What is going on? I got FIOS in August and went on vacation thinking I could record up to 85 hours of the olympics in standard definition. When we got home, we had only about 35 hours recorded - the rest was dumped because the memory was full. According to your booklet I received when it was installed, it s hould be 85 hours. The installer told me it was 85 hours. This morning I was told it was 85 hours normal or 20 HD. Now, I get a call from your service department telling me it's 40 hours normal or 20 HD. I have 6 1/2 hrs. of normal recording and 3 1/2 hours of HD, and the status tells me it is 47% full. This is ridiculous.

When will FIOs offer Caller-Id like DitecTV and Optimum does?

Why teh mystery over the upgrade to the IMG (to 2.0)? Verizon has nothing on the we page, the techs online practically run away when you ask for a rollout timetable for your area.

WE are new to FIOS and find the lack of a reminder setting for the TV to be ridiculous.....I cannot believe I do not have such basic functionality -- COmcast has had it for years and we had the SAME DVR cable box....so cannot understand the delay. Any advice on when Central Virginia can expect new IMG 2.0?

We had the new Verizon Interactive Media Guide downloaded to our boxes on or about 1/18/08. Ive had a lot of trouble with previously programmed recording schedules working intermittently which I'm told by the Verizon support staff should now be resolved after a hard boot was just performed.

My real problem is with the new Interactive Media Guide Search Results:
- The old microsoft guide used to return a 2 wk chronological listing of scheduled episodes, times, and channels for a program keyword search which showed which programs were going to be recorded on my dvr & in either series or single program mode. The single full screen summary result made it very easy to see what the dvr was going to do with each scheduled program episode title, time slot, and channel which greatly aided dual tuner scheduling for best recording results.

- The new Verizon Interactive Media Guide Keyword Search does not appear to:
a. Return a full 2 weeks schedule.
b. Easily Show Result titles long enough to read episode name.
c. Easily Show Which programs are being recorded on dvr in series mode.
d. Easily Show Which programs are being recorded on dvr in single recording mode.
e. Easily Show which program times are being recorded on dvr.
f. Easily Show which program channel is being recorded on dvr.

This appears to be a huge step backward in the usefulness of the dvr. Does anyone have a way to reformat the New IMG keyword search results to be more DVR friendly like the old guide was? Three calls so far to Verizon FIOS IMG Support Staff and no one can answer other than to say that I'd better get used to the limited dvr functionality of the New IMG Search as it will probably never provide the same useful dvr functionality of the old IMG search feature

Just got the new IMG on the 8th of January.....still "playing"....so far: OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!

New guide has problems, but normal for software updates. Bugs fixing takes time.

Since update my DVI port has become unrelible. Before update DVI went over a year
with no problems.

I don't know who was "wowed" by your new menu system and please don't tell me because if they were "wowed" by this garbage software, they don't know what they are talking about.

It is slow and you are trying to cram too many columns on the screen in the on-demand section. I really HATE the magnified row concept in the main channel guide and you made the mini-tv window so small that you can't see it anymore while you are browsing.

I'd really like to see you put the old system back while you take this thing back to the drawing board. Fire your interface designers and testers (probably going out on a limb thinking you even had them). Make sure you design the system for a TV with a remote control and not a computer screen with a mouse and keyboard.

I have complained about the 0 sec. / Bad Recording issue since September. I have spent several hours on the phone trying to get to the correct support person. This is because I do not have a Verizon telephone number. No automated method can find your account without a Verizon number. Also, if you have a cellphone with a non local area code you are always forwarded to a call center that can not help people in your state.

As far as the recording problem, I do not trust my box to record anything. This issue happens to often. It has been happening for me since the middle of August when I received the update. I have finally been told after having my STB replaced twice that the only thing that will fix this issue is a update on December 6, 2007. I have gone nearly a 1/4 of a year without DVR service, and only excuses or pleas of ignorance when you call support.

You are very close to losing a otherwise satisfied customer. I LOVE(!) my fios internet service, but the TV service and phone billing/tech support are absolutely terrible. Please inform your customers what is happening. You will have many fewer service calls and much happier subscribers. Even if the solution to the problem is not at hand.

Ok who are the morons at verizon that designed this image? Did they even do a beta test or pull this out of their ass. Seriously this one disappointing update.

1) This update has killed all my previously recorded shows.
2) You cannot delete channels. Are you guys out of your mind? Seriously who is the moron that created this. That whole dept needs to be fired.
3) Eye candy true but functionality sucks. Give me back my old guide.
4) I am getting errors one after another and making watching TV impossible.
5) I will be switching to a different provider for my television.

For those of you thinking about switching to Verizon for your TV needs, run away you will not like what you see here. They were great but this new menu or lack of makes watching TV impossible. Also if they don't allow this post to go through, I will make sure that this posted elsewhere.

Did anyone at Verizon Beta test this system? The first ver they put out had some flaws, but it was not as bad as it is now. I'm a long time Verizon customer, but I will be canceling this TV service, and go back to Brighthouse, or one of the Sat providers.

This entire system is just too much work to endure, and I would not keep this TV service if it were free.
Clearly the people responsible for this upgrade have never actually used this interface ver!!!

cannot edit channels, only favorites. Useless why?

I need to make a comment regarding the layout of the new remote control even though there is no way to make any changes.

- Why is there an enormous "FIOS TV" button located in the middle in the remote and all it does is bring up the channel label? That is prime remote real estate and the button function is identical to just hitting the "OK" button.

- The "On Demand" button is located centimeters from the "Favorites", "Last", "Mute" buttons which are all heavily used. If you're off by a fraction of an inch when you hit a button in that area, the next thing you know you launch VOD and your are stuck for 20 seconds waiting for it to load. Very frustrating

- Why are the "Guide" and "Info" button placed so high on the remote? I rely heavily on these buttons and to get to them you have to shift the entire remote in your hand. Those buttons should be where the "Widgets" and "On Demand" buttons are located.

- If you type in two numbers from the number pad to get to a double-digit channel, you have to hit the "OK" button on the opposite end of the remote, or wait for the box to automatically take you there after a short wait. The "#" button should be the enter button like it is on the Comcast remote.

- One STB comment- If you have the front of your box displaying "time", it takes 45 seconds to display the time each time you change change channels. For those 45 seconds, the box displays the new channel. There should be an option to reduce the time you wait for the box to display the time.

I'm having all the same issues as listed above since the "upgrade". I called Verizon and spoke to a support rep that said it was the first he'd heard of any issues. Acted like I was being picky. Told him the power outlet on the DVR wasn't working anymore, and he tried to talk me out of the using the feature.

Verizon - you need to get these items fixed ASAP or provide us a backward downgrade option.

Biggest complaint here is that when you lose power, the DVR won't start recording again unless you manually power it back on. What if I am out of town?

What happened to CZ? No responses to any one of people's concerns since 9/18.

Two months people have posted about problems with this IMG release.
The only admission I've seen that Verizon even is aware of this problem is the September update from this blog poster. And that was just a "we hear you".
Absolutely no indication from Verizon that ANY of these problems will be fixed any time soon. Apparently, this is business as usual from Cable/Satellite/and now FIOS.

I'm switching to TivoHD. It works.

So hung up on all the bugs I forgot a feature I’d LOVE to see. It would be GREAT to be able to “delete” (automatically mute) individual shows I NEVER want to see. For example, the Sci Fi channel has some decent stuff on it so I don’t want to delete the channel (if I could!), but they also have the idiotic pro “wrestling” nonsense (WHY!?) I’d like to be able to flag such crap on a show-by-show basis and whenever that show was on, that channel would just be blank with a message like “Offensive, idiotic crap removed from view.” It would make channel surfing much more pleasant. No more police chases, caught on tape, cops, crime scenes, etc. etc.

I'll echo a lot of what's said here, good and bad. The guide and responsiveness is indeed snappier in general. I love picking up the page up and down functionality. Mini guide is very useful. The interface is slick, and relatively intuitive. LOOOOOooooVVVE my 30 second skip with programmability. Good job on those things.

However, there are some serious usability issues you have to deal with. I've never cursed at an interactive system quite so frequently or vocally in my life.

There's no reason that the default tuner needs to be switched when recording a show with the DVR. The old system used the secondary tuner. That way when I'm watching something on the DVR I can set the channel to something I don't care about while the DVR records using the second tuner and I watch something else on the DVR. That way when I leave the DVR and come back to live TV I don't see some critical plot point of a show I'm recording but not watching yet. At least don't disable the pause button on the guide screen. Right now I have this crazy maze of buttons to push so that I can go from 1 show that's on my DVR to watch a show that's being recorded. Here's the maze:

1. Show ends. Push Stop.
2. Guide appears. Hit Exit.
3. Guide disappears. Show I'm recording appears. Panic. Hit pause to keep from seeing the end of the show before the beginning.
4. Hit DVR button.
5. Navigate to show being recorded (3-4 clicks)
6. Hit play from the menu (because play from start isn't an option yet)
7. Show appears on screen and starts playing from where you just paused it. Hit pause again.
8. Hit DVR button again.
9. Navigate to show being recorded (3-4 clicks)
10. Hit play from start on the menu.

