Category: Tech

For Tech Nerds Only

Logitech Harmony 650

Logitech shut down their MySqueezebox service and handed its Logitech Media Server system to the capable volunteers at Lyrion, with excellent results. Something that Logitech hasn’t given up is support for its Harmony smart remotes. The product line was discontinued four years ago, but as I found out yesterday, Logitech’s MyHarmony service, that I hadn’t accessed since 2019, is still online.

I removed Verizon’s Motorola DVR from my Harmony 650’s configuration and laughed out loud when seeing the cheapie iView 3500STBIII tuner/PVR listed as a supported device. Would it actually work? After reconfiguring the setup and synching the remote over USB, it does indeed work.

Dearly Diskparted

As expected, the external 1 TB WD My Book/AV HDD, installed for more than a decade on the now-retired Fios TV DVR, was seen by Windows as a raw disk. I initialized and partitioned it to be used for whatever.

I need to initiate an equipment return process with Verizon, but the drive was my own purchase, so it stays with me. Verizon actually doesn’t care about the old gear, but as I must return the new Fios TV One and Mini, I may as well send the old stuff back as well.

I Have Done the Unthinkable

I have cancelled Fios TV; which, for me, is the same as saying that I have cancelled Turner Classic Movies. Why? Because the picture on Fios TV One is so soft as to not qualify as being HD.

Until two-and-a-half years ago, TCM on Fios TV was in SD. I was delighted when, in September, 2022, Verizon added TCM in HD to the lineup on channel 730.

A Very Late, But Nice, Surprise

I was also very pleased to see that Fios TV in HD and the Watch TCM streaming service were indistinguishable in picture quality. That is no longer the case with the new, and mandatory, Fios TV One system.

A direct comparison with the WatchTCM app isn’t necessary to see Fios TV’s obvious softness, but making that direct back-and-forth comparison reveals a loss of detail comparable to DVD quality. It’s obvious not only on the JVC D-ILA projector, but also on the 720p bedroom TV. And it’s on every station, not just TCM, but TCM is the only cable channel I care about.

Based on HD having such poor resolution, Verizon’s touting of 4K video is laughable. Obviously, Verizon has introduced lossy recompression into its video chain, undoing what had been the hallmark of Fios TV’s original and outstanding image quality. What scarce technical resources are they saving by doing that?

One way for me to think about this is I’ve been returned to the way it was before TCM HD on Fios TV. WatchTCM was the only way I watched the channel, and very rarely did I use the DVR to record TCM in SD. But I refuse to do that again, having been spoiled and knowing what’s possible.

This does not bode well, not just for cable TV, but for the future of Turner Classic Movies. TCM has lost this devoted subscriber and charter member of the defunct TCM Backlot program.

WatchTCM must inevitably become a standalone streaming subscription service, no longer tethered to the out-of-date cable TV business model. Until that happens, I will be relying upon the Criterion Channel, which offers at least some of the content that’s available on TCM.

P.S. I neglected to mention there’s a TCM section inside of the Max streaming service. It’s a collection of movies, rather than being TCM or WatchTCM.