# Can I use my Premiere XL with Verizon FIOS?



## hstaniloff (Jun 13, 2003)

I have been an Cablevision/Optimum Online customer for many many years. I was on DirectTV eons ago, but switched to Cablevision/OO when they came out with high-speed Internet. But FIOS finally came in to my neighborhood last year and I was told that it was awesome for Internet. SO I went for it. The installation was straight-forward, professional, and uneventful. I was really impressed how well it actually went. I'm on the digital voice + 35mbit/35mbit plan and it's awesome! I'll be saving $45/mon with this move. 
Now I'm exploring dumping Digital Cable from Cablevision and going with FIOS TV. I have a new Tivo Premiere XL that I like a lot - been a Tivo fan for many many years as well. So I have a few questions:

1) Can I switch to FIOS and continue to use my Tivo Premiere XL? Does Verizon provide M-cards for the box? Do I just then pull the coax from the Cablevision splitter and connect it directly to the ONT? Any details on this would be helpful.

2) I am not using the FIOS wireless router on my network. I am a consultant and had Verizon install the ONT in my basement, then directly jacked it in to my Airport Extreme Base Station. I need to have full control over my in-home computer network for various technical reasons. The customer service rep from FIOS said that I would have to use their router for the FIOS TV. Is this true? I have a hard time believing that their router is the only thing that can deliver the guide information. Details on this would be helpful as well.

3) Finally, if I can't use my Tivo Premiere XL, is the Verizon DVR any good? I'm so hesitant to leave Tivo - I simply love it. Especially the Premiere XL box.

The cost savings to move to FIOS are too compelling not to start researching this more. I'm sure the HD picture will be at least the same or far better on my Pioneer Elite HD Plasma (non HDMI).
Thanks in advance for the guidance


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## David Platt (Dec 13, 2001)

1. Your TiVo Premiere XL will work just fine with FiOS, and they do provide M cards. I'm pretty sure the cabling would work as you say, but not knowing your full setup it's hard to know for sure. If the end result is that the coax going into the TiVo is now connected to your Verizon ONT instead, then, yes, that's what you want to do. 

2. You do not need to use their router. I used a TiVo box successfully with FiOS for years with no Verizon router in sight. There may be a requirement for it if you're using their DVR, but I honestly can't remember.

3. If you had never used a TiVo, the FiOS box would probably be acceptable. But trying to go from a TiVo to a FiOS DVR would be painful. It's not a horrible DVR, but the menus are clunky and I found it hard to navigate. Plus the storage space is ridiculously small.


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## 241705 (Mar 9, 2010)

Short answer: Yes, your Premiere XL should work flawlessly with FiOS. An M-Card rents for around 3.99/month. 

As far as the router: I do think Verizon uses their router to deliver the programming information to their own boxes via MOCA, but that wouldn't affect your Tivo.

I've been using a TivoHD and a Premiere with FiOS for about a year. No issues.


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## hstaniloff (Jun 13, 2003)

Thanks for the speedy reply. This is all good news.
Is the picture quality going to be better than Cablevision?


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## hstaniloff (Jun 13, 2003)

Right now with Cablevision, I have to use a Tuning Adapter to get the higher HD channels. Sounds like I can do away with that. Am I correct?


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## vurbano (Apr 20, 2004)

hstaniloff said:


> Right now with Cablevision, I have to use a Tuning Adapter to get the higher HD channels. Sounds like I can do away with that. Am I correct?


I believe you are correct.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

The FiOS router is set up for a MoCA connection. But if you run a Cat5e/Cat6 cable from the ONT to your router you can have them switch the ONT to ethernet instead of MoCA. This is how I have mine setup. 
Plus if you use their router with MoCA and it has to be replaced, your internet will be down until a replacement shows up. With ethernet you can easily connect another router so you don't have any downtime.


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## hstaniloff (Jun 13, 2003)

aaronwt said:


> The FiOS router is set up for a MoCA connection. But if you run a Cat5e/Cat6 cable from the ONT to your router you can have them switch the ONT to ethernet instead of MoCA. This is how I have mine setup.
> Plus if you use their router with MoCA and it has to be replaced, your internet will be down until a replacement shows up. With ethernet you can easily connect another router so you don't have any downtime.


Thanks for the info, but it's not relevant for my setup. I'm just coming directly off their ONT in to my router.


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## DeWitt (Jun 30, 2004)

This setup works fine. The only reason to need MOCA for Fios is if you have one of the Verizon STB's or DVR's as they use this to talk to their boxes.

I have both Premeire and a Premeire XL on FIOS and it is a great combo. No tuning adapter required.


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## rage777 (Aug 19, 2006)

I think if you use their DVRs, then you need to use the router for the MoCA connection. If you already have a MoCA router, then you could just use yours. I love the MoCA routers because I have an older home that I don't want to run CAT5/6 cables all over the place.


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## hstaniloff (Jun 13, 2003)

Forgive my ignorance guys: What is MoCA?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multimedia_over_Coax_Alliance

http://www.mocalliance.org/


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## hstaniloff (Jun 13, 2003)

Hmmm... So it would seem that I am in good shape. I will request 2 M-cards from FIOS for my Tivo Premiere XL. Then, I will connect the coax from the ONT directly in to my Tivo box and re-run the guided setup. Yes/No?


