FiOS TV

After six-and-a-half years with DISH Network, I decided to switch away from the dish and move to the new kid on the block: Verizon FiOS. We already had fiber coming to the house for net access, so we figured we'd try out their cable service, which had gotten some pretty high ratings as looked around the web. For the same price we were paying for DISH, we could get more channels, a better DVR with more space, and a second receiver for upstairs that also let us watch recordings from downstairs.

We've had FiOS TV for almost a month now, so I thought I'd give some pros and cons about it.

Pros:
- more channels
- better quality picture
- loads of HD options, should we ever opt to buy an HD set
- DVR with a good amount of storage and most of the options you'd expect
- ability to watch TV upstairs (couldn't with DISH)
- ability to watch recorded programs upstairs, even without a special receiver
- ability to stream music from my PC to any of the TVs in the house (though I haven't gotten this working just yet)
- Widgets - right now only weather and traffic alerts are available, but it's pretty nice to be able to get a quick view without changing the channel.
- Weird local-only channels, like one with a 24-hour view of the Doppler radar.

Cons/Annoyances:
- The font on the TV listings is too big. The tail end of a movie will often show up on the screen only as "The K..." and you have to highlight it to see what the full title is.
- There's no 30-second skip on the remote... I seriously miss this from DISH. Apparently the fix is to go out and buy an $8 Comcast remote that can be programmed for it (the one that comes with the system cannot be programmed to do such a thing).
- The interface for the DVR is pretty darn bad. But, like anything else, you get used to it and eventually learn your way around.
- No Sirius. DISH had a handful of good Sirius channels. Sure, there are the typical music-only channels on FiOS, but they're pretty lame.

That's the main stuff. So, thusfar, I'm very happy. I'm surprised at how much I enjoy being able to watch TV from bed. We don't very often, but it's good for Saturday Night Live, so we if we nod off during the show like we tend to do, we're already in bed.

Thusfar, thumbs up for FiOS. If they take some steps to improve the interface and I can find a remote that does the 30-second skip, then call me happy slappy.