Show will play as expected.

Sure, I could rewind the show from the interface, but that means I'm visually scanning the show in reverse and I could potentially pick up on plot points. Really not optimal. Perhaps there's a shortcut to go to the beginning of a show that you're watching, but I haven't found it.

This is really really really annoying since it's how we watch our TV. We only tend to time shift things half an hour to an hour and this makes that way of experiencing TV painful. Very very very painful.

Please fix it. :) Just add the "start from beginning" option back to the dvr's recorded program contextual menu, enable dvr control buttons from within the guide (play, pause, etc) and don't switch to the tuner that's recording when you exit the DVR back to regular "live" tv.

Thanks in advance to this serious usability issue. If it's not fixed, I really will go out and get a TiVo HD. The only reason I use your DVR is because it's convenient. You're making it inconvenient.

I'm having problems with watching a show while it is recording the show. If I start playback a half hour into an hour long show that is currently recording, the DVR plays only the first half hour. It stops recording the remainder of the show while I watch the first half.

The second problem is when I am watching live TV and the DVR changes the channel to record a show. The channel changes but all I can see is a black screen with the channel label at the bottom of the screen. The label disappears after a few seconds.

It would be good if I could easily password enable and disable use. I've got a problem with a young teenager getting up late at knight to watch TV.

No longer offers to delete after end of pgm - must go find and delete

no slow fwd/rev, only step with intrusive banner

Banner is ANNOYING! Not needed so often.

video and/or audio blanks out randomly - audio sometimes out of sync

frequently powers off on pgm delete

could not save cached video from previous pgm

select on menu items inconsistent (sometimes right, sometimes select)

CANNOT REMOVE CHANNELS!!!!! - makes "channel surfing" impossible HUGE mistake.

unsubscribed channels should AUTOMATICALLY be hidden based on subscription.

search should NOT include unsubscribed channels (or deleted channels if you COULD delete them)

records same episode over and over and over and over- CLUELESS about existing recordings.

"first run" seems meaningless

No persistent search for future shows or keywords

cannot add second episode (at different time) if one already exists

"ouija board" wraps top to bottom, but left or right exits

Many menu selections are slow with no audible or visible selection confirmation.

remote commands get buffered - slow functions result in multiple commands

"Next Airings" - (not shown if =none?)

Memu randomly non-responsive

no confirmation sounds or prompts

never a "please wait" msg on slow functions - "it just sits there"

description often incorrect or describes series, not episode - generally very poor

Date, names not shown in info.

sometimes displays wrong info for recordings

What the heck do the colors mean in the guide? Where does it say?

FREQUENT "0 second" recordings - "[show name] is bad recording" - VERY Frustrating.

Frequent "weekly" tests cancel recordings, but DVR "thinks" it's still recording, cannot resume.

randomly powers off and does not resume

When in series manager (and elsewhere) chan up/dn should skip by page.

Pressing "Record" while watching a recording should indicate user error.

recording indicator not always displayed in banner

current position indicator not always displayed

No way to switch between tuners (needed to "watch two channels at once" without recording. "Last" is not the same, dumps buffer)

We have had the new IMG here in MD for some time. Looks great, however.... response time is a bit slow. Would love to be able to enter in a parental control password just once, instead of every time you tune to a new channel. Dying to set up recording remotely.

The greatest sin for any DVR is to miss recordings. I can live with almost any other bug, but I can't live with a box missing recordings. This software has bugs. The bugs cause it to miss recordings. Please don't wait for your "regularly scheduled release" to fix these bugs. Fix them now please. Examples:

1) Set Nascar race to record. Went away for the weekend. Came back home. Nothing recorded. Why? Well, the box was in some "state" that required a hard power cycle. Nothing had been recording all weekend. Therefore, I didn't see the race.

2) Next weekend, set Nascar race to record. (It is in the playoffs BTW...important races). Got home a few hours after race start. Race was not recording. The box claimed that their was a scheduling conflict. However, nothing else was scheduled to record for the entire day. Power cycling the box caused it to begin recording immediately. Saw the last 20 laps.

These bugs are fatal. This does not make TV watching fun. This does not make me feel good about FIOS. This reminds me a lot of my experiences with the old Dish Network DVRs....

What could Verizon do? ACKNOWLEDGE THE PROBLEM. Send an e-mail. Don't make me come find this blog to discover that there is a problem. Notify your customers that you are aware of it and are fixing it. It isn't that hard to do. I certainly would be less frustrated right now.

Some other random issues:
1) If you delete a program WHILE it is playing, then the space does not get listed as free space. The DVR thinks it is still taking up room. A hard power cycle causes free space to be computed properly. If you STOP the program first, then delete it, this problem does not exist.

2) If you delete a LOT of shows all at once, the box crashes. Then, when you reboot (hard power cycle), the shows you just deleted are still there. This is clearly a bug. Note: This does not result in MISSED RECORDINGS. Therefore, this bug, while annoying, isn't fatal to the box.

3) When you ask to record a program from the guide, you cannot immediately change recording options. This is important for Nascar races and football games. Instead, you have to go to the scheduled recordings, find the recording, then edit options.

4) When navigating menus (particularly VOD), you must constantly switch between the "OK" button and the "Right Arrow" button to move forward. This is just poor interface design.

I gave up Tivo to come to FIOS. I was hoping that Verizon would not be like every other cable and satellite company out there. The quality of the DVR software has an enormous impact on my viewing experience. The old software worked. It had issues, but it worked. Now, I'm back to non-viable solution with the promise of "one day, we will fix your problems". I am seriously considering purchasing a Tivo and switching to cable cards. Verizon, I hope you are listening. I have been a customer of Dish, DirecTV, Cox, and now FIOS. Every time I have made a switch it is because the DVR situation has been a problem. Please communicate with your customers PUBLICLY.

Have you considered FIXING it BEFORE continuing to distribute it?!

Can't wait for 1. HD VOD 2. HD via HM DVR 3. Tennis Channel HD

I liked the IMG when it first rolled out, great features and look. Huge improvement over the other version even though I only had it for a short time.
A few problems however. I am having problems with the series manager. For some series, when I click on the record button from the guide and try to create a series I am getting strange messages that state there is a conflict and the current episode will not be recorded, even though there is no conflict. I am having problems where the series is not recording all shows, not sure how its picking and choosing.
Searching is a bit clunky, having to hit OK all the time rather than just using the arrows to go left and right into directories and up and down.
It would be nice if there was somethign that told you what was being recorded on the other tuner, or a quick way to jump to the other tuner.
I had direcTv with TIVO before FIOS. I really miss my TIVO, they really had this down, I think FIOS should try and emulate what TIVO has as far as software and the way the DVR is programmed. It was extremely easy to use, even my 5 year old could navigate it. FIOS is a little more complicated, but I will wait to see the enhancements and maintenanace releases before I decide whether to stick with it or not. I do like the Multi-room DVR feature.

I am a FIOS tv subscriber in TX. How do I get the new Interactive Media Guide?

I've been seeing the commercials on my FiosTV for weeks and there is still no IMG installed in my house. Since I don't have a Verizon phone number, I have to call the Florida Regional Manager's office to change anything on my package... yes, I do feel like I'm being discriminated against because I have a Vonage phone number.... it's just sad that their phone system kicks you out because it doesn't know what to do with you if you don't have a Verizon phone number. Beyond that, their CSR area has NO IDEA what they are doing.

I'm just waiting until the end of my contract and I'm going back to Bright House... at least they know how to answer the phone when I call. I could care less about the new IMG.

New IMG for Florida when ?????????????????




Thanks!!

I hate the new IMG; it's been nothing but trouble. Teh volume control takes over 30 seconds to go from 0 to 100% volume. A recorded show starts at 1 minute from the end of the show instead of from teh begining. after the lsat show in a series is deleted, the menu system jumps to another show series. The fisheye menu is a pain to scroll by the page. Sometimes I hit record and ther is no indication the show is being recorded - but it is recorded. Calling the hlep desk is a totoal waste of time. After holdign for 30 minutes I get to a person who tells me to wait a moment and she places me back at the top of the queue. The volume of commercials is much louder than the show; I have to use teh mute key often during commercials.

