Any reviews of AT&T's U-verse service?

[Blazer25]

I've been thinking about changing my TV service for some time. Time Warner's service is possibly the worst on Earth and their prices have steadily increased over the years with no improved features.

 

A buddy of mine just got U-verse and say he gets 300+ channels, 20 or so HD channels, a DVR receiver and his high speed internet for around $120/ month. He just got it this week and so far is pleased.

 

I was wondering if anyone has had longer experience with it and had any pros/ cons to share?

[trwi7]

Man I must be the only who posts here that has it. http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

Okay the picture sometimes cuts out for a few seconds but that rarely happens and they do maintenance every couple weeks late at night so you won't be able to watch TV when they do it. I had it completely go out on me one time but you just call them and they walk you through on fixing it so it wasn't really a problem.

 

You do get a ton of channels even if you get the most basic package. Tons of Nickelodeon channels for kids, Game Show Network, Big Ten Network, NFL Network, SNY, YES, Music channels, DIY Network, Food Network, Discovery, Travel, ABC News Now etc.

 

You get the DVR, it holds 120 hours and they said they were going to make it so it holds 240 hours but I don't know if they've done that yet.

 

I recommend it, especially if you're still with Time Warner.

[Blazer25]

Trwi


What are the prices like. I saw on the internet that the top package "starts" at $114. My buddy says he got his whole deal (premium HBO, Showtime, etc) for like $120 a month. Does that sound right?

[Paul77]

I've been following the roll out of Uverse because I think that it may be something interesting down the road. The basic gist I'm getting from people is that it's a very good idea but it's still in it's early stages. Like software, I'll avoid the 1.0 version of uverse. I just talked to my brother in law Sunday at the game about uverse and he says the picture is decent but that they've had problems with the service "going out" a few times. Whatever "going out" exactly means it required a visit from ATT.

 

(BTW, Andy check your mailbox, I'm headed to the post office this morning to send out your DVD. I told you I'm slow, but I don't forget.)

[Diskono]

What exactly is it? Cable? Satellite? Or does it get to you over the internet? I know AT&T had some package deals with Dish Network at one point - not sure if this is the same, but it looks like a good deal.

[bball123h2]

It is dish network, att/yahoo dsl, and att phone iirc. Also check the fine print if you don't like the idea of them tracking everything you watch/everywhere you go online, as I've heard they are doing that (I'll look for a link in the meantime).

[sgtcluels]

Ok UVerse... it's actually IP TV. So basically ATT is rolling out Fiber to your drop boxes in your neighborhood and running VDSL connections to your house.

 

Pros:

Picture quality on SD TV is actually nice, better then I'd say dish or digital cable. I don't have fancy pants HD so I can't compare.

Tons and tons of channels. I get more HBO, more Sho channels then on DTV. Granted they all the play the same things, but

The 300 Series comes with a 6/2mb internet connection since it's on VDSL or VDSL2. It's pretty damn fast, but seems to slow down if you have a HD stream and 3 SD Streams going.

Tons and Tons of VOD service. It's pretty up to date, usually the day after the original airing.

Box seems rather slick, has a ton of components and places for upgrades in the future, you can even watch HD on SD TV (Scaled) but I can watch HD.net though, that's slick.

DVR with 120 gig HD.

Crap ton of FSN and Sports channels. Almost to many I tells ya!

Internet based scheduling available.

 

Cons:

DVR only works on main box. Future Software patch in 08 is supposed to enable you to watch any program from any TV in the house.

1 HD Stream record only. Software patch in 08 supposed to allow for this.

Only up to 4 TVs allowed (If you have more then 4 TVs in your place)

When there is a loss of power, the boot of the main box can be horribly slow.

Menus are a tad laggy, but I assume with optimization it'll become faster.

[stoops17]

This is something I will be contacting AT&T about in the near future. Sounds like a good deal.

[gypcasino]

It is dish network, att/yahoo dsl, and att phone iirc.

That would actually be something called HomeZone. Like sgtcluels said U Verse is a different type of TV system.

[sgtcluels]

Ok one other thing to rack up in the negative column...

 

No DD 5.1 support except on HD channels, including OD content. Hopefully they take care of that. That's one thing I loved about my DTiVo was the DD recording.

[Menotti80]

I must admit, my biggest reason for really looking into AT&T U-verse is because of the $ compared to TWC. However, I was able to talk to a guy at TWC and he lowered by bill over $20 a month. Now I am only paying a bit over $90 for Roadrunner, Cable, HD, and HD DVR.

 

I doubt I can get a comparible U-verse package for cheaper than that. So now I can afford to wait another 10-11 months before looking at switching...

