justin
Australian
join:1999-05-28
Brooklyn, NY |  Review AT&T U-Verse
if someone with U-verse would like to email a review of the product to reviews@dslreports.com we can setup an entry for it so future reviews can be done more easily. |
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carpdiem
join:2001-02-11
Cedarburg, WI
 ·AT&T DSL Service
| Well, I saw U-Verse for the 1st time today. I've got to say it's still TV service but the picture was very good, menu options were easy to use a plentiful, and the channel changed quicker than cable and much quicker than satellite. Although HD is available the one I saw was SD. The only issue was with local channel 4 in that it wasn't that great of a picture or would lose it all together. Since this is broadcast over the air to an antenna outside the VHO, I'm guessing this was because of the way the transmitter was angle/tuned or how the receiving antenna was angled/tuned. Should be an easy fix in the future. The service came with 1 DVR and 4 satellite receivers each with their own remote with the ability to watch /record 4 streams of video. It's possible although I didn't try it to have a picture in picture type review of what's playing in up to 8 different on screen displays which sounded very slick. The 8 channel images would only work on 1 TV at a time though. The DSL was the 6Mb stream and stayed true to speed until all 4 TV's were watching a streamed video and then it did drop but still plenty quick for the average users.
Bottom line...
Pro's:
1) Great SD picture quality (It's digital just not HD-even though HD is available)
2) Easy and feature packed menu options
3) Quick channel changes.
-As more customers in the neighborhood select this service the channel changing will get faster since some of the channels won't be sitting at the VHO to select but rather already at the CO or VRAD.
Con's:
1) One local channel was being broadcast poorly there for provided poorly. Expect that to be corrected in due time.
2) Minor DSL slow down when all 4 Streams being sent but still plenty fast for average internet user.
Like Cable modem, satellite, and DSL when they were 1st introduced there were a lot of glitches. Although they will probably have some glitches as this is a new product for AT&T I really think the glitches will be fixed by software upgrades. |
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carpdiem
join:2001-02-11
Cedarburg, WI | reply to justin
Channel 4 problem has been corrected and I saw the channel line up and it's pretty darn complete. Only 1 station that I wanted that it doesn't have. |
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ThirdShifter
Premium
join:2002-03-16
Vernon Rockville, CT | reply to justin
There's a user in att-northeast... got in installed last night.. pictures are inlucuded.
»[info] It's Here! U-Verse
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Saya anak malaysia |
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scottct1
join:2002-01-28
Newington, CT | reply to justin
Here is a review of U Verse that I just did. I would post it here however its huge and has almost 80 picures.
»www.satelliteguys.us/showthread.php?t=87544 |
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justbits
More fiber than ATT can handle
Premium
join:2003-01-08
Chicago, IL
edit:
April 9th, @07:48PM
| nevermind |
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s6135
join:2007-05-29
Irving, TX | Thanks for the review. It is nice.
Do you know if they do inside wiring as well? |
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mogur2
join:2001-08-29
Santa Clarita, CA
| reply to justin
After almost a week, I feel that I will return the Uverse equipment.
Why?
Their highest internet connection is about 1/2 of my TWC connection.
Less important but a factor, three local HD stations not available.
This is the deal killer- Only one HD channel can be recorded or watched at a time, regardless of # of boxes. I have two TWC boxes and can record 4 of any type of programming.
BTW, it took 4 days to get the HD working properly. It took a return of a tech. Turns out that there is way to fully reboot, but the phone techs did not know it.
I am probably going shock them when I call to have it removed. |
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koolkid1563
Premium,MVM
join:2005-11-06
Powell, WY
clubs:
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| They themselves will not be back out, they will send you a box to mail back the equipment.
The one HD stream has been an issue since they brought HD into the mix in November, I still don't know why people are totally shocked to find out this quirk. |
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MrFixitCT
rip vixen '93-'08
Premium,VIP,ExMod 2001-06
join:2000-12-01
Guilford, CT
·AT&T DSL Service
 ·Comcast Formerly ..
| said by koolkid1563  : I still don't know why people are totally shocked to find out this quirk. Me either, it's well stated... |
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ThirdShifter
Premium
join:2002-03-16
Vernon Rockville, CT
·Comcast
edit:
July 2nd, @11:35PM
| reply to justin
Is it not possible two feed to DSL connection to one premises and temporarily fix the one HD stream until a more realistic solution could be found?
Att is going to lose subscribers if they don't get to it right away.
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Saya anak malaysia |
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brianstretch
join:2001-12-31
Ann Arbor, MI
| reply to justin
I've had U-verse for most of a week.
They ran new Cat5e for my installation, in part because it was very easy to do in my case. In total they spent 5-6 hours, including running a new line drop from the telephone poll. (Old neighborhood.) The line tested at 73Mbps, with the node just under 1,000 feet away. Mine was the first installation on that node here in Ann Arbor.
The 6M/1M Elite Internet service has been pretty nice. 6M/1M is better than Comcast's 8M/768K for my purposes, and it's cheaper. I still want FiOS-like bandwidth though.
I was only moderately impressed with the TV service when using a SDTV. It looks good, granted, but it's still just television. After picking up a LG 24" LCD monitor with HDMI input from Best Buy (on sale this week) and plugging it in, WOW! Big difference. The UI takes advantage of the higher resolution screen to display much more program information. The HD channels look great. Even the SD channels look surprisingly good on the HD display. The settop box does a very good job of upconverting them. I consider a HDTV with HDMI or DVI (with a HDMI-to-DVI cable) to be a must-have for U-verse.
Of course, since the bandwidth-starved FTTN architecture limits you to watching/recording 1 HD channel at a time, U-verse is too crippled for multiple-TV households to seriously consider. I can't imagine that the incremental cost of doing the job right would have killed AT&T and they're going to have to come back and run fiber within the next several years anyhow. Such penny-wise, pound-foolishness is maddening. I bought Verizon stock in my IRA when it was knocked down by shortsighted carping about FiOS's capital cost. Smart managers take the long view and know that the stock will take care of itself.
I've got a 4-port HDMI switchbox on order from Monoprice:
»www.monoprice.com/products/subde···0&style=
Along with HDMI-to-HDMI and HDMI-to-DVI cables. That will let me share the new monitor with the DVR, my two PCs, and have a port left over. Had I thought of this a bit sooner I could have used the switch with my Samsung 24" LCD and a HDMI-to-DVI cable. (I was going to buy a component cable to use with the LG until I noticed the switch.) Monoprice is extremely well rated:
»www.resellerratings.com/store/monoprice
That stuff should arrive on Tuesday. Perhaps a proper A/V receiver would be a better solution but this is way cheaper. |
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sfong
join:2007-07-13
San Antonio, TX
| reply to justin
I have been using Uverse for about a week. Overall I like it very much, but there are a few negatives they need to address. I guess it is easier to remember what I don't like rather than what I do like.
Positives: I like the quick channel change, and the PIP preview. I like 4 recordings at once. I like the features that they have promised are coming soon (Control of the DVR from any tuner, the ability to view photos on my TV from the computer). I like the ability to schedule recordings from my computer desktop.
Negatives:
No Caller ID on the TV! This seems like something a telephone company could deliver pretty easily.
You have to be pointing the remote directly at the tuner. We had the tuner on a shelf next to the television. At night, the LEDs put out a bunch of light so I moved it to the floor. We had to point the remote at the tuner to get it to work, so I had to move it back onto the shelf. It is hard to get the DVR to see the remote when I am about 20 feet away.
The tuner lags behind when browsing the list of programs. I have noticed the esp. on the DVR unit. It will keep up for 3-4 selections then it pauses. I keep hitting the down arrow, and it "remembers" them, so that when it does start moving in the menu again, it jumps like 5 more slots. Very irritating. It seems to happen every time after about 3-4 button pushes.
Uverse tuners cannot schedule an "autotune". Dish network (my recently discontinued provider) had the ability to "autotune" without recording. All of the tuners could do this whether they were DVR or not. I like to setup to tune in the morning to my favorite news channel, so that when I do turn on the TV, it is on the right show.
When I browse the program list and select a program to record, it notifies that it has scheduled the recording, then it pops back to the program I was watching, not back to the program list. This program is frequently nowhere near where I was browsing in the program list. It should just pop me back to where I was browsing in the menu, not back to the last program I was watching.
It only has 1 "favorites" list, and it is somewhat difficult to access. Dish had 5 lists, so I could set one up for just local channels, one for the kids favorite channels, one for the adults favorite channels, etc. Dish cycles through the lists as you push the guide button. As I recall, Uverse requires you to push menu, then downarrow to the "favorites" list and select it, then begin browsing. Not very convenient. Granted there could be a shortcut I am not familiar with.
As I said above, overall, I like uverse very much, I just hope they can correct some of these shortcomings.
Sfong |
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brianstretch
join:2001-12-31
Ann Arbor, MI
edit:
July 14th, @05:21PM
| reply to brianstretch
Update to my review: at a distance, HDTV looks great on my 24" monitor. Up close, the picture quality is awful. AT&T has the compression rate set WAY too high. Comcast via my OnAir GT USB HDTV tuner looks much better, close to over-the-air quality. I can compare Discovery HD Theater on each service and the difference is night and day. Switching from HDMI to component input just made text a bit fuzzier.
That settles it. When my 2 months of free TV are up I'm canceling the TV portion of my subscription. Copper-to-the-home is just too bandwidth starved for HDTV. (Edit: there's a report on uverseusers.com that AT&T is rolling out a codec update that improves HD video quality. We'll see.)
