few days ago and figured the description below might give you some insight since the poster had Comcast and switched to FiOS.

__
https://flic.kr/p/4037261571


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## JWhites (May 15, 2013)

aaronwt said:


> Yes I've fixed several setups, at friends places, from Comcast and FiOS where they used the wrong connections when they set things up.
> 
> For my personal setups, I use an X-Rite Display 3 PRO Colorimeter, with Chromapure software, to calibrate.


I just use this http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Video-Essentials-Basics-Blu-ray/dp/B00ADJG56Q/ref=pd_ybh_4 and it's surprisingly and pleasantly thorough.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

JWhites said:


> I'm just pointing out that sometimes a legitimately high quality picture can be messed up with a cruddy setup, regardless if it's Comcast, FiOS, or even Blu-ray. For example, if you're using a 1980's tv console (and yes I've been to customers homes who ARE using these still), or a poorly calibrated HDTV, both are gonna display a picture worse then in reality the signal actually is. I'm not disagreeing with you that bad picture in equals bad picture out, just adding that good picture in can also equal bad picture out in some cases.


Comcast is NOT a high-quality source, nor a good picture. FIOS is FAR better, although it's still not quite at the level of VUDU HDX/Blu-Ray.


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## compnurd (Oct 6, 2011)

Bigg said:


> Comcast is NOT a high-quality source, nor a good picture. FIOS is FAR better, although it's still not quite at the level of VUDU HDX/Blu-Ray.


Again.. Comcast in other markets like Philly and I think Chicago... the picture is on par with Fios.... they may suck where you are... but they do compete with verizon


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

compnurd said:


> Again.. Comcast in other markets like Philly and I think Chicago... the picture is on par with Fios.... they may suck where you are... but they do compete with verizon


They run the same triple-channeled feeds nationally, and while they are very sharp, they have serious macro-blocking and artifcating issues.


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## compnurd (Oct 6, 2011)

Bigg said:


> They run the same triple-channeled feeds nationally, and while they are very sharp, they have serious macro-blocking and artifcating issues.


Ok we can agree to disagree then. people on DSLreports in philly that switch back and forth see no difference


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## mike cip (Sep 24, 2010)

I'm back to comcast from fios. Won't switch again to fios. 2 tivos on moca and kids love the on demand free tv shows and movies. We never pay per view but missed the on demand and service that comcast provides. Picture is just as good as fios. Internet is faster on comcast, and comcast costs less than fios with top tier premium channels included. Plus like having local comcast office if a cable card goes out.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> I know it depends on the area, but in mine there is an obvious difference. Anytime there is a fast pan, fast movement, or bright flash, the Comcast picture will break up like crazy. Of course you still have some issues with the FiOS picture, but nothing like what happens on Comcast around here. When the video is over compressed you get more blocking artifacts. And when my 75+ year old mom can even notice the difference, it is very obvious.


Definitely dependent on area, because I don't see this with Comcast here. There are certain channels subject to this (NBC and NBCSN, mainly) but I think the source is at fault here, not Comcast, because you see the same effects with NBC OTA. Comcast pic quality is excellent in my area.


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## JWhites (May 15, 2013)

I have to agree with slowbiscuit here. Bad source always gives a bad experience.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

compnurd said:


> Ok we can agree to disagree then. people on DSLreports in philly that switch back and forth see no difference


That's not objective evidence. I'd like to see file size comparisons off the two services.



mike cip said:


> I'm back to comcast from fios. Won't switch again to fios. 2 tivos on moca and kids love the on demand free tv shows and movies. We never pay per view but missed the on demand and service that comcast provides. Picture is just as good as fios. Internet is faster on comcast, and comcast costs less than fios with top tier premium channels included. Plus like having local comcast office if a cable card goes out.


50/10 != 75/35.


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