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It's been a while since my last post on my Verizon FiOS and Tivo experience and a few things have changed, so I thought it would be time for an update.

Tivo Upgrade - first and most importantly, sometime over the last couple months, the folks at Tivo have finally figured out a software solution to the picture "pixelation" that was occurring with Verizon FiOS.  Sometime ago, my Tivo automatically updated to the latest 11.d version software and to test the upgrade, pulled all the attenuators out of the line.  Results: it works!

With the picture quality issue now behind me, it was time to finally buy that second Tivo for the TV in our master bedroom.  It arrived a couple weeks ago and installation was much easier (now that I know the drill).  

By the way - one very important installation detail:  Tivo HD is shipped from the factory with an old version of software (really old), so you need to give it a day after you complete the initial configuration to perform the automatic software upgrade before worrying about the picture quality with Verizon FiOS.  Once the upgrade is completed, the picture quality should be corrected.  

I really love having two Tivos in the house now - the networking feature allows you to record on one Tivo and play back on the other.  Sounds silly, but it has already cured a couple domestic disputes in my household.  The choice between watching "Dancing with the Stars" or "How It's Made" had required moving to different rooms/TVs.  Now it doesn't matter which Tivo records the show, you can watch it on either one!

Closing Thoughts:
After all the original installation headaches, it seems to me that Tivo HD and Verizon FiOS are now working perfectly together.  Great user interface, built-in NetFlix client, fantastic picture quality - I finally have my peanut butter and chocolate!

Two weeks ago, I spent four days at CableLabs - talking about and seeing the new developments in the cable television business.  Truly fascinating stuff with new DVRs, on-demand programming and even a 3D TV demonstration.  However, based on what I seeing at home, I suspect someone is about to "move their cheese".

If you have been following my now year-long adoption of Verizon FiOS, you know that we've been using a TiVo-HD with FiOS to record and watch television. We subscribe to the FiOS triple-play bundle with HDTV, 20Mbps Internet and two work telephone lines.  As in most households, my teen-age kids have been the primary users of the television all summer and I've been watching their behavior on how they use the television, what they watch and how much time they spend watching.

They spend hours in front of the TV, but they don't watch "TV".  No, they don't play video games - it's NetFlix over the Internet that has become their primary source of visual entertainment.  You see, the TiVo-HD includes an optional NetFlix on-demand client that allows the kids to choose programs from the vast NetFlix library and then watch them instantly on our TiVo via the Internet.  It really is amazing - no waiting for the DVD anymore - just click and watch.  The kids have even put the NetFlix mobile client on their iPod Touches, allowing them to browse the NetFlix library from the couch.  

So what does this mean to the Cable Industry?  Think about it - here is a generation that who's world is a broadband connected and able to access virtually any/all information almost instantly.  And most of that information comes from other sources, not the cable operator.  Based on their usage, the cable operator is just a supplier of broadband Internet.

This really means that when the millennials grow up and start controlling household spending, things will change dramatically.  Our generation values the TV programming, Telephone, then Internet in that order.  I suspect they will reverse it, with their highest value being the Internet and then TV and Telephone being almost irrelevant.

Where does this take both the cable companies and legacy wireline operators?   Their focus will soon need to shift to reliable and very high-speed Internet access being the "high value and primary product", because the rest is quickly going the way of the Dodo bird.

If you have been following my blog entries on Verizon FiOS TV installation, you know how unhappy I was with the Motorola 7216 DVR that they supplied with the service.  I've been a huge fan of TiVo's user interface, ease of use and features - so I wanted to see the fantastic pictures provided by Verizon FiOS TV and Tivo HD work together - I envisioned mixing two great products (like Peanut Butter and Chocolate) to the ultimate home entertainment experience.  So after doing some research, checking the varous forums on-line, I took the bold leap and ordered a TiVo HD from TiVo and two CableCards from Verizon.  

While I waited for the TiVo to arrive, it was time to run Cat5 from the router in the basement to the A/V cabinet.  After some bumps on the head and cursing the builder of my house, the network run was in and ready for installation day.

Once the TiVo HD arrived, I had a technician from Verizon come in to do the CableCard installation and activation.  You know when the first words out of the technician's mouth are "Hi, I'm from Verizon and I've never done this before" that you are for an interesting experience.  So off to the family room and after working together for a couple hours, downloading instructions from the web and calling supervisors a couple times, we were able to get a picture on TiVo.  Success (or so I thought).

