U-Verse

[tonedeaf]

U-verse is now being offered in my area.As of now,I have Time Warner cable.AT&T seems to offer more hd channels.I am already an AT&T phone and internet customer and would like to make it a one bill deal.Anyone a U-verse customer?If so how would you rate video quality,how about their dvr box.Any input would be greatly appreciated.Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Midcow2]

uVerse better PQ than Time Warner Cable

U-verse is now being offered in my area.As of now,I have Time Warner cable.AT&T seems to offer more hd channels.I am already an AT&T phone and internet customer and would like to make it a one bill deal.Anyone a U-verse customer?If so how would you rate video quality,how about their dvr box.Any input would be greatly appreciated.Thanks in advance for any help.

uVerse is fiber optics and will give you significantly better PQ than cable. I ditched Time Warner Cable (now called Comcast here) a long time ago for DishNetwork. The PQ of uVerse and satellite (DishNetwork or DirecTV) are equivalent. I considered going to uVerse but I had just upgrade to 722 DVR and 622DVR at the time and besides paying a penalty UVerse almost but did quite meet my needs; uVerse can record four shows at once but only supports on HD TV and I have two active HD TVs, both of which can record with the setup I have.

Lookat the combined AT&T plan carefully. it is a good deal, but the initialrate is an introductory rate and it goes up after the introductory period is over.

Later,

MidCow2

 

[gus6464]

I have had uverse for about 3 months now. Now while the backbone of it is fiber optic, in the residential end all is still handled by coaxial. Don't believe the stuff that people tell you about coaxial not being enough when compared to fiber because it can still pass more than the enough bandwidth required for an HD feed. If you look at Dish which right now has the best HD PQ with their TurboHD package the connection used to connect the box to the dish is coax. The reason why TWC and Comcast suck in PQ is because they compress the crap out of their feeds. They have around 4 HD channels going through the same bandwidth that should only be for one. Now uverse HD does have good PQ and they have a ton of HD channels so far. I am glad that I finally have Scifi HD for Battlestar Galactica. By far the best feature of uverse is the streaming DVR feature though. Just be wary that the entire system is controlled by a single modem/gateway box which gives you your TV, internet and phone. If that box goes out you lose all three services even though you still have a separate DVR box.

 

[allargon]

I have had uverse for about 3 months now. Now while the backbone of it is fiber optic, in the residential end all is still handled by coaxial. Don't believe the stuff that people tell you about coaxial not being enough when compared to fiber because it can still pass more than the enough bandwidth required for an HD feed. If you look at Dish which right now has the best HD PQ with their TurboHD package the connection used to connect the box to the dish is coax. The reason why TWC and Comcast suck in PQ is because they compress the crap out of their feeds. They have around 4 HD channels going through the same bandwidth that should only be for one. Now uverse HD does have good PQ and they have a ton of HD channels so far. I am glad that I finally have Scifi HD for Battlestar Galactica. By far the best feature of uverse is the streaming DVR feature though. Just be wary that the entire system is controlled by a single modem/gateway box which gives you your TV, internet and phone. If that box goes out you lose all three services even though you still have a separate DVR box.

I have Dish, and I have U-verse for my Internet. Dish does not have the best PQ. Verizon does. Even DirectTV has better PQ than Dish. I've been tempted by U-verse, but their HD PQ is slightly worse than Dish. AT&T's SD PQ blows EVERYONE away but Verizon. I know quite a few people with U-verse that just get the SD service and think they're watching HD because the SD PQ is so good. Moreover, two lousy HD streams in my house won't cut it. I can record 6+ simultaneously EASILY with Dish. AT&T U-verse is a good choice for people with one HDTV that don't need simultaneous HD records.

 

[MidnightSensi]

I have had uverse for about 3 months now. Now while the backbone of it is fiber optic, in the residential end all is still handled by coaxial.

...


Just be wary that the entire system is controlled by a single modem/gateway box which gives you your TV, internet and phone. If that box goes out you lose all three services even though you still have a separate DVR box.

You can connect it coaxially, but I have mine connected through cat6. If you already have coaxial run through your home, they will probably go this way, but cat5/6 works also. Mine runs into my box, into the u-verse tv box using cat6 and then HDMI to the TV. Then from the u-verse main box I run cat6 to a switch which distributes it throughout my place.


....

Yeah, and if the power goes out its like 30 seconds for it to reset. Also its really fast, but it seems like every once in a while it goes out for like a few seconds. Not a big deal, but, sometimes I'll notice it. Does yours do that? Overall I'm pretty happy with it. I like being able to schedule the dvr from the Internet.

I agree that the picture quality is significantly better than Comcast, I mean, its like immediately noticable even without a side by side comparison.

I have Dish, and I have U-verse for my Internet. Dish does not have the best PQ. Verizon does. Even DirectTV has better PQ than Dish. I've been tempted by U-verse, but their HD PQ is slightly worse than Dish. AT&T's SD PQ blows EVERYONE away but Verizon. I know quite a few people with U-verse that just get the SD service and think they're watching HD because the SD PQ is so good. Moreover, two lousy HD streams in my house won't cut it. I can record 6+ simultaneously EASILY with Dish. AT&T U-verse is a good choice for people with one HDTV that don't need simultaneous HD records.

I can record 5 programs at once plus watch another.... maybe I have a newer version? I just got it... Its a Cisco box?

 

[allargon]

You can connect it coaxially, but I have mine connected through cat6. If you already have coaxial run through your home, they will probably go this way, but cat5/6 works also. Mine runs into my box, into the u-verse tv box using cat6 and then HDMI to the TV. Then from the u-verse main box I run cat6 to a switch which distributes it throughout my place.

It's not coming to your house via Cat 6. Fiber runs to the vRAD distribution node in your neighborhood. It's probably on a street corner. Coax (or maybe even fiber) runs from the node to your house. One nice thing about U-verse is that they will run Cat 5 through your house if you insist.

I can record 5 programs at once plus watch another.... maybe I have a newer version? I just got it... Its a Cisco box?

How can you record 5 HD streams at once when you can only receive two per household?

 

[tonedeaf]

Thanks for the quick replies.Your knowledge of all the technical aspects of electronics and such is tremendous.Again,thank you!Looks like it will be U-verse.

 

[dgshtav]

Another UVerse customer here. Awesome PQ over comcast. Huge difference.

Recommended.

 

[yettitheman]

My buddy seems to hate it.
He's went through three modems, and his channel feeds will randomly freeze the picture on screen.

I've asked him if his wiring is up to par, terminated right, and not anywhere near noise. Everything is in good shape.
We are both computer/telecom dudes, so we go through things pretty quickly.

We narrowed down to the set top box, or the feed itself.
However, I didn't stick around and feel the tempature of the set top box. So, another time I guess.

 

[darien87]

It's not coming to your house via Cat 6. Fiber runs to the vRAD distribution node in your neighborhood. It's probably on a street corner. Coax (or maybe even fiber) runs from the node to your house. One nice thing about U-verse is that they will run Cat 5 through your house if you insist.

I've been sick of Comcast for years, (they seem to raise the rates up every year or so). We're getting U-Verse installed next month. It should save us about $20 a month on cable. I can't wait.

What is Cat 5?

Edit: OK, I just looked it up on Wikipedia. It looks like Ethernet cable. Is it better than coaxial?

 

[jwenthold99]

I have had U-verse for a while now, and it is pretty good overall, but there is one issue that drives me nuts. Any programming that has a lot of dark content has a constant "jump in the picture". It keeps shifting every second or so. Usually it's not too bad, but it really seems to show up on HD movies.

But, it is way better than the Time Warner that i had prior to U-verse.