Monday, March 23, 2015

Verizon Fios Quantum not getting Syfy - Fixed

I'm an early adopter of technology.  So when Philadelphia Verizon offered their new Verizon Fios Quantum service, which allows for up to 6 simultaneous tunes/recordings, I jumped on board quickly.  But, we've had it about a year now, and have had nothing but problems.   I've had at least 6 calls into tech support, and have unplugged/rebooted the boxes at least 30 times.   We had 3, yes THREE separate visits from tech support, and not until the very last guy did any of them have any idea about the fios quantum system.  In fact, the second tech I had out flat out told me that he had 2 years until retirement and didn't want to learn any of this crap.  But I digress.  Let me tell you how everything ultimately got resolved.

We've had "digital choppyness" which looks like artifacting or sound loss on several channels since the day the system got installed.   Some days the channels were better than others, and sometimes they flat out did not work and we'd get a message similar to "This channel is not available".  The many calls to Verizon resulted in lots of unplugging and plugging back in.  A tech that installed a booster (even though the signal is not analog) and a swap of both equipment and routers.  Long story short, the splitters are MOST DEFINITELY the problem.

So, I've reran cable, put new ends on, and put a booster in place, yet I still was not able to get channels 680, 685, 780 and a few others.  Most recently Syfy, FXX and the DisneyHD channel flat out did not work.     So, ultimately, here is what I found out.  The new Verizon Fios Quantum (which is a VMS system) is NOT COMPATIBLE with the splitters that have been installed by Verizon and Comcast for the last 20 years.  Those splitters are only good up 1ghz.  The new system operates up to 1.2ghz (give or take).  Basically, what is happening is that channels that are broadcast over the 1ghz frequency over the cable can be blocked by the old splitters.  Therefore, your VMS (dvr) cannot get the channel properly and cannot send it out to your media clients.

Here is the kicker.   According to the tech that visited me last (the only one that knows what he is doing), Verizon knows about this.  They are hoping people don't complain about the lost channels.  The ones that do, well they are told that the wiring is bad and those customers are charged to replace the splitters.  

While I understand business and profits, I think this is dishonest.  Minimally, as part of the "upgrade" to Quantum, Verizon should make it clear to their customers that any coax splitter in their house will likely need to be replaced.  

So, if you are getting partially scrambled signal on channels 685, 780 on Fios, chances are it is the splitters in your house are not of the right frequency.   This splitter (or any that is greater than 1.5ghz) should work to fix your problem.   Keep in mind, you likely have MULTIPLE splitters between the ONT (the main white box they install) and your VMS (the largest quantum black box).   The splitters up to your router should not matter.