 Review by Krytor 
UPDATED: 358 days ago
member for 8.4 years, 1367 visits, last login: 1 days ago
 Indianapolis,Marion,IN
 $99 per month
 about 14 days
 "Cost!"
 "Installation techs very inexperienced. STB/DVR software stinks for the most part."
 "Great price, but its best for small families having no video-philes in the house."
| Pre Sales Information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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I ordered the U200 package with HD channels and 6Mbps Internet bundle. This comes out to $99/mo plus fees and taxes. ($74 for the base U200 package with 3 STBs, one includes a DVR; $10 for HD channels; $15 for Internet speed upgrade) My previous cable and Internet expenses were around $144/mo for only one STB from Bright House, HBO, same downstream speed (AT&T Yahoo! Expert+), and a $9.99/mo ReplayTV DVR subscription. I ordered the package online that seemed to go very smoothly. I received updates about when the installers would arrive and all seemed fine.
Installation:
I've given a lot of thought about how to describe the installation, but I'll TRY to keep this brief! My appointment was set to start between 8AM-10AM. Two U-Verse techs arrived at 11AM. One tech did the work while the other was still in training and spent most of the time just watching. The lead tech was very young and wasn’t too experienced from what I saw over the course of the day. The tech told me that the U-Verse system was messing up a lot of orders and my order appeared in the system as needing three DVR units. (impossible) My house needed a NID and a new line to the telephone pole which a lineman came out and completed with no problems. I had pre-wired CAT 5e cable running to two rooms and only needed cable to the third room. The tech ignored all my wiring and installed new CAT 5e cables even after I told him about the existing wiring. The techs left around 5:45PM after getting the Internet connection working, but not without my help. Out of three STBs, only the main DVR STB was functioning, however, the DVR options were not enabled. It wasn't until several hours later (almost midnight), all three units began working correctly. I have read reviews about the techs tutoring customers how to use the DVR, etc. Didn't happen here. Most of the STB software is intuitive when it works, so learning on my own wasn't much of a problem. Before the techs left, I was told someone would check back with us. Its been two weeks and I haven't heard anything yet. Anyhow, the techs were in an awful hurry to leave -- They left behind an extra DVR unit which wouldn't sync, a nice Netgear 8-port gigabit switch box, and at least four CAT 5e cables.
Internet:
After two weeks of service, Internet reliability has been very good. (At least as good as my previous package.) Even though my speed is capped at 6Mbps, speedtest.net test results show about a 10% downstream speed increase. DSLR line tests show no drops.
STB software:
The STB menus are pretty, but I hate how the software works. The GUI will sometime lag behind button presses. It isn’t horrible, but is sometimes annoying, especially when the delay is over two seconds. On a positive note, the lag doesn’t appear to increase while all three STBs are in use. I’ll continue to monitor this to find out if this changes. At one point, I did something on the DVR STB and noticed another STB within view lost its image for a split second. Is the hardware underpowered for the task or is it the STB software? In my opinion, the STB doesn’t cache enough future programming data. (I talk about this more in the next section.) Sometimes I find myself waiting up to 10 seconds for a description to load.
U-Verse is currently configured for up to 4 SD streams. HD streams use two SD streams of bandwidth. This isn’t a problem for just my wife and me. We rarely have more than one TV on at a time. The only problem we have ran into in this case is when a HD show is recording and we want to watch another HD channel. Supposedly it will be possible to have two HD streams at once in the near future. //Update: Currently have 2 HD streams + 2 SD streams!
DVR software:
Up until U-verse, I have used a ReplayTV 5040 (upgraded to 120GB) for about four years. I love my ReplayTV unit! On the U-Verse STB, I found no way to schedule a recording for a program that is more than 3 or 4 days in the future. I wanted to schedule a show that airs next week, but it didn’t appear in the search tool’s results. I believe the ReplayTV caches programming up to two weeks ahead. Browsing through the recorded show list is bad after accumulating several shows. I already miss my ReplayTV’s category feature. (No need to scroll through all shows on the unit.) This is currently not possible with the U-Verse DVR. The U-Verse DVR also does not allow me to wrap around the screen when selecting letters in the search tool. This is a minor annoyance. Another DVR feature on the ReplayTV that the U-Verse DVR is missing is within the scheduling options. While its nice to have the option to keep all shows until the unit is out of room, what happens when one show airs twice daily and fills up the DVR while another show airs only once a week? Will I lose my once a week shows to the more frequent shows? ReplayTV solved this with a “keep # shows” option. If I know I will not watch a weekly show for a few weeks due to vacation or whatever, I can tell the ReplayTV to keep 3 or 4 shows before deleting old episodes for new episodes. It seems that the U-Verse DVR is going to make room for new shows unless I later go in and change a program’s options so it will not be deleted. What a hassle! If this isn’t the case, then it isn’t intuitive at all. We have trained ourselves to delete a show after we watch it just to avoid this scenario. I look forward to future updates to the STB software. I can only hope they fix these “issues.” The ReplayTV software and its commercial advance feature really spoiled me. What else can I say?
TV Quality:
I have a Samsung 50” DLP HDTV in the living room (currently set for 720p component input from the STB), a 15” SD flat panel TV in the bedroom, and a 19” SD TV in the computer room. First off, SD quality is outstanding, even on the 50” TV. HD quality is good, but not great. It doesn’t look as bad as some reviewers have described it, but then I’m not a HD video-phile. I estimate it is close to DVD quality. I haven’t tried 1024i mode yet. Only twice has the picture blipped out for a second, but this also happened when I had Bright House digital cable, so I can’t complain.
Final thoughts:
• Video stream limits. I don’t recommend U-Verse in its current form for anyone wanting to use it with more than three SD TVs turned on at one time.
• Follow the tech(s) during the installation like a shadow if you have any “special requirements” such as reusing existing cables or drilling holes in specific locations.
• Picture quality is good enough for most people. Not recommended for video-philes who want “the best.”
• The STB software needs work! ReplayTV owners will most likely be disappointed.
• The price is right!
• If you currently have a shoddy DSL connection, you may have similar experiences with U-Verse unless the problem is correctable. (bad wiring; distance to CO verses distance to VRAD.)
Over-all, I am happy with U-Verse. I'll be much happier if/when the STB software is improved! //Update: Controlling the DVR from any STB is a nice addition. However, the scheduling options still suck after a year.
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