JP1 Remotes

[Ghost117]

OK. Verizon is installing FiOS cables in my area and I should have access to FiOS internet and TV within a month. I would like to get the TV on my PC because then can use Windows Media Center to watch TV, stream it thgough my xbox onto my HDTV, and use my PC as a DVR without paying for it.

The question is, is there a way to hook up the FiOS TV to my computer? A tuner card of some sort perhaps, but im not sure since if i understand correctly, then FiOS uses different cables then cable and a standard tuner card would not be able to hook up to it.

If there is no way to do that, is there some good IPTV provider? I found a TON of free stuff that's completely useless. I actually want good chanels, not the stuff people made on their home PCs and try to sell through IPTV.

And finally, If I get this to work somehow, will I be able to get my 8910 remote to control it? Is there some IR reciever that I can buy for my PC? Or even better is there some radio reciever that I can buy for my PC?

Thanks,
Ghost117

[zaphod7501]

There are a couple of ways to get TV into a PC but FIOS is too new to tell you for sure just how to set it up best. You won't know for certain until you see what kind of setup they provide. You should be able to treat their box just like a cable box and connect it to a capture card using S-Video cables with L/R audio cables. Lacking S-Video, composite or RF (ch 3) should work too.

MediaCenter will work with an IR blaster to control the box's channel changing. The limitation here is that your recordings will only be at DVD quality. Due to DRM and copy protection, analog DVD quality may be the best you can get for recording and archiving anything other than OTA broadcasts.

There is the possibility that FIOS may have a number of channels available in "Clear QAM". If you setup has that, then there are tuner cards that will record QAM in full digital resolution. The clear channels may be set up through a "favorites" setting. The reason FIOS works is that all the channels are not sent to your location simultaneously, like cable does. This means that the entire lineup is not present at all times, you have to select channels that are then passed to your house. My limited understanding is that, unlike a cable box which has only one channel output at a time, FIOS can have 15 or more present at a time, but not 100s like cable. Somehow, you have to communicate to the system that you want certain channels sent.

You'll need a Media Center approved remote and blaster if you want to use MCE for your interface. MCE also honors DRM flags that nothing else does, so you may find that you can't record everything you want to. You won't have too much trouble getting your 8910 to control their box (assuming it's IR and nor RF) but you might wish you had a remote with a timer function if you can't get the MCE blaster to send the FIOS box commands correctly but that's a feature UEI seems to have dropped from most of their remotes.
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Just call me Zaphod (or Steve) --- I never should have started using numbers in a screen name but I just can't stop now.

[classicsat]

FIOS, for all practical purposes, is little different than traditional digital cable after the ONT. You will be able to use just about any capture card that can record SD video (there are no real HD capture cards to record form an STB), an an IR blaster or serial control of the FIOS box.

[ElizabethD]

Perhaps some answers are buried here. I gather via grapevine that Verizon has now switched from some terrible DVR to the Motorola one which finally permits people to record one program while watching another.
Other information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verizon-FIOS
Click on specs in this link, it's a pdf file
http://broadband.motorola.com/catalog/productdetail.asp?ProductID=446
Small print in the Motorola specs: