FibreOP Mediaroom Features Discussion

[Here4You]

@ bwcamp: How is your TV connected to the Set Top...are you using HDMI or component cables?

[willise]

Had my third service call this week for my FibreOp tv service. The technicians that have come out have all been more than accommodating and professional. They fixed my freezing problem by swapping out one of the boxes, and it worked until last night. Now I have a black screen again. I am rapidly losing faith in the TV services related to FibreOp.

The tech told me to use component, as they don't support HDMI. But to be fair, if they give me a box with HDMI, should I not be able to use it and expect them to fix it or troubleshoot it? HDMI is the new standard and most people want to use it rather than running a component cable and an optical cable. Fortunately my receiver will upconvert component over HDMI.

The tech also looked at my internet service. 30 down was available anywhere in the house, wired or wireless. However, once you go up one floor, the wireless upload drops to 7-10 MBps. I am going to stop using the ActionTec router and bridge to a Linksys I have to get better range.

Hopefully things will get better as I know it is a new product and it seems fairly quick and easy to get a tech out to look at things. The inconvenience factor is the worst part.

[Meanie]

I don't think they're advertising 30/30 over Wireless Willse. If you're getting those speeds over the air, awesome, but due to the Technology of Wireless it is understandable for speeds to drop as you get further away from the AP.

[NO-CRTC]

I'm getting 30down on the wireless, and 18 up.

[Here4You]

@ willise: I know it probably gets tiresome repeating yourself but are you able to provide me some details on your issue re: black screen "again"? What exactly are you seeing there and did the swap out of the set top fix it originally (the black screen) or was this swap to fix something else?

Your HDMI concerns are valid but unfortunately we just do not support it at this time due to current hardware/software incompatibility. Most setups will work fine on it but there are isolated problems being seen with certain ones and it is for that reason we suggest you use component if there are problems. It is true that there is an HDMI port on the box but that is only one part of the entire service...Lots of interconnecting parts and it being already on the box will hopefully allow us to officially support it in the future when the kinks get worked out without changing out your STB.

[FuzzFace]

I am not a fan of the guide transparency, I find it very hard to read on my smaller TVs in the bedroom and kitchen, but it's fine on my 42" in the basement

[bwcamp]

Using HDMI but sumilar issue with composite

[byrneo]

What reasoning are they giving for not supporting HDMI, which is *the* standard and has been for many years now. They box they give us is an HDMI box, every TV and receiver made in the last 5+ years is HDMI based.

When they say they don't support it, what do they really mean?

In my experience, it's the audio that doesn't work properly in HDMI. 75% of your Joe Blow users will probably never know the difference, but true dolby digital 5.1 doesn't work via HDMI on either of my HD receivers. If you go in and choose to Dolby Digital, for example, even on a true 7.1 receiver and on a channel broadcasting Dolby 5.1, my receiver will tell me no dobly 5.1 signal is detected (won't get a blue light). On my bell PVR receivers, I get the dolby signal. Get it on PS3 and Xbox too. But not on the Aliant Motorola box. Setting it Dolby 5.1 *works* in that there is audio coming out, tho it's significantly muted compared to if I selected "stereo" mode. But it's not a dolby signal. It's some kind of downmix at best and it comes in too low to even entertain using this setting.

The other audio option is to select "--" (there is literally a "--" option). Upon selecting this, my receiver immediately lights up Blue to say a dolby signal exists and is detected -- but again, the signal is still broken. When you test it, it's just a stereo signal being sent to all 7 speakers (as opposed to discrete 7 channel separation). yes, I'm familiar with multi channel stero

So right now I just set my sound on the Aliant Box to Stereo, and just Neural THX or ProLogic it via my Sony ES2400. So when Aliant says they don't support HDMI, I'm assuming they haven't come up with a way to properly do true Digital 5.1 via HDMI.

I have not tested Optical yet, cause I gave away all my optical cables years ago when HDMI became the standard.

[Here4You]

@ bwcamp: You say you have tried "Composite"...do you mean you have tried component (red, green, and blue) or you have tried the "yellow" video cable (this is actually the composite cable) just trying to confirm you have tried component.

[swivelman]

Originally Posted by byrneo

What reasoning are they giving for not supporting HDMI, which is *the* standard and has been for many years now. They box they give us is an HDMI box, every TV and receiver made in the last 5+ years is HDMI based.

When they say they don't support it, what do they really mean?

In my experience, it's the audio that doesn't work properly in HDMI. 75% of your Joe Blow users will probably never know the difference, but true dolby digital 5.1 doesn't work via HDMI on either of my HD receivers. If you go in and choose to Dolby Digital, for example, even on a true 7.1 receiver and on a channel broadcasting Dolby 5.1, my receiver will tell me no dobly 5.1 signal is detected (won't get a blue light). On my bell PVR receivers, I get the dolby signal. Get it on PS3 and Xbox too. But not on the Aliant Motorola box. Setting it Dolby 5.1 *works* in that there is audio coming out, tho it's significantly muted compared to if I selected "stereo" mode. But it's not a dolby signal. It's some kind of downmix at best and it comes in too low to even entertain using this setting.

The other audio option is to select "--" (there is literally a "--" option). Upon selecting this, my receiver immediately lights up Blue to say a dolby signal exists and is detected -- but again, the signal is still broken. When you test it, it's just a stereo signal being sent to all 7 speakers (as opposed to discrete 7 channel separation). yes, I'm familiar with multi channel stero

So right now I just set my sound on the Aliant Box to Stereo, and just Neural THX or ProLogic it via my Sony ES2400. So when Aliant says they don't support HDMI, I'm assuming they haven't come up with a way to properly do true Digital 5.1 via HDMI.

I have not tested Optical yet, cause I gave away all my optical cables years ago when HDMI became the standard.

I have a had a similar experience, and I also believe that is the issue. My box is still on the OLD Aliant TV guide, and I had hoped the Mediaroom 2.0 upgrade would somehow fix this, but I guess that is not the case. My setup is HDMI to the TV, with optical out to my receiver. I do get a true 5.1 Dolby Digital signal with this setup.

[NB Viewer]

Just had FiberOp installed today. Love the Internet speed.

I have a question on the Guide that I hope someone can help me with. When I use the Guide the channels are listed with the lower numbers at the top and the higher numbers at the bottom. Is there a way to reverse the way the guide is displayed so that the higher channel numbers are at the top of teh screen? That is what I was used to with Expressvu and seems to make more sense to me.

Thanks.

[281cali]

I am having problem with my TVs since I have put in fibre op. The tech will be coming by on my day off next week. Until then I will have to tolerate freezing screens on two seperate TVs. There are component cables attaching the PVR boxes to the TV. The tech didn't use my HDMI cables because he said the HDMI cables would cause problems. I have to reboot the box to get it working again. Anybody else have issues like this, how were they solved?

[bcornish]

I am thinking seriously about switching from Rogers to Fibreop.
However a feature on my Rogers STB ia a reminder feature which you can set up a program for watching in advance.

About a minute before the program starts a reminder bar appears on the screen to remind you about the program.

Does Fibreop STB have this feature?

[Dr.Dave]

The Mediaroom software doesn't have the reminder/auto-tune feature. If you get the PVR, the feature is irrelevant since you can schedule your programs to record and watch them at your convenience.

[habskilla]

Yes the show will record, but the channel does not change to the recorded show channel.