# FiOS TV Extreme HD, Netflix, get Premiere?



## lasitter (Oct 27, 2010)

I've never had a TiVo, but I now have two HD TVs and two HD set top boxes (from Verizon in Rhode Island), one of which is a lame DVR, and I'm wondering:

Would Premiere be a good bet for me?

Exactly how many / of what would I need to get to make both of these TVs access the same content? Cable card stuff? What?

What subscription plan?

What equipment could I give back to Verizon?

Currently getting Netflix thru the Samsung BD player

I'm so new at this that the only thing I'm sure of is that I'm probably not getting all the features / storage that I could and probably not getting all for my money that I could.

The up-front cost of the box is not so important to me, compared to the capabilities.

I did take a look at the Premiere FAQ, but I'm betting that someone here could give me a short answer that would be much better than what I'd make for myself in the short term.


----------



## HockeyFan (Oct 9, 2010)

I ordered FIOS ultimate + the $30 movied pack 124.99 and was waiting for esata capability.

I decided to get tivo then tried netflix. 

Now I wish I got one of the lower packages. With Verizon you can view HBO and cinemax on web. 
The premimum on demand with fios is free with paid prescription. But with netflix I don't miss it. I have 5 more months free dvr but am sending it back now.

Try one of the lower packages then upgrade if you want.


----------



## ciscokid (Jan 14, 2003)

The Premiere has its issues but they are slowly being worked out. I'd probably recommend the Premiere et and fight your way through the problems. I'd either get the XL (higher capacity), or plan on an upgrade eventually if you don't get the XL.

As far as what package you should get, that's strictly a function of what YOU want and what you have to send.

You will need an "M" card for each Tivo you use for cable TV. These you get from Fios and THEY will have to come out to your house to do the install as they do NOT permit self installs. They will NOT charge you for the install despite what the Customer Service Rep might tell you.

Each card will cost you about 5 bucks a month.

You should set up the Tivos BEFORE the tech comes to your house and it will take adbout an hour for the install process, most of which is spent waiting for the tech to get the card regognized by the Fios system.

The Tivo takes the place of the cable box/DVR, so they will go back with the tech.

You WILL need the Tivo's to be connected to the internet constantly. You can either do this wired or wirelessly but you will heed adapters for the connection. here are G and N adapters. G is the most popular and seem to work well for most users. (cheaper)

The Tivo can be used for Netflix streaming, or you can still use your Bl Ray if you want.

Hope this helps!


----------



## lasitter (Oct 27, 2010)

HBOGo, MaxGo, Epix are all "subscribe now" for me, and I've never paid for the premium channels.

"The premium on demand with fios is free with paid prescription."

I'm confused by this. You pay first, and after that, it's "free"? Reminds me of all the "free with your paid subscription" magazine advertisements.

I'm mostly just interested in what TiVo has to offer me when used in conjunction with my current services.

Thanks.


----------



## lasitter (Oct 27, 2010)

ciscokid said:


> You will need an "M" card for each Tivo you use for cable TV.


Very informative.

So it would be possible then to have one HD set top box (non-DVR) and one Tivo ...

Adding two at once could be a bit spendy ...

The current config of one DVR and one HD set top box allows for playback of separate recorded content on different sets at the same time. It worked surprisingly well.

Any similar TiVo capability? Or it's just a one-TV apparatus at a time?

TiVo supports recording only one show at a time?

I guess that would be the benefit of having two of them.


----------



## ciscokid (Jan 14, 2003)

Tivo will allow viewing of content on any TIVO on the network also. Unfortunately you can't watch Tivo stuff on the Motorola Box and viceversa.

With Tivo you can record TWO simultaneous things at the same time PLUS view a recorded program at the same time it's recording two shows.

With two tivos you could do 4 at a time etcetera.

Oh with the Tivo you will LOOSE on demand and instant pay per view but you can still phone in for pay per view. 

Also you will loose the specialty things you get with the Fios DVR but most of them the Tivo can do itself.

With Iivo and the optional PC software you can also take MOST recordings with you on your portable ipod or other such similar device.


----------



## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

No need for a FiOS STB unless you want access to their VOD. I have five Premiers on FiOS with five cable cards. I did have an HD STB a couple of years ago, strictly for VOD. But I found that any content i could watch form their VOD, I could get from other means. Plus I was rarely using the FiOS STB so the $10 a month rental fee was going to waste. Plus the boxed used 37 watts constantly. With no hard drive in it. the only way to stop it using so much power was to pull the plug.
Anyway the $10 fee was going to waste so I dumped it. I would consider getting a new FiOS HD STB only if it was free and the power usage was much lower. Otherwise you really don't need it with all the other VOD options out there. May through the TiVo.