We have received the mailer and the voice-mail message here in Northern Delaware. When is the new guide actually rolling out?

How about making the upgrade schedule publicly available?
I hear all about it but other than saying NY will be in Sept there is no information.

Since Long Island is not going to see it until later this fall, will we still get version 1.0, or will we move directly to the version which includes the maintenance release?

Enough with the delays in Northern NJ for the new guide. I've been told, in succession, August 15, August 28, September 11, and September 19 (today) and still nothing. Confidence fading for the company that supposedly "never stops working for me." If I missed deadline 4 times like that at my work, I wouldn't have to worry about working any more...

Gary:
Long Island should see the IMG later this Fall. CZ

When is this coming to Long Island, New York?

Glad that I found this blog to voice out my opinion on the new Verizon fios tv guide.. I have been waiting for this guide ever since one of my collegue mentioned about this a while ago.. even wanted to sign up to be a beta tester..unfortunately it was not trailled in my region but I have it now and been using it ..I think this is a true next generation program guide and Verizon is going in the right direction with this, the new guide has a lot of differentiating features compared to the program guides of the competitors...

What is really appealing, is the amount of program information available on the guide and the ease to get to a specific feature. I look forward to see more interactive feature on the guide..

I noticed some sporadic software glitches while using dvr but they are no surprise to me as this is a brand new product.. hoping verizon is keeping an eye on those.

My guess... Some "marketing type" decided that making us wade through all the channels we don't get will encourage us to subscribe to them. WRONG! It's just VERY ANNOYING. I'm going back to DirecTV with TiVo. Verizon has a LOT to learn about TESTING interfaces and getting REAL feedback!

Good that I found this blog to voice out my opinion on the new Verizon fios tv guide. I have been waiting for this guide ever since one of my colleague mentioned about this a while ago, even wanted to sign up to be a beta tester, unfortunately it was not trailed in my region but I have it now and been using it, I think this is a true next generation interactive guide and Verizon is going in the right direction with this, the new program guide has a lot of differentiating features compared to the program guides of the competitors.

What is really appealing to me is the amount of program information available on the guide and the ease to get to a specific feature. I look forward to see more interactive features on the guide

I noticed sporadic glitches while using dvr but they are no surprise to me as this is a brand new product, hoping Verizon is keeping an eye on those.

Just dropped Comcast for Fios TV. My comments: Verizon's program guide is easier to navigate than Comcast's. For one thing, they have a trail of where you came from on the left side of the screen, so you can always press the <-- button to go back. Similar to a browser. On Comcast's you have to press the "last" button, which is not very conveniently located on the remote. The design of the Verizon remote is far superior to Comcast's in general. The buttons are well layed out and they make sense, in other words, the icons or labels are very intuitive. And it lights up. Again, a small thing, but don't most people have the lights down low when they're watching TV? I have to turn the lights on to operate the Comcast remote (of course if their buttons were layed out better I could probably do it in the dark). The program guide also shows more programs per page than Comcast's. The only thing I don't like is the way it enlarges the program that the cursor happens to be on. I'd rather do that myself if desired. Verizon has a search and Comcast does not, so that's better. The Verizon user interface overall is better, although Comcast lets you change the colors. Not sure why you'd need to do that, but they let you.
The serviceman they sent out was very nice. And my combined bill is going to be $60 less per month for two years.Not bad.

Just dropped Comcast for Fios TV. My comments: Verizon's program guide is easier to navigate than Comcast's. For one thing, they have a trail of where you came from on the left side of the screen, so you can always press the <-- button to go back. Similar to a browser. On Comcast's you have to press the "last" button, which is not very conveniently located on the remote. The design of the Verizon remote is far superior to Comcast's in general. The buttons are well layed out and they make sense, in other words, the icons or labels are very intuitive. And it lights up. Again, a small thing, but don't most people have the lights down low when they're watching TV? I have to turn the lights on to operate the Comcast remote (of course if their buttons were layed out better I could probably do it in the dark). The program guide also shows more programs per page than Comcast's. The only thing I don't like is the way it enlarges the program that the cursor happens to be on. I'd rather do that myself if desired. Verizon has a search and Comcast does not, so that's better. The Verizon user interface overall is better, although Comcast lets you change the colors. Not sure why you'd need to do that, but they let you.
The serviceman they sent out was very nice. And my combined bill is going to be $60 less per month for two years.Not bad.

I have been upgraded and have FIOS TV 2.0 for a little more than a month now .. most of the issues discussed above seems to be repititive, I am sure VZ caputured all of them and working on the fixes.. I do agree that there are few bugs which make a difference to the power users of the program guide..but I have to say that the new guide is soo much cooler and feature rich than the old one.. I am glad about my smooth upgrade..

- Picture qualtiy has a dramatic improvement after the upgrade.

- New guide is soo easy to use, most of the time I manage the navigation just with the arrow keys on my remote

- Channel logos are very helful

- Full guide view gives a better choice of selection in a single view

- Search is great..looks up all the way through my recorded programs

- DVR option are improved and now it is much faster to manage than with the old guide.

- Help videos are awesome

Few things I want to see though are weeding out unwanted channels and being able to stream my vidoes clips on PC without having to spend a fortune on Apple TV, hopefully these are in the pipeline. Overall I am a happy camper!

When is Verizon going to step and and acknowledge this issue? After 4 calls customer support I've given up on phone contact. Yes, many of these posts are off topic, but guess what, this is the only site having a Verizon official that allows user input.

Like many I am NOT HAPPY with the new system. I have had FIOS TV for 1.5 years now (one of the early adopters in Northern VA), and this upgrade has been upsetting. I hope VZ can push out bug fixes sooner than later for their and our sake!

Additional problems I've had:

* Many of my periodically my series programming does record. It marks the recording at 0 sec and says something to effect of "Couldn't record because recording to an unsubscribed channel".
* Upgrades seem to happen around 8ish right in the middle of primetime TV, which has caused many of my programs not to be recorded or only partially.
* At this very moment (9/6/07 10pm) I can't get any programming information on any channel for today or any day in the future. Turning on and off hasn't helped.

The new search capability is nice, but there is certainly many fixes necessary otherwise (especially great previous functionality that no longer exists).

Many have already outlined the many faults of the new guide. I would like to echo that the guide itself is a shallow eye candy improvement but most functions are a major step backwards, especially the DVR functions. The menus are much more clumsy to navigate. Whereas before, after watching recorded content you were placed in a menu for that content you now have to navigate through all recorded content to find and delete the show you just watched. I also find that if I first delete the 2nd show in a list then delete the 1st the unit crashes and reboots, turning itself off for the reboot. Verizon should be ashamed for rolling this out and the folks who say they are eagerly awaiting the rollout are in for a nasty surprise.

I would like to be able to play videos in addition to picture amd music files on Home Media Manager.

Most comments have hit the major negatives and positives. But when I simply want to see what baseball games are on, it's next to impossible. Try searching for baseball, and you get every movie or show that is associated with the word. There should be a simple sports subcategory as in every other guide system (even the dreaded moxi, which was almost nothing but eye candy).

I live in Mass and used to be a Comcast customer, recently I switched to FiOS TV, and could feel the high quality picture and better content right away after the switch, just before few days Verizon upgraded my guide and I now have FiOS TV 2.0, I was notified few days ahead about the upgrade..that was really helpful to make sure all my recordings and the PC PIN are retained properly after the upgrade and they were indeed. The new guide is pretty cool and looks high tech, I agree on the fact few mentioned above that the font size is small and the guide looks a little cluttered but that was my initial experience for the first few days.., now I started liking it..there is lot more information on the screen about the programs now and I certainly like the navigation experience of the new guide to access different guide features, great help videos and I like the fact that it allows me to customize duration options for skip forward and replay. Search is spontanious, widgets are very responsive now. I am now looking forward for more interactive features on the new guide..

Today I got an e-mail from a friend who has Comcast. He is planning to leave them because he is "sick of his cable service" (sic). They had to split the lines to reach all of 4 TVs in the house, so now they get a lot of flickering and Comcast is telling them that they can not improve the signal and that the split is causing the disruptions. My friend wants to know how happy I'm with my service and if I recommend to go to Verizon. My answer: Very Happy. No quality issues at all, a cool guide with powerful tools (search, bookmarks, settings). Can't ask for more. At least , that is my experience.

