I've canned Comcast's lousy hardware and service in favor of Verizon's fiberwire based service.

I'm going with a MultiRoom DVR w/ MediaManager and HD, and linking the multiroom capability to two standard digital boxes in the bedrooms. And I'll be doing an HD box in the mediaroom/attic where my outlaw sleeps. I can't wait to get home and try everything out! I've had my Aquos for almost a year now and have yet to view an HD broadcast on it. Hopefully my first experience will be watching the Eagles against the Saints.

Something dumb about Verizon, and a warning to anyone else making a leap:
The MultiRoom DVR can only share recorded programs to the Standard Digital boxes, not the Digital HD boxes. What kind of crap that is, I dunno. We'll see, maybe a software update will address that down the line.

The lack of multi-room viewing is not specific to Verizon; it's a licensing issue.

I can't speak to Verizon but this seems to be an industry-wide issue. I am a TiVo user, I've got two SD boxes and an HD box and TiVo has the same issue.

Esssentially it's because CableLabs has not approved the Multi-Room or TiVo to Go features with the TiVo HD box. It is almost certainly an issue with the cable companies and content providers dragging their feet on approval of the copying of HD material between devices.

Also be aware that you can't pause or otherwise navigate live TV from the individual rooms (natch, since you don't have the capabilities on the boxes themselves). All you can do is set recordings on the DVR. That was a dealbreaker for me.

I can't wait till Verizon's service is up and running in my area. I've had Comcast for only 4 months and already they've proven they're the worst customer service company out there. That and since they have a cable monopoly in my area (Essex County, NJ), their prices are horrible as well.

Let us know how Verizon works out.

The initial install didn't fly. Something about they didn't get some port issues sorted out until 2pm and the install will take around 6 hours, so they'll be back on the 22nd.

In response to a couple replies here:

1.) I definitely understand I won't be able to pause live TV unless I'm directly viewing on the multi-room DVR. That's ok w/ me for now. I mainly do all my live TV watching in my living room, and all my movie/recording watchin in my media room.

2.) And Palmer, I think you may have misunderstood my original post. The problem with not being able to view recorded programs on the HD box is a programming issue that is suppsosed to be resolved very soon. Apparently the software the runs on the standard digital boxes was done first (I can't explain why), so it won't be long before all the boxes Verizon supplies can link up to the Multiroom DVR. That's the hope at least.

I'll update everyone on the 22nd.

Gotcha. I hope they take care of it soon for you!

Best,
Tony.

I had Comcast (DC area) for 4 days and it was lousy. I have had a combination of DirecTV and Verizon DSL for the last 3 years.
About a year and a half ago, Verizon showed up, dug up my yard without as much as leaving a note on my door and left my front yard a mess. Three months later they called me to sell me FiOS, I told them that I was already a Verizon customer (except now an angry customer), explained the problem, and they just referred me to another number. I did try Earthlink DSL for a while but, as it turns out, it costs more and Verizon still gets a fee for the infrastructure. So I can't really protest with my wallet and am stuck with Verizon and a bruised front yard. Because of these tactics, Verizon FiOS has been a monumental failure in this area. I only know of one house in our entire development that has FiOS and that was someone who just moved in and was not victimized.

So I guess to sum up my post, I agree that Comcast is terrible in all respects. IMHO, the jury is still out on Verizon FiOS. If fiber-to-the-curb doesn't catch on soon, Verizon may just end up the proud owner of a buried treasure, while one of the wireless broadband protocols (that are cheaper to implement) passes them by. Robert Cringley had an interesting article on the potential of a decentralized media distribution network. The idea may just be too tempting to somebody like... Apple Inc.?
Well, those are 2 cents from a disgruntled Verizon customer, so pay me no attention.

My final opinion on FiOS is represented by the fact that I just paid $180 early termination fee to CANCEL their service completely.

I warn anyone considering them - if you have billing trouble, you could be in for a rough ride.

I hate to hear that you have a problem. We have had the FIOS a while and we love it.

The PQ was great. The DVR was superior to Comcast's. But their customer service was truly appalling. Today's phone experience was really unbelievable. Such a shame. Great product. Shady business practices.

PS - super jealous of your multiple monoblock setup you got there

RedSI, I am saddened (though not surprised) that you've had such trouble with Verizon. If you don't mind telling, what was the straw that did the breaking?

My experience with them has been recent, but also negative. Our house is currently on Time Warner, who consecrated taking over our cable service by upgrading the cable system - and cutting our cable at the street in the process.
We've been fighting speed and service issues, and decided to go with Verizon.