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## DeWitt (Jun 30, 2004)

hstaniloff said:


> Hmmm... So it would seem that I am in good shape. I will request 2 M-cards from FIOS for my Tivo Premiere XL. Then, I will connect the coax from the ONT directly in to my Tivo box and re-run the guided setup. Yes/No?


Just note that the CSR's may not know what an M card is, so ignore them if they say they don't have them. The CSR notes are woefully out of date.

You can actually run setup to configure for Fios before the tech arrives and then it goes very smoothly.


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## 241705 (Mar 9, 2010)

hstaniloff said:


> Hmmm... So it would seem that I am in good shape. I will request 2 M-cards from FIOS for my Tivo Premiere XL. Then, I will connect the coax from the ONT directly in to my Tivo box and re-run the guided setup. Yes/No?


The Premiere only takes/needs 1 card.


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## hstaniloff (Jun 13, 2003)

Ok. So to wrap up:
1) I can call Verizon and appropriate 1 M-Card for my Tivo Premiere XL.
2) The tech will then remove the coax from the Cablevision splitter that goes to my Tivo and screw that on to the MoCA jack on the ONT.

So I'll have two items connected to the ONT - My Airport Extreme which is directly plugged in to the ethernet port on the ONT and the TiVO Premiere XL that will be connected via COAX to the ONT.

Am I correct?


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## NotVeryWitty (Oct 3, 2003)

hstaniloff said:


> Hmmm... So it would seem that I am in good shape. I will request 2 M-cards from FIOS for my Tivo Premiere XL. Then, I will connect the coax from the ONT directly in to my Tivo box and re-run the guided setup. Yes/No?


Not that it would be hard to do it yourself, but you can let the Verizon installer deal with all the connections (in fact, he/she may insist on it). Plus, the installer will need to take care of getting the cablecards authorized (takes 15-20 minutes per box).

Like others have said, re-run guided setup the night before the installer is scheduled to be there, and tell the Tivo that you don't have the cablecard yet. That will give the Tivo time to download and index all the new program information. You'll be offline for the evening, but it will make the Fios install go much faster, and you'll be able to test the channels before the installer leaves.

And also like others have said, the Premiere only needs one M-Card (in fact, that's all it has room for), and when you order the service from Verizon, just tell them you need a cablecard (many of the CSRs either don't know what an M-Card is or insist that Verizon doesn't have them). BTW, unless it's changed recently, you can't order the cablecard through the online ordering system -- you need to talk with a human to get it.

I switched from Charter to Fios when I got my two Premieres last spring, and have been extremely happy with it.


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## hstaniloff (Jun 13, 2003)

Thanks for all the input. Just to be clear: I'll have my router connected to the ONT AND my Tivo box connected as well. I just want to understand because I need to have my router.


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## NotVeryWitty (Oct 3, 2003)

hstaniloff said:


> Thanks for all the input. Just to be clear: I'll have my router connected to the ONT AND my Tivo box connected as well. I just want to understand because I need to have my router.


Yes, there won't need to be any changes made to your router, since it's already hooked up to the ONT.

The ONT has a separate output for the coax -- the Verizon tech will connect that to your existing coax cabling.

I did that exact same thing a year ago -- I already had Fios internet service (so the ONT was already there) with an Apple TimeCapsule as my router, and I added the TV service (replacing the Charter service) using the existing coax wiring. The tech needed less than two hours to do everything. They gave me one of the Verizon routers (with the Moca) for free, but it's sitting in a drawer unused. My local network is still Ethernet/Cat-5 (including the Premieres network connections), and the TV signal goes through the coax to the Premieres.


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## hstaniloff (Jun 13, 2003)

Man. This is going to be great!
One More Thing:
I noticed that where my ONT is located [in my basement], the coax that comes out of the Cablevision splitter is not long enough to reach the ONT. Will adding a barrel connector and extension coax cable degrade the signal? We're probably only talking about 4'-6' that I will have to extend the cable. This would allow me to keep the existing wiring to my first floor where my Tivo is located. Else, the tech will have to pull a new coax cable to my first floor and in to my entertainment center.


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## DeWitt (Jun 30, 2004)

My cable is split twice and run up three floors with no issues (I do have good cable and connections...)


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## hstaniloff (Jun 13, 2003)

I just called Verizon to upgrade my package to include Ultimate HD in my service. I'm saving $95/mon by doing this! Thanks for all your help. I'm looking forward to seeing what the new picture is going to look like. Hopefully, it will be better than Cablevision's HD picture!

*CLARIFICATION*
I'm editing this because someone wants me to clarify how I'm saving $95/month. Simple: My monthly Cablevision bill is[/was] $134 and my monthly telephone bill averaged $94/month. 134+94= $228/month. By making the move to FIOS TV/INTERNET/Digital Voice, my monthly bill is going to $129.99+3.99 MCard+3.50 NonPublished # = $137.48. So I'm saving about $90/month. What this savings means is that I kept my old POTS telephone line _way_ too long. With the new setup, I'm going with Ultimate HD, 35/35 Internet, Digital Voice. It's a killer combination - more service for the money; better value.


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## archer75 (Apr 13, 2004)

I'm curious how they would run it if I got FIOS tv. I have FIOS internet and it's a coax line going from the ONT to my router upstairs. My house is wired so that was the best way to go. Running ethernet from the ONT to my router is not an option. 

So can they just split the line and run another one to my TV location? Seems like they can.


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## DeWitt (Jun 30, 2004)

Yes they can. My line is split twice before it gets to the router.


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