US Telco Support > AT&T > AT&T U-verse > Only 1 HD viewing at a time / COAX or CAT5?

Only 1 HD viewing at a time / COAX or CAT5?

4 streams allowed, only one of them can be HD at a time. The other sets will be restricted to SD only.
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You're so vain... I bet you think this post is about you.

4 streams allowed???

what do you mean specifically?

I'm going to be getting 6 tuners including 1 dvr.

does that mean only 4 tuners can be operational (1 hd / 3 sd) ????

Correct. And anything you're recording counts as a stream, so if you're watching HD on one box and recording a show on that same box, only 2 streams are left for the house.

Christ, you either have a lot of kids, too much money, or both.
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You're so vain... I bet you think this post is about you.

well, we're college kids and 6 of us are in the house. we're getting tuners for 5 of our rooms and 1 for living room. I think we'll just stick with it and see how it goes. If it becomes a problem for first 2 month, we'll cancel and just keep the elite dsl service.

thanks a lot!

reply to bkforyou
Can you drop video and keep Internet service? If not, will they switch you back to the CO/RT and let you sign up for the older DSL product?

Yes, you can drop the TV and just keep your U-verse enabled internet, although AT&T doesn't like it, you can do it...not bad for $40 a month for 6/1 elite internet.

Here is a good resource that explains what a stream is, and the U-verse limits: »www.uverseusers.com/component/op···am_limit

If you have 6 TVs, you can only be watching 4 different channels, thats that. If boxes 1-4 are all watching a different show, boxes 5 and 6 cannot watch a different show, they may only watch what 1-4 are, until they lift the stream limit.

SHIT that sucks ass !!!! WTF are they thinking with this crap. Maybe the internet is ok at 6/1 but the tv sounds like it shouldnt even be sold as a service.

reply to bkforyou
I agree about the foolishness of only one HD regardless of the number of boxes. Interesting I asked the rep who stopped by for the survey if one can get more than one box. She was not aware of the 4 streams, regardless of how many boxes.

With TWC, I have two boxes and each one can record any two shows, digital or HD at a timel

ATT's system does not seem to be as wonderful as they are promoting. So what else is new?

reply to bkforyou
Its kinda like a public beta. It will get better. Considering I was paying about the same to get DSL and basic non-digital cable, it was worth it to me.
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You're so vain... I bet you think this post is about you.

quote:

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Its kinda like a public beta. It will get better.

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According to a WSJ article, 1 HD stream may be more than what half of the HD TV owners are watching now!

When it comes to HD, consumers could use some help. Bruce Leichtman, president of Leichtman Research Group, based in Durham, N.H., said only half of people with HD sets watch HD programs, with many not realizing they must subscribe to a special service.

reply to bkforyou
I suppose there is two ways of looking at that statistic:

1) AT&T is right in assumming that 1 stream is *more* then enough

2) AT&T isn't doing jack **** to be innovative and help there customers realize the full potential of HD.

Regardless, I have 3 HDTV's ( 47", 38", 26" ) with multiple HD-DVR's. I know exactly what HD is and I LOVE it. No U-Verse for me ( even though I have FTTP ).

reply to d_l
I think "needing to subscribe to HD service" is a little misleading, HD locals (which is where the most popular HD programming is) is usually offered as part of a basic TV subscription. You do (usually) need an HD receiver to pick them up.

And yes, I completely believe that statistic. My sister and her husband fall into that category.

Whenever I go over there, they seem to have some sporting event on their $10,000 65" plasma (its a few years old now) in glorious, magnified standard definition. Argh.

I immediately grab the remote and punch in the appropriate HD channel number. They think I'm some sort of voodoo magician because I can punch in a code in that makes the picture look amazing. I keep telling them to use the HD channel numbers but they just don't get it (or forget). Some people strictly operate off of channel numbers ("The football game is on channel 2 tonight") and have trouble with the concept of simulcasting.

Of course, they don't really know how to use their DVR either.

But, for those who DO know what they're doing with a HD DVR, multi-stream HD is a bigger deal. Being limited to single-stream HD is a deal killer for my non-tech savvy mother, most of my friends, and me.
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Laser eye surgery rocks! I love frickin' laser beams.

Obviously there is a segment of the HD TV owners (some fraction of the 50% that do watch HD on their TVs) that find 1 HD stream to be too limiting.

Have you ever wondered how AT&T plans to use the available untapped bandwidth that they have to their users now? Virtually all U-Verse customers are capped at 27 mbps right now from what I've read. The charts I posted before: »Re: How much bandwidth is available to a VRAD? show that only ~19-21 mbps is potentially in use now.

They could add the 2nd HD stream into that 27 mbps. Reading between the lines, perhaps they haven't because M$ has fumbled the software development for the second stream. I doubt that AT&T would make an announcement explaining that M$ blew their IPTV development schedule, but instead grit their teeth and announce a delayed 2nd steam arrival. Meanwhile, if the bandwidth can't be used for the 2nd HD stream until M$ completes the programming, maybe they will up up the internet speeds. Just a thought.

reply to bkforyou
I am another that is capable of uVerse but really will not consider it unless I can opt out of the TV portion of the service. It is woefully underpowered for my house, not even close. I will fully admit to being an HD snob and my girlfriend and her son could care less (but get mesmerized by Planet Earth and other HD content). Anyway I pay the bills and will not bite on a 1 HD stream only system. Not that Comcast can be counted on for being innovative in their HD programming, but it can meet the demands of my equipment, just wish it had better content.

Anyway, the argument about most HDTV owners do not watch HD is partly colored by the fact that out of 300 channels only 5% (if lucky) are HD, and usually buried in a not so often realm of channels casually surfed (mine are from 298 - 313). If you are not aware of what you are looking for it is easy to forget they even exist. The consumer market seems on the verge of HD acceptance while the providers are lagging miserably.

I never thought I would say it but even 5/640 internet bandwidth is starting to feel the pinch as well. Damn I think we need to get out of the house more.

reply to d_l
Standard over-the-air HDTV is 20Mbps, and while AT&T could recompress video with a more modern codec (which they probably have) and crank up the compression rate (which I'd rather they didn't) there really isn't room for a second HD channel without noticeable sacrifice. Yes, maybe the 7Mbps they devote to Internet use would be sufficient to cram in a second HD stream but that begs the question of why not ditch the HD stream and offer 20M/5M Internet? Or better yet, up the bandwidth cap when extra bandwidth is available (73Mbps in my case)? Or best of all, realize that FTTN is a shortsighted kludge and switch to FTTH before they waste any more money on copper?

reply to Flippant
What AT&T will not tell you is you can actually get just the internet tier of U-verse and no TV, at least a few people on uverseusers can. You have to order the entire package to begin with, then cancel just the TV part, and keep the internet.

That is good to know. But as I sit here eating lunch and browsing through my work VPN connection, my girlfriend is browsing away on youtube and her son is playing some Star Wars game. We are all a bit irked that everything seems so slow. But this has not been the first time someones use is crimping others. I would love to see a 12/2 connection for right now. I am even thinking about going with a second internet connection just to keep the peace.

See my monitor results »/testhistory?view=3 Appears to be my lunch time incremental backup period. (IT dept can't tell when we are on VPN).