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UndecidedUser
@sensorlogic.com
| reply to YpsiDK
Re: Review AT&T U-Verse
Well, I can concur with your pain. It took 1 day to install, and they had to come out and replace the DVR. The DVR had all sorts of reception issues, dropped segments of film, etc. I still have odd pauses, but right now I cannot swear that it's the feed. IPTV is obviously not quite ready on AT&T's fiber, but my connection is good enough that I can live with it.
I had TW cable modem service, and my wife's VPN would drop sporadically throughout the day. My VPN connection was better, but still dropped occassionally. Since switching to AT&T's mid-tier service, I have had 0 VPN drops, and my wife only a couple. So AT&T's uverse is a definitely win over TW for internet service, even if the max speeds are slower.
On the TV front, I had DishNetwork. Their SD service is fair to good, depending on channel. AT&Ts uverse service provides significantly better SD pictures on all channels. The HD channels are better yet, but not as good as OTA or HD DVD (only 1080i...  Yes, they compress the heck out of the HD picture. I've been able to record 2 SD and 1 HD program while watching another streaming SD program. It seemed to work quite well. There are still occasional drops up to 1s in the feed, but I haven't traced this down to whether it's the incoming feed or the uverse service. Since getting the DVR replaced, recorded content seems almost 100%, while live local channels seem to occasionally have a skip.
I've dropped Dish already, current package was $60, and moving to HD would have gone to $80/month with a $100 DVR upgrade fee for the one I wanted. TW is being dropped as soon as I finish changing emails. TW was also about $60/month. Uverse complete service is $89/month for both, with more channels, and the movie pack for a year until I drop it. Definitely a win for now. If they raise prices, I'll review options at that time. | |
vgbaron
join:2001-12-07
Burbank, CA
| reply to justin
I had my Uverse installed on 11/2. Tech said it was an easy install - took about 3 hours. However, it took two more weeks to get it working properly. Seems like the RG would lose sync every morning and come back around 4:30PM. When it ran it was superb but nothing during the day. Over two weeks I had more techs come out than I could count. Put in a new drop from the pole - no joy. Two new RG's - no joy. New port configured - no joy. Completely replaced the NID - no joy. Finally, they rewired from the NID to the RG using coax rather than Cat-5 (a suggestion I made when the first tech was there, BTW) and it worked and has been working almost perfectly ever since. On 6K/1K broadband tests, I'm getting a solid 5600/960. Only issues I have is an annoying 3-4 second 'freeze' on the HDTV sometimes when the programming switches from a commercial to the show and vice versa. Mainly on CBS and only on HD but doesn't do it all the time.
I have a few minor gripes. like the DVR truncating the show, etc but all in all I'm happy and can't really complain about the techs and the service.
Vic | |
dkjwoiiieuuuqoo
@sbcglobal.net
| reply to justin
I had AT&T U-Verse installed Thursday. I had never even heard of it until Thanksgiving when Troy Aikman mentioned the Cowboys/Packers game would be on NFL network. I did some research and signed up ... picked a Thursday morning install and it was done in about 3 hours.
I had Time Warner before, and I really had no major complaints with them other than my Showtime on-demand not working and occasional really slow speeds with Roadrunner's 6/768 package.
I signed up for the U-Verse 400 with elite internet. The installers told me my wires were really old and he did not think he would be able to install it, but when they did the speed test the tech at my apartment said it was the fastest he's ever seen. Pretty sweet. He said I was the only person in the area on the box, so I think that might have something to do with it.
My U-Verse has been problem free so far. Some of the pluses are that my internet uploads are faster, the whole system in general is much faster than the Moxi I had with TW, I get more channels for about $20 cheaper than I was paying TW, NFL network (go Cowboys), and the ability to record 4 shows at once (though I doubt I ever will).