After a couple days of watching TV via the TiVo, I started to have problems with some programs "pixelating" - where the picture would break up into large colored blocks and the sound would get interrupted.  Not all the time on all the channels, just some of the time on some of the channels.  (Yea - you engineers out there love those kind of intermittent problems, don't you)  Time to get working on identifying a pattern and start reading the forums on this issue.  After weeks of watching the problem, experimenting and reading any and everything I could find, I determined two things:

1. There clearly is an issue with the tuner in the TiVo HD that causes it to loose synchronization with the signal that come from the FiOS ONT.
2. People that post frequently on forums know just enough to be dangerous and generally don't know the subject matter very well.  I read more stupid posts from someone purporting to be an "expert" that didn't know what a dB of attenuation was if it hit them on the head!

If you want to do some interesting reading on the issue, check out the TiVo Support Forum, the Verizon Support Forum and the TiVo Community Forum.

So I started following all the various suggestions by changing cables, inserting a Di-plexer, attenuators, low-pass filters and everything just short of holding a TiVo exorcism.  At one point, I had Verizon send a technician to help with his hand-held signal analyzer (and big surprise, everything was perfect according to his readings).  After a couple weeks of trial and error, I was able to get close to resolving the issue, but I still get the occasional burp of distortion.  What was the solution?  In my case, adding a 860 MHz low-pass filter and a total of 14 dB of attenuators, both of which I got from the Verizon technician. 

It's really too bad getting TiVo working on FiOS was so complicated and frustrating. I originally planned on getting two TiVo HD units for the house, but with all the troubles I had getting one to work, I've decided to hold off until TiVo fixes their tuner issues.

So, is TiVo HD and Verizon HD like Peanut Butter and Chocolate?   I'd give it a "almost", but make sure you get the low pass filter and attenuators in hand before trying to even start the installation, you'll save yourself a lot of headaches.        [UPDATE!!!! See: http://blog.tmcnet.com/sip-invite/gadgets/verizon-fios-and-tivo---finally-a-fix.html]

Oh, and make sure the Peanut Butter is from a reputable source!

 

This week here at AudioCodes has been very busy.  You may have seen the post on Monday, announcing our HD VoIP strategy  which will dramatically improve the clarity and quality of voice communications.

Yesterday, we announced our new line of IP Phones, all of which will support HD VoIP.  As far as I can tell, we will be the only manufacturer that will have a 100% HD VoIP capable phones (even the low-cost entry model).

The market analysts seem to agree:

• The 310HD IP Phone is positioned as an entry level IP-Phone and includes a basic display and user interface. 
• The 320HD Premium model includes a large Monochrome LCD screen. 
• The 350HD Executive model has a large Color LCD. All models support HD VoIP.

The phones will include many important features for a range of applications, including:

• Support for popular wideband coders such as G.722, G.722.2 (WB-AMR), G.729.1 and G.711.1.
• Power over Ethernet is optional in all models.

The products will be available for testing and evaluation beginning in February 2009.

To more information on the devices or HD VoIP, click here

Okay, it has been a few weeks since the last post on my FiOS installation and I promised you a review of the newly activated television capabilities.

Installation
FiOS TV is installed pretty much like any other cable TV with one big exception - Fiberoptics cable from the central office to the Optical Network Terminator (ONT) in my basement.  From there, it is standard RJ-6 cable-TV coax cable to each of the Motorola Set Top Boxes (STBs).  The data traffic from the STBs goes over the same coax, avoiding a separate Ethernet and/or phone line run to each box (which was required for DirecTV). The installer was able to re-use the existing wiring in my house, which dramatically simplified installation.   Score: A+

Channel Selection
The channel selection on FiOS TV is actually pretty good, with a wide array of the normal cable channels and all our local channels.  The SD and HD versions of the channels are both available, but at different channel numbers (add 500 for the HD version, which is a little annoying)  Score: A

Picture Quality
The picture so far has been good (HD channels are awesome), but not perfect - we occasionally get drop-outs and pixelization. It won't be affected by rain/snow, so that's better than the DirecTV, but the picture quality is about the same. It's way better than my neighbor's Time Warner cable.  Score: B+

Set Top Box (non-DVR)
I have two Standard Definition TVs in the house that have the basic non-DVR STB.  Seems to work as you would expect, and there are a few cool "widgets" like real-time weather and some games that can be played on the TV.  Score: A