Basicallly, I took advantage of a promo to sign up at the V. Wireless store, which netted me a gift card, at which time I was quoted a price by the manager and told I would get a call. When I got the call from Verizon, they told me that his price was wrong, and quoted me one $25 a month higher. I held off and called them back later, at which point we got another number, still higher but not the same. This made me very wary, I'm currently holding off, which is why I'm curious about your experience.

I'm using a list. Please don't take this as being snippy. I started smoking yesterday after 51 days of being nicotine free, so they really did get the best of me...

1.) Billing was a mess. If you're not a Verizon home phone subscriber, billing goes from being a mess to a total wreck. I was a TV and Internet-only subscriber only (we use cell phoners exclusively (Cingular)); I was billed twice to my Amex. I was being charged $5 more per month from internet than originally quoted, making it the same price (almost) as my Comcast connection and it didn't seem any faster. However, Comcast was already fast, so I'm not whining about the speed per se.

2.) I called billing and customer service to say that the bill online is inaccurace. It didn't have any of the TV charges that I was hit for on my Amex. 5 different phone calls to five different reps, who all promised a supervisor would call me to straighten it out. Never got a call back. I waited for a total of a month.

3.) Phone menu is by far the roughest, most frustrating thing I've ever dealt with. If you have to call to try and straighten a problem out like mine, you'll see. The menu will consistently route you to the wrong personnel.

4.) Once you get to a human, my experience was that about 90% of the time, the people are underinformed, quick to get snippy, and they make promises they don't keep. God as my witness, I was nice on the phone every time. 5 unreturned requests for supervisor call-back. 1 intentional hang up. 1 intentional dumping to the main menu. Blood was boiling by then. This is like something you read about in the Times. Experiencing it was something I can't even relate very well. Truly astounding.

5.) MultiRoom DVR has a lot of bugs. Satellite boxes frequently can't read the hub DVR, causing you to have to reset the box. When you reset a box, you lose all customizations on your box (like channel list edits), and sometimes even your scheduled recording setup.

6.) Internet connection goes down if your PC has a "sleep mode" setup in the Power Setup in Windows, which mine does.

Final straw was getting a second charge on my Amex without ever receiving an accurate bill. That in my mind has to violate some FTC regulation. The fact that I'm paying to terminate my agreement early in light of the fact of all these problems really does highlight one point...well two...$180 to get away from Verizon is cheap. And in my mind, Verizon exploited every loophole in a system that in the end fails to uphold any resemblance of consumer rights.

Now I'm sure there are Verizon-fans on this board who will read this and cannot relate to what I went through. For that, you are lucky and I wish you continued luck. But for the way I was treated, I'll never sign on w/ Verizon for anything ever again, and I advise my friends and family to do the same. I realize that their problems revolve around FiOS being so new, and their infrastructure is struggling to meet the supporability demand, but their overall treatment of customers, and their notoriety for billing issues, will probably not change over time. Google "Verizon Class Action Suit" and you find that their billing practices have been called into question many, many times, over some seemingly very shady practices.

Verizon FiOS TV (the department) can't handle the demand and their representatives are hostile. My advice to all: steer clear unless you're totally fed up with your current provider. I was on the fence. And I jumped. And I really regret it. I may hug the Comcast tech when he's at my house tonight.

No worries, RedSI, that was a great reply. I'm really appalled to hear that kind of garbage going on in such a huge company, but as I said I'm not surprised. Every time I've been on the phone with them I swear I could get better answers from a lobotomized chimpanzee (no offense to the latter).

I was wondering why you said you'd paid to get out of your agreement in your earlier post, instead of demanding free agency for such bad service, but now I get it. Who wants the added hassle after months of neglect?

Thanks for the valuable info - I'm sure a lot of folks here will gladly take your experiences into consideration if they're contemplating a signup.

That's why I posted the whole story. Just looking out for you guys.

That's awful. I called them about FiOS, as your story really bothered me. You aren't kidding about the phone menu. I waited on hold for about 20 minutes, and then the phone hung up. Called again, and the phone seemed to pick-up, but then the line went dead. Sent them an e-mail about this experience, and received a reply that they would forward the story. I was in the market for a different service -- problems with my cable -- but I'm staying away from them.

you'd do yourself a service by doing just that. good luck.

I'm considering contesting the early termination fee w/ them via American Express. But virtue of the fact that I never received an accurate bill, I believe that's grounds to terminate service w/o penalty. Proving that on my end may be tough. But I'm feeling a bit rebellious