I live in Mass and used to be a Comcast customer, recently I switched to FiOS TV, and could feel the high quality picture and better content right away after the switch, just before few days Verizon upgraded my guide and I now have FiOS TV 2.0, I was notified few days ahead about the upgrade..that was really helpful to make sure all my recordings and the PC PIN are retained properly after the upgrade and they were indeed. The new guide is pretty cool and looks high tech, I agree on the fact few mentioned above that the font size is small and the guide looks a little cluttered but that was my initial experience for the first few days.., now I started liking it..there is lot more information on the screen about the programs now and I certainly like the navigation experience of the new guide to access different guide features, great help videos and I like the fact that it allows me to customize duration options for skip forward and replay. Search is spontanious, widgets are very responsive now. I am now looking forward for more interactive features on the new guide..

The new FiOS TV Media Guide upgrade is really a step backwards in being user-friendly. Here are some of the more negative things about the upgrade:
1. DVR (Motorola QIP6200) recorded episodes of the same program is now limited to a maximum of five. Four out of our eight prerecorded and unseen programs (Mystery!) were immediately deleted when the upgrade was recently activated.
2. DVR recording program information is truncated making it more difficult to determine if we have previously seen the program or not.
3. DVR recorded and View Schedule programs no longer include the episode titles.
4. DVR recorded and Series Manager programs are no longer listed alphabetically.
5. DVR recording capacity is now reduced down to 47 hours; previously it was 80 hours. Interesting, the Verizon website says the capacity is 120 hours.
6. It takes five button pushes to learn if a program is new or a rerun; previously it was display along with the basic information about the programs on the TV listing and DVR screens.
7. When watching a recorded program and it ends, pushing the Stop button now display all of the recorded programs; previously, we were given the immediate option to delete the program. Now we must search through the entire recorded program in order to find the program that we just watched so that we can select it and delete it.
8. The Fast Forward symbol of F2, F3, etc., has been replaced to two or three arrowheads.
9. I found the Marketplace listing something that I’m not interested in. In fact, it cheapens our whole FiOS service.
10. No longer can we search for a program by date and time, as that option is gone.
11. Program titles are truncated in the TV Listing.
12. Programs in the DVR View Schedule now only show seven days in advance while the TV Listing shows 14 days.
13. The Reminder feature on the STB (Motorola QIP2500) no longer works.
14. The remote control on the Help video shows a totally different control than the one that we received with our DVR and STB boxes. We have four Scientific Atlanta AT8550 controls. We are missing the DVR, OK, On Demand, Options, Skip Forward, and STB buttons.
15. The channels previously removed from the TV Listing are now all back and the option to remove these unwanted channels is no longer available.

Last Night (August 22, 2007) in southern California, Verizon upgraded their
FiOS TV software and my opinion - bring back the old software. Here's the
advantages of the new software:

(1) Maximum DVR recording time is now 47 hours with the old software it was
80 hours.

(2) Maximum DVR episodes to save are now five before it was unlimited. We
lost at least five recorded programs that we never got a chance to see.

(3) All channel settings are lost and now we must weed out the channels that
we don't want to see all over again.

(4) The capably of programming the non-DVR to change to a certain channel
and time for use with a VCR is gone.

Okay, so it's been a while now that I have been using Verizon FiOS TV, previously a Comcast customer for a long long time, and I am so happy I am a FiOS TV customer, .esp since the new guide that was recently updated on our set top box. The multiroom DVR feature is the coolest thing, so my wife and I never had to fight over the remote. I can watch all reocorded ESPN and NESN shows, my live sport games and she can watch all her soap opera's and grey's anatomy whenever we want. We have become addicted to our DVR and FiOS. Keep up the great work Verizon.

My parents just got the new Verizon service in their house. I came to visit for the long weekend and had a good time watching TV. I bought couple of movies on Video on Demand which was very convenient. There are a LOT of movies in there which makes this product a paradise...pizza and movies. Doesn't get any better.

I am getting used the new software and liking it. I was worried about my parental pins. We have 3 boxes and i was worried but looks like they were all intact. I remember RCN doing such a lousy job when they upgraded. The new ON - OFF switch is very useful. Allows me to quickly turn ON parental settings. The guide looks very colorful. Nice and fresh. When can we set recordings from my other boxes. Now we can only watch from the other boxes

Picture qualtiy seems much better after the upgrade. I just love the FiOS picture quality. The new software is really good. Channel logos makes it look very fresh. The new PC software for music is also an upgrade and now i can browse by artist which is a good change. I wish they could allow using playlist from itunes. It is difficult to recreate everything. The PC software is much faster and looks cooler..kinda like the guide.

Kudos to Verizon for this new guide. I love how easy is to navigate and get around with teh remote control. No need to be pressing "last" all the time to go back to find content in some other tab.
For long time I was wondeting when VZ will come up with something like Tivo.
You just hit the nail on the head.

btw...the Featured view for On Demand titles is very intuitive.

When will Texas get the new IMG? I have read some blogs on IMG and really the only one item that concerns me is the loss of the favorite channel list. I thought it was not only going to have the favorites, but also a high def list.
I am hopeful that it will also allow me to set up a series on a football team. Now it has to be on the same channel each week.(which is rare) I see the FF4 has been fixed! My wife will love that one.

Its been about a couple of weeks that i have the upgrade. At first i was a little averse to the change but as i got to play with it, I am starting to love the new IMG. I find it so easy to use. The arrow navigation is really quick to go in and out of the screens. Earlier i had to keep pressing the last button and even that did not work all the time.

Search used to be a nightmare earlier. Yesterday i tried searching for "King of Queens" and even found my recorded programs. That was really cool.

It is really fast compared to my tivo. I found the tivo really sluggish.

I miss blocking my unsubscribed channels and I hope it is fixed soon.

The new half guide is really nice with the whole video window. My wife can watch while i surf. Wonder why there arent channel logos on all channels. I use the logos to find my channels quickly. Wish all of them had logos.

I am really liking this upgrade...

I just have to say that I am in love with this search feature you guys have in the upgrade. I got hooked into it when I realized that I was entering some characters and it was searching for all the content with those few letters.
I started searching for Denzel Washington and all of the sudden I could see the a bunch of movies where he was in, I selected De Javu...but the cool thing is that once you find a movie you can select it and start the search from the on other cast members....it was long time since I saw a movie with Paula Patton who was also in Hitch.

My next try is for Jennifer Aniston….cool stuff. Hope you can do it with youtube videos as well. That will rock!.

We just got "upgraded" to the new menu/guide last week and in general we are very happy with it. This is a big step for verizon. The new guide is fresh and very intuitive to use. Basically you only need the arrow keys and ok in the remote to do anything you want. My dad who is 74 years old used to struggle a lot with the remote control and never find the buttons. Now he is finding this new upgrade a lot more "friendly"....kudos to Verizon.
You have really lower the discussions in the living room due to remote control fights.

A happy soccer mom !


btw...are you guys providing any kids games any time soon??? I can't afford XBox or Wii or other toys like those.

While playing with the guide a couple of days ago, I discovered a feature that I never saw in other guides: Ability to turn closed caption on and off directly from the guide.
I have some hearing problems so, unless I turn the volume all the way up in the box and in the TV, I have problems watching TV in some (not all) channels. Close Caption ON can be annoying for the rest of my family so, with the RCN guide I had to use the commands directly from the box (big pain in the neck) but now I (and the rest of the family) can control it from the remote. Good one, I totally appreciate this feature!

Just switch from Comcast to Verizon...couldn't be more happy. Are we talking about the same guide? Why is that I don't see any of the problems people describe in this blog? My DVR already has 10 recordings and everything looks fine. Also, a friend in Woburn,MA who had the old guide and was upgraded told me he likes this new one much better (one problem for him that is now fixed is that he is now able to adjust the box volume using the guide). Am I missing something here?

My hat goes off to Verizon for sure with this new service. Since the upgrade happened for me I have not had any issues so far :) I like the Guide much better. DVR recordings are working great, and much faster then managing them with the old guide. Search tool is helping me find a ton of shows that I would never even had thought to watch before, esp since when you view movies, etc - you can then drill to actors and see all the other movies that they are in on other times and channels. My DVR is full already with like 15 movies. My wife is happy since we have a ton of choices ready to go all the time.

I received the 2.0 upgrade last week in Southern California. I came over to FIOS two months ago from Dish network where I had their VIP622 HD DVR. You certainly have got a LOT further to go if FIOS is to be competitive. Dish's guide is MUCH more informative *year, actors names, episode number, etc.) and easy to use. The DISH DVR programming is instantaneous and intuitive compared to FIOS.. One BIG feature that would be helpful due to the small hard drive of the FIOS HD DVR would be to have duplicate recordings of the same show skipped.

How do you fast forward recorded programs ?

I have been using the new IMG for about a week now.