I have kept my cable active since it's paid through 12/16/07, but unless something goes drastically wrong I'm sold on the U-Verse. I've had no problems to speak of in the first couple of days. Thumbs up. | |
jjgk
Premium
join:2003-01-04
Grosse Pointe, MI
 ·AT&T U-Verse
 ·Comcast
| reply to koolkid1563
Maybe it is my age, KK1563, but I need a microscope instead of my progressive lenses to read the paper format of the line up. Oh, and do not change the fav's set up on the box either 'cuz when you go to the next room, the channels are still in the original line-up. How about a feature that prompts you to set all your boxes to the same 'fav' channel line up? | |
jjgk
Premium
join:2003-01-04
Grosse Pointe, MI
·AT&T U-Verse
·Comcast
| reply to vgbaron
I have had similar issues regarding the truncation of recorded shows...it is really frustrating when you want to know what the ending was. I can't figure out if it is the time on the Guide, which appears correct and matches my computer or the DVR is stupid. However, I have found the Guide listings to be incorrect on a number of occasions. | |
vgbaron
join:2001-12-07
Burbank, CA
| I can't pinpoint the truncating either. It looks more like the Guide is wrong and the DVR is synced to the guide. It doesn't help that the broadcasters are p[laying games like starting at 9:01 and running 62 minutes to 10:03 and crap like that. But still, the system should be able to get the correct times and stay with them. | |
zzzzzzzss
@sbcglobal.net | reply to justin
Set the recording options to end 5 or 15 minutes late. Problem solved. | |
Mike in STL
@Level3.net |  reply to justin
Uverse is new to the St. Louis area. Does anyone have experience with Uverse in St. Louis? The other cities seem to have their problems and I don't want to be the lead dog. I would rather they work out their issues. | |
CopyChief
@swbell.net | I've just heard about U-Verse coming to St. Louis, too. I'm not 100% sure I want to be the guinea pig, but the features and price are attractive... | |
Mike in STL
@swbell.net
| Thanks Chief. Seems like us "Show me State" ers want to stand on the sidelines. Despite the price, I don't need multiple installation trips to get a picture that folks say is less than cable HD quality. Correct me if I am wrong, but that is what I gather from the Texas users and the Comcast (MI?) users. | |
Peter Cornstalk
@sbcglobal.net
| reply to justin
I have had comcast for over 2 years and was missing 4 HD channels. They would send techs out and they would run cables all around and replace ends and then leave telling me that "it is at the head" other people will be out to fix it. This never happened. I had to bear 3 other visits from techs only to get the same line.
Recently the HD got worse and the channels that I did get were corrupting and I had a tech come out and he did the same thing again with the same "it is at the head, other people will be out to fix it sometime, but I couldn't say when." Well a week later, nothing.
The AT&T people came by and sold me on U-verse and they hooked it up today and all is well.
I really don't know what is wrong with comcast. I let the tech put signs in my front yard and back yard advertising the service. | |
ruffldroostr
join:2005-01-24
Saint Louis, MO | reply to justin
I am in STL and am due to have it installed on 12/11. I'll make a note to post a review after I've had a few days to review. | |
JeffWI
@sbcglobal.net
| reply to justin
I have Uverse milwaukee and have had minor problems in getting the system up and running.
It took AT&T 4 weeks to get out here and finally install the system (which took about 9 hours). A week after the installation the cable modem crashed so we no longer had a wireless signal. I called a tech, who came out to fix it the next day. It took him about 2 hours to fix the RG (actually he had to switch out RGs and was really slow in coming to that conclusion).
Now that we have the service and it has been working well for 3 weeks, i will have to say the UVerse kicks ass. Internet seems faster than advertised (@ 3meg); the channel line-up is outstanding, and plenty more HD channels than time warner. I pay A LOT less than i did with TW and i wont go back!
Also we just recieved a notice that 7 more HD channels are being added in the middle of the month, which brings me to over 30.
UVerse rocks | |
ruffldroostr
join:2005-01-24
Saint Louis, MO
| reply to justin
Another review, this one from St. Louis...a little long winded, but generally I like the service.
The Installation
Based on other reviews, the installation actually went rather well. The main installer, I’ll refer to him as the 1st installer, arrived at about 9am…just like he said he would. I was actually expecting a different guy because about a week prior to the installation 2 tech’s came out and did some testing over at the VRAD for about a half-hour. One of the tech’s said his name was on the install order and that he would probably be the one out there. Anyways, so the installer arrived and immediately began over at the VRAD which is ~200ft. away from my front door, give or take. After that he came back over to the house and surveyed where everything was going to go. That’s when the first issue became apparent…when my condo was built, the original tenant had a T1 line installed. Well, when the original installer put in the digital box, he decided it would be a better idea to make my NID a hole in the drywall on the inside of the garage. This was an apparently an issue since the hole was up about 4 feet from the ground and the installer didn’t think it would be a good idea to leave the coax block just dangling there. Also, with this setup, they didn’t have any outside access to the home without cutting it off at the VRAD. So, the installer got on the phone and confirmed that he was going to put a new NID up and away he went. He also tested the line coming into the current block for the VDSL signal…there was none or it was very sporadic. Another call and 2 more techs showed up within about 15 min. The 3 of them discussed it and made some more calls and the 1st installer went back to installing the NID. I was talking with one of the other 2 techs and he seemed to think that it was an issue of them not doing a disconnect on the ADSL connection and that the two data streams were fighting each other. He said that’s been an issue that the tech’s have brought up before, but all the bosses said it would be ok. While that was a little concerning, it sounded like this guy knew a lot of the other techs, so I’m sure the word about that is spreading around and it will probably be worked out, if not already. So those 2 tech’s went off to troubleshoot that, and that would put the time around 11:30. It would take to about 2pm before the NID was completely in place and hooked up correctly. Part of that was we had to get permission from the landlord to place something on the outside of the building. The installer handled all that though, and I really didn’t need to do anything at that time. Next the installer proceeded to run coax up to the room where the remote gateway would reside. Luckily for him, it was the room directly above the garage, so he just drilled a hole in the ceiling and ran the coax up along the wall. That took us to about 3:15 and just as he was done, the other 2 techs came over and said they had it working now. They tested the VDSL signal at the NID and everything looked ok, so they left. Another tech arrived to make some finishing touches on the NID and he would stick around to observe the next step. The installer hooked up the RG, this was around 4pm, and it started it’s sync process. For some reason, these newer RG’s take a while to sync up, they aren’t quite as quick as the old ADSL modems. At about 4:30 it was done getting it’s updates and the installer hooked up the DVR box. Since this was a single room installation and DVR sits in the same room, he just used the cat5 cable that was in the RG box. The DVR started up fine and ran it’s updates…that was to take another half hour and the installer cleaned up the installation in the garage as it was updating. The installer and the other tech came upstairs and showed me how the DVR worked and everything…nothing really new to speak of there. About 5:15 and the install was done, yay. The installer finished cleaning up and he went out to his truck. For some reason, my order didn’t have HD enabled, so I proceeded to the phone to call and request it…no dial tone. Luckily the installer and tech were still out at the truck and they came right back into the garage and had it fixed in about 2 min. Unfortunately, the sales office is only open normal business hours(8-5), so even with the phone fixed, no HD for me that night. I did get to play around with it though, and I’ll outline more about that next.
In all, the installation went well. The installer wasn’t really experienced yet in how to install stuff in people’s homes. I heard him say multiple times that this was his first actual customer install. Even though that wasn’t particularly encouraging, he did know the basics and he had no shortage of more experienced tech’s and a support line to give him everything he would need. They were all very prompt and very professional. If you take away the time to install the NID, the install itself actually went pretty quick and this would probably be the case for most people since most home’s have them already. It was good to know that even if you need one, it can all still be done in the same day.
The Service
You’ve probably noticed by now that I’m not really posting any pictures or giving really an overview of the basics…that is mainly because most of the base stuff is identical to other reviews/installs you can read about. No sense in reinventing the wheel. So, I’ll point out the key things I noticed and re-iterate some things.
Some Background
Just to give you all a little history of where I get some of the info in this review, I will be comparing Uverse to a few services I have had/still have. Before I moved to this condo(about mid-April), I had Charter video with their MOXI DVR. From what I hear, they are phasing those out a little and they are in high demand, so if you know nothing about it, don’t worry about it. When I first moved to the place, I got Dish Network’s ‘everything’ package with HD and a Dish 625 DVR. I have been very happy with that, so it was interesting to see how Uverse would stand up against it. I will also make occasional references to Windows Media Center, as I have used it sporadically in the last year or so for OTA HD recording.
SD
I am a bit of a videophile and I do love my HD dearly. Nevertheless not every channel I watch has an HD equivalent yet, so I do go back to SD on occasion. I’d have to say SD quality was excellent, as the box did a fantastic job of upconverting and making the image look fairly crisp on my 32” Olevia. I would definitely say it was on par or better than the Dish SD.
