Television

Verizon Launches A New FiOS TV Media Guide

Verizon Launches A New FiOS TV Media Guide - NJTechReviews

Well, we have big news for Verizon today, they launched there new FiOS TV Media Guide! It is currently available to New Jersey, Delaware, and Philadelphia FiOS Customers. This update really listens to your customer feedback, many of the new upgrades are taking from what the customer wants. There are a lot of new features to the DVR Section. There is now DVR Chaptering, so instead of fast-forwarding through the entire program, you can just select the next chapter. This is a really nice feature and we are glad to see it is now available. Do you ever run out of Space on a DVR and you have to delete some of your favorite shows, now you can get an eSATA Hard Drive and plug it into your DVR. The Set-Top-Box-DVR will automatically n start recording the Shows and Movies on to your hard drive. Multi-HUB DVR will let you set-recording for any of your DVR’s from one of the DVR’s as long as you have a Multi-Room DVR.  You can also choose to play all of the episodes from one season, or delete all of the episodes from that show. Now, lets move onto the new “Guides” features. For instance it will now fit your entire screen on a HDTV. Now, you can see what on for longer hours and have a better view of the programing. They also have improved you’re searching capabilities, making it easier to find what you are looking for. Parental Controls, got an update as well which makes it easier to use the system and keep your children safer. Overall, these upgrades are great and we cannot wait to see what Verizon has next for it’s FiOS Users. You can see the full press release below.

Press Release

Verizon’s Next Generation of Interactive FiOS TV Comes to Philadelphia, Delaware and New Jersey 

Company’s Powerful FiOS TV Interactive Media Guide Operating System Includes Many Innovative Upgrades Developed With Customer Feedback

PHILADELPHIA – Verizon continues to transform the way people interact with and enjoy TV viewing by bringing the next generation of its FiOS TV Interactive Media Guide to subscribers in the company’s greater Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware service areas. More than 2.9 million households in the tri-state area can now take advantage of award-winning FiOS TV and the advanced IMG.

Introduced in 2007, the FiOS TV IMG was the first broadband platform to pull together content from broadcast TV, the Internet and users’ own personal media into one media-management system.  It has since evolved into an in-depth, interactive TV experience, with applications for advanced/intuitive search, social networking, Internet video, personal media streaming, high-definition music, remote DVR controls, account management and billing functions, multi-screen/mobile viewing and much more.

The company used customer feedback taken in through its product development labs, field trials and online consumer forums to create many of the more than 25 new upgrades to FiOS TV’s advanced IMG that are now available to subscribers in the tri-state area.  The enhancements include greater personalization and customization, easier navigation, deeper search, bigger storage options and optimization for new 3D technology.  To learn more about the customer participation in the development of the IMG’s new capabilities, view this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iehPRr0-LFA .

“Customers are at the center of everything we do, and that includes how we develop our products and services,” said Eric Bruno, vice president of product management for Verizon.  “FiOS TV isn’t about passive video watching – it has evolved into an entertainment and information destination.  Our new generation of FiOS TV is all about increased interactivity, ease of use, simplicity of design and high tech made easy.”

FiOS TV customers can find out more about the upgrades on the FiOS TV Central website.   A short video highlighting some of the changes can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/verizon?feature=mhum#p/u/6/iqQSE3TpbS8.

Highlights include:

  • 3D content software, which automatically detects when a customer tunes to a 3D program or channel and instantly changes the necessary settings for watching those programs on a 3D television set.
  • DVR enhancements, which give FiOS TV customers more control with the following:

o    DVR chaptering, giving viewers DVD-like capabilities to jump ahead or resume viewing at a particular moment of recorded programming by using on-screen thumbnails in 10-minute increments, providing more visual navigation.

o    Multi-hub DVR, which turns any DVR or HD set-top box in the home into a “hub,” allowing customers to record and manage DVR settings from any room in the home, provided one of the DVRs is a multi-room DVR.

o    eSATA external storage device compatibility, available with most FiOS TV DVRs, allowing for increased overall storage capacity.  The eSATA hard drives can be purchased at most consumer electronics stores and will automatically record customer selections once plugged into the DVR.

o    New “play all” and “delete all” options, allowing customers to play episodes back-to-back and automatically delete all episodes of a show with the push of a button.

