Control Your FiOS DVR From a Phone
Verizon’s mobile DVR application surfaced briefly like a groundhog in February and the company announced wider availability today. Using a mobile phone web connection, FiOS TV customers can manage their DVRs remotely by pointing their handset to http://m.verizon.com/tv.
The timing on this development is nearly perfect for me personally. Verizon hasn’t yet lit the dark fiber in my neighborhood, but wouldn’t you know that one of their workers was on my property over the weekend? I was getting the morning paper when I saw the Verizon truck so I walked over and struck up a conversation. It turns out that FiOS is enabled on the main street that our development is on, but it’s not yet ready for our houses. There’s some minimal amount of fiber splicing unfinished, but I’m told that it should be completed by the end of this week. w00t! At that point, all systems are a go for an upgrade from our relatively lowly 3 Mbps DSL. We’ve already checked out the HD programming available, so we’ll be grabbing FiOS TV…and that remote DVR web application.
Has anyone been testing or using the remote DVR management? I’d be curious how capable it is (or isn’t) before I make the move to FiOS.
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I have used the website to program my dvr while I was away and it works for setting recordings but you can’t set a whole series to record or edit recording properties from the interface. It us useful for deleting shows to open up space but you can only do that through the regular website not the mobile website.
Kevin,
You will love FiOS internet access, especially the fast upload (I have 20/5). On the DVR front, like Mark says, you’ll be limited in what you can do from a handheld, but the regular web interface is also very handy and from that you can delete shows and series, as well as set up new recordings of both individual shows and whole series.
The HD tv experience is excellent on FiOS (though not so much for the DVR), with very good picture quality.
Even the phone service has some nice bells and whistles. Altogether, I give it at least an A-.
Curt
I used to be able to use my iphone for at&t yaho uverse but then they went and yanked the support.
Kevin,
As is typical of Verizon, the way that you get to these things is always convoluted. The link you provided above, http://m.verizon.com/tv, asks you to sign in. You can use your verizon.net email address, but after you sign in, you are told to set up at verizon.com/fiostvcentral. That side loads to http://www36.verizon.com/fiostv/web/, which has a navigation menu on the left.
When you click on the link for supported devices (after clicking on the arrow to open the menu), it takes you to http://www36.verizon.com/fiostv/web/UnProtected/Mobile/SupportedDevices.aspx. On that page, 3 devices are listed, all Verizon Wireless phones–The Chocolate2, the enV2, and the Voyager. All 3 are LG phones.
If you have a Sling device, I’d set it up so you can access remotely/from the internet and use it to program the DVR or watch recorded content.
When FiOS was installed at my house in August, they included the Actiontec MI-424-WRv2. I used the portforward.com site to assist with opening particular ports, mainly for the roommate’s Xbox and my WoW. If you get the same router, the page for information, which includes good screenshots, is available here: http://www.portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/Actiontec/MI-424-WRv2/MI-424-WRv2index.htm.
Best of luck!
Woadan