First of all, let me say that I appreciate the vast number of improvements made to the FIOS TV interface, and believe that it is largely a step in the right direction. That being said, following are a number of features in the old system that were eliminated, outright bugs, and wishlist type items:

1. By far the biggest issue for me is that we lost the ability to select which channels are viewable in the program guide, eliminating channels that we don't subscribe to, are not in English, or are just not interested in. The lack of this makes channel surfing very tedious, having to wade through 500 (?) channels when there are really only maybe about 100 I want to surf through. If you thought that "Favorites" would replace that functionality, think again. There are many deficiencies and bugs with Favorites (which I will outline in the next paragraph), and I found in the old system that Favorites was really best used for a small handful of favorite channels, not for weeding out all the channels you don't want to see in the guide. I know you added the ability to see a listing of only the HD stations, but it still shows all of the HD stations I don't subscribe to or aren't interested in. Moxi goes a big step further than you, automatically giving you roughly 8 categories such as HD, sports, news, movies, kids, music, etc. However, this is not ideal either, as this still shows you stations within those categories that you don't want to see. The best implementation I've used is with DirecTV, which gave you 4 user-customizable guides. Each of these independently allowed you to select what channels could be viewed on the guide for that "user". It was very simple to set up, for example, Adults, Kids, HD, & Music, and for each of them, only see the channels I wanted. In addition, there was an "All" category, which is the equivalent of the way your guide now works, showing every channel available. Ideally, you would offer even more user guides - I could easily envision being able to take advantage of 10 of them. You may feel that some users don't want to go to the bother of going through the entire list of channels and selecting which ones they want - perhaps some combination of the Moxi system that by default gives you all of the categories with all of the channels turned on by default, and then the ability to within each category turn off individual stations. (One helpful feature I believe DirecTV offered in figuring out what channels you want to include or exclude is the ability, while going though the channel lists, to view the currently selected channel in the list in a small window, so you could evaluate whether to include it on the fly).

2. There are numerous deficiencies and bugs with Favorites as currently implemented. I can't seem to have HD channels in the Favorites list. You can't cycle through the Favorites list in a circular fashion as you can with the program guide (when you get to the bottom, you can't continue down to the first station). Channels added to favorites adds the Spanish equivalent channel, which can't be eliminated. Unlike the guide, I can't, while watching one favorite station, punch in the channel number for another station to see what's on that channel currently.

3. It used to be simple to view all of the upcoming programming on a given channel (left arrow click on the guide to the channel, and hit OK). Now you have to type in a search for that channel, which is considerably more steps.

4. The guide used to be 16x9. Most sets sold these days are that aspect ratio, the guide should take advantage of the additional screen space, or at least give you the option to switch it from 4:3 to 16:9.

5. Doing a search for a show doesn't show all of the channels it is available on; I did a search for an HBO show, and the results only displayed the SD HBO airing as a result; it didn't display the HD HBO airing.

6. DVR issues: My biggest beef is that immediately after watching a recorded program, you used to be immediately given various options on a menu that allowed you to delete the program - now you have to wade through all of your recorded shows to find it first so that it can be deleted. DVR conflicts are not shown like they used to be. It appears that we have far less available space to record than we did before.

7. We lost the ability to set reminders.

8. While watching a recorded program or delayed live programming, you used to be able to hit the play button to view the progress bar; this is no longer available.

9. The page up & down only works for the guide; it should also work for a list of search results or recorded shows.

10. We used to have 4x FFW & REW; now it's only 3x max.

11. No more slo mo mode. When using single frame advance, the info screen stays up covering up the bottom of the screen.

12. When I go to play a recording it sometimes asks if I want to resume watching it, even if I never started watching it.

13. I started watching a recording from the beginning which was still being recorded. I then paused it to come back to it later and when I hit resume it resumes at the very end of the recording rather than where I left off.

14. Many programs in the guide seem to only have generic information, rather than episode specific details. So when looking at all episodes of a season pass, there is no way to tell the difference between episodes.

THE IMG update is a downgrade. frame by frame advancement or reversing enables a annoying pop-up window onscreen that does not timeout and can not be removed. VERY BAD PROGRAMING BUG!!!!!!!!

THE IMG update is a downgrade. frame by frame advancement or reversing enables a annoying pop-up window onscreen that does not timeout and can not be removed. VERY BAD PROGRAMING BUG!!!!!!!!

IT WOULD BE USEFUL TO USERS TO HAVE A "MANUEL" TO EXPLAIN HOW THE
NEW dvr MENU WORKS. I HAVE HAD THE NEW img SINCE THURS & STILL HAVING
PROBLEMS FIGUERING OUT HOW IT WORKS. ALSO, I LIKED THE OLD search
FOR DATE/TIME. I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW HOW TO USE THIS img EFFECTIVELY!!!

I find the new way of displaying program information attractive, but poorly executed. I don't know how many times the program information included is just plain wrong (not the same as what I'm seeing). I also don't like the loss of other features Verizon provided before -- as others here have stated.

Hate the new IPG want to go back....even volume adjustment is slow and unresponsive. please give me the option of switching back

I hope your IMG service is better than what you have now. My verizon FIOS TV has been nothing but trouble for me. MY HD-DVR doesnt work half the time and the TV screen freezes and the DVR wont record correctly it say DVR error half way through the recording. Ive had mutiple problems with the FIOS service and lots of on the phone tech. support as well as field service techs. coming to my house. I certanily should have stayed with Dish Network I had never had any problems in the 2 years I had there HD-DVR service and had the the same exact picture and sound with more HD channels. I certanily hope there IMG service is better when it goes nation wide because there Fios service I have now is not impressing me and I am a computer software programer for the largest machinery maker in the world. I should not had let my wife talk me into switching to Verizon. I have sent in a letter expressing my frustration and needing help to the regional support manager 3 weeks ago and no one has contacted me. WOW could of fooled me when they say WE NEVER STOP WORKING FOR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

Without question, the previous software version where viewers could delete selected channels was superior to the current upgrade. The previous version permitted switching between menu and full screen views of favorite stations without the necessity of having to punch the favorites button each time in order to return to the favorites menu.

******** W E W A N T T H E O L D G U I D E B A C K **********

This is the “WORST” upgrade (Or should we call downgrade) I have seen rolled out by any.

I was so excited when I switched to FIOS from Dishnetwork. I did loose a lot of features when I had to abandon my REPLAYTV-DVR and switch to VERIZON-DVR.

However, I was happy for the basic functionalities. Now with the new release they made this DVR worthless.

How could a reputed company like Verizon with millions of customers rollout something without testing it?.

As the users already experienced, the frustration level prevents me from listing out any single issues. Its errors everywhere. The crashes are more often.

Hope they roll back to old version.

"WE WANT THE OLD GUIDE BACK *************************************"

very disapointed with the new upgrade. Would rather have kept the old menu with a few minor tweaks. If verizon doesn't repair this mess I'm going back to Directv with Tivo.

The feature I miss the most moving from Brighthouse to FiOS is the ability to change the screen geometry for non-HD channels when using an HDMI connection to a widescreen HD TV. On Brighthouse, I simply tapped the "#" key to change a non-HD station's picture from 4x3 to one of three expanded modes. I hope FiOS is adding this capability. (Apparently the HD-DVRs supported this feature, but FiOS overrode the remote control button that controlled it to add the silly Weather Widget.)

I too have the same problems with VOD playback. Once I fastfoward or reverse, I cannot resume play. Shame on VZ for releasing seemingly untested software. That problem should have been easy to catch. Good thing I still have my Tivo! (On another note, it ticked me off when VZ disabled the serial port on the Fios STB!)

Love the search. Period. I don't remember any other guide (I was both a Comcast and RCN customer) with such a powerful search tool. Some of the 'bugs' mentioned in this blog are not a big deal as long as Verizon is taking note and some I do not consider them a bug at all. For instance: I would prefer the way that the FAV works now by starting always in the same channel rather than by starting from the channel that you are on. Much more consistent. Sugestion: Can you guys make SUBSCRIPTIONS the first item in the VOD menu instead of the posters?. 99 out of 100 times I go to my HBO/Cinemax subscriptions (which I do already pay with my monthly bill)but, with this structure I need to wait for all the menus to show up. Nice feature the poster view ONLY if you want to pay for a movie.
What I would like is Verizon to let us know what is in the the pipeline in terms of enhancements and new features. I found my current service with Verizon worth the money I spend when compared with my previous experience with Comcast and RCN. Their products also have issues and the picture quality (hello there!!!...isn't the picture quality one of the MOST important things to consider when watching TV???) is 10 times better with Verizon. Getting fiber right in my door is a huge difference, I haven't notice any degradation of service when all my TVs (2) and computers (3) are on-line or when my neighbors decide they all want to watch videos in YouTube.
Bottom Line: The guide and the service may not be perfect but is far much better (and with much more potential) than any other player on the area I live.
Good Night.