Remote Control
First the good - it comes with a remote.  Otherwise, whoever designed this remote, must have never actually used it.  There are some real bone-head button positioning and/or missing buttons.  Example: want to go to a specific channel to a one-digit channel? You punch in the number, then look around for an enter or okay button - oh there it is, in the middle of the four way direction buttons.    Dumb.  Watching a movie and start fast forward past the commercials, then hit play, oops the DVR button is right next to Play and guess what happens?  It kicks you out of the movie and to the DVR menu!  It does have one power button that can control both the STB, receiver and TV, but it has only one button for both on and off.  If one of the devices missed the IR command, everything gets messed up and you have to either get out of your chair and push the power button on the device that missed the command or go through a series of selecting that device and hitting the power button again to get it back in sync.  Try explaining that to your wife!  It seems like the remote was designed for the SD STB without a DVR, then they added some buttons for the DVR, but didn't really think it through very well.  Someone at Motorola needs to toss this design in the trash and start over.  Score: F

Pay-per-View / On Demand View
We've watched a number of either PPV or OD programs and the selection is a nice addition to the stuff that we normally would record on the DVR.  The nicest part of the OD programming is when you want to go back to an old episode of a show or forget to record it.  Some of the PPV and OD is HD too, but only a small sub-set.  The menus to find programs and search is are pretty confusing - so much that my wife has not yet figured it out.  Score: B+


DVR
This is where the wheels come off Verizon FiOS TV.  (I had really high hopes too)  Let's just put it this way: it's a good thing the DVR service is free the first year, otherwise this would be back in a box back on the way to Verizon.  The Motorola HD DVR QIP 7216 is so full of bugs and other odd issues that is borders on fraud by asking someone to pay for this.  I noted in the last posting about how the optical audio output doesn't come on until you go to a menu to activate it (after every power-on), but the bugs continue and they are far worse.  It records programs that it can't playback.  It gets confused about the live TV feed and DVR playback.  It gets stuck and requires a power cycle to regain control.   It Crashes.  You name it and it does it (or doesn't do it).  It's not just me either - after talking to some neighbors, they are all suffering the same issues. Score: F-

Value
Ignoring the above just for a second - I can see how Verizon FiOS Triple Bundle could be a reasonable value.  Internet, phone and TV at one reasonable price.  But the DVR issues kill it.  Also - FiOS suffers from what I call "bundle shock" - when you combine all three things on one bill, the total cost really shocks you.  "I pay that much for communications?!?"  (By the way, It's still cheaper to use Vonage for your phone.)  Score: B

What's Next
I've heard that you can use an HD Tivo with FiOS and I'm researching what I need to order to give that a try.  Initial searching found that I can order CableCards from Verizon and plug them into the back of a HD TiVo.  I just need to figure out how to order both parts (and get permission from my wife to buy the Tivos.)

Final Thoughts on FiOS Triple Bundle
The Internet is awesome - really fast and a good value.  The phone service is still kind of pricey, but it sounds and works great - I just wish it had the on-line control that our Vonage service has (and comparable pricing).  The TV service is okay if you don't want a DVR - otherwise it's a let-down.  
Final Score: C

Once I get the TiVo installed and working, I'll post another report.  Until then, I have an adapation of a ZZTop "MTV" song stuck in my head:  "I want my, I want my DirecTV"

Okay, time to update you on how my migration over to Verizon Fios has gone so far.

Just a little background on the situation here: I work primarily from my home office in Orchard Park, NY in a neighborhood that was built in the mid-70's (pre cable and definitely pre- fiber-to-the-home aka FTTH).  When moving in seven years ago, I had then-Adelphia cable broadband, Verizon wireline phone and DirecTV for television.  A bit of a mish-mash of disconnected parts, but it worked (most of the time).  

• Here in snow country, we regularly lost DirecTV due to ice and snow on the dish.
• The long cable run between my house and the nearest telephone pole causes problems with the broadband internet incurring day-long outages that seemed to stymie Adelphia.  
• The aging analog phone lines I used for both my wife's and my home office were noisy, which interfered with our frequent long conference calls and webinars.
• To save money on the infrequently-used home phone I switched it over to Vonage about a year ago, which I must say has worked out really well.
   

