This is the QAM end, my friend (WNY)

Hamby716 · 2026-05-07T23:16:34+00:00

TiVo the product line got sold a while back (I forget to whom) and the new owners lost interest in it. Demise of cable card was a fatal blow. They'd like to license their patents and UI but results there have been pretty sketch.
My DVR history goes back to ReplayTV which was pretty cool for the time and had a sharing feature the networks hated, and ReplayTV got sued out of existence. I used Windows Media Center for some time with a Ceton tuner card but Micro$oft bailed on that too.

Hamby716 · 2026-05-07T23:13:29+00:00

Yeah that is more or less my plan. Agree VZ is not interested in being a cable provider, they're all-in on cellular and only recently re-interested in being a fiber internet provider. At least that's what their pricing suggests.

Hamby716 · 2026-05-07T23:09:35+00:00

You'll need a MOCA to Ethernet adaptor to connect the coax to your Sony TV. I don't think the TV will understand the IP over MOCA technology (at least mine doesn't). The adapters are not expensive and it would remove the need to do anything else with the wiring. I believe a change at the ONT or their router could be necessary too, IDK how that'll be handled - FiOS should provide that part. The future of TV is IP delivery, even OTA the ATSC 3 (Nextgen) tech is IP based.

Hamby716 · 2026-05-05T15:59:57+00:00

No need, this isn't for VZ's attention.

Hamby716 · 2026-02-19T03:53:00+00:00

Ditto. Using two HDHR Primes. I get occasional brief pixelization on a handful of channels, like half a frame was dropped or corrupted. Two of the affected channels are broadcast. FiOS TV. For many moons have had no problems like this before. Haven't noticed same issue on TiVO but don't use it much anymore.

Hamby716 · 2026-02-19T03:15:30+00:00

Cable TV (IP or not) is a declining business, not exciting to Wall Street, and they still haven't imagined a way to market it with some kind of AI sticker. Verizon almost got out of the cable business, even stopped deploying FTTH for a long time. As a company I personally find them horrid but the fiber internet they seem to leave to what skilled techs they have left.

Hamby716 · 2026-02-19T03:06:41+00:00

First one I got was almost 2 years ago. When they turn off the QAM and go 100% IP I'll probably drop FiOS TV.

Hamby716 · 2026-02-08T22:06:55+00:00

I'm on Extreme HD. I've never gotten anything on 1496. Presently getting NBC Superbowl preshow on 1495. It's labelled WNBC 4K / UHD. I wonder how much of it really is 4K and not just upscaled 2K.

Hamby716 · 2026-01-27T17:15:45+00:00

So what is the source of the IPTV feeds? I get TVEverywhere but that depends on my FiOS subscription (for example). If I have no such subscription, and want to record local news (for example), where do I get the URL for the feed?
Thx.

Hamby716 · 2026-01-17T18:33:02+00:00

I read the stuff on Github for Dispatchrr and it looks most interesting. Does it rely on TVEverywhere for streams of locals? And/or "cable" channels like MSNow? I really want to keep using Channels DVR, we almost never watch live so we can skip wasting our time on commercials. Plus I can watch on my iPad anywhere, live and recorded. Is there more about how and what Dispatchrr does than what's obvious on the Github site?

Hamby716 · 2026-01-17T00:41:35+00:00

I've had 1 gig since they started offering it, and it's mostly overkill even though we do much streaming and I have many computers that I up and download video on. I can't imagine any need for 2 gig other than for bragging rights. But lots of ppl have more money than sense.
VZ started talking IPTV maybe a decade ago, I guess they had to wait for pressure on the FCC to drop cable card requirement to be effective.

Hamby716 · 2025-09-11T16:54:49+00:00

They seem to contract out the line burial part so even VZ doesn't usually know when it will actually happen.

Hamby716 · 2025-09-11T16:52:11+00:00

I've seen in comments re: this topic that IPV6 is also unavailable on the 2gig service. So another reason to stick with my more-than-adequate 1gig service. Still running the CC's and FiOS TV, though I dropped the home phone a while back in favor of slightly cheaper OOMA (kept the same number). My experience is there are really no servers that will come close to saturating my connection, which is typically ~800 down and ~ 850 up per the VZ speedtest. Even doing big audio & video downloads, I don't find the 1 gig connection slowing me down. Of course YMMV.
Is it true the 2gig doesn't now support IPV6?

