2) watching recorded content between devices works really well. It's actually pretty seamless, and feels like you're always watching the content from the place it was recorded.
What's the UI for this? Like, suppose I have a multi-room DVR in my living room and a regular DVR in the bedroom (so someone watching TV in the bedroom can pause live TV, record stuff, etc.) Do the recordings on both devices show up separately from each other, or are they all pooled together in the interface? I remember from my ReplayTV days having to remember which device had which timers, which was annoying.
Because I don't live with it every day I'm having a difficult time remembering at the moment (also, my experience is with a 2nd box that's not a DVR with its own content), but I'm pretty sure the content shows in the same place on each box.
But also remember that you'll only get one DVR that can share content. With Tivo, all the boxes can share with each other, so you can the total storage capacity and tuners of all the boxes. Either way, you're not going to have your Dish setup with one central box handing everything out, but with Fios the multi-room viewing is limited to a single box's storage and tuners.
Apparently they come in 160, 320, and 500GB sizes.
That's good to hear -- I'm sure they'd give me a 500GB as a prospective new customer. I'm less worried about capacity as I am with having to pay $20 for a multi-room DVR and $10 for a regular DVR to be able to pause live shows on two TVs. That significantly undercuts the cost savings of going to Verizon's "double play" package.
It appears that my input might soon carry a little less weight, sir. Everything I'm telling you is based on what I know of the Fios service from the past 20 months or so, since my mother moved into her home. Coincidentally, just today I noticed that Fios is starting to push out software updates to their HD DVR boxes that brings a new interface. I can tell you the old one was pretty lackluster. It also seems they're starting to ship new DVR boxes that aren't like the ones my mom received. So like I said, any insight I can give you might not be relevant to what you're going to be getting.
No, we don't get VOD on our Tivo.
Hm, I didn't think about VOD. I agree that free VOD offerings are often crap, but that's still something to consider -- the landscape of who has which free content at a particular time changes often, so I'd prefer to have as many choices as possible.
I would agree with you, but for the fact that ALL the free content on Fios VOD is terrible and unwatchable. Tivo not only has Amazon video and Netflix, but it integrates those services into the Premiere interface really well, from what I've heard. For example, in searches you'll get results from Amazon's library in addition to what's showing on your Tivo's guide data. I'm pretty sure the same applies for Netflix. Trust me, I don't miss the Fios VOD in the least, and I have so much video content available to me via Tivo, Netflix, and vudu, I couldn't possibly need another source for content, and I consume a ridiculous amount of content (seriously, it's too much, I think I'm a little addicted
).
From what I've heard about multi-room distribution with Tivo, it's not the most elegant solution in the world. It's more like file sharing where you start a transfer of the show you want and start it once you've received enough data.
Wow, that's sad -- my old ReplayTVs did better than that. Hearing that makes me think I'd probably be best off getting the Verizon multi-room setup initially and possibly moving to Tivo if/when they get their act together on multi-room viewing that doesn't suck.
Don't get me wrong, from what I hear it doesn't actually suck (see the post before yours), it's just that you can see the edges. It sounds like it's akin to renting a movie on Apple TV, where you need to let it buffer a little bit before it can start playing. The advantage Verizon has here is that while Tivo needs to use your network to transfer the content, Verizon uses the coax connection to talk to the other boxes. I'm honestly not sure how this works. Anyone know?
It sounds like our multi-room convenience takes a hit no matter which direction we go, leaving aside the murky details of the future Tivo thing. I guess I'll have to do the math on exactly how much we'll save to figure out if that's worth it or not. It may just be that our setup (two tuners distributed across 4 TVs) is particularly suited to the Dish way of doing things.
It sounded to me from your initial post that you were leaning more towards the side of using Verizon's equipment in the first place
But you're right, it sounds like any setup is going to be a slight step down from your current situation. However, I will point out that having a DVR in each room means you'll go from "two tuners for the entire house" to "two tuners for the entire house and two for each of three TVs." And that's for Fios. Like I said, with Tivo, you'd essentially have eight tuners for the entire house AND their combined storage.
I also can't stress enough the superior interface of the Tivo. It is miles apart from what you get with the Fios UI in every aspect. Even fast forwarding and rewinding with the Fios equipment is...unresponsive is the only word I can think of at the moment. It'll constantly mess up like that. Tivo also still has the fantastic season pass manager, which can now be organized via web interface (a great feature).
As you can see, I'm pushing the Tivo route, but like you said, there's no telling when or if they'll be releasing that multi-room product. I guess we'll have to see, and in the end I don't believe there's any commitment to renting the Fios equipment. I'm pretty sure that at any time you can simply return it and get Tivo or Moxi or whatever.
BTW, the return process for Fios is soooo much better than most cable companies. When we got rid of Cox Cable, we had to drive 40 miles out to a headquarters and stand in line for half an hour to return the equipment, which seemed to take forever and involved a long, annoying process. Shortly after getting Fios, my mom realized she wasn't going to use one of the TVs we'd set it up on, and the process for returning the box was to take the box, power cable, and remote to the nearest UPS store (which was a mile away), and put it on the counter. They said thank you and I left. Super easy.
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