 

It's great how I mentioned switching to U-verse to the TWC guy, and BOOM, he can suddenly save me $20-25 a month. lol

[RyDogg66]

You must have had a different experiecne than me. I dont ask for much form the cable company. All I had was expanded basic with a DVR box. I was paying about $45 a month for that, which is a lot to me for cable TV, then one day it jumped to around $79 with no explanation. I called TWC and complained and they said my deal ran out. I told them they better get me back on the deal and they told me that there were no current deals. I said, ok, then I think it is about time I check into this U-Verse thing that my mother in law has up the street. TWC person said, OK, let us know what you want to do, bye.

 

So I canceled, then call att because my mother in law up the street had Uverse put in a month or so ago and Att tells me that they arent offering Uverse in my area. I guess somewhere between my mother in laws house (literelly two blocks away in the middle of the city in Oshkosh) any my house they stopped offering it. I cancelled TWC and dont have rabbit ears which means I have been w/o a TV for about 6 weeks now.

 

Why would ATT not offer me this service that seemingly everyone else in town has?

[Barbs4339]

They are rolling out the towers block by block. If you are a certain distance away from one of them, then you cannot get the service. I signed up a few months ago and they came out to install it because the website said my house was available. They spent 3 hours here and then realized that I could not have it yet. Eventually it will be everywhere, it just takes time. I was also able to get $20 knocked off per month by threatening to switch TWC.

[temke]

TW tried to offer me $20 off my bill, but my bill dropped by $35 when i switched.

 

had it since october and it is great. internet speed is comparable, cant tell a difference in picture quality, and i have had zero outages.

[mothershipconnection]

I know nothing of U-Verse, but Dish Network Turbo HD is super fantastic. Just thought I'd throw that out there for those looking at new service.

[sgtcluels]

How's the HD quality msc? I thought Dish compressed it to get so many channels with out rolling out more satellites. Think it's HD Lite, whatever that means.

 

I think DTV has the highest quality HD, mmm....

[theavrock]

We have the premium package for like $120 a month and it has been awesome. Getting everything installed sucked ( our installer was a friend of one of my roommates and he sucked at life) but once it was in I have not had any problems. We did switch back to TW for our internet service. UVerse always dropped the signal, it was really odd. As far as TV goes for what we have we are paying a less for the same setup. Good stuff. I would suggest it to anyone.

[Menotti80]

i have had u-verse for about 4 months and i still recommend it, especially knowing it will only get better

[1992casey]

Keep in mind that as of now, U-verse won't be offering the MLB Network. That may change in the future.

[mothershipconnection]

How's the HD quality msc? I thought Dish compressed it to get so many channels with out rolling out more satellites. Think it's HD Lite, whatever that means.

 

It's great. Now, I'm no videophile, but when I watch a Blu-ray disc vs. an HD movie channel, I can't tell the difference. Also my TV is "only" 720p and 42", so maybe I wouldn't see the same difference some would.

[Menotti80]

Keep in mind that as of now, U-verse won't be offering the MLB Network. That may change in the future.

just curious, where have you heard "that might change"?

[1992casey]

It's pretty vague, nothing appears immediate, and AT&T was mentioned only as an example by the article's writer rather than the MLB Network president. Still, it would appear that AT&T would need to be a key addition if the MLB Network wanted compete to air playoff games in the future.http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6624003.html?industryid=47199

MLB (Network) president Tony Petitti Wednesday told a gathering of writers touring the network's massive Secaucus, N.J.-based 15,200 square foot headquarters -- the former home of CNBC -- that the 50 million-subscriber network plans to be competitive when the current post-season baseball packages become available in 2013. Currently, TBS and Turner Sports have the exclusive rights to baseball's four division playoff series and split the league's two championship series with Fox, which televises the World Series.

 

While Petitti says the network will have to increase is subscriber base -- Dish Network and AT&T are the biggest holdouts -- he believes that the network will be in a position to compete for a bigger piece of the live game pie.

MLB Network Taking Its Cut

[I Heart Brewers]

I am making the switch in late February (in my area of northern California the waiting list was absurd to get Uverse). My question for those of you that have it, what do you think of the DVR? I currently have an older Tivo model DVR with Comcast that I still love (even if I don't get HD or stream Netflix on it.). I have heard that the cable company DVR's are very inferior to Tivo's DVR. While it wouldn't be a deal breaker the inferior DVR along with not having MLB Network may sway me to keep what I have. I watched Harvey's Wallbanger's last night and thought twice about not needing MLB Network. Thanks.

[trwi7]

AT&T is the only DVR I've had, but I like it a lot. You can record four shows at once, in the beginning the DVR was pretty bad. You would record shows and then go to play the show and it wouldn't work. That problem has been fixed though.

[MJLiverock]

Does the DVR allow you to record multiple shows in HD at once? I heard when it first launched you could only watch or record one HD signal at a time but I haven't seen it or hear anything lately.