Verizon FiOS HD DVR review (1.9)

It sort of feels most have never learned to really appreciate a DVR, instead taking into consideration it merely as a tape-less VCR. In case you are like us, you like your DVR, but wait with bated breath for the subsequent — that will be the good one. So it was with great anticipation that we ran the hot FiOS HD DVR update (1.9) through its paces. Arguably the most important update since Verizon released a DVR, it was instantly adored by those lucky enough to have access to it, as a result of its external storage support, enhanced multi-room functionality and slick new 16×9 HD user interface. But does it meet our expectations? And will it compete with the likes of a TiVo or Windows Media Center DVR? Well, you’ll just need to click through yourself for those answers.

Standard DVR disclaimer
Any time we write a DVR review we need to remind ourselves that the area we are living in doesn’t provide most folks the posh of selecting our own DVR. What we mean is that almost all DVRs, and their software, are tied to precise providers and thus not available to everyone. So our questions during this review are two-fold: would we switch to a provider who offered this DVR? And the way does it compare to 3rd-party options like Windows Media Center or TiVo?

Hardware

The most recent 1.9 FiOS DVR firmware update will run on a great number of Motorola models Verizon distributes, however the one to aim and search out is the QIP7232 2 — we are saying try because apparently Verizon is already back-ordered on filling upgrade requests. The 7232 looks a lot better than the older 7216, but more important than it’s glossy black finish is the 500GB harddisk that lives within. Sure, this can be still smaller than most hard drives at the shelf of a large box store, but it’s miles larger than the standard 160GB HDD present in most provider DVRs.

The 1.9 update does greater than just revamp the user interface — it actually makes the eSATA port work. Earlier, FiOS customers could only stare at this unused port after they ran out of disk space. Now they could grab virtually any external harddrive they need and add some extra recording space. Verizon will only officially support the Western DVR Expander line, but admits that almost any drive will work. But when it doesn’t, there is not any solution to determine why, as there aren’t any logging or troubleshooting tools available that will help you find your way. When it does work it’s pretty simple: enable the feature, anticipate the DVR to restart, then plug for your drive and follow the prompts. At this point your recording gauge will show more free space and new recordings would be on made in your external drive. If, for whatever reason, your DVR dies, your recordings in your external drive die with it, and clearly toting your drive to a friends house will only result in a chance to erase your recordings upon connecting it to their FiOS DVR. And yes, we connected it to our PC only to find our computer didn’t even recognize the partition table.

Our only complaint with the hot set-top box is the LED display, but even it’s more of a gripe than a true complain. While we adore to have another clock in the home or the power to examine the channel at a look, the display is quite bright and there is no method to tone it down.

There’s a recording indicator, though, which although very small remains appreciated. Control freaks can be disappointed that there is no two-way RS-232 socket or IP control, but there may be a minimum of an IR port to avoid wasting you from seeking to get an IR blaster to adhere to front.

Remote

Here is our least favorite portion of the Verizon FiOS offering, but that is just not a surprise because we do not believe anyone makes an awesome remote. Of them, TV providers’ are a number of the worst, and the FiOS DVR’s is not any better. It really is barely programmable, has few backlit keys and is home to way too many buttons. The largest offenses are the keys that do not serve any function in any respect, but next on our hate list are the buttons that shall we live without — can we actually need keys for FiOS TV, On-Demand and Options? We’re concerned with quick and straightforward how you can navigate a menu, but keeping it simple wins in our book — especially for those who do what TiVo does and supply documented shortcuts rather than extra buttons. In truth, we’ll go as far as to claim the remote is some thing TiVo and Microsoft both do better than any cable provider.

We admit that we do not really hold the remote against Verizon, as we’re prone to just use a 3rd-party programmable, but there’s still a catch. Have you seen an “options” button on a programmable remote (without soft-buttons)? Well, the FiOS user interface is built for the remote, so just replacing the remote is not the answer here as you’ll still ought to live with the way in which the box works. Ultimately, we would like there have been fewer buttons at the remote and higher methods to perform an analogous functions via the onscreen display, but there are worse things in life.

