Verizon FIOS to offer a lot more in the coming months

A media-only meeting was held Tuesday to discuss the future of Verizon FIOS and some interesting features to come. While I’ve been a Brighthouse customer for as long as I’ve lived in Florida, a number of these (especially the DVR functions) seem light years ahead of what Brighthouse is doing. Here’s a few highlights of the new features list. My notes in italics.

FiOS TV’s Interactive Media Guide (IMG) integrates high-definition programming and video-on-demand content as well as broadcast television and the optional digital video recorder (DVR) into a simple and seamless user experience. The IMG gives customers tools to access, browse and search multimedia content quickly and easily and to enjoy interactive experiences that go beyond old-fashioned cable TV.

If you have the DVR through Brighthouse, no doubt you know multiple ways in which it’s lacking. This interface seems to fix a number of those. It’s more TIVO-like. It’s quicker. It’s easier to manage your saved content. All in all, DVR is evolving and FIOS seems to have the best of it.

Multiroom DVR: Use one DVR to record programming that can be viewed on up to seven TV sets in the home. Watch up to three separately recorded shows on three different TV sets simultaneously. Pause a recorded show in one room and finish viewing it in another. Stream recorded programs in standard-definition or high-definition formats.

Very useful if you’re like me and are in a constant war with your wife over what to watch. With multi-room DVR, you can record things in one place and watch them in another. We’ve been solving this issue with media center PCs for now, but this is an easier (and cheaper!) way to do it.

Video on Demand (VOD): Industry-leading library with more than 14,000 titles per month, 70 percent of which are free. The VOD library includes more than 1,300 HD titles per month, more than 1,000 of which are free.

I love On-Demand programming. I use it extensively with Brighthouse, and it looks like there’s about 10-15 times the available programming coming to FIOS. The “there’s nothing to watch” syndrome becomes more difficult to justify with so much at your fingertips. I’m hoping they put entire seasons of popular shows up so you can curl up and watch something beginning to end that you might have missed previously.

Remote DVR Management: Verizon FiOS TV customers now have the option to remotely control their Home Media DVRs either online or via select Verizon Wireless handsets. On-the-go FiOS TV subscribers can use the service to remotely review, change or add recording requests, delete recorded programs, browse and search TV and VOD listings, set parental controls, and more.

I do not have and will not have a Verizon phone, so this point is moot for me. That said, it’s a neat feature and I’m sure many of you will find this useful, especially if you’re stuck in traffic or off dealing with other parts of your life.

Casual Games: Customers can enjoy playing games such as Sudoku, solitaire, Wordplay and chess on their TV, using their remote control.

Kind of cool, though not earth shattering. I have an XBOX 360 for a reason. FIOS will never take over for that. I watch TV for programming, not games. But that said, someone out there may get a kick out of this.

ESPN Fantasy Sports: Personalized Fantasy Football stats displayed on customers’ TV screens on any ESPN channel, for ESPN online registered participants. Customers can view rosters, box scores, scoring leaders and player information. ESPN Fantasy Sports will also be accessible via FiOS TV Widgets and Games.

I know a lot of sports nuts who get really into fantasy football. This sounds like a neat way to manage their leagues while still being couch potatoes.

Media Manager: Bundled with Home Media DVR, Media Manager allows customers to access personal photos and music from their home computers and play them on their TV, where they look and sound the best. In the near future, customers will also be able to stream personal videos from their PCs to their TVs through Media Manager.

Probably my favorite new feature. I have a Microsoft Media Center PC currently and love this functionality. Being able to stream music from anywhere in the house to anywhere in the house is handy, especially when you’re cleaning or relaxing.

Widgets: On-demand access from a tool bar at the top or bottom of the screen to instant information that includes:
• Local weather and traffic reports
• Daily local and national news headlines
• Community news based on the customer’s ZIP code
• Daily horoscopes
• Select content from social network sites such as Facebook
• What’s Hot on FiOS TV and VOD, featuring aggregated information on the most popular programs and VOD titles in a customer’s region

Another one of those “kind of nice” features. I currently use personalized Google to do this both on my computer and on my media center PC. It’s good to see these simple but helpful widgets added to the interface.

Interactive TV: Verizon will use the IMG to provide subscribers the ability to use their remote control to interact with live programming in new and exciting ways. The company recently launched an interactive TV capability in Oregon, where FiOS TV customers used their remote control during the Olympic Games to access information about athletes, medal counts and Olympic news.

Kind of a cool idea, especially for shows where you can vote such as American Idol. If you like interactive TV, this looks quite promising. Of course, the most interactive TV is still pretty disconnected, but it’s a good step.

Search: Browse all content including TV networks, pay-per-view, recorded shows, VOD or specific types of content, using key words.

Love this! One thing I miss about TIVO is the ability to search by type or keywords. Brighthouse simply does not have a search, and it makes finding programming you might like very difficult. I’m glad FIOS is finally on the ball with this.

Some photos of the presentation:

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