Verizon FiOS TV users get new program guide

Verizon FiOS TV subscribers in Fort Wayne, Indiana, a market Verizon just launched the service in, are the first users to experience the company's new programming guide. The interface, which Verizon calls its Interactive Media Guide, will launch to all FiOS TV subs by the end of the summer.

According to the Verizon website, the IMG's display and navigation is greatly improved:

• An enhanced interface with 32-bit graphics, 16 million colors and 8-bit transparency.
• It features a "hierarchical, tabbed menu system" with "animated layering displays" and "fixed-focus magnifying viewer" that presents information at the center of the screen.
• The IMG also boasts low latency of less than one-fifth of a second response time to user input.

The IMG's search function also brings enhancements:

• Network powered search with global queries of TV and movie channels, On Demand titles and DVR contents.
• Onscreen text entry options include: multitap, virtual keyboard and scroll wheel.
• Predictive results come up after the first character is entered and refined as additional ones are entered.

The IMG also features a number of "widgets" that currently include basics like weather, traffic and community info updates. More widgets are on the way, according to Verizon.

For more on the new FiOS TV guide:
- see this fact sheet [1] on the IMG (.pdf)
- and view this demo [2] of the interface (video)