ATT Uverse

Discussion in 'Horn Depot' started by someone, Feb 1, 2010.

  1. someone

    someone 250+ Posts

    seems to be cheaper than TW in RR? Anyone have experience switching? Thoughts?
     
  2. mcbrett

    mcbrett 2,500+ Posts

    Consumer reports' mag a month or two ago compared Time Warner w Verizon Fios and ATT Uverse.. Time warner bites dog balls, is more expensive, slower internet connection, lower quality HDef- and poorer customer service. Other than that- sounds like time warner is pretty good.

    Seriously though- check out Consumer Reports mag.
     
  3. dxspaz

    dxspaz 250+ Posts

    my experience with u-verse has been overall very positive with a few minor drawbacks that were not issues with time warner.
    -only 2 tv's can be on different HD channels, more tv's can share those HD channels but you can only be tuned into 2 at once. an issue on monday when you want to record 2 shows and still watch MNF or thursday when there are so many shows on at once.
    -if you are a heavy internet user (bittorrents) we have noticed that the picture on all the tv's becomes choppy and freezes constantly. so we just set uTorrent to run at night.
     
  4. badexcuse

    badexcuse 1,000+ Posts

    I'm thinking of switching from DirecTv and would also be interested in UVerse thoughts.
     
  5. general35

    general35 5,000+ Posts

    i have u-verse, i like it and all my bills, internet, phone and cable are combined. and because the lines are underground, ive never had an outage.
     
  6. mcbrett

    mcbrett 2,500+ Posts

    Plus- if you have a cell phone w Verizon or ATT, you can make a Quad-package for additional savings.

    My hatred for time warner aside- I just don't see why anyone would not take advantage of better quality for less money from these two. (And yes, AT&T used to rip us all off royally in the 80's and early 90's. ) Times have changed a little now..
     
  7. Murphy'sBoy

    Murphy'sBoy 1,000+ Posts

    I jsut switched from TW to U-verse and I find it a much better deal
     
  8. mia1994

    mia1994 1,000+ Posts

    Just checked the ratings on consumer reports. It seems like all of these ratings are based off of consumer survey's and not any real objective measures (speed, cost, etc) is there another report I'm missing.

    AT&T and TWC are like choosing between Darth Vader and ... well, Darth Vader. It is hard for me to rationalize leaping from one to the other as much of anything but an angry decision. Unfortunately they are the two services available in my area. My personal experience had always been that the transmission rates offered by cable companies were FAR in access of what the phone providers could/would offer, which means I have been falling in bed with TWC for years... but it is hardly I decision which I'm happy with.

    At one point I heard that TiVo did not work with UVerse, does anyone know if that is the case?
     
  9. Longhorny630

    Longhorny630 1,000+ Posts


     
  10. ilsa

    ilsa 100+ Posts


     
  11. NickDanger

    NickDanger 2,500+ Posts

    My ATT tech said the choppiness people sometimes notice was due to poor quality of the wiring inside my home. He replaced it for free and the problem went away.
     
  12. Chest Rockwell

    Chest Rockwell 1,000+ Posts

    I can't live without the NFL Network, so DirecTv has me by the short hairs. [​IMG]
     
  13. ut1969

    ut1969 250+ Posts

    When I compared prices between ATT and Time Warner, they have always been the same. I just checked the other day and with three tv's, Time Warner was actually cheaper than ATT.
     
  14. dxspaz

    dxspaz 250+ Posts

    ohh, we went through the whole "replace the lines" bit. our whole house runs on ethernet cables now. before that everything was extremely choppy all the time. tv was just unwatchable.
     
  15. TxEx84

    TxEx84 100+ Posts

    Switched from TW to UVerse last month for TV, phone and internet. So far, very happy. The whole house DVR feature is awesome. Picture quality is better (for me, anyway). I can program my DVR real-time from my iPhone or Internet browser.

    Phone and internet service have worked well with no issues.

    Only complaint is that I lost Fox Soccer Channel. I have U200 package and it is on the U300 level. With TW, this was part of basic digital package. (Oh, and they charge for HD [​IMG] ).
     
  16. TexasGolf

    TexasGolf 2,500+ Posts

    I had direct tv here in Houston for nearly 3 years....we moved and decided to try out ATT....I really like it...plus we have our wireless internet and phone rolled in...the cost is around $150 month total and I have the u450 plan. We got a 6 month $30 off when we signed up. I plan on keeping uverse if it is available in the neighborhood we are building our house in.
     
  17. oak forest horn

    oak forest horn 100+ Posts

    I had u-Verse and Direct TV. The ability to only have 2 HD data streams was a deal breaker. (Recod 1 hd feed, watch another hd feed and wife watching another hd feed would not work.)
    Other than that, UVerse was very good. I kept them for internte service
     
  18. someone

    someone 250+ Posts


     
  19. lhb98

    lhb98 250+ Posts

    An HD recording takes 2 streams. You have 4 streams available.

