| reply to Webbie
Re: Thinking of switching from WOW to AT&T Many of your questions depend on how close the fiber is to your home and how they can provision your profile. I think you will have a hard time pinning that down until they do an install and provisioning.
I currently can watch 2 HD or record 2 HD. I can't do any more than that in any combination. However, I only have 4 TV's and only 2 are setup for HD. It does piss me off though when I am recording one and someone may be watching one or 2 HD are recording and then I turn on my bedroom TV (HD) to watch something and I am warned about too many HD feeds.
I, personally, have not noticed the internet effecting the image quality. However, I have noticed that during hockey games it has a hard time keeping up sometimes and that is irrelevant to internet usage.
And for the record, any compressed HD image is really no longer HD quality you just can hope that it does a decent job of presenting it to you. I personally think uVerse HD is good. Not great, but good especially compared to some of the Charter or Direct pictures I have seen. |
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| Thanks for the response. I called and spoke with someone (okay, 3 different people) at AT&T, and here's what I got from them.
Basically, there is a "4 HD" limit, however you want to cut that up. You can watch up to 4 HD programs at the same time, or record 2 and watch 2. The internet connection is not affected by this, nor does it affect this.
They couldn't tell me specifically how far my house is from the cross box, but they said that it shows that my house is eligible for the U450 package and the 24 Mbps internet, so I must be close by virtue of that. Not sure about that logic, but that's what they said.
I'm still weighing out the options.....I think cost-wise, it'll be a wash. There ARE some nice features with the AT&T offering, as long as it doesn't suck. 
Thanks for your reply!
Webbie |
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 ILpt4UPremium
join:2006-11-12
Lisle, IL
kudos:4
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| Depending on what speed internet package, and which overall bandwidth profile you are on (sounds like you would be on the 32/5 overall bandwidth profile, as 4 HD and Max 24 internet are available), HD stream usage can affect internet speed
For example, if you do get Max 24 internet, and are using all 4 HD streams: You have a maximum of 32 Mbps for the entire service. IPTV has higher bandwidth priority than internet. Each HD stream uses ~5.7 Mbps. 4x5.7=22.8. 32-22.8=9.2. So basically, all 4 HD streams in use uses 22.8 Mbps. Take that away from 32 Mbps, that leaves 9.2 Mbps for Internet.
Also, keep in mind that there is a 4 Stream total limit of live, independent IPTV streams available. If you have 7 different TVs, that is something to keep in mind. Those 4 streams are for watching live and/or recording.
For example, you are recording 2 shows. That uses 2 streams. Another TV is watching another show. That is stream 3. Another TV is watching a 4th show. That is stream 4. At this point, the only things available for any other TVs would be any of those 4 streams presently in use, or anything already recorded. There is no access to a 5th (or beyond) live stream of IPTV
Also, you can only record 3 HD streams at any given time (the 4th stream can be recorded in SD). A 4th HD stream can be watched on any receiver OTHER than the DVR |
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| Interesting.....I guess it would be a good idea to figure out if we ever REALLY have more than 4 TV's going at the same time, huh?
Thanks for response,
Webbie |
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| reply to ILpt4U
If you have voice with U-Verse that subtracts more bandwidth correct? |
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| Yes, but not appreciably. Voice streams are pretty small. A G.711 μlaw encoded stream (same as POTS) uses a 64kbps stream, (8 kHz sampling frequency x 8 bits per sample). |
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