So, when the Verizon trucks rolled through town this winter and installed the conduit and fiber infrastructure for Fios, I was literally first on the block to sign-up.

Installation started with broadband internet and two phone lines.  This went pretty smooth with mounting the Optical Network Termination (ONT) in the basement and a WiFi-enabled router.  Cut-over to the new 20Mbps broadband was literally as easy as moving an RJ-45 plug from one router to the other.  Frankly the hardest part was untangling all the old wires and moving them to the new router!  After a reboot of the computers in the house and the Vonage gateway, everything was back up and running.

Getting the phone lines configured correctly took a couple calls to Verizon.  I have my office line forward to my cell phone after three rings or if I'm on the phone and it took a couple support reps to understand how to configure the new switch correctly.  End result after one day - faster internet, no more noise on the phone lines and everything is working perfect. 

It took a couple calls to get the guys to come back and bury the fiber-optic cable that laid across my lawn.   Frankly, it was a race between my 13 year-old son that mows our lawn and the Verizon crew.  Was my son going to mow over the cable and cut it to shreds or was Verizon going to bury it first?  Fortunately, Verizon won.

Remember that I was on DirecTV?  I loved the service and the new HD DVR, but we were averaging $85/month and still suffering from weather-related outages.  So when I caught wind that the town of Orchard Park finally signed the franchise agreement with Verizon to allow them to offer FiosTV, guess who called Verizon the same day to order Fios TV service?  Me.

Installation day for the TV started with a really nice technician surveying the coax TV cabling that already ran through my house and making a few quick additions for Fios.  He was able to add a splitter next to the entry point where the four DirecTV cables came from the dish outside and headed out to the three different rooms where we had TVs.  All the old DirecTV set top boxes were pulled out and set aside with new Motorola devices going in their place.  Lots of cables for our HD TV and audio system in the family room - component video, optical audio (5.1) connects between the DVR and my audio receiver. One surprising connection was between the TV cable and a coax jack on the back of the router - I later found out that the STBs use this to access the program guide information and relay purchases back to Verizon.  End of this day - and the TVs all worked and I was ready to figure out the new Motorola set top boxes and DVR features.

Now things get interesting.....

Later that same evening, I turn on the TV, DVR and audio system to find a great picture, but no sound.  Okay, what changed?  Cables are all okay and my receiver is showing the optical input is active, but still no sound!?!  Go to the DVR and start digging through menus - settings - sound - all of a sudden the sound comes back.  But I didn't change anything!?!  Weird.  Next time the DVR gets turned on, same result.  Okay this is screwy.  After doing some trial and error, I find out that upon power-up, the DVR doesn't activate the optical output for sound, you need to go to the menu each time to activate it.  Bug!  Unplug the optical cable on the audio system and live with just stereo sound for now.

Next day - the STB in the basement shows all dashes on the screen and no picture.  Now what?  Unplug, reboot, call Verizon and they send out a technician.  Remember that splitter in the basement?  One of the ports died.  It took him most of an hour to find a .99 broken splitter.

So at this point, I've had three separate visits from Verizon techs and finally have almost everything working, but still learning the ins and outs of the new DVR and STBs.  More on this in the next posting.....

It's with great pleasure that I read about Apple opening up the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch platforms to developers this week.  This move surely is due to pressure from the iPhone user community (and trying to keep up the the Microsoft Mobile developer community)

If you participated in my session at Internet Telephony this January, you know how strongly I believe this is a big deal.  History has shown over and over again that allowing the creative minds of application developers to fill market needs is the best way to expand the market and build new solutions.  Imagine what life would be like If you limited application development to the AT&T and IBMs of the 70's?  You'd still have plain-old-dialtone and IBM 3720 terminals on our desks.  No Google, no Wikipedia, no Linux. 

This is also why I think IMS is a huge mistake.  IMS is based on the concept that the carriers will develop and deploy all the applications.   The carriers should stick to managing the core of the network and delivering services over the last mile.  Letting the Google, Microsoft and smaller developers of the world create applications is a far better way to great applications deployed quickly. 

Still don't believe me?  How long do you think it will take to create the equivalent of Google Maps for my Verizon phone?  Years (if ever).

I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes next for the iPhone and family!