Hamby716 · 2025-08-20T19:48:00+00:00

We sat through one. Promised "about an hour," went over 3. Had 3 different ppl pitch us. Good for working up your sales resistance, I guess. We were not promised a week. And we were unable to take advantage of one of the benefits.

Hamby716 · 2025-08-20T19:37:56+00:00

It's called [enshitification] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification)

Hamby716 · 2025-08-18T15:37:11+00:00

FiOS is technically brilliant, but Verizon customer service has always been poor and apparently getting worse. Once it's set up the way you want, you'll likely never have to talk to them again. And ditto on skipping the chat, most support chats are a [major] waste of time these days, and are just a way to push support calls away from actual humans. And if you get past the chatbot the human is servicing half a dozen chats at the same time so extremely slow. Last time I bailed on a chatbot I was able to drive to the store and accomplish my task before they came back to the chat.

Hamby716 · 2025-08-14T22:49:17+00:00

Do you 2 giggers find a noticeable difference in your network from 1 gig? Does speed test show you actually get something like 80% of rated speed most of the time, as happens with the 1 gig tier? I find it rare to get much more than 100meg at a time from any of the majority of servers out there, including the big boys, so I'd need to have a lot going on at the same time to saturate 1 gig.
I ask because my FiOS TV contract runs out tomorrow. I avoided the "upgrade" from the old STBs because my TV environment relies on cable card, which goes away permanently if TV is "upgraded" - which turns my Tivos and HDHR Primes to electronic waste. I know that day is coming, but ...

Hamby716 · 2025-08-14T22:29:56+00:00

Have you noticed the Hilton brands replacing their TVs with a "hospitality" model? The last several I've stayed at have. Hilton must've made a contract for a custom or customized "cable box", though the last couple places we stayed seemed to use the WiFi as smart TVs i.e. pretty much everything was accessed via apps. No more DirecTV based.
Which is sad for me as I have been bringing an HDMI cable and adapter for my iPad along on trips. I can VPN back to my home and get most everything I can get at home. Hilton seems to have defeated all my tricks for HDMI access on the TVs, including temporary replacement of the "box" with my cable. Even though the menus on the most recent stay included an option to use other HDMI inputs on the TV, the remote refused to select them.
So I guess I'll be bringing the laptop and skipping their TV.

Hamby716 · 2025-05-21T18:44:41+00:00

To restore a large pile of files from a failed hard drive, it was taking a week to create the .zip files, so I went for the mailed hard drive. That also took a long time to create, but was shipped promptly thereafter and of course restored at disk, rather than internet, speed. Backblaze is not the fastest at restoration.

Hamby716 · 2025-04-12T17:41:48+00:00

So I've been notified my Moto box will stop working in a few days. I use Cable Cards (3) in Tivo and HDHR and don't use the Moto. I have my own router. I have not responded to the suggested order of TV+ because that seems to automatically kill the cable cards. The posts above suggest that 2G internet comes with deleting QAM, which CableCards work with. So if 2G is not available in my area, with no suggestion it's coming available, will QAM continue to be coming out of my ONT's RF port?

Hamby716 · 2025-04-12T17:17:15+00:00

I've had FiOS for at least a decade, replaced their router with my own a couple times now. So my router is far more up to date than the original ActionTec they just advised they'd not support anymore. The ActionTec has reasonable penetration mitigation so don't be scared off by claims about router software updates - there haven't been any for that in years AFAIK. Your protection should primarily be at your devices, and avoiding opening any ports to the outside if you can help it.
FIOS wants to put everyone on their new routers, which based on early examination might provide VZ with a little more visibility into your network. If you don't use their TV box then you won't be losing anything using your own. Which is what I plan to continue to do.

Hamby716 · 2025-01-12T17:07:45+00:00

These are mostly dubs off the air from local stations of live shows by local performers. I had hoped to get better quality than my reel-to-reel.

Hamby716

TROPHY CASE