I contacted support via chat and told them about the problem. They told me they could “initialize” my box because it was possible there was some sort of programming error after the last firmware update. I said no problem and they told me to contact them again if the problem persisted because a replacement DVR would need to be sent. That same evening I contacted them again and told them the problem was still there and without any problems I was told a new one would be sent via UPS.

Since I contacted them on a Friday evening, the box wasn’t going to be delivered until Tuesday. I had no problem with that since the box worked for the most part. The signal was just lost occasionally. Tuesday came along and I got the box via UPS like they said.

My original DVR was a 7216, and I was happy to see that the replacement they sent me was a 6416-2. Even though the 6416-2 is older than the 7216, it seems to have many less problems. First off, I can actually use the HDMI connection now with my Samsung LCD. It did not wok correctly with the original DVR. Secondly, it makes much less noise. I would think the newer one would have been quieter, but that’s not the case.

I have not had a single problem at all with this replacement box. The entire experience is much better now. There were many more problems with my original box than I even thought. There was a lot more lag in menus and in general overall usage. I am quite happy of the replacement and support couldn’t have made it any easier. All I had to do was put the faulty DVR in the box the new one was shipped in and take two labels to the UPS store and drop it off.

Self activation was very simple. The whole process didn’t even take me 30 minutes and I had the new DVR up and running with all of the guide data. They give you a code and you have the option of calling a telephone number or entering it online. I did it through the page online. It honestly couldn’t have been any simpler than it was.

What I thought was the most impressive part of this whole situation was how willing the support staff was to believe that my problem was actually with the FiOS equipment. Not once did they ever try to blame it on my television. Back when I had Comcast, any time I had a problem the first thing they tried to do was blame the issue on something I owned. Verizon never once even questioned me.

Once again, I am very happy with the service I am receiving from Verizon.

9:42:28 PM: Spoiler Alert: I will be posting live results here on Twitter and on my blog. http://bit.ly/JXbOT

9:50:16 PM: If you aren’t watching the Ultimate 100 on Spike, they are about to show the top rated fight.

10:09:41 PM: Akiyama vs Belcher intro right now…

10:20:03 PM: Ouch, bad low blow right there on Akiyama.

10:24:12 PM: End of the first round. Great fight so far.

10:39:26 PM: The fight went all 3 rounds. Akiyama wins by split decision. I think Belcher should have won that fight…

10:43:47 PM: Henderson vs Bisping up next. The fighters are making their way to the octagon.

10:55:02 PM: Good first round for Henderson.

10:59:41 PM: Bisping just got knocked out in round 2.

11:07:15 PM: St-Pierre vs Alves intro playing right now…

11:19:18 PM: GSP is off to a great start…

11:29:21 PM: The second round definitely went to GSP.

11:35:12 PM: Wow, Alves is lucky that 3rd round ended when it did.

11:41:49 PM: 5th and final round coming up.

11:45:42 PM: 8 takedowns for GSP so far in the fight. 1:45 to go.

11:47:45 PM: Fight over. St-Pierre is going to win via decision.

12:04:54 AM: Mir is in the ring. Lesnar is on his way out now.

12:10:45 AM: Here we go… The fight just started.

12:15:45 AM: Fairly boring fight so far. Round 1 over.

12:19:37 AM: Wow. Lesnar destroyed Mir on the ground. The crowd is booing and he just gave them all the finger.

12:22:57 AM: Mir’s face looks horrible.

12:28:25 AM: Finch vs Thiago now. But that’s all for my live results.

As I said before, some problems started to occur even with the component cables about a month ago. It didn’t happen very often at all, maybe a few times a day to start. The screen would go black for a split section because the signal to my tv would be lost. The tv would then immediately display the information in the upper left of that screen that a 1080i input was connected. Like I said, it didn’t happen very often, until recently…

Last week it started to get very bad. It would happen very often. Sometimes the signal would be lost and a second or 2 later it would happen again. I am fairly knowledgeable about these types of things in general, and I was confident that I could figure out the problem on my own without wasting my time explaining what was happening to Verizon support.

I thought about it for a day or 2 and I basically narrowed it down to 2 things. The box was either overheating or the component cables they gave me were going bad. The first thing I did was change the output of the box to 720p instead of 1080i. I figured if the cable was going bad, there is a chance it could handle the lower resolutions still. I figured if it didn’t cut out while on 720p, or cut out less, the cables were most likely the problem.