HD
This is where things separate a bit for me. First of all, the lineup that Uverse provides, as of today(12/17), is actually very close to Dish’ normal HD lineup. By normal, I mean minus the VOOM package and all the sports HD channels. Since I rarely use either of them, I don’t really consider them to be competing bullet points. So basically Uverse has just about every normal HD channel as Dish and even as has a few extra’s like CNN and WGN. CNN looks pretty nice and is a nice alternative to HDNEWS(which is part of the VOOM package with Dish). Uverse also has more local’s in HD like PBS and CW…not really a selling point for me personally, since I don’t watch them usually, but I’m sure there are people that would appreciate them. The quality of the HD is comparable to Dish. There is more color it seems, but they are definitely using more compression. For most people, you will not notice this and even more won’t notice without having them side by side, but there is shadowing and pixilation that occurs…it seems more prevalent in dark scenes with more motion and occurs more in the negative space. Nothing too new from what other reviewer’s have said, but it really is only noticeable to the trained eye, and if you are sitting the recommended distance from your TV you shouldn’t have any issues with it.
Other Points
The scheduling was pretty standard and is actually very similar to what you will find in Windows Media Center…not surprising since this is MS software. I did like the addition of a manual timer, which is missing on the Dish DVR. You can set it to record a specific channel from a certain date and time to another. Haven’t played around with that too much yet, but I’m sure I will when baseball season returns. One thing I found odd about the scheduling is the priorities. On the Dish DVR, and even the MOXI, you basically have a priority list of the series’ you are wanting your DVR to look for and record. I think even Windows MC had that feature, though I don’t recall. It seems to be missing and the manual they give you has like a paragraph on conflict resolution. It wasn’t very straightforward on it though, but it seems like you can modify some of the series parameters and after that, the box will add another column for conflict resolution when it occurs. I really can’t comment on that any more since it’s December and all my regular shows are on hiatus for the month. Basically I don’t have any conflicts to test out as of yet, but I may try and create on to see what happens. Another key feature which I have yet to find is how to tell how much space you have left for recording. This was something that was always missing on the MOXI and I was so happy to have it after coming back to Dish. Even though the Dish counter is not completely accurate, it at least gives you a sense of what is going on, space wise. The nearest thing I could find was by going to the system resources and checking the disk usage…it gives you a percentage of the amount still available. Kind of a pain and not very intuitive. Again, I do remember that Windows MC had this feature as well.
Channel changing is, as advertised, fast, even on HD channels. This is one thing the MOXI did not do well, nor did Windows MC and Dish was a little better at it. Though the guide browsing on the Uverse box leaves a little to be desired. The guide is about as quick as Win MC and definitely faster than the MOXI. This is definitely an area where the Dish DVR shines, though I do like the PIP while browsing each channel on the Uverse box(I just wish they had actual PIP like the 625 has). The guide and searching are incredibly easy on the Dish DVR and basically respond as I am pushing the buttons. The Uverse box was a little more sluggish, which was a little disappointing considering how fast it would change channels. The Uverse box, however, was able to search by like individual actor, even though it doesn’t have a ‘one-click’ search for the name of the current show like the Dish box has. I actually found it much easier to search using the online remote DVR interface, which brings me to my next selling point. I LOVE the remote DVR functionality that the Uverse box has built-in and will probably do most of my scheduling from there rather than from the remote itself. The other cool thing about the remote DVR is that I can view all my scheduled recordings, my current recordings, and the series information from my handheld. You can’t schedule anything new, but you can remove items from each category I listed. I don’t know of any other service that has this functionality(the handheld stuff anyways) and it will be a definitely selling point for geeks like me.
One feature, or functionality I guess I would call it, that I haven’t tried out is being able to play recorded content while not connected to the RG. This is something that most people probably wouldn’t care too much about, but I do use it on occasion. I sometimes like to record certain programs and then take the DVR down to my parents house to show them on their big screen since they don’t have cable where they are. The Dish DVR does this very well and I have not had any issues with it. The MOXI worked alright, but for some reason it wouldn’t allow you to use any time-shifting functions while not connected to Charter. Like I said, I haven’t been able to try it yet, but it would be another nice feature.
Conclusions
This is definitely a great service and should definitely give Charter a challenge to keep it’s customer base. It is also a very comparable alternative to those who may not be able to get a dish or who want a slightly cheaper alternative. Combine it with the Uverse internet service and it is a solid deal. Hopefully AT&T will continue to keep up with the demand of HD and maybe work out a few of the little bugs with software updates. It is a young service, but definitely shows promise. | |
koolkid1563
Premium,MVM
join:2005-11-06
Powell, WY
clubs: | Maybe you could copy and paste this into the ISP review? »/docontrib/ISP/2911 | |
annoyedkev
@nextweb.net
| reply to justin
I just had Uverse installed this past monday, my major complaint is with their customer service. The technician that came to install tv portion had almost no idea what he was doing. The sales person quoted me the wrong price for the vdsl, and for my trial period for the tv service failed to add the only component that I wanted to test out.
So now I'm sitting here with a lot of useless TV that is not normally watched. To make matters worst, the technician disconnected my cable service from all the other tvs in the rest of the house. So now I have one working TV with nothing that I want to watch.
I spent probably 2 hours waiting on the phone and being transferred back and forth until I was finally able to speak to someone to get U-Verse removed from my house. The earliest they will be able to send someone out to resolve a problem that they CAUSED will be this friday, so I'm without tv for basically a week.
The internet was basically the same speed as my old roadrunner connection. The only real benefit is that my upload is twice as fast and the cost for internet is 5 dollars cheaper a month. | |
RayMel1
@ameritech.net | reply to justin
I live about 40 miles Directly North of Indianapolis and it's not available here yet. Any idea's when it will be? | |
seanpat
@sbcglobal.net
| reply to justin
ATT Uverse techs have been to my house 8-10 times and have no idea what to do to fix my problems. I never get the same none twice and the people I talk to on the phone spend a lot of time with me (one hour or so) getting detailed information and doing all sorts of tests and then impart none of the information to the techs. I have requested that the same techs be sent out and this has NEVER HAPPENED. Every tech has a different solution to the problem (no service on one tv and bad service on another and internet periodically kicks me off) but noone seems to know what the deal is. It is incredibly frustrating the amount of time I have spent at home on the 10 different occasions they have been out here for hours at a time. Also there is NO follow up to see if the problems is corrected, they tell problem fixed and to turn on tv in couple of hours when they call and it will be fixed. this has never worked and they simply disappear and I have to start the process all over again. Oh yeah and if they have been at your house six hours and are still working and you have to go pick up your kids they will leave without finishing if your arent there and have to start all over again. The techs are great guys but seems confused about the product. I wish I still had satellite..... | |
Brian FolsomCA
@surewest.net
| reply to justin
Well I just canceled u-verse, well I canceled it a week ago and they still have not shut off the service and my dsl is still not back up. Just some info for people. After you have had your u-verse installed call and have them remove your dsl service removed from your phone line, it will save you alot of hassle if you switch back to dsl and drop u-verse. Well I like the service and hate (I mean hate) equipment. To me this the worst hardware available. Now i may be spoiled since I have had directv tivo's for 6 years now and while they are not perfect I have only missed may be 10 ten recodrings in 6 years. So far I have had 14 missed recordings in 3 weeks with u-verse. The guide is constantly wrong and does not show if the show is repeat or when the original air date was. The software is really bad as well since there is no way to select the day on the guide you want to browse you have to keep hitting the jump button on the remote to get it jump 1 day at a time. Now for me I have to hit the buttons twice to get the box to respond, now this happens on all the box's but mostly on the dvr. They wired with cat 5 not coax directly to the RG and the box's have the last software on them. The video quality is not bad and I like the video on demand but most of the video on demand is not in HD so I won't be watching them. The 1 only Hd feed is a real downer, they say they will have 2 soon. 24 hours of HD content is not enough I had about 30 on my Directv Hd tivo 3 years ago. I tried U-verse since I am looking for a replacement for my Directv service with more hd content. Directv's new Hd dvr which is also not tivo is just as bad as the u-verse dvr. I know that directv doesn't want to pay tivo, but in this day and age of technology why are we now having better equipment with worse software. If att allows me to use Iptv tivo box that I am willing to pay for or at least something comparable and more hd streams, I would consider coming back since the service it self is not that bad. But until that day I will keep searching. It seems to me most providers are almost the same on content bu the hardware and user intrerface is big for me and my family but the service providers are forcing you into there hardware which is sad. | |
CrossedFingers
@sbc.com | Interesting...I have the Charter Digital DVR now and I'm sick of it! Charter sucks cow balls! The price keeps going up so I'm signing up for U-verse and my installation date is Feb 04th...so I'll be back with a review then! | |
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