Verizon has unveiled the next generation of its all-fibre-optic FiOS TV The company used 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 3D content software, which automatically detects when a customer tunes to a 3D programme or channel and changes the necessary settings for watching those programmes on a 3D television set. The DVR enhancements include DVR chaptering, multi-hub DVR, eSATA external storage device compliance and ‘play all’ and ‘delete all’ options. The DVR chaptering gives viewers DVD-like features to jump ahead or resume viewing at a particular moment of a recorded programming by using on-screen thumbnails in ten-minute increments, providing more visual navigation.

Multi-hub DVR, which turns any DVR or HD set-top box in the home into a ‘hub,’ allows customers to record and manage DVR settings from any room in the home, provided one of the DVRs is a multi-room DVR. eSATA external storage device compliance, available with most FiOS TV DVRs, allows for increased overall storage capacity. eSATA hard drives will automatically record customer selections once plugged into the DVR. Verizon’s FiOS TV also features improved search capacities, which provide a smart search function that predicts what the customer is looking for and automatically provides potential matches.

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 new upgrades, effective immediately. All other FiOS markets are scheduled to receive the upgrade during the coming months.

Categories: Articles, In Home, IPG, Middleware, PVR, Search/Recommendation, UHD