----------



## lasitter (Oct 27, 2010)

So it looks like the moment the STB promo period is up, I should dump it in favor of a 2nd TiVo.

Since the DVR/STB is $19.95 per month, losing it would seem to be a no-brainer as well.

Where to get the Premier and the "M" cards?


----------



## ciscokid (Jan 14, 2003)

As I understand it there are no longer any clear Quamm (sp?) on the Fios system so you need to have a digital box. You can't just run coax to the TV any more.

So you need a "box" (or Mcard) for ANY tv hooked up to FIOS.


----------



## lasitter (Oct 27, 2010)

So you get this gadget -> "Multi-Stream" CableCARD (M-Card)  ...

and that's what plugs into the TiVo?

In addition to ...

The standard RG6U coax cable?

The RJ45 that carries the Netflix?

You'll have an M-Card for each TiVo, but it belongs to Verizon/FIOS, and they have to install it (pairing?), and I pay the monthly M-Card fee to Fios because they are renting me the card?

Thanks.


----------



## rage777 (Aug 19, 2006)

I wanted to add that with Tivo if you really like a show, that's not on a premium channel, you can download it to your computer and burn it to a dvd. I made all the seasons of Lost for my wife so I didn't have to pay for the DVD bundles of the seasons. It saves a lot of money that way.

Also, if your Fios router isn't close to your TV, then I would suggest using a Moca network instead of a wired or wireless network. You can buy Actiontec routers and turn them into bridges. For more info you can search google or search dslreports.

The Tivo will have a coax cable that you have for an input, and since you have an HD TV set you probably want an HDMI cable coming out. To connect Tivo to a network, you will have either a CAT5 or a USB cable.

You are correct in the M-card. You rent the card from Verizon, so you pay the fee. They have to pair the card to the network, but it doesn't pair it to the Tivo so you can insert the card into another Tivo if you want to later or swap them between Tivos just for giggles.


----------



## AlexFL (Oct 2, 2010)

I totally agree with running MoCA. I recently got Fios in Florida as of the first week of October and I got 2 TiVo Premiere boxes to go with it. I opted for the Premiere instead of the Fios DVR because in my opinion the TiVo is just best in so many different ways compared to other provider DVR's.

Using MoCA instead of Wireless adapters will help you avoid many connection issues that people seem to experience when using them. MoCA allows you to hard wire your network connection using your existing coax cables that most people have pre-wired in their house. This connection is superfast, which in TiVo's case it's a good thing because you will end up transfering recordings from 1 TiVo box to another and the quicker the connection the faster you can start watching that show. Putting this in perspective, in my house using MoCA I can transfer an hour of HD content in about 5-6 minutes and once the transfer has began I can start watching that show within 5 seconds of starting the transfer.

The transfer feature is one of the coolest ones I use from TiVo. There are nights in my house where my wife and I have 4 shows recording at once (2 in each TiVo), I can go to one of those TiVo while the recordings are going on and transfer a 3rd show at the same time while watching a totally different pre-recorded show.

I have posted some diagrams in this forum regarding Moca, just search for MoCA on Fios and you will find some of the information and responses that were very helpful to me when I was in the process of installing Fios and TiVo at the same time.


----------



## NotVeryWitty (Oct 3, 2003)

lasitter said:


> So you get this gadget -> "Multi-Stream" CableCARD (M-Card)  ...
> 
> and that's what plugs into the TiVo?
> 
> ...


Yep, you got it all right.

As others have said, just tell Verizon you need a CableCard -- if they insist it's a Single-stream card, and/or that there will be a $79 fee for the truck roll, just say okay and move on. In fact, they will bring you a Multi-stream CableCard, and you will not be charged for the truck roll. If your installer is competent (the Fios guys are usually pretty good), it shouldn't take longer than 30 minutes to do the install. Also, like others have said, run "Guided Setup" on the Tivo at least a day before the installer comes. It will have an option that allows you to add the CableCard at a later time.

AFAIK, the going rate for Fios CableCard rentals is $3.99 / month. There is no option to buy.

The Fios video comes into the Tivo via standard RG6 coax cable.