4

User interface

The 16×9 HD interface on Verizon’s Interactive Media Guide looks specialized and is head and shoulders above the 3 previous versions of the IMG 3 — and Verizon has shown that good-looking doesn’t ought to mean slow, as it’s generally very speedy. Many of the menus are an Xbox blade like interface that actually doesn’t cash in on the entire screen, but instead dedicates a significant portion of the screen to a video window — video that cannot be paused when you are in a menu. That is another pet peeve of most provider’s DVRs, that persistent video window. It’s not that we never would like to have the ability to try to multitask by watching TV and navigating a menu concurrently, it’s that we do not always wish to. We call it the spoiler window, because while your favorite show is recording and the alternative show your watching ends, you get to find the large twist due to the video window stoning up. There are naturally workarounds for the diligent, you only need to be mindful, and quick, to hit exit after which pause.

5

Apart from the spoiler window and the inefficient use of space inside the menus, we actually just like the overall look of the UI, the colours are look good together and the text is simple to read. The channels logos help boost the information screens, however the loss of thumbnails for anything except premium on-demand options is disappointing. The overall loss of advertising through the UI is greatly appreciated, though. Ultimately, the menus do not get within the way and while they might still be better, we adore them.

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To us, though, the primary point of a DVR is to observe what we wish, on our schedule. In order that starts with discovering content and while we’ll hold off on talking in regards to the guide, discovering through search works well, because the B button hot key allows you to search from nearly any menu. There’s also two types of text input to make this a smooth ordeal, including a keyboard and number pad. Search is accelerated owing to filters and the power to return to recent searches, or even save searches for later. However, we’re greatly saddened by the truth that our custom channel favorites aren’t most of the 16 different search filters corresponding to HD, Flex View, Sports, Now, DVR and even Games. This obviously makes as much sense as a marketing email without an unsubscribe link, because it helps Verizon be sure that shows on channels we do not join can be returned within the results. But don’t fret, the DVR assist you to schedule recordings on channels you do not join. They may not actually record, after all, but perhaps the fashion from this experience will encourage you to enroll in all of the channels — you understand, as a workaround to this minor problem.

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When we found something we would have liked to record, we were happy to be to take action with a single press of a button, or press it twice to record the whole series. At this point we are able to also decide to record the series with options, but because of the facility to set our preferred default series recording options, this is not always necessary — a wise feature every DVR need to have. A few of the options are HD, SD or even 3D, or in the event you aren’t particular, you may leave it set to all. Overall the FiOS box excels as a DVR with almost no check boxes unmarked, and comprehensive management abilities like Recorded Status to peer how much space you’veyou’ve got you have got left, history to work out what you might’ve missed and why, scheduled to make certain your favorite shows on are deck, and a sequence manager to be sure your DVR’s priority matches your’s. There’s even a recently deleted list which sadly lacks the necessary retina sensor to inform who deleted your favorite show — in lieu of that, the time it was deleted would’ve been nice.

8

Playback works as expected, as you choose your show from a colorless list of your recordings which are always in folders and are just sorted by recorded date. The list does change the text from white to yellow to point that you’ve got have watched a component to and it displays the unique air date in addition to the date recorded, which might be both key in ensuring you watch your shows inside the proper order. You can too search your recordings and play them back directly from the consequences. After making your selection, you’re met with the same old transport controls, and the scrub bar is integrated in with the data screen. We appreciate the simple access to the present time, show info, and both the present time and the precise time remaining. What we actually missed, though, was having the scrub bar manifest each time we hit a transport button. It shows up if you hit play, pause, fast forward or rewind, but not once you skip forward and back. Unsure why Verizon would do that, but hopefully they’ll address it in a future update.

