Verizon Unveils 25 New FiOS TV Interactivity Features

Verizon's FiOS TV is getting better, for those that have it. Of course, it remains to be seen if the company will ever expand their roadmap and blaze a FiOS trail to even more states, but if you're lucky enough to have access, you'll have 25 new upgrades coming your way. The company's calling this the next-generation of FiOS TV, complete with enhanced interactivity and personalization.


According to the release, Verizon listened to customer feedback gained from its product development labs, field trials and social media forums to create many of the more than 25 upgrades to FiOS TV's advanced Interactive Media Guide.  The enhancements include greater personalization and customization, easier navigation, deeper search, bigger storage options and optimization for new 3D technology.


FiOS TV customers in the Buffalo, Syracuse and Albany, N.Y., areas, along with those in the Harrisburg, Pa., region, are the first to get the powerful new upgrades, effective immediately.  All other FiOS markets are scheduled to receive the upgrade during the coming months.  You could also argue that having access to lightning fast Internet speeds makes a FiOS TV bundle even more attractive, but we're trying to ignore that given that we aren't situated in a FiOS footprint area...

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.  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.