  • Personalization features, which let FiOS TV customers enjoy entertainment on their own terms, including:

o    New parental control options that make monitoring children’s viewing even easier, with the ability to block out portions of programming by rating during key hours of the day, like homework time, and schedule certain times for Parental Controls to be automatically turned on and off for greater flexibility.

o    Guide customization, enabling a variety of settings, with a mini guide on the bottom of the screen, a half guide on the right side of the screen, and a full guide with a look at more hours of scheduled programming.

  • Improved search capabilities, which provide a smarter search function that predicts what the customer is looking for and automatically provides potential matches.  FiOS TV customers also can filter and sort by channel, and more easily locate favorite programs.

Verizon’s FiOS TV Interactive Media Guide can be accessed with the FiOS TV remote control or by using Verizon’s FiOS Mobile application, which turns an Android device into a remote control for a FiOS HD set-top box, making parental controls, customized interactive applications and program recording options easy to access.

The next-generation FiOS TV is built upon a long series of innovations, including Flex View andFiOS TV Online, which extend FiOS TV beyond the home to the Internet and a range of mobile devices; free interactive applications including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Yelp, HSN Shop By Remote, TMZ and others; Media Manager, which allows customers to access on their TVs personal photos, music and videos from their computers; and In-Home Agent, which frees customers to use simple online tools to diagnose and resolve a range of service issues.

For the latest news, updates and information about FiOS TV, visit www.verizon.com/newscenter  and http://www.verizon.com/athomeblog.

  • ET

    The new channel guide is a giant step backwards. Its core functionality- presenting a channel programming guide – has been severely
    degraded. Scrolling is slower, and each screen presents far less channel information (only four channels at a time) – previously at least ten –
    and there is one channel overlap as each new screen appears. So net result it take far too long to scroll through the several hundred
    channels which are available. So long in fact that scrolling becomes impractical. Time is money, and this slow down is intolerable.
    I am seriously considering switching vendors. I have generally been very pleased with FIOS TV, but the time loss and aggravation built
    in to this new media guide will result in my switching vendors.

  • Johnymeten

    Alarm remote starts in NJ “system addicts” have a wide variety of alarms and remote starts like Viper,clifford & Astros tart just to name a few.
    Alarm remote starts in NJ

  • E Delorenzo

    I agree with ET exactly, with a couple of additional comments: Since the new IMG, my two DVRs are not operating properly. One does not respond right away when it is turned on, requiring several minutes of random remote button-pressing before it decides to function. The other seems to randomly lock up overnight (presumably after some kind of remote updating – maybe time and date?), and needs to be rebooted to function again. I also find the color combinations on the screen icons to be abominable – on a 46″ high-def LED set, I can’t read some of the info at a 6 foot distance. The whole thing needs another think.

    • Anonymous

      Thanks for your input, on our DVR’s it seems to be working fine. I would recommend calling support and see if they can help you at all. Thanks For Commenting And Be Sure To Keep Checking NJTechReviews For All Of The Latest Tech News.
      Thanks!

Television
@https://twitter.com/Jake31Krol

Jacob Krol is the founder, CEO, and editor in chief of NJTechReviews. He created the site in 2010 and most recently gave it a big redesign in 2014. Jacob is a sophomore at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. He has a big love for all things tech, he's a huge Springsteen fan, and he is also a native New Jerseyan.

More in Television

Verizon_FiOS_Logo_2015_640x400

Verizon Fios will now let you watch recorded shows from the new Mobile App

Jacob KrolDecember 14, 2015
Image Courtesy of Jacob Krol

Reminder; A week from today Bruce Springsteen will be on SNL

Jacob KrolDecember 13, 2015
RUGRATS Photo: Nickelodeon ©2015 Viacom, International, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

Big news from Nickelodeon sure to satisfy every ’90s kid; “The Splat”

Nicole CaseOctober 2, 2015
4k_genie_mini_946x432

DIRECTV unveils the first 4K UHD set top box; the 4K Genie Mini

Jacob KrolAugust 20, 2015
Lip Sync Battle; Iggy Azalea vs Nick Young

Iggy Azalea is battling Nick Young on Lip Sync Battle this week!

Jacob KrolAugust 10, 2015
IMG_0265 (1)

Samsung’s picture quality is the one to beat; JU6500 48-inch UHD TV Review

Jacob KrolAugust 6, 2015

Copyright © 2010-2015 NJTechReviews LLC. All Rights Reserved.

%d bloggers like this: