Hands-on with FiOS Flex View

At the grand re-opening of a Verizon Plus store in Tampa today, Big Red was demoing its latest FiOS TV feature, Flex View. As announced, this feature lets you take your video on demand content with you on your PC as well as various other Verizon Wireless devices -- no iOS support though as Apple doesn't license its FairPlay and the Microsoft PlayReady DRM used doesn't work on Apple's products either. There are about 2,000 movies available for rent now, with a subset of them available for purchase. Currently they are all SD with stereo sound, but HD and discrete surround sound are planed for later versions. Unlike the FiOS VOD, you can download these shows from any internet connection and play them back on the go or at home -- resume between devices is also in the coming-soon category. Overall the user interface looked good, but we did see lots of blocking artifacts that we just hope were a result of the in-store demo and not an indication of what customers can actually expect. The content is linked to your Verizon FiOS user ID, which means that purchased content can still be viewed even if you cancel your FiOS TV service. No word on if Verizon's free VOD selection will ever become available, but we have to say we really like the idea of watching content on the go no matter how good our network connection isn't.

Gallery: Hands-on with FiOS Flex View

Hands-on with FiOS Flex View originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 22:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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