I live in Northern VA and had been experiencing problems since the "upgrade." My set top box keeps going into "offline" mode so that the guide, widgets, VoD, etc are not working. I really don't care about the new graphics and was wondering if there's an option to switch back or "downgrade" to the old version. I don't know if Verizon has different migration teams per region but as I read the other posts, it seems there's a lot of issues in Metro DC area. Someone had posted about not giving enough notice; what I'm curious about is what kind of testing did they do? The interface is slower, could it be that there's not enough memory in the set top boxes to run the "cool" graphics? I would think that they would've done some kind of pilot phase where they rolled out to a few customers first to work out the bugs and learn how to fix them. But it seems that it was more of a send and pray implementation. If they have some kind of change management system, then they should roll back so that the support lines are not busy and I wouldn't have to wait for hours to talk to a tech.

I used the new menu last night. My experience was not good! Reminds me of menus from other companies that I considered not user friendly and too busy. The new menu is flashy, sorta pretty, but not as nice to use as the previous menu. The old menu was not broken! Why try to imitate others when you had the best thing going. The old menu was not as pretty but an excellent menu that required hardly any thought to use? I do certainly hope that you get the new menu fixed, Or go back to the old menu
that worked so well.I'm sure others share my opinion. Please!

Well have to say some things are nicer but a lot of things are a pain in the butt. When hitting favs it always starts at the same channel instead of starting from the channel that you are on . With the dvr is way more cumbersome now. Is hard to find a show in the tv listings so can record it because the bloody thing wants to find the show in the dvr instead.Do like the dvr programming now that you can set it to record the series and set to record only the 1st run of the shows.

I am in Texas, and I am nervous about this new firmware/software.

I don't know when it is coming here, but I got to Fios from using a DirecTV Tivo and it will not take much to send me back to DirecTV. Tivo works perfectly. Nothing else needs be said.

Verizon: stop deploying it until you get the bugs out. Please!

I just got back from a trip to the East Coast and had the chance to visit my friends that got the Verizon new IPG last week or so. I play a lot with the new IPG on Sunday and really like the "freshness" and ease of access to content. I found the full guide view very useful since it gives you about 12 channel at a single time. Actually I like the "half-guide better" ...cool and you have a larger video window. I was a bit disappointed that you can't flip channel by favorites ( i fell that is a must) but at least you can get around if you do the same thing from the guide.
I used the DVR quite a bit although more for watching shows that were already recorded that adding my own ( after all it wasn't my house). Trick play and all that seems to work fine and I like the fact the shows that are part of a series get grouped under the same folder.
Overall good first impression...definitely better than my Satellite service (I hate it so much!!!)

Keep up the good job guys and hopefully someone from product dev will get this message.

We have not gotten the update yet here in Texas but I have a few questions for those who have gotten the update.

1. Does anyone know when North Texas (Dallas) area will get updated?

2. On the old guide we cannot force recordings to start on time. They always records for an extra minute or two on each end which bumps in too live TV or last minute recordings. Is this fixed in the new software? (i.e. If your recording Show A from 9:00 - 9:30 and Show B from 9:30 to 10:00 it will be recording both from around 9:29 - 9:32 and since they overlap it will bump your channel if you are watching Show C live.)

3. Does the new software cure the problem where the interface gets really slow and the buttons don't respond until after a long delay?

Thanks for any info you can share about the new system

I suspect the moderator will not post this because my comments are somewhat negative about the guide, but that wouldn't be democratic. Yes I am WOWed about the new guide, it is pretty and uses neat technology but lets not forget about the old saying, "Keep it simple stupid." People just want to complete tasks simply. How fancy is Google.com? The old guide needed some imporvements like search, etc., but it was fast and worked fine. Now latency is a little slow, my DVR schedule got screwed up, I cannot see % space left easily, and there is no series recording graphic on the guide. The fonts are too small unless I'm watching the large HD TV, the descriptions on VOD are cut off since by the time you navigate to a show it's on the far right etc. I understand they are making fixes and improvements, but please stick to "simple tasks - few clicks" policy and do a litte more user testing next time. Your'e doing good compared to Cable but people will expect excelent from FIOS.

I received the upgrade last week. Received communication in the mail and a voice message which was excellent. Good communication. I was pleasantly surprised with the new software. It looks really nice and i like some of the new additions like VOD changes. I found the interface very easy to use and so far my experience has been very good. Language change was instantaneous. It used to take me about 5 minutes with the older software.

Dear John CZ: I would like to know Verizon's plans for more functions and entertainment features: when I will be able to see my phone's caller ID on my TV?,how many titles is Verizon planning to add, when is VOD HD going to be available?etc..
Thanks,
Lagar
PS: No complains with my guide ;)

I received the Fios-Img a week ago but after a couple of days I do not get eny thing on guide or information on a channal selection

@ Munchen: Thanks for your reply. I enjoy the new IMG update but the only issue I have is with the DVR playback functions. Since my last post I did find a notice on the Verizon FIOS website about not being able to STOP the program when using FFWD or RWD and it was indicated this would be fixed in a future enhancement. Be fortunate that this issue does not seem to affect you.

Dear John CZ,

Could you provide us with a mailing address for FIOS TV Quality Control and Senior Management? While first level phone support is very good at apologizing for all of the problems the customers are experiencing, they do not provide us a way to submit negative feedback. They don't even do a end-of-call survey.

FIOS TV has foist a bug-filled "upgrade" on Verizon's customers which most of the comments would suggest is fairly unpopular. Calling tech support only frustrates us further, because an apology for things they can't fix isn't sufficient. Verizon needs to give us a place to call where we can register a complaint about the complete ineptitude of the Interactive Media Guide team (or at least their testing department).

Waiting until Q4 for a patch is an unacceptable answer.

(sidenote: I think it is very telling that Verizon had tp set up a completely separate 800 number for problems related to the new interactive guide).

This new menu is very unfriendly to the user. So unfriendly that we are considering reverting to our previous provider - even though we have loved fios so far. It is just too time consuming to find a program to watch. Not possible to de-select all the chanels from the program list that we have no interest in so list is enormous. Please do not advise me to use the favourites list. That list does allow me to key in a program number, does not scroll back so also takes a long, frustrating time to scroll around the list and find somethinmg to watch.

This blog is about the FiosTV 2.0 - IMG update so I would rather read about new and upcoming features and other enhancements rather than few posts from some people that have experience random issues. Those I am sure VZ is already taking note of and fixing soon.
In my opinion Verizon should concentrate their next version in interactive TV related features. It seems they are kind of going down that path with Media Manager, the new VoD poster view and that "marketplace". I really hope that becomes a real transactional destination...buy DVDs, CDs and what now..even a new cell phone :).

Answer to Hunter about DVR and VOD: I do not have any of the problems you described in regards to FFWD or RWD, STOP, PLAY or EXIT. In fact, I noticed that the new guide allows me to have more control as I approach the end of the recorded show (with the old guide, if you took the last -say- 10 minutes at 4x the guide would take you right to the end of the show so you were forced to start playing again). Most of my time watching TV is using the DVR and I didn't notice any of the issues you described. Did you check the batteries in your remote? Good luck :)

Being an huge fan of High Def., VOD, and using my DVR like a maniac, I am very happy so far with my FiOS TV service, and think the new guide that I have been using and reading up on online is really growing on me. Like anything it took some days to get adjusted, and being that I am a DVR addict, I have been trying to make sure all my recordings are working properly. There have been a few times it missed some sporting events, but all in it seems I have adjusted some setting to get them to work. I am looking forward to getting more features and more management tools as mentioned on this site. So far the search tool is pretty awesome - as I find things I never would have found before using the old search tool (that was painful for me)

One thing is for sure, I want to suggest a few high priorities for somebody such as me, and plenty of others. A remote DVR feature on a cell or web is a must for me and my buddies. We absolutely need to be able to manage our content, .esp for me since I travel alot and when I get back home love seeing all the stuff I missed while I was on the road. (The sooner the better!) Having the piece of mind to know a recording is set up properly is huge, .esp when it's a last minute double check to make sure it's recording my redsox game.

Also, I wanted to mention that my wife love using the media manager to look at our photos on our huge Plasma TV, so I want to give credit there since my wife loves to use it everytime we get back from a family trip.. and one more big suggestion about Media manager (Please add Video support!) - I am the video master of the family and idea easily view my family videos right off my hard drives is something that would keep me from having to buy an Apple TV!

Please keep on improving your service, since as a customer who spends good money I want to see VZ staying with or ahead of what else is out there in the market.