    So you can record 2 HD programs at once, but you can't watch anything but one of those programs, or a previously recorded program, at that time.
     
  20. updog07

    updog07 500+ Posts


     
  21. wherzwaldo

    wherzwaldo 1,000+ Posts

    We moved last summer and switched from TW to Uverse. Our experience was not that great, and we switched back to Time Warner after a couple of months.

    My thoughts:

    - Cost: We were paying $150/month on TW for 18mbps internet, digital cable (no movie/sports addons) + HD DVR + HD STB, and digital phone (w/ nationwide calling). To get the same package on Uverse, except with 6mbps internet (a 67% downgrade), was well over $200/month.

    - TV: DVR was awesome and is the only thing I miss. Picture quality was not noticeably better or worse than TW. Only having two simultaneous HD streams for the whole place was an annoying limitation.

    - Phone: Constantly heard an echo when making calls (line latency?). Was never worked out despite two calls to tech support.

    - Internet: SUCKED. Was never as fast as advertised and was down often. On top of all that, it was about as expensive as TW's fastest bandwidth plan.

    - The Uverse gateway: if it ever loses power or needs to be reset, it takes FOREVER (10+ minutes) to fully reboot. During this time, all of your Uverse services are down, including TV.


    Except for their DVR, I find TW's offerings to be far superior to Uverse at this point.
     
  22. wherzwaldo

    wherzwaldo 1,000+ Posts


     
  23. updog07

    updog07 500+ Posts

    ^^ Wow. I didnt know thats how it worked.

    That is pretty much a deal breaker right there.
     
  24. Son of a Son

    Son of a Son 1,000+ Posts

    Actually, at least in my case, you have 8 streams, however you can only use 4 for HD at any one time. There have been several times where my DVR was recording 2 HD shows, my wife watched analog in the bedroom, the daughter watched analog in her room, and I had an analog channel on in my office, while on the computer. In the very near future, if you are within 1000 feet of the box, you will be able to get a third HD stream, at least that is what I have been told.

    Additionally, you can watch an HD DVRd show at any time. My wife and I will regularly start watching our 7:00 shows at 8:00 while the DVR is recording our 2 8:00 shows in HD. This usually occurs on Monday during Heroes, Castle, HIMYM, Big Bang, etc.

    I went ahead and upgraded to the "professional" internet bandwidth, and VERY rarely have issues with choppiness.

    If you do get it, make sure you watch the installer. 85% of trouble calls are from users who's installer was sloppy or rushed. They HAVE to change all the jacks (wall connectors) in your house, or run Cat 5 connections to the rooms with TVs.

    I have had issues once, but it was because my wife accidentaly crimped some coax in the attic when getting the x-mas stuff down. AT&T came out and fixed her boo boo free of charge. I guess, to be fair, we didn't know the cause until he found the cripm and it was right next to the x-mas stuff! [​IMG]
     
  25. Son of a Son

    Son of a Son 1,000+ Posts

    And you shouldn't have to "buy" anything. AT&T provides our main DVR/Cable box free of charge, and charges $7/mo for standard boxes for each other TV.
     
  26. HornsTrue

    HornsTrue 25+ Posts

    I have Uverse (switched from TW) and I love it. Here is how the streaming works.

    There are 4 "live" streams. Only 2 can be HD streams at once.

    So, if you are watching analog tv, you can be recording 2 HD shows on the same tv, and another tv can watch analog tv as well. that is 4 live streams. However, recorded shows, HD or not, do not count as "live" streams and can be watched at any time. You can have 2 HD shows recording, 2 analog shows recording and still watch anything you have recorded, HD or not.

    You can upgrade to get additional streams from what I understand, but I would think it is costly.

    HD is better quality than TW and there are a crapload more channels in HD. The DVR has many times the capacity of the TW DVR as well. I used to hate the TW DVR on College Football Saturday becuase I would run out of space. Not the case with Uverse.

    Overall, I feel like Uverse makes TW feel like stone age technology.
     
  27. ViperHorn

    ViperHorn 10,000+ Posts

    Interesting comments. I have looked at this for six months, and I am having problems comparing the internet speeds. I haven't seen anything on the AT&T side that indicates their internet speeds can match the turbo Roadrunner from TW. In fact all I could tell was that AT&T's fastest barely could equal the standard TW.

    Could be I am overlooking something as DSL generally isn't as good as cable.
     
  28. oak forest horn

    oak forest horn 100+ Posts

    For Internet Speed ONLY
    DSL<<UVerse<<<<TWC
    For TV Service
    TWC<UVerse<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Direct TV
    With multiple boxes I can run 2 hd streams to 2 bedrooms and main room (6 total). It is in beta form but DTV lets you share dvr material in each room. They have to be set up by network and it better be cat 5 or above, but it does work. Until Uverse can open up more bandwith to the home its a show stopper for me.
     
  29. ViperHorn

    ViperHorn 10,000+ Posts

    Thank you
     
  30. wherzwaldo

    wherzwaldo 1,000+ Posts


     

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