I set the box to output at 720p for almost 2 full days and the signal never dropped. About 10 minutes after changing it back to 1080i the usual happened and it lost the signal for a second. At that point I decided I would just order new component cables because they are very cheap now online.  I went with this set from Cables To Go on Amazon. They cost about $9. I have bought other cables from them before, so I figured they would work fine.

They arrived a few days ago and I connected them right away. I watched some things that I had viewed the day before on my DVR that caused signal loss. I was happy to see that the problem seemed to have gone away.

For about 2 days now the signal has not dropped out at all. With the original cables that were given to me by Verizon, the signal would have dropped at least 15 or 20 times by now.

I figured I would post this incase others were having similar issues. It was much easier for me to just buy the cables myself rather than going through to hassle of support. Hopefully the cables turn out to be the only problem.

The most recent hardware update to the Mini makes it much better suited as a HTPC (home theater PC) than the previous models. The updated integrated video card and slightly better processor should be more than enough to push 1080p content to my Samsung LCD.

I have read online about other people using the Mini for this purpose. It is low powered, and very quiet. That is something that is definitely important to me for this type of use.

Currently I use PS3 Media Server on my iMac to stream all of my media to my PS3. By using that program, I can play practically anything on my PS3 by transcoding the media files on the fly. This works fine but requires me to always have my iMac and PS3 running when I want to view that type of content. If i purchase a Mac Mini that would not be necessary. I’m just not sure that I will utilize it enough to spend over $600 on another computer that will basically only serve the purpose of media playback.

Obviously, I am still on the fence about it. I’m curious what others think about using the Mini for this purpose…

Any suggestions of software for the media library would be great. I have read about a few, but some suggestions of what others have used would be appreciated.

FiOS is gaining popularity, and for the most part, information about it is not that easy to find. So, as I come across things related to FiOS I will be sharing them here.

This time, I am going to talk about a few things regarding the pay-per-view (PPV) services that Verizon offers.

First off, you can order a PPV basically in 2 ways; on your set top box or online with FiOS TV Central.

If you order a PPV on a specific set top box, you are limited to that box for watching the PPV. As I have tested while watching multiple UFC events on PPV, you are able to record them to your DVR. If you have a multi room DVR you can actually hit record and then watch it on another box in the house. Just remember, if you stop playing it completely you will not be able to enter the recording again where you left off. I guess this is a limitation of viewing something while it is currently recording. As far as I know, if you record something like a UFC PPV it will stay on your DVR for as long as you keep it there. I left one for about 5 days to see if after 24 hours is was disabled, but it never was.

The other way to order, as stated above, is online. This works fairly well from my experience. I ordered UFC 99 via the web interface about 20 minutes prior to the show. When ordering online, the PPV is not limited to a single box. It will play on every box in your house and there is not a limit of viewers either. I tried watching it on 3 of the 4 HD boxes in my house and it showed on all of them at the same time with no problem. The only limitation to ordering online is that you can’t record the event. If you hit the record button on your DVR it pops up a message saying that can not record without purchasing. Obviously, if you are able to watch it then you have ordered it, but once again it’s just a limitation of their system.

So basically, if you want to record an event you need to order it on your DVR. If not, online ordering is the way to go so that you aren’t limited to one television.

Here is the proposed channel lineup:

MTV HD 710
VH 1 HD 717
CMT HD 721
Nick HD 752
Spike HD 554
Comedy Central HD 690

The first of these channels should be live starting on June 24 (subject to change), with the rest to be added over the following week.

This is in no way official, but it has been spreading over the internet today. Let’s hope that it’s true. I have been waiting for Spike HD. Now that it has been added I basically have every HD channel that I need. All is good…

The internet portion of the Triple Play is very good. As stated in an older blog post, I have the 20mb download and 5mb upload tier. The speeds are great, and for the most part constant. Certain times of the day when Comcast would start to lag are pretty much non existent with my Verizon service. As much as I like the quality of the service there is one major problem…the hardware. The included Actiontec router is decent, but has some major flaws. I was lucky enough to get the Gen 2 (rev. E) version of the Actiontec hardware but it still has major problems. There is a NAT table limitation that practically makes the router useless. When trying to connect to torrents or even Steam server lists, you hit the connection limit and the router locks up. Usually closing out of the program will fix it, but sometimes a restart of the router is needed. The only way around this is to run ethernet cable through the house to where the router is placed.

By installation default, the ONT  is connected to the router via coaxial cable. Because of this, you need a router such as the Actiontec to take the MoCA connection. MoCA is needed to give IP Addresses to all of the set top boxes throughout the house. Like I said, I could run an ethernet cable through my house and up to the 2nd floor where the router is, but that is a lot easier said than done. If I ever feel like taking the time to do so I might, because then I could use my own router. Even if I use my own router (D-Link Dir-655) I would still need to connect the Actiontec to it for the MoCA bridge. Currently I have my D-Link connected into the Actiontec because the wireless signal is much better and everything wired here is gigabit.

As for the television portion…I couldn’t be much happier with the service. The picture quality is amazing. It’s quite obvious how much better the quality is of FiOS over Comcast. The channel lineup is great. Having over 100 HD channels is definitely nice. The Multi Room DVR works fairly well. The main problem once again though is the hardware.  

The Motorola boxes seem to have a problem with HDMI connections, primarily with Samsung televisions. Of course I only buy Samsung LCDs. I have 4 through the house in varying sizes all HD and connected to HD boxes. One of them in particular, of course the one with the Multi Room DVR, has a major problem when trying to connect to HDMI. The image blacks out frequently because the signal is lost and it takes a few seconds for it to work again. Also, after the latest firmware update (that I also blogged about) when using Component cables the signal is occasionally lost. It much less frequent and takes only a fraction of a second for it to return, but there is definitely a problem. It just sucks to see such dodgy hardware when the service itself is so great for both the TV and Internet.

Without a doubt I am happy to have made the switch from Comcast to Verizon. The cost is much less per month and the overall service is much better. If Verizon can fix the problems with the hardware I wouldn’t really have much of anything to complain about.

I hope this post helps answer any questions of those people who are thinking about switching. If you have any other questions or comments please post them below…

I’m really looking forward to the Strikeforce event scheduled for June 6, 2009.

Main Card (Beginning at 9:00PM – CT):

Robbie Lawler (16-4) vs. Jake Shields (22-4-1) – 3X5 – 185Lbs

Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovski (15-6) vs. Brett “The Grim” Rogers (9-0) 3X5

Nick “Bad Boy” Diaz (19-7) vs. Scott “Hands of Steel” Smith (16-5) – 3X5

Phil “New York Bad Ass” Baroni (13-10) vs. Joe “Diesel” Riggs (29-10) – 3X5 – 185Lbs

Kevin “Monster” Randleman (17-12) vs. Mike Whitehead (23-7) – 3X5 – 205Lbs

Strikeforce has been around for a long time now. In 2006, they started promoting MMA events. They are based out of San Jose, California.

Recently, Strikeforce acquired the assets of the now defunct EliteXC, which was owned by ProElite. Because of this, Strikeforce now has television deals with Showtime and CBS. They also acquired the contracts of over 40 EliteXC fighters.

Even though the current Champions rarely fight, Strikeforce has been putting on some really great shows.

For more info visit Stikeforce.com

As stated in the article linked above, yeah we will be receiving more HD programming. But they are really screwing over some people by switching some of those other stations to digital plans only. I mean, MSNBC? Come on….

I wonder if any of those changes have anything to do with the summer Olympics? Is Comcast really crazy enough to purposely move a station such as MSNBC to purely digital just to get some people to switch so they can watch Olympic programming? Or do they just totally want to screw over MSNBC for other reasons?

Anyways, what brought up the whole idea of me posting this blog was my telephone conversation with Comcast this morning. I called them regarding getting another HD cable box because currently I only have one at my house. I saw in that Post Gazette article that they had some special deals on the different cable boxes so I figured I’d ask about the HD boxes. I couldn’t believe it when she told me that a digital box would only be $1.99 a month but the HD ones are $10.99 a month. Seriously, what the hell is up with that? $10.99 a month for all additional boxes? I asked her, how is that even possible? All she said was “there aren’t any promotions right now on the HD boxes”. It took me a second to comprehend that the Comcast bill for my house would now be about $140 a month, and somehow I said alright fine I’ll take another one.

At that point I didn’t really have anything else to say to the woman because all I could think to myself was,  how the hell do the majority of people afford this? So yeah, after all of that I will have another box installed here within the next few days. And yes, I know I could have gone and picked it up. But, that really wasn’t much of an option for me because I would go totally crazy if I went into any sort of Comcast Service Center. Paying the $17 will definitely save me a lot of aggravation. And when you’re already paying them $140 a month what’s another $17, right?