While the developers are making changes, we’d also want to suggest that they make the default replay 10 seconds as opposed to 30. To be fair, this really isn’t a complaint because it can easily changed be in settings, which also promises the choice of stretching the replay time to 1 minute or maybe five. In order for you to skip large portions of the show, we discover the chaptering feature more useful than changing the skip settings. Basically, the chapter feature breaks your take place into three- or 10-minute chapters and typically adds thumbnails to cause them to more easily recognizable. It’s a wierd name for the feature considering it doesn’t actually split your shows in a means is smart — you recognize, like plot lines — nonetheless it is a straightforward thanks to quickly jump around your recordings. TiVo skips to tick and Media Center’s direct access work better, but alternatively, we cannot contemplate another provider DVR that has anything like this.

9

Guides

In case you are a check-the-guide-first-and-everything-else-second type, then you will love the Verizon FiOS IMG 1.9. It is because it actually has four different ones and we need to say that they’re all fabulous of their own right. Firstly, all of them make great use of the HD display. It is simple to choose your two favorites and set one on your primary and another on your secondary guide. A single press of the guide button will take you on your primary guide, a second press, for your secondary guide and a 3rd back to where you were. You may as well easily access the half-screen and mini-guide by hitting up or down, respectively, while watching live TV. All four share a similar filters that thankfully includes two customizable favorites in addition to an HD filter and subscribed — the single we actually wish lets apply everywhere.

Each guide is so good, we are going to battle through them one at a time. First up is the classic grid, which Verizon calls the complete guide. The video preview window is pitifully small, but we do not care since it shows seven channels of information and two and a half hours, which suggests it stretches from edge to edge. It even has a scrub bar around the top to simply see how far along a show is. The skip buttons easily jump two hours, the channel buttons page up and down and the quick forward and rewind buttons skip a whole 24 hours. The channel logos at the left are nice, as is the best way the present channel automatically expands out to look the main points of the chosen show.

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The channel guide is next and it’s our favourite. It reminds us of everything we like about TiVo’s list guide — it is simple to work out what’s on for hours and straightforward to find content. But it’s T menus are a better idea than TiVo’s, and we like how we are able to quickly see the subsequent six shows on on each channel. The gap at the bottom left of the T is a nicely sized video window with the other side showing the main points of the chosen program. The buttons are a touch different but you possibly can easily skip days or channels to work out what’s on.

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The half-screen guide is like nothing we’ve ever seen and is ideal for a 16×9 display with its large video preview window. It doesn’t display as much information because the previous two, nevertheless it does indicate what’s on six different channels and still manages to slot in the data and channel logos, but only shows what’s on right away.

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We’ve always been big fans of mini guides and this one may be the suitable ever. It in fact shows you the show info of what you’re watching in addition to how much time is left, however also gives super easy accessibility to the following three shows at the current channel. The 3 channels listed at the left make it intuitive to grasp you can navigate up or all the way down to explore other channels.

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Overall, all four guides are quick and responsive and perfect for normal TV viewing and a few old-fashioned discovery, but Verizon doesn’t seem like spending much time attempting to redefine how people discover shows. There are social widgets, but no social integration to peer what your folks are watching. There isn’t any method to rate shows and thus it doesn’t make suggestions. There is not an effective way to leap from one show to a different in accordance with actor or director, and the sole “More like this” button within the info screen takes you to video on-demand options. There’s a thanks to bookmark video on-demand offerings, but this selection is often a workaround for the internet and mobile apps, which give limited control over the DVR. In other words, it is not exactly a neat queue of shows to monitor.

Multi-room viewing

The excellent American pastime — watching TV, obviously — has lots of modernizing to do and the DVR is the stepping stone as a consequence. There are little rocks in between those stones and the newest from Verizon is simply that. What we mean is that the multi-room DVR is a pretty good step toward changing the style people watch TV, but we’re sad to claim that the IMG 1.9 doesn’t realize our multi-room dreams. That dream is a DVR that offers exactly the same experience it doesn’t matter what room we’re in. A similar recordings, an analogous ability to record, an analogous everything. Why should it matter where we’re sitting? We just are looking to spend a couple of minutes to absorb our favourite show.