I did discover something neat: my new LG 24" monitor has a headphone jack that lets me listen to HDMI audio. Handy. One oddity: I had to set Picture | CSM to sRGB via the LG's on-screen controls so that PC video displayed correctly, otherwise I had to crank up brightness to uncomfortable levels. Not sure what that's about. The new Monoprice HDMI switch works, not as well as having multiple digital inputs built into the monitor would (the Windows PC thinks the monitor is unplugged and bells its displeasure) but it is effective. |
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vinnie97
join:2003-12-05
Mesquite, TX | ^ well, that is the most damning review I've seen...once HDTV adoption reaches critical mass, AT&T is going to be out high and dry with their aging copper. |
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mcp
@safeway.com
| reply to justin
I do not like AT&T Uverse and have gone back to cable (actually, we never turned it off). Here's why:
Cons:
1) With the cable HD the picture seems to be much more crisp and jumps off the screen. While AT&T has the same resolution, but seems to be lacking something in the "jump of the screen " category.
2) The internet speed with comcast has gone up to 6 MBPS. While AT&T is still at 5MBPS(still plenty fast), there still seems to be more lag in it, from the little bit of time that we've been using it. Actual download speeds show that comcast is more than twice as fast
3) Every once in a while, on shows that we record in HD the sound is "off" from the video by a split-second. This is very annoying. Also pixelation during sport events.
4) Channel flipping has a slight delay, so if you press channel down once, and then again because you didn't think it would take, then the system catches up and you overflipped and have to start over.
5) The biggest complaint that I have by far is that you can only have ONE HD stream coming into your house at the same time. One. period. So if you are recording one show in HD, you can watch another show, you just can't watch it in HD. You CAN record up to 4 shows at the same time, but only ONE of them can be in HD. Soooooooo stupid...
6) No PIP like Time warner other than the sloooow guide
7) the "strech/zoom" functions do not work well at all. Luckly, my tv has a really good autofit system
8) Time warner remote has a day+/- button useful for scrolling the guide to select something for recording. Not only does ATT not have this, there is a significant lag to the guide, the guide doesn't show any programming past 12hrs or so later than current...
9) Every now and then when you turn on the system, it has to reboot or something, taking up to a few minutes. Not that often, but annoying when it happens
Pros:
1) You can set DVR to record shows from any internet connected PC, but it still has the same lag as if you were there.
2) Its cheaper
3) You get more channels, including the "west-coast" channels. I originally switched because I could not bear not having NFL network with Time Warner. Well, now comcast is carrying it on their sports package, so there goes that reason...
4) The remote is very easy to set up to work with other devices, unlike the Time Warner/Comcast remote. Volume control always stays on "Tuner", etc...
thats it. My advice is to stay away from AT&T, at least through the end of the year when they say they will open up the pipe to allow more than one HD stream. Even then, keep your current provider turned on for a month or so, so that you can compare them and tell ATT "thanks, but no thanks." |
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koolkid1563
Premium,MVM
join:2005-11-06
Powell, WY
clubs:
·AT&T U-Verse
| I have a few comments/questions for your cons.
2) U-verses' elite package is infact 6/1, what exactly do you mean by 5? Are you referring to speed tests? I seem to test out around 5.8Mb/s, which is close enough to 6 if you factor in net traffic. With TWC/Comcast, I was lucky to even test near 5, maybe just me though.
6) There is PiP browsing, but I agree, there is no 'true' form of PiP, which I hope they fix.
8) The FF/RW buttons act as day+/- in the guide. I can go almost two weeks forward in the guide, what exactly do you mean by "doesn't show any programming past 12hrs"? |
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vinnie97
join:2003-12-05
Mesquite, TX
| said by koolkid1563 :2) U-verses' elite package is infact 6/1, what exactly do you mean by 5? Are you referring to speed tests? I seem to test out around 5.8Mb/s, which is close enough to 6 if you factor in net traffic. With TWC/Comcast, I was lucky to even test near 5, maybe just me though. Fortunately, what holds true with cable in your vicinity doesn't necessarily match the experience of all of us. 
 |
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x30n_
Not Sure What Color Pill To Call It
Premium
join:2000-09-14
wrong turn
clubs: 
·AT&T U-Verse
| This is my test on U-Verse:
I should have done a test on TW, but I can tell you the down-speed was about the same however, the up-speed on U-Verse is 2 to 3 times faster.
My U-Verse experience hasn't been so bad other then the lag in channel changes, but looks like it is getting better.
I went in to it knowing its new technology being brought to the home and there might be some issues and that is something you have to deal with being on the cutting edge(I know its not cutting edge, but for home use I consider it cutting edge because its new to home).
This is something that everyone here should have an idea about and If you are not willing to deal with it, then don't get it. Wait until most all the bugs are worked out.
But for the future advancements they are going to deploy, I want to be there when they come out. I do like the idea to be able to select programs to record on my DVR from my computer even when I am not at home. I heard about whole home DVR and some other features that I cannot remember at this time.
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Get your own Gamercard Sig. |
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zelinskj
join:2007-04-14
Milwaukee, WI | reply to brianstretch
If you drop the uverse and keep just the dsl, your upload speed would drop from 1M to the seven hundred something speed of their normal dsl. |
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