AT&T U-verse for Hi Speed Internet & TV....anyone?

[mrsilv04]

I am one of the first in this area to have U-verse installed in my neighborhood.

I'm seriously considering having it installed, mainly for high speed internet and TV. They also have home phone service (of course, it is AT&T.... but who does home phone service anymore?). They're waiving all install fees ($149), and offering a 30 day money back trial period, and no contract is required.

So what's not to like here?

I went up to the AT&T store and gave it a "test drive", and I'm quite impressed.

Anyone out there have it, and want to comment?

What do I need to watch out for? Are there any "gotchas" with this system?

 

[bepperb]

Can you record two HD shows at a time?

That was what pushed me away. And we only would have saved a few bucks a month over cable.

 

[mrsilv04]

I would have the ability to record 4 shows at a time, and then view it at any connected TV in the house.

I currently don't have cable (but have DishNetwork), and have no desire to ever have anything to do with our cable company, which is Comcast...

 

[XS650]

Check the A/V forums. U-Verse doesn't have the picture quality of a good sat or cable connection.

Many people don't notice the difference, so it can;'t be too bad. You should carefully evaluate on a good HD TV and be sure it is as good as what you want.

 

[mrsilv04]

Originally Posted By: XS650
Check the A/V forums. U-Verse doesn't have the picture quality of a good sat or cable connection.

Many people don't notice the difference, so it can;'t be too bad. You should carefully evaluate on a good HD TV and be sure it is as good as what you want.


I wondered about that. However, I somehow doubt I'll notice that on my 13 year old, 27" TV...

Yeah, I'm cheap.

 

[oldmaninsc]

Originally Posted By: XS650
Check the A/V forums. U-Verse doesn't have the picture quality of a good sat or cable connection.


Really? After having Dish for 15 years, (and trying our local cable for about 6 months) I'd say the U-Verse picture quality FAR exceeds DISH, especially on standard definition channels.

As was mentioned, I can record up to 2 HD and 2 standard programs at the same time. Anything recorded on the DVR can be viewed from any other TV in the house (that has a U-Verse receiver). That is one of the features I love.

With the new software upgrade you can schedule or erase anything on the DVR from any other receiver as well.

 

[XS650]

Then picture quality isn't an issue unless you get an HD set someday. Even that doesn't seem to be an issue for the average viewer.

 

[mrsilv04]

I guess I would qualify as an "average" viewer. I've been on Dish Network for the last 12 years.

Right now I have a Dish 301 DishPro receiver that is probably 5 years old, connected to a 27" TV that is 13 years old.

When the 27" dies, I will likely upgrade to a 37" 1080p LCD unit. Mainly whatever is the best buy from a quality manufacturer I can find at the time, with a budget of $600-700.

I'll likely run the TV that I have now until it develops some sort of a problem or it quits.


Oh... the other thing... I'm on dial up right now. Remember when I said that I was cheap?

 

[ZZman]

MY mom has it in TN. They like it.

 

[tomcat27]

I have Uverse, so do friends and neighbors:
- The internet has been fast and reliable
- phone is fine
- the quality of the picture is average, although I had a better picture with another cable provider and also with sat.
- everyone I know has had lots of problems with the tv/Uverse
many calls to customer support. support during the day is very good, off-hours phone support is horrible and aggravating
We have had tons of connection issues, pixelation, pictures freezing, remote boxes cant play pre-recorded shows
- neighbors and friends have had same problems
- the "on demand" library is not as intuititive or near as complete as other offerings
- the HDMI connection is very glitchy, we have had to resort to component video connections. according to two techs, this is very common.
- all in all, I give them a "well below expectations"

 

[XS650]

Tomcat, from what I have read and heard from people, it sounds like there are widely varying implementations of U-Verse and customers with different levels of expectations and standards.

I hear more problems in my are about reliability and a user hostile interface than I do picture quality, but many people can't tell an SD picture form an HD picture.

After my experience with ATT's incompetence trying to get my DSL fixed the time it went down, I will avoid getting tied any deeper into ATT's tech world.

 

[javacontour]

My neighbor works for U-verse, so of course he says it's great.

We have fiber to the premises, but U-verse wasn't available here when we occupied the new home, so we have only phone and internet from AT&T and DirecTV for the TV service. We have no HD sets in our home.

Come the beginning of next year, we'll probably switch to U-verse after I test drive it over at his house a bit more.

 

[tomcat27]

I have two HD sets and four standard. I dont understand why ATT cannot support HDMI. very ridiculous considering they try to cater to HD customers. if you ever need support, call during the day. if you call off-hours they will simply have you reset your boxes over and over and over. I was having daily problems with all of the sets on the upper level of the house - and day after day they kept having me reset boxes, denying that there was any other problem. it was not until I threatened to disconnect service that they agreed to send out a tech. of course, 3 tech service calls later the problem is fixed. still have problems with HDMI and they cannot commit to a fix.

 

[Buffman]

I have no problems with HDMI connections from my DVR box to my TV. Picture quality is way better than standard cable TV, and most standard Sat channels. Of course I don't have a HUGE [censored] TV, but it is an 26" HDTV from Samsung. Internet is rock solid, and phone is phone. The nice thing is I pay $35 a month for 6mb internet. IIRC 18mb was only like 60.00 a month. Of course I am only a mere 200 feet or so from the VRAD, even at my old house (close to the end of the line for the VRAD), I had great service..

 

[GrtArtiste]

Originally Posted By: mrsilv04


So what's not to like here?


The certainty of rate increases a year or two down the road after they think they have you hooked?

 

[mrsilv04]

Originally Posted By: GrtArtiste
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04


So what's not to like here?


The certainty of rate increases a year or two down the road after they think they have you hooked?



And that differs from the cable company or Dish Network how?

They all do it. I think my first bill from Dish Network was $24.95 a month. It is now $49.95 a month for the same service.

I think a little competition is always a good thing. Up until last month, the local cable company didn't have ANY real competition on bundled TV and internet service. Now they do.

 

[GrtArtiste]

Of course they all do it. What remains to be seen is will the increase be more or less than cable or the dish?

 

[ThirdeYe]

I have U-Verse for TV/Internet. At first everything was fine, but lately I've been having a lot of unexplained problems with the internet service. I've tried everything I can think of, and even had them replace the residential gateway to no avail. It will randomly hang and disconnect me from what I'm doing, only to immediately reconnect. It's a nuisance... The TV is pretty good though. The quality isn't quite as good as Comcast Digital Cable, but for the price I don't think it's bad at all. Also lovin' the DVR and how you can record 4 shows at once (provided other TVs in the house aren't utilizing the streams)

 

[Cutehumor]

I got comcast basic cable and broadband which is $100/month. I want to switch to U-verse and their high speed internet, but it's not available in my area. They were offering big incentives to switch from comcast too. I have a 20 inch tv in my living room that is 13 years old, but I'm waiting for it to die before I get one of dem fancy LCD flat screens.

But I'm not a big tv watcher, just netflix movies, I watch all my tv shows on the internet.

 

[MONKEYMAN]

Originally Posted By: Buffman
The nice thing is I pay $35 a month for 6mb internet.


That is what I pay for Elite AT&T DSL for the same speed. The U-Verse rep told me they were the same. He was at a Best Buy one day. When he said each additional TV was $5 with U-Verse, I stopped asking questions. There are 5 TV's in use where I live.