Instead, like its competitors, each Verizon FiOS DVR has its own list of shows, reckoning on where they were recorded, and a few features like chapters don’t work when watching content from other rooms. Worse, if the tuners inside the room are booked up, it is advisable to walk to a different room to unravel the conflict. That is not to assert we do not appreciate the improvements this update brings, since previous FiOS DVRs couldn’t stream to a different DVR in any respect, however it isn’t quite where it ought to be. The excellent news is so you might stream one HD show from any DVR on any TV in the home at a time, and that have is highly snappy and responsive. That you would be able to have as much as seven boxes working together so in the event that they were all DVRs that might offer you 14 tuners and three.5 terabytes of storage! The resume does work between DVRs and setup is simple, however the loss of conflict resolution or perhaps a single list of recordings leaves us wanting more. Not even our custom channel favorites sync between DVRs — but hey, not less than the parental control pin can.

4

Android and iOS apps

Tablets and smartphones have a true place inside the front room so any modern DVR cannot be complete with out a few points of integration. We found the Verizon FiOS Mobile app very useful for such things as scheduling recordings or checking to determine what’s on without letting video take over the large screen, however it leaves lots to be desired after you’ve tried something like 4 TiVo Premiere for iPad 4 . The most missing piece here’s the facility to regulate the DVR with a tablet, in place of the regular remote. Sure, you are able to always elevate a picture of the old-fashioned remote at the screen, but that may not exactly what we had in mind. What we really wanted was to do such things as play a recording from a listing at the tablet screen, or to choose and begin a video on-demand offering without navigating any on-screen menus. The secret’s we found ourselves switching to and fro between the tablet and the trusty remote, which is not ideal. Our favourite part was scheduling recordings from the tablet’s guide, which worked great whether we were searching or browsing and, at the very least at the iPad, lets quickly switch between other apps.

On-demand content

Essentially the mostsome of the most compelling reasons to apply a provider’s DVR is the free and premium video on-demand options, since they only aren’t available in case you bring your personal DVR. But while free is usually good and the standard here was a minimum of acceptable (don’t expect Blu-ray), finding content was anything but easy. Verizon actually does an excellent job getting the premium content in front of you, but when you would like the HD freebies, you are going to should dig a bit. The layout of the free content is arranged in long lists that may be searched but not filtered. The only real thing we do like in regards to the presentation is the flexibility to bookmark things to cause them to easy to locate later. And, you are able to bookmark from Verizon’s website, a tablet, a smartphone or another set-top. So while we appreciate the free options, we want as much effort was put into helping us to find content as was put into selling premium on-demand programming. After creating a selection, the experience is in line with watching recorded content, but with only the flexibility to pause and fast forward or rewind at 2x, it usually is hard to leap to a selected spot.

5

Wrap-up

If you are a current FiOS DVR user, the 1.9 update is definitely well worth the wait and doubtless the foremost significant update from Verizon since launching its FiOS TV service. In case you are contemplating switching to Verizon and are worried that the DVR isn’t pretty much as good because the one you were given out of your current provider, don’t, as it is far better. Actually we’d say the Verizon FiOS DVR is the proper provider DVR we’ve ever tried — except maybe DirecTV, that’s one of many few DVR’s we’ve never reviewed. After all, another wonderful thing about Verizon FiOS you probably have an alternative choice; bring your individual DVR. So at $19.99 a month for the 1st multi-room DVR and $15.99 each additional, TiVo and Windows Media Center make compelling cases at a competitive price. So while we actually just like the work Verizon has done here, we are not able to crown it the greatest DVR on the market, despite the fact that you’re lucky enough to live somewhere Verizon FiOS TV is accessible.

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This post is tagged: 500gb hard drive, external storage, firmware update, motorola models, storage support, Windows Media Center