Switching cable company triple plays in search of perfection, Fios vs Optimum

Here are our early observations on switching from Fios to Optimum/Altice One.

Verizon Fios will send you a bill for the partial month, due immediately, then turn you over to a collection agency within 10 days.

First Optimum bill, with free installation, will be much higher than you expect because of partial month billing, yada, yada, yada have you signed up for paperless billing?

With triple play, we noticed in our browser window Optimum pop up ads. Coincidence? Maybe.

Our first impression is that the TV picture is much improved with Optimum. It seems clearer. For some reason (VOIP?), when we change channels up or down, there's a three-second black screen that takes over, just enough time to be noticed and be annoying. You can't hold the Channel-up or Channel-down button to scroll quickly... because of that black screen.

We do like the multi-room DVR and recording takes more than one step to actually record (press red button to record, then on show, press record button again.) If you’re watching a show and you press record, it only records from that time forward, not what you’ve already watched [Point to Fios.]


We had some issues with DVR playback. Pictures freeze. Drop-outs. Closed-caption (though available on live recording) not available on playback. [Called chat and a boost fixed it. Until next time when we decided it’s not worth the bother to chat to fix it. Optimum Chat is semi-useless and very difficult to get through. Equal to FiOS chat.]

The Optimum remote is much, much smaller than the Fios remote. Not only is it smaller but it’s much easier to hit the wrong buttons with big, clumsy, arthritic hands, and then try to figure out what happened. Punch in a three digit channel and do it too slow, you get a surprise channel. Someone suggested we keep a stylus handy to change the channels.

The new remote lights up. That’s a big plus when the room is lit only by the TV.

If you like Netflix, there’s a big white button in the center you can use. I don’t have Netflix, so this button is a mistake each time we hit it. The online tutorials were less than helpful. The manual with our password was less helpful.

The onscreen channel display is too small. You can see a number but there’s no way ANYONE can read which network is on because the type is so tiny.

Ear-Splittin' Louden-Boomer

My neighbor Jerry was always one to take things apart to see how they tick. He liked to play his Grand Funk Railroad at Ear-Splittin Louden-Boomer until the speakers exploded. Then he'd take apart his woofers and tweeters and make them as good as new.

He was the same way with his electric guitar and amp. You could hear him halfway up the block on Carpenter Street.

He had one of those gas-powered airplanes. It made a lot of noise when the engine was running. It sounded like a wild lawn mower. But I don't remember him ever getting the plane to fly. And even if he did, it would surely have crashed in to one of the gazillion trees on our property.

Did I mention Jerry got me to join the Boy Scouts? Then he got too sick to ever go on any of the camping trips. We tried to send each other Morse Code signals bedroom-to-bedroom with a flashlight. I never could get the difference between a long and a short flash, so, to tell him I was finished, I put the light on my chin and looked like Herman Munster.

No wonder he became a computer program ... when the first PCs came out ... and later made a career - from which he retired - out of keeping a New York bank's computers humming.

He was also a cable TV installer. That was when it was all brand new. He was the first person I ever heard of to have a carpal tunnel operation.

When you looked at the scars from that operation, you'd think he tried to kill himself.

He was the first kid in the neighborhood to play the Woodstock album - and the Fish Cheer really, really loud. It was like we were getting away with something.

Anyway, Jerry always came down from Pennsylvania for my book signings. Once he came down and had to rush back because it was his daughter's prom and he had to take her pictures when she was all dolled up.

Nobody was surprised when he told us that his daughter was an honest-to-God rocket scientist.

Copyright © 2008 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.