You can connect the Tivo to the Internet a few ways: Ethernet (RJ45), Tivo Wireless G Adapter (USB), or Tivo Wireless N Adapter (RJ45). Netflix is supplied over this connection. [Also, check out the Moca suggestions.] In addition, the Tivo uses the internet connection to "phone home" for its daily program guide update, and also to supply "live" program & search information.

If you decide to get the Premiere, I don't think you'll be disappointed. It is way better than the Fios DVR. The stability issues that the early Premiere software had are mostly gone, and Tivo is making fairly steady improvements with the speed of the menus.


----------



## lasitter (Oct 27, 2010)

This has been a great tutorial, and to me it seems that all that's missing is some of the "alphabet soup" that you guys take for granted:

MoCA: Multimedia Over Coax Alliance
ONT: Optical Network Terminal

This is all a bit confusing also because the existing STBs are network devices with Ethernet addresses, connected to the same Verizon router via cable that the Samsung BD / computers are connected to via RJ45.

So the Premiere will have its own network address?

If it has that with the MoCA connection, does it even need an RJ45 connection to communicate with Netflix? It would seem redundant.


----------



## rage777 (Aug 19, 2006)

lasitter said:


> So the Premiere will have its own network address?
> 
> If it has that with the MoCA connection, does it even need an RJ45 connection to communicate with Netflix? It would seem redundant.


Yes, the Premiere will have its own IP address. You can make it a static or dynamic IP address.

The Moca connection is to the router/bridge/adapter that you buy. It then goes through the CAT5 from the router/bridge/adapter to the Tivo. Netflix uses the network to communicate with the internet. It sounds like you are making too much of the connection for Netflix. Netflix is just like an app on the Tivo. It's just a software program that is using what already exists on the Tivo. Netflix doesn't add any capability that is not already there.


----------



## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

FIOS has a new 500gb DVR. And a software update coming here soon in Q4. 

All you need is a M cable card to get your Tivo Premiere working with FIOS.

You would need 2 Tivos if you want to access the same recorded shows on 2 different TVs. Can't share Premium movie channel content though from what I've read.

Subscription plan is up to you. 

You can give back all Verizon equipment except for the router (assuming you have internet with them.) You need their router. 

Netflix on Tivo is pretty lame.


----------



## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

trip1eX said:


> FIOS has a new 500gb DVR. And a software update coming here soon in Q4.
> 
> All you need is a M cable card to get your Tivo Premiere working with FIOS.
> 
> ...


I've been on FiOS over three years. I've never had any issue transferring shows recorded from any Premium channel to another TiVo on my account or to a PC running TiVo desktop.

The first issue I had with any channel was with the new HubHD channel. Which was fixed last week.

For Netflix, I prefer the TiVo Netflix application becasue the TiVo has Native output, unlike most other devices like the PS3. Although with the new Netflix application on the PS3, I have been using that because of the 5.1 audio. But when TiVo gets the 5.1 capabilty I'll go back to using the TiVo for the majority of my Netflix watching.


----------



## plazman30 (Jan 23, 2005)

I am getting FIOS TV on Monday. I didn't even think about getting a DVR from Verizon. I just went and ordered a refurbed Tivo Premiere from woot.com. Using pyTivo, I have been able to copy my own content onto the Tivo from my computer. I have been using it for 3 days now without even having a Cablecard in it, using Pandora, Youtube and even stuff I transferred to it using pyTivo. The thing supports Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand and is getting Hulu Plus soon.

You almost don't need the TV subscription!

Andy


----------



## lasitter (Oct 27, 2010)

Looks like you get ABC, NBC and Fox with Hulu Plus for $9.99? Not a bad deal, but my wife's gotta have CSI and we both love The Mentalist, Blue Bloods and Hawaii 5-0 so far.

If you can afford to pop for the lifetime ticket, that would seem to be a winner in terms of cost and complete coverage.


----------



## plazman30 (Jan 23, 2005)

I really think Verizon should just dump their DVR, write an On Demand app for the Tico and give Tivos out. I've used the Comcast DVR, the DirectTV HD DVR and the Tivo (both and in HD And SD variations), and the Tivo is still a far superiod product in so many ways. If DirectTV had come out with their Tivo box sooner, I would have stayed. Their loss.

When the guys at work talk about how much they love their DVR, all the Tivo owners tell them that's because they've never used a Tivo.

Once you hold a peanut remote, you never go back.


----------



## Monty2_2001 (Aug 6, 2005)

I've had Fios and my Premier hooked up for awhile, before that an original S3. Works great!


----------

