Getting stuff to work under Verizon Fios

Disclaimers

I'm not with Verizon.  I don't have access to all of the information.  I don't know how frequently they make changes that could obviate these issues.  I don't know which version numbers are the ones that matter.  Your mileage may vary.  But here are my lessons learned, for your possible benefit.

Can't get into router

Problem experienced with Actiontec MI424WR router:  You know the admin account name and password for the router, and possibly you even logged into it successfully before somebody pushed out an update that changed the login page... but now whenever you try to type the password, you get multiple characters per keystroke and the password field goes berserk.  You can't log in no matter what.  Using copy and paste to enter the password prevents the berserk behaviors, but you still can't log in.

This problem is caused by Verizon's customization of the router's login page.  The solution is easier than you might think.

1. Stop trying to work around the problem with copy and paste.
2. Stop trying to make the number of characters in the password field match the number of characters that you type.
3. Close your eyes.
4. Type the password.
5. Hit Enter.

That's it.  The problem is inflicted by some weird JavaScript code that (a) only works with interactive keyboard input, not copy-and-paste, and (b) generates all those scary extra characters.  Use the force, trust your feelings, and just type the darned password.  (Tested with Firefox 2.0.0.4 under Linux.)

Can't get closed captions

Problem experienced with Motorola QIP6416-2 DVR and Sharp LC-32GP1U TV connected via HDMI, but probably applies to many other configurations:  Can't get closed captions.

The Sharp TV has the following behaviors with respect to closed captions:

• Analog cable:  OK
• Combined video:  OK
• Component video 480i:  broken (drops and mangles captions)
• Component video 480p:  NO captions
• HDMI:  NO captions

Fortunately, the DVR has its own closed caption decoder, if you know how to get to it.  As of 2007-08, Verizon has added an option to their menus to enable the DVR's closed caption decoder:  Menu → Settings → Accessibility → Closed Captions.

That enables basic captions with default settings.  You can change fonts, colors, transparency, etc. as follows.

1. While the TV is on but the DVR is OFF and NOT RECORDING ANYTHING, press menu (either on the front panel of the DVR or on the remote) to access the DVR's configuration menu.
   • If the DVR is not off, you will get the Verizon menu instead of the DVR's configuration menu.
   • If the DVR is recording, you won't be able to access the configuration menu at all.
   • If a recording is scheduled to begin while you are in the menu, it will dump you out of the menu and not let you back in.
2. Enable captions on the configuration menu and select fonts, colors, etc.
3. Cycle power on the DVR.
4. Should have captions now.

Captions from DVR are broken for certain shows and channels

On certain shows and channels (e.g., Doctor Who on Sci Fi), captions get skipped or appear too late and vanish immediately.  The problem got worse after the 2007-08 update.

Although this problem can't be cured completely, sticking with the default font instead of using different fonts from the Motorola menu seems to lessen its severity.  This suggests that CPU load may be a factor.

Sound volume fluctuates randomly

Problem experienced with Motorola QIP2500-3 STB / QIP6416-2 DVR and any TV:  The sound volume fluctuates randomly sometimes, most noticeably when listening to a music station.

This problem is caused by an STB feature—audio compression—that, ironically, has the purpose of making the sound volume more consistent.  Compression does help bring up those channels that broadcast at unusually low volume, but it is not good for music.

As of 2008-08 the way to disable this feature is Menu → Settings → Audio → Dynamic Range, OK, and change it from Heavy to None.

DVR fails to record a scheduled program or only records part of it

This was a huge problem for us in the early days, but over time it has happened less and less often.  In recent months, what failures we have experienced fall into two categories:

1. The program guide is wrong, not the execution of the program per se.  This is worked around by doing a manual program.
2. Failures related to series recordings when there was such a ridiculous number of series programs piled up that we had no idea what was working and what wasn't.  When a program quits recording for whatever reason, some users hit "record entire series" again but never purge the old program, so the programs just accumulate until weird stuff happens.  Advice is to check the list of series programs once in a while and get rid of the ones that no longer apply.

Also be aware of the following, which are not bugs but features:

• If more than two "record entire series" programs apply at the same time, the DVR will choose the two with the highest priority and ignore all others.
• There is a setting in the DVR menus to choose whether to record repeats or only first-run episodes of a series, and another setting to choose how many episodes of a series to retain.

Urge dead air

In 2007, the Urge music stations (most of them, anyway) kept coming and going.  They would go out for a few days, stay on for a week or two, then go out again for a few more days.  Verizon's troubleshooters assumed that the problem was at my end, whereas to me it looked like it was at their end.

2008-07-12:  As far as I have noticed, this problem has not reoccurred in the last nine months.  I guess they found the cause and fixed it.

STB firmware bugs and unwanted features

The following issues are current in release 1.6.0 (build 06.86):

• When playing back a DVR program, sometimes the stop button does not function.  (Tested this with two different remotes.)  This is a regression.  The workaround is to go into the menu, locate the program in the list of recorded programs, click on it and access the stop option on that submenu.
• When skimming ahead with the skip-forward button on the remote, it will sometimes begin playing from the same timepoint twice in a row before skipping ahead properly.
• Even when the STB is "off," at least some of the time it's still sending a black-screen signal to the TV.  This defeats the TV's no-signal blurb that comes up to let you know that you forgot to turn the TV off.  On QIP2500-3, there was no signal initially, but after cycling power on the STB there was a black-screen signal that persisted for the few minutes I was willing to wait.
• Periodically the DVR gets into some state where it sends invalid codes to the TV over HDMI, which locks up the TV too.  The solution is to pull the plug on both devices and let them reset.

The following issues observed in 1.5.0 are confirmed fixed in 1.6.0 (and there was great rejoicing):

• There is no way to disable audio compression.
• Arbitrary limit of 5 episodes to retain from a series recording.
• If an HD channel is viewed full-frame, there is a vertical column of pixels near the left side of the screen that has been deleted, shifting most of the image leftward and leaving a green stripe of the same width at the right margin.  This issue appeared after the 2007-08 firmware update, so my guess is that this is a deliberate left-shift of the viewable area for TVs that crop the frame.  It's annoying.
• Slow response time and spontaneous reboots.

Older firmware releases had serious problems including a tendency of the DVR to fail to record programs for no diagnosable reason.

The wicked, evil fembot

If you have made her acquaintance, you'll know who I'm talking about.  If you haven't met her yet, you will.

When you need to get rid of her, the magic word is "agent."  Use it insistently.  She might refuse to budge unless you first choose which of the following options best describes your problem, yadda ya, but having done that, you should get through to an actual real live person.

Hopefully that will be an improvement.  I don't worry about robots passing the Turing test.  I worry about people flunking it.

I'm told that hitting zero repeatedly also works.

These tricks only work by phone.  There is no way to get through to a live person by e-mail.

KB
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