Is anyone else with the new IMG upgrade having problems with VOD and/or DVR playback? Whenever I fast-forward or rewind a recorded show, I cannot resume normal play. I noticed sometimes if I pause the show then hit pause again it will play at normal speed but this method is inconsistent. Also the stop, play, and exit buttons do nothing for me when watching a recorded program. I'm sure this is an issue with the upgrade since I didn't have this problem before but was wondering if anyone was able to find a workaround or received information about this issue from Verizon's customer service.

We got the new IMG about a week ago. Here are some observations so far:

Pro-
1. Widgets are now working 100% of the time vs. about 50% on the old system.
2. The new graphics are generally more attractive than previous. Others have noted font is too small, but seems OK on my TV. Larger font would mean less info on the screen.
3. The Help Videos are indeed helpful, but the text Help Topics are not. Presumably they will be expanded with similar information as in the videos?
4. The customizable duration options for skip forward and replay is a very useful.

Con-
1. As others have reported, the response time is often slow. This seems to be variable too; sometimes nearly immediate other times a second or more.
2. I also find that navigating from a stopped recording to either restart or delete is very awkward. Display returns to last recorded entry. It takes several remote button entries to get back to the desired screen.
3. The Series Manager doesn’t itemize upcoming episodes of a series as the old system did. It’s necessary to scroll through the entire View Schedule list to see upcoming scheduled recordings in a particular series.
4. Episode titles are only shown on the Info screen when accessed from the Guide. In the old system we were able to see episode titles on recorded programs and in Series Manager of episodes yet to be recorded. Helpful in eliminating duplications!
5. Occasionally the Series Manager indicates a series is to be recorded, but the View Schedule and the channel Guide don’t show it.
6. The Recorder Status screen shows only ~ 50 hours of SDTV capacity (sum of used plus available, no HD). DVR (QIP6416-2, 160GB Seagate hard drive) capacity still quoted as 120 hours SDTV in the current documents (FiOSTVWelcomeKit.pdf). Is this loss caused by the new IMG? If so, this is a serious issue.
7. When setting up Favorites, can’t select by a specific channel number which results in duplication. Channels that are included in both the Premier and the Spanish packages are included twice in Favorites if selected, e.g.USA is 50 & 500, TNT is 51 & 501, etc. This duplication nearly doubles the length of the Favorites list.
8. The Favorites Guide always returns to the same channel (51 on my system). The Full Guide returns to the tuned channel as it should.

Add me to the list of OUTRAGED. Did Verizon test anything in this upgrade? Not only can I echo all of the points made above, but add one more. Apparently on some set top DVR boxes, the "upgrade" disables the "second a/c outlet" and they can't re-enable it. Rather than one "power on/off" button, I now have two.

I have been happy with FIOS since I got it, until now... I hate the upgrade.

Hi: I currently have Comcast and was looking for an option to leave them!. Verizon is now in my town (Melrose,MA) and after visiting friends in Woburn, I decided to make my move. My friends have no complains (some comments about issues with the monthly bill and customer service but, nothing I'm not use to after so many years with Comcrap) and I found the picture quality and the guide pretty cool.

I live in Burington MA and my upgrade was flawless. All my recording and settings were intact. In addition, a few weeks before the upgrade, I received a piece of mail letting me know changes were coming. Granted there was no date or any notice on what I was suppose to do (as it turned out, no action was required). A couple of years ago, I went through the same process with RCN but a) Never was told changes were coming; b) Lost all my recording; c) Lost all my settings..including my PIN. As a parent, I wasn't very happy at all (I felt that RCN couldn't care less about my concerns as a parent to grant access to TV-MA to my kids; this was one of the main drives for me to switch)
The new guide has a very interesting look...it is cool and fun to look at. I give 10 points to the search feature and I also noticed that the volume on my HD recordings did improved substantially (may be because I'm now aware of the ability to change the volume in the box through the guide..no idea how to do it with the old guide). Other things I like: the semi-transparent canvas; the VOD portal looks pretty cool and so far I had no problems accessing my movies packages (note: another reason to switch from RCN: As an average, I had to wait 3 minutes or more to get access to the movie list and sometime had to try 2 or 3 times). Some issues I encountered so far: a) the HD guide does not show all the available HD channels but, I noticed that the missing channels do not have the HD icon; b) Would like to know if I have access to the channels resulting from my search (so I do not schedule a recording to a channel I have no access to); c) Cant use the HDMI connection (I saw comments in another blog that Verizon is aware of that and that a fix is comming (when?))
I like the new guide, I saw improvements on audio quality and, the HD image is as good as I expect. My kids think that looks High-tech and most important of all: MY WIFE DID NOT COMPLAIN!!! :)
P.S: Any idea when Verizon starts offering HD VOD??

We just got the IMG "upgrade" last week. I've tried to adapt even though a well-designed product wouldn't require me to. If you haven't got it yet, be grateful.

The IMG seems to be all about eye-candy and little about functionality. It has serious flaws both in function and in design that make life miserable when using the guide. Testing was clearing poor and whoever they consulted on design doesn't have to use with it every day. Problems include:


1) Channels that are not subscribed to or desired cannot be removed from the guide as before. This makes it unusable. Favorites might be an acceptable alternative except....
2) Favorites doesn't work at all like the main guide - in fact, it barely works at all.
3) Favorites scrolling just stops working if you page multiple times.
4) Favorites scrolling is slow when it is working - "low latency response"? No way.
5) Favorites doesn't display all your favorites - the last 15 or so in my favorites never display and sometimes even more are missing. Scroll up and down a few times and more and more channels go missing (assuming it doesn't lock up)
6) Unlike the main guide, favorites does not default to the channel you are currently watching. It goes sort of to the beginning of the list.
7) Unlike the main guide, favorites doesn't "roll over". That is, when you are at the end of the list, you have to page all the way back to get to the lowest number channels and vice versa. And of course hope that the thing doesn't stop responding as you slowly page through the list.
8) Listings for an individual channel are no longer available by selecting the channel - a huge loss in efficiency and function.
9) And last but not least, the "fixed focus magnifying viewer" is an ergonomic nightmare when scrolling/scanning for a channel which I thought was the purpose of the guide. Instead of the eye quickly scanning the page, first the eye has to look at the fine print channels at the top, re-focus on the big print in the center channel, then re-focus to scan the bottom of the page. Repeat as necessary on each page.

There's more but you get the idea. Yet another triumph of appearance over substance.

Any hope that these and other issues are promptly addressed?

I'm in Centreville VA. I agree the removal of the Channel List is a huge downgrade. Going from the 800 level HD channels to the popular mid 100 level channels is a chore.

Completely agree with wbz above regarding his/her complaints. The absence of the channel list feature is a HUGE downer. Very frustrating.

Also, numerous response issues - hit a button and it is hit or miss that it gets picked up by the STB. Very annoying.

One big improvement is that you don't have to switch off the STB to turn on/off closed captioning. But it's such an elementary feature, so nothing to write home about.

The absence of channel list means you have to hit several more buttons to get to your channel of choice. Definitely a big usability issue and possibly an ergonomic issue.

question on the new IMG, we got it this week and there is one thing it previously did but I cannot find now. Before I could scroll through TV listings and save for watching, then go to another and save it for watching. So if I was up and moving around the program would change to the channel I had programmed. I cannot find that the new IMG allows for this feature, is programming your TV watching no longer available on this new IMG upgrade, if not it needs to be added, it is the one thing I miss the most.

Hate the "upgrade" - nice eye candy but not ready for prime time - upgrades are supposed to add features, not take them away - Guide is difficult to read/follow with that really fat Info box/time box in middle of list (this should be optional) so you end up looking at the reduced upper or lower lists (scrolling can give you veritgo, plus there's a lag so when you take you finger off the up/down key it keeps going and going), seems like all the useful Search functions are missing (e.g. Search by Title). DVR functions are still way too cumbersome (it takes at least 7 clicks to delete a program), and what happened to my available space percentage?. Basic DVR screen has five options that make you scroll to a second page to remove (like there's not enough room on a screen for a 5 item list- what's up with that?) Who got paid to design this. Let's hope FIOS TV 2.5 is close behind....

I live in Laurel and I think I got the upgrade on Thursday. I was out of the house the day i got the upgrade. When I retured I was plesantly surprised with the new software.

I have had very bad experiences with my past cable operator especially when i had upgrades. They lost all my settings and recordings. This time it looks like I did not lose a single piece. Even my parental control pin was intact.

The new guide is definitley very nice looking and pretty and responds very well. I like the way the screens stack up so I know where i am and go back and forward easily.

The DVR keys are very responsive and I like the fact that now i can configure my replay options..unlike the earlier version.

DVR is an improvement with the groupings of my shows. Easier to sort through. One suggestion though - it would be nice to allow me to take me back to a screen when i stop my recording so i can delete it.

Search is fantastic!! Fast and accurate. Also has VOD selections right there. I was surprised to see my dvr recordings in the search results. By far the best search I have seen. I am getting very used to the search.

My neigbors in howard county are very pleased as well. No complaints this side.

>Personally, I don't like it as much. It is nice eye candy but is now harder to see >what is playing. But, worst of all my recorded shows that were on the HD are now >inaccessible despite the HD showing 79% full.

The "upgrade" also screwed up my stored DVR recordings and I wasn't able to play them. I found out that I was able to watch them after I unplugged the DVR box and then plugged it back in.

I have to take exception to anyone who believes this new IMG should be considered an upgrade. The term should be downgrade. At least thats what I call it when the overall capabilities of the system decrease. I have counted over a dozen deleted options since this mistake was foisted upon me. These do not include the errors and lossage that occurred to my existing material during the actual change. Further because no advanced warning was given, I also lost programs that were to be recorded while the change took place.

"The reviews have been great" WHAT?!? Just who did you allow to have access to this abomination before you sprang it on the public? "ost people seem to be genuinely wowed by the new guide" is patently false. If you read through the comments on avsforum and dslreports you will see this reality. Your friends at ZNF and lostremote take only a cursory look at the system. They did not put the dvr through its paces. Nor did they seem to have any familiarity with the previous interface. Both reviews focus on the media manager and the glitzy graphic style of the interface. Personally, I think offering a media manager that does not include HD is ludicrous. And function should always drive form not the other way around. Flash graphics at the expense of functionality is tantamount to putting lipstick on a pig. At the end of the day you are still left with something that oinks. The seeming pride at such a porcine product should call into question the knowledge, judgment and ultimately the integrity of the VZ. I can't imagine anyone who really pushed capabilities of the old interface could give the new one anything but a thumbs down.

I could certainly enumerate the lost capabilities but given the bell head mentality (i.e. the left over culture from the AT&T days), VZ is unlikely to take heed. It is the style of that culture to dictate terms despite user feedback. Often the very notion that the customer base may even have substantive offerings re: new products is ignored not to mention the actual thoughts and concerns themselves.

Consider the follow omissions that are nowadays common place for VZ. In many arenas these are the de facto standards by which technology is progressed and embraced. Not to mention that they are just good common sense.

- Where was the call for public comments before the new interface was designed?

- Where was the web based debate for the new design before it was implemented?

- Where were the beta tests of this new interface?

- Where was the web based public commentary during the betas?

- Where was the advanced notice of the change?

- Where was the choice to opt out of the new interface?

The last two are the ones that really infuriate me though. They show a callous disregard for the end user that is only tolerated in the bowels of corporate meeting rooms. I once complained to VZ customer service that the weekly emergency broadcast tests were constantly disrupting up my dvr schedule. I asked if they could do this on a regular and/or published schedule so I could avoid dvr scheduling during the tests. They replied that national security concerns prohibited them from giving advanced notice.(“We can't provide prior knowledge of the tests because terrorist might take advantage”) After I reeled my jaw up off the floor, I said i did not believe this for a second. But I did realize the motivation and genius of hiding behind this stance. It is both unassailable and deflects the responsibility to a phantom third party while allowing VZ to conduct business in a vacuum. Are sensing a pattern yet? hmmmmm....

Bottom line VZ must know that these type of shortsighted antics alienate customers. Especially the knowledgeable early adopters. They treat us like rats on a ship. Funny thing about us rats is we routinely look for other ships. And we know how a leaky vessel long before it starts to sink.

Hey VZ!, "CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?" Bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble, ....

I got IMG two days ago in Arlington VA (August 14, 2007)and would rather go back to old Guide. Beyond my frustration of trying to deal with VZ CSR, here are the problems:

1. Eliminated Channel Selection feature and only offer Favorites. Therefore, it is impossible to use Channel Up/Down feature on Remote to click through channels without getting all the channels such as Local Programming, spanish, sports, mil history etc etc etc. Favorites is not the same as Channel Selection List. (For me right now, identifying Favorites only means that the Guide feature lists only the favorites; it does not translate to the actual picture/channel up/down control.)

2. Informed by VZ rep that Channel List Selection will be included in "next release". When asked for timeframe, response was "We do not have a time frame for the new release. I know they want to get it out quick, but not so quick as to cause more problems that it solves."

3. slow response time on channel up/down feature. Takes at least 1 second for programming data to appear in lower portion of screen. No longer able to click quickly through channel selection.

4. NO advance notice of upgrade.

5. Obviously did not Beta test IMG. Beyond serious issues identified here, there are numerous flaws.

6. After spending two hours on toll free, discovered that my AT8550 remote does not work with new Guide. VZ made no attempt to contact subscribers and arrange for new remote prior to implementation of IMG.

7. After 2.5 hours on telephone with operators, am now informed that new remote will be mailed to me. My fear is that when it comes, I will likely STILL be frustrated at the simple task of advancing through channels that I am interested in viewing.

8. Video display of Guide is harder to read. Presentation and color selection is poor, as is font size. Far too little info displayed requiring a second click for any meaningful data on Info feature.

9. I switched to Fios from Comcast and was very satisfied prior to this IMG Upgrade. All of my neighbors and co-workers with Fios are reporting similar frustration.

8. I am curious as to whether VZ will respond to any of these posts with a corrective action plan. From my analysis of previous posts, the only positive ones are from people who don't yet have IMG.

I agree with a couple of other comments about the font size being too small. Also on some of the competitors guides you can go back in time and see what show has just played but on our guide we can only go forward. Being in the FSC I get a lot of customer feedback, and one thing I hear often is customers want the ability to page ahead a day to view next day listings. I think we have a great product, picture quality is exceptional, just need to tweak it somemore to make it the best product period.

Another HUGE bug: when you stop a DVR recording, the DVR shoots to the very latest item recorded. So you have to scroll down to delete the program you just watched (unless you choose to use a LIFO viewing queue). And God forbid if you have "protected" the program. You have to now unprotect it, and then delete.

I still have yet to be able to watch a VOD as well. It keeps crashing. What a lovely improvement. At least it looks hi-tech and cool.

Personally, I don't like it as much. It is nice eye candy but is now harder to see what is playing. But, worst of all my recorded shows that were on the HD are now inaccessible despite the HD showing 79% full. So, at least in my case the upgrade didn't go well. As always, it is impossible to get through to customer service. I miss my Tivo's.

I really love my FIOS TV, but I am not happy with this "upgrade." The DVR menu is much more cumbersome to delete recordings, it missed several recordings this week already, the conflict stuff doesn't work as well, it has crashed when trying to view some VOD programs, on power-up it takes forever and/or freezes. I do have to say that it looks great, and the TV guide portion is a huge improvement, especially the 1/2 page guide. But the DVR side STINKS!! And the start-up time STINKS!! Not sure who the beta testers were to not make any comments about the DVR functionality.

I just received the update in MA and the software has a bug that is driving my wife insane. The new software disables the ability to control the auxilary power outlet in the motorola 6416-2 STB DVR. their is a setting to change the functionality, but it doesn't work. For those of us that like to turn off the TV via the power outlet this is a big deal.

The rest of the interface seems cluttered to me, and as another reader pointed out the text is too small.

Overall not a bad upgrade, but will take some getting used to.

Another FIOS user here and I can't wait for the IMG update. How can I get on the beta list to provide feedback?

Seems like nice changes, however, font sizes are too small and contrast between background and text colors make things difficult to read

When will we see the rollout of the new IMG in Southern California?

Can't wait to get the new guide here in Northern Virginia.

The FIOS Multiroom DVR is revolutionary. Unfortunately, until you can stream recorded DVR programs to HD STBs it is not going to work for those of us with multiple HDTVs in the house (this is becoming more and more common).

I'm not asking for streaming recorded HD shows - I'm just asking to be able to stream recorded SD shows to HD boxes. Otherwise in order to use the MR-DVR, I would have to put non-HD boxes on some of my HDTVs, and that's just not going to happen.

Thanks!

Great news and I can't wait until it rolls out to existing customers in eastern PA.

Another STB enhancement to consider is for non-DVR STBs to not only have reminders, but for those of us who still have VCRs a "timer" function to allow the STB to turn and off to allow unattended recording of programs. Years ago the Direc-TV service STB used to have this (before the prevelance of DVRs). Just my 2 cents worth.

Also, I have not found a way to do page up or page down when using the IMG. This is with the RC1445301/00B remote (not the one currently showing in your help videos which aren't much help for just that reason).

Keep up the good work and the great programming.