Fios v.s. TWC and IR extenders

About 5 months ago I switched from Time Warner cable to Verizon Fios. I had been a loyal TWNYC customer for 15-20 years when Verizon finally completed their fiber optic network in my area and began peddling their Fios TV package door to door and via aggressive direct mail.

I was instantly intrigued at the opportunity to have content delivered to me via fiber optic cable, I want my content delivered at light speed, and anything slower than that is simply unacceptable. :-)

The deal that finally got me to act on Fios was the free home media DVR for a year, this offer had a value of 19.99 per month and added up to a savings of almost $240 for the year, but to be honest with you, I would have went with Fios regardless once I had heard about the multi-room DVR, that was what finally pushed me over the edge. You see for a year or two my wife and I had discussed how great it would be to have a DVR in the bedroom, however, it would have added a cost of $13 or so a month and the fact that we would be recording the same shows in both the living room and bedroom seemed foolish. The principle of the matter just kept me from spending extra money on a bill that already exceeded $160/month (including Internet access).

So I got on the phone with Verizon, I had already missed the free DVR deal for a year, but I was able to negotiate a monthly discount of $10/month for a year, plus I got all the premium channels for free for 90 days and was told to check back monthly about additional free offers.
This seemed reasonable for me, especially since even at full price Verizon cost me less than Time Warner and was supposedly much faster with all sorts of bells and whistles.

The installer finally came in December and I had to send him away and reschedule since we could not find a proper place to install the box. During the week between the first and second installation appointment, I installed an outlet in my foyer that would make the installation seamless. Finally the installer came and we installed everything in matter of 3-4 hours, not the 8/9 hours they say it would take because I had laid the ground work during the week as to how we should do the installation.

Now mind you, with Time Warner I had Scientific Atlantic cable boxes and in my bedroom the box was hidden in a closet and had an IR extender wired so that we could operate the box with only the TV out in the open. Now Fios uses Motorola cable boxes or STB's (set top box) as they call them, and they truly are STB's, in that there is no OEM method to wire an Infrared extender to their box and in order for it to work it needs to be in direct line of sight with the remote.

I thought there is no way that a company like Motorola did not think about this problem. At first I tried to use the IR extender from my scientific box which uses a simple USB for power with the available USB's on the Motorola, but alas that did not work, and I was later informed that the USB connectors on the boxs were not live. Then I tried to jerry-rig the extender by using a USB-AC converter and directly powering it, but that too did not work.

My next step, I called Verizon, and they told me that they did not know what I should do. Then I said Motorola must have an answer, I mean they are Motorola after all, but once again I was wrong and they said I should speak to Verizon. At this point I realized I was on my own, and that I would need to come up with an aftermarket solution.

Time was limited as my wife was on her way home from Florida in a week and she said that she did not want to watch TV with an open closet door so she could have line of sight between the cable box and the remote, note that these were not her exact words were, she was more like "MAKE IT HAPPEN."

So I set off to do my research and my believe me there were hundreds of different solutions out there, most of which required that I purchase and IR receiver, an IR emitter, a switch box for the two and a power supply, this seemed like a messy and costly set up (about $90-$100), and all this to change channels from bed with a closed closet door?????? There had to be a better way......

....and there was, I found a product that converted the IR signal from your remote into an RF signal that was sent through the air, magically of course, to a little "UFO looking" like receiver which had an IR emitter attached to it, which would need to be placed in front of the cable box.
I was doubtful about how something like this would work, how does a little battery sleeve that goes into a remote magically convert IR into RF, I was amazed at the thought and baffled by the technology, was there a Noble prize for physics awarded for this technology and I missed the award show??? Was the person who invented this device the same person who invented the plastic on the end of shoe laces, the inventor of the post-it???? How had I not heard of this magic before?

This is the device if you are interested:

http://estore.websitepros.com/1373698/Detail.bok?no=8

I bought the device on amazon for $33, that was the best price I could find on it. It took literally 2 minutes to make it work, and this is not like the "2 minutes" most companies claim, I am talking 120 seconds or less (once you charge the mini battery) to be off to the races. The only negative I could see is that there seems to be a little lag in the device, not sure if it is the box or the extender, but I believe it is the extender and if you are a bedridden invalid (whom I have nothing against) you may want to invest in a different solution, but if you are a recreational TV in the bedroom watcher, then this is for you.

I love this device and gave it a great review on Amazon, I have since spent countless hours thinking about what other devices I would like to control from other rooms using this miracle of IR to RF conversion technology. My wife has prevented me from moving forward with my dreams of powering blenders and coffee makers from the backyard, but the day will come when I will control her hair dryer from the neighbors house.

You know how they say, when God closes a door, he opens a window, well my closed door was the Motorola STB that Verizon uses, and my window was the Next Generation Remote extender.

I have now had FIOS for 5 or so months, and have my complaints, but overall am happy with the product, the greatest feature of which is the multi-room DVR, I go from the living room to kitchen to the bedroom and Resume my recorded programs seamlessly. Well to be honest, there have been issues with the functionality, but with a little trial and error, I get it going and continue to watch my MTV wherever I am with Ninja-like efficiency. ( I am pretty sure that's not even a saying, but I like the sound of it. Throw Ninja in any sentence and it's just cool)