Dish DVR vs Verizon FIOS - Anyone compare? (1 Viewer)

[Brian Beecher]

I am moving to a new house and will have Verizon FIOS for the Internet. I have had Dish Network for the past 4+ years and been happy with it. It would be a little cheaper to go with the Verizon all together as a package, but if the DVR isn't as good it might drive me crazy. My father has Brighthouse digital cable (I think) and the DVR is pretty much worthless to me. Here's what I like about the Dish setup-

 

-The skip ahead and skip back buttons (no delay)

-the various speeds for manual fast forward and rewind (the program actually plays immediately from when you hit play at the exact spot you push it.)

-The PiP being able to pause one station and keep it on PiP and switch back and forth makes it easy to watch multiple games or shows (or scan through music on the music channels) or come back to something without having to actually record it. You can go back through 2hrs that were on the other station. It doesn't sound like a deal breaker but you get used to having it...

 

The programing and available stations seem pretty comparable. I just don't want to sign up for something that will not be what I want. Thanks for the input!

 

Brian

 

[Pete York]

My experience, Brian:
 

Originally Posted by Brian Beecher

-The skip ahead and skip back buttons (no delay)

 

I'm not exactly sure what you mean here by 'delay', but FiOS has skip forward and back buttons that jump in a 30 second increment.

 

 

-the various speeds for manual fast forward and rewind (the program actually plays immediately from when you hit play at the exact spot you push it.)

 

There are three speeds for fast forward and rewind. On the fastest speed the program does not play at exactly the spot you hit the resume/play button, probably because each movement forward or backward of the progress bar at the highest speed represents a greater amount of time then can be represented on screen. The slowest and the medium speeds will drop you at the exact spot.

 

 

-The PiP being able to pause one station and keep it on PiP and switch back and forth makes it easy to watch multiple games or shows (or scan through music on the music channels) or come back to something without having to actually record it. You can go back through 2hrs that were on the other station. It doesn't sound like a deal breaker but you get used to having it...

 

FiOS is not currently supporting PiP, although a button is on the remote. If you toggle between two--and only two--channels, the drive will store about 1 hours worth of programming on each station. I think even if you were to finish up a 2 hour movie, you could only go back 1 hour without having recorded. If you were watching something on one channel, and occasionally surfed, the 1 hour would be saved as long as you went to only one other channel at a time. Ex. Watching Ch. 2, then go to Ch.4, back to 2, then to Ch. 7, back to 2, then to Ch. 13, back to 2 would save the program on Ch. 2.
 

Good luck.

 

I left Dish for FIOS because the bundle was cheaper. I will make this easy for you-if you can afford to keep Dish, keep it!

In terms of the dvr, Fios is so crappy that I created an account just to warn you. you will only have 20 hours of HD recording, so if you record sports, a single weekend will overtake your entire DVR. I have had two fios dvrs, and they both randomly corrupt the recordings so that it wont play. The dvrs also have hdmi handshake problems and the picture will randomly drop out. You cannot extend the time of a single recording. so overtime games are out. The FIOS program guide is terrible. You will miss your Dish DVR violently! However, the skip buttons work pretty well...you can ever change how far they skip forward or back.

Sorry about the typos...i'm writing this on my phone.

 

I left Dish for FIOS because the bundle was cheaper. I will make this easy for you-if you can afford to keep Dish, keep it!

In terms of the dvr, Fios is so crappy that I created an account just to warn you. you will only have 20 hours of HD recording, so if you record sports, a single weekend will overtake your entire DVR. I have had two fios dvrs, and they both randomly corrupt the recordings so that it wont play. The dvrs also have hdmi handshake problems and the picture will randomly drop out. You cannot extend the time of a single recording. so overtime games are out. The FIOS program guide is terrible. You will miss your Dish DVR violently! However, the skip buttons work pretty well...you can ever change how far they skip forward or back.

Sorry about the typos...i'm writing this on my phone.

 

[Adam Gregorich]

The FIOS DVR is essentially the same Motorola cable box that most cable companies use. I use a Windows Media Center PC with my FIOS service. Depending on the tuner you use you can record up to 4 shows at one time including premium channels, and stream them to any windows extender device (including XBOX360s. It has standard DVD controls, uses the standard Media Center interface and if you want more storage just add another hard drive.

 

[RAF]

Funny you should ask. I've been a Dish subscriber for about twelve years and a Fios subscriber (concurrently) for two years. Why two services you might ask? Because Dish refuses to carry the YES network and a lot of their other HD channel offerings are either bogus or greatly overstated (more on this in a moment.) But one thing that Dish has over Fios is that their DVR (dish's) blows away Fios' in just about every respect. It's essentially like a Tivo unit (emphasized by the fact that Tivo successfully sued Dish for patent infringement). I couldn't live with Fios as my only Dvr service (at one point I had thought of adding a Tivo or two to my Fios service -a very expensive option I almost considered but later decided not to). Besides, my Fios comes bundled with the excellent Internet service which is now cruising along at 35/35mb download/upload rates. Top notch.

However, and this is the point of my reply, yesterday I sent back my Dish equipment (I leased two HD Dvrs and owned two others) and kissed the service goodby (along with their hefty fees). The reason I was able to do this was because I purchased one of the first CETON InfiniTV4 PC boards released and have assembled a Windows 7/Windows Media Center system with a Fios M-card multi tuner card installed. This is essentially the same system that Adam beta tested (minus the inboard CETON card interface) and I have full control over programming that encompases four simultaneous tuners and almost infinite program storage accessible by any connected TV in my house. I can honestly say that this setup works as advertised and the features and customization blows away Dish/Tivo and any other Dvr I've ever seen.

The system works with any M-card out there so it works with any cable system. You can choose whatever's available in your area. In my case the most full featured HD Provider is Verizon Fios. Earlier I mentioned that Dish misrepresented their HD offerings. Here's an example or two. Some of Dish's HD channels only broadcast part time in HD with the majority of the programming in SD. SNY, the local NY Mets station broadcasts most of the games in HD on Dish but inexplicably switches to SD once the game ends. Fios broadcasts SNY in full time HD. Dish refuses to elaborate when questioned. Also, all my local stations here in NY on Fios are in HD. For some reason Dish only broadcasts WOR (Channel 9) and PBS (Channel 13) in SD. Many other channels that are offered in HD on other services are only SD on Dish. AMC immediately comes to mind and there are others. Then there's another little quirk in Dish offerings when compared to other providers. Yes, Dish has HBO in HD, but when one counts up the number of HBO stations on Dish compared to Fios there are at least double the number of HBO stations on Fios. And the same goes for the other premium services. A lot of smoke and mirrors with Dish.

I honestly believe that the CETON card makes it a whole new ball game when considering your TV viewing options. No longer are you tied to a particular provider's Dvr and its inherent frustrations as mentioned in this thread. I consider the new wave of cards such as the InfinitTV 4 significant enough that I will be starting a thread in this section where I briefly outline what I did to free myself from Dvr blues and to enter a new stage of TV viewing and time shifting. Look for it when my time and health permits.

 

[cheapcoupon]

It all depends on your requisites whether you go for Verizon FIOS or any other alternative. It would be better to go through a detailed Verizon FIOS Review to know all about it.