Thankfully the battle is now over between the competing high-definition DVD formats and Sony's Blu-ray format is the victor.  Fortunately, this played out a lot faster than the Beta/VHS battle that lasted through most of the 80's (BTW: to this day, I still have one of each in my AV cabinet) Settling the Blu-ray / HD-DVD battle will end much of the consumer confusion and let us get back to spending our "economic stimulus" checks when they arrive later this summer.

Now that this is behind us, what can we learn from this?

#1 - The first to market advantage does not necessarily create a victor.  It's all about market positioning and market might.  Sony and Panasonic out positioned Toshiba.

#2 - Better technology will not win the war.  As with the Beta/VHS war, it's not clear that the better technology actually won the war.  HD-DVD did have a number of features and capabilities that Blu-ray is just now introducing.

#3 - Customers don't always control who wins.  In the end, the movie distribution houses made the choice, not the consumers.  As bad as the video rental stores and NetFlix of the world didn't want two formats, the movie distributors hated the specter of two formats even more.

#4 Being stubborn costs $.  The biggest mistake is that the Sony and Toshiba didn't sit down and come up with a compromise format from the beginning.  Would the few months it would have taken to work out the details really have hurt the market?  I doubt it.  Did having two formats for the last two years hurt the market and cost millions of dollars?  Absolutely.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program....

 

 

 

Over the Christmas break, my father and I were talking about interesting events in his life when he slipped into his office to retrieve some pictures.  He returned with the below collection of pictures his father took of the Antarctic Snow Cruiser as it came through little Avon, NY in November 1939.  This behemoth of a machine was designed to be a complete mobile living quarters and laboratory that could traverse wide open and frigid Antarctic continent.  It was so big, they had to drive it from the factory where it was built in Gary, Indiana to Boston where it could be loaded onto a ship for transport to Antarctica.  Thus the visit to Avon, NY and the picture taking opportunity by my father and grandfather in 1939.

The Antarctic Snow Cruiser in the Star Diner parking lot in Avon, NY during November 1939.

You may be wondering: "What does this have to do with SIP?"  Once you know the whole story of the Antarctic Snow Cruiser, you'll understand that this monster of a machine is a classic case study in over engineering that never did work.  After all the work that went into the design, construction and transport of the Snow Cruiser to Antarctica, it was a complete failure.  The combination of the immense weight and large tires made the Snow Cruiser virtually useless in Antarctica.  As a matter of fact, it was so incapable of moving in snow, that it got stuck during the process of unloading from the ship!  You can read more about the folly of the Antarctic Snow Cruiser on both Wikipedia and Joel Dirnberger's web site on the topic.

 I worry that we in the Telecommunications space are close to building our own Antarctic Snow Cruiser.  Every time I sit through a session on IMS, I can see the Snow Cruiser spinning it's massive wheels in the snow.   I worry that so much is being invested in building the "unified application platform" that we'll never actually see it in use. 

Every day I work with customers that are developing applications, leveraging SIP to create powerful and useful applications, but without all the baggage that IMS carries.  How do they do it?  KISS  (Keep it Simple Stupid)  They use the SIP architecture to connect basic building blocks like media servers and media gateways together with their application.  This architecture gives the freedom to create applications and simplifies the effort to quickly deploy solutions - generating revenue.

The next time you start working on a new application - just ask yourself "will this just sit and spin it's wheels in the snow?"

 

I just read an interesting article from Reuters on the level of interest of Europeans and having TV available on their mobile phones.  See: TV on cellphone screens? No thanks, say Europeans - Yahoo! News

Personally having had the Slingbox mobile client on my Motorola Q for the last year, I have to admit - TV on demand on a mobile device is pretty handy.  Besides killing time in line at the airport or DMV, it's been a great way to stay connected with the local newscasts while traveling.  When the Sabres were making their playoff run last year, I could draw a small crowd around my tiny screen to see the game live.

I've also had a Video-capable iPod for the last year and did spend some money on a few videos for long flights last summer.  In my mind I could justify the expense as "part of the vacation cost", but having to pre-meditate the purchase and download was a drag.  I'm not sure how many times I'll be doing that in the future.

The challenge is figuring out how mobile TV can make money here in the US.  After experiencing it for a while, I think it will happen outside the phone operator's domain.  Frankly - they make money on transport, not content.  The mobile operators will use mobile TV as justification for an expensive data plan that is required to use YouTube or other content providers, not on the content itself.

Will mobile TV change everything? Yes, but I think it will drive data traffic to ever increasingly capable mobile devices.  That's where the money is.