Category Archives: DIY

Verizon FIOS – Fuse HD, Fox Soccer HD and other channels not coming in

Monday, January 16, 2012

The other day I was watching Fuse HD, I know, but I like to watch the music videos in the background while working. Suddenly the screen went black and I got a searching for channel message. I thought that was odd, and figured Verizon was having a glitch. After a couple days, I noticed that it never came back. I contacted Verizon Tech Support, but as usual they were not very helpful.

I should add that I have a Tivo with a cable card, although it has worked flawless since originally installed. I tried rebooting the Tivo, but no luck. I did a quick Google search to see if Verizon perhaps dropped Fuse, but Verizon claimed that they did not, and I should be receiving it with my subscription.

Once again I did some searching, and found some posts that seemed to indicate that this was a somewhat common problem with FIOS. Others were reporting missing channels, the most common were E HD (696), IFC HD (734), Hallmark HD, MLB Network, YES, SNY, Fuse HD, and Fox SoccerHD. So, I did not have a solution, but felt somewhat better knowing that this seemed to be a common problem and I was not alone.

Finally, I stumbled on the solution. It appears that Fuse HD and Fox Soccer HD are both on 69Mhz, which I have been told is one of the lower frequencies, and one that is commonly affected by noise on the cable line. The suggestion was to look for leakages between the ONT (Optical Network Terminal), splitters, jacks, and receiver. I had recently moved one of the splitters, so that was the first place I checked. Sure enough, the incoming cable was loose, and as I was tightening it, the picture came right in! Apparently, others have found that some of the older ONT units (MOT 611 IIR) have a known problem with passing the lower frequencies, so if a simple jack tightening does not solve your problem, you may want to also look into this.

Also filed in Repair | Tagged FIOS, fuse, glitch, ONT, SoccerHD, tivo, Verizon, verizon fios | Comments (0)

USA Spec PA15 – INFI iPhone/iPod interface for Infiniti G35x

Friday, January 13, 2012

I have a 2005 Infiniti G35x and have been wishing for years that the car had come with an AUX plug, or iPhone/iPod interface for almost the whole six years that I have owned it. Several years back when looking for a solution, I found an interface that claimed to work, however it required the removal of the dash. This was not an exercise that I was interested in undertaking, nor paying for. Removing the dash did not look like an easy task, not as simple as in many cars.

Fast forward a couple years… A couple weeks ago I get my yearly XM radio renewal (another topic I will discuss in future post) and decided I needed to get my iPhone talking to my Infiniti pronto. I quickly found out that several vendors now sold Infiniti/Nissan to iPhone/iPod interfaces. Interestingly, USA-Spec was touting an interface that connected between the cars existing XM Radio and the in-dash stereo. And, on the G35x sedan, the XM Radio was conveniently mounted in the trunk. This unit also works with many other Nissan and Infiniti cars, but please take a look at the manual here to insure compatibility with your auto.

So, I purchased the unit from Amazon, and got it two days later (thank you Mr Prime). In preparation, I cleaned out my trunk and did some searching for the XM tuner. After popping the trunk, you will find a trim panel across the top of trunk. Carefully remove several of the plastic pop-rivets using a blunt knife and lower the trim panel, it will still be attached to the piece that covers the rear-seats. On the upper right-hand side you will find the XM tuner mounted in a rack on the bottom with the connecter located on the right side. This connecter is removed and the connecter from the PA 15 – INFI is mounted in-between the two.

I simply snaked the control unit cable under the rear seats and up along the drive tunnel. You can be ultra-clean and run under the carpets, or go ghetto and just thread it out the ski pole opening. Once everything is connected, connect your iPhone and run through the simple setup instructions in the manual. This will allow you to choose via playlist, artist, or song. In addition you can run in direct mode, the cool part of this is it allows you to access any audio application on your iPhone, including Pandora! Lastly, there is also an Aux interface that allows you to plug in any device that can connect via a 3.5mm AUX jack.

While the manual does a pretty good job walking through all the options, walking through playlists/artist/songs can be a bit tedious if you have large song collection, but a little bit of practice will help. The audio quality is very good, the integration is surprisingly good considering USA Spec has basically just hacked the system to make your iThing look like a XM tuner or CD Changer.

In the end, USA Spec has a real winner. As mentioned, I found the sound quality to be excellent, and installation was a breeze. If you run into any issues, just leave me a message here and I will try to help out.