I like having no contract and the customer service reps are nice, but there's nothing groundbreaking or different about this service. They offered it to me for the first few months free and in the long run it will run me ~$50/mo less than Verizon for more channels, but I think I'm going to send it back anyway. Their box is low-tech and lacking features. I used an early generation FIOS box when they first came out, and have since used Windows Media Center with a networked cablecard tuner (~decade-old tech). Both of those old systems offered many features I will lose here. This doesn't even touch the features of things like the hopper, but I don't want to get entangled with Dish. Some basic things you can't do on this box:
1) watch your own movies or media
2) stop playback and exit out to a menu (starts playing random video it thinks you will like as soon as you turn it on, sometimes loudly while others are sleeping - you can pause but not close it while you do other things)
3) customize the start page so you don't have to go through two cluttered screens to get to content
4) reliably watch TV without audio dropouts and buffering (I have 75 Mbps FIOS internet with rock-solid wifi but their lite box links wirelessly to the other box, not to my wifi, and it cuts out whenever anyone else uses any Internet device or watches the other TV)
5) watch Netflix (or Hulu, Amazon video, etc)
6) stream live or DVR content to any devices besides their STB, inside or outside the home
7) program DVR recordings while away from home
8) take DVR recordings with you or access them remotely in any way
9) skip commercials
10) skip forward or back by a few seconds at a time (have to use FF/RW buttons and hope to land it, even though they don't work very well)
11) use voice search on your remote (button is there but it does not work)
Combined with a pretty poor visual interface, generally buggy behavior, spotty on demand video performance, and continuously having to reboot the lite box to get it to find my DVR, this is not acceptable to my family even though it theoretically was going to simplify the tech setup and operation dramatically. For positives, the search feature is fairly decent when typing or using Alexa. It organizes episodes of a series by season, whether found live, in your DVR or on demand, and you can tag on demand videos for your library. It also shows you episodes that are not available anywhere, so it would be nice if you could tag it to record whenever it airs or into your library when it comes on demand, but no go. It does have limited Alexa functionality, but my old system was better at this too. They are not fully integrated, so you still have to say "Ask layer3 to..." unlike some other video systems. Bottom line - if you have an HTPC, TIVO, or even a modern STB from your cable company, this will probably be a downgrade. The upside is you can try it out with no commitment, so if your results are better it is a win - just don't cancel anything else before you check it out. read more