General Zod

There's several threads about this in the history but they are a couple of years old so I was looking for a fresh perspective.

I'm happy with DirecTV but when I add in the cost of our phone and internet (all currently though AT&T) it would be about the same monthly cost to move to Uverse as I am paying not.

However I would get the ability to record 4 shows at once (instead of 2 like I am limited to now), the phone with unlimited long distance, and an upgrade on the internet to elite. So it SEEMS like I would be getting more for the same money.

So the questions..

It says I can record 4 shows at once but can they all be HD? Do we need more than 1 HD-DVR in order to do it? What if we record a show on the HD-DVR and try to play it back on the other TV's in the house that aren't HD?

How's the phone quality? It's VOIP right?

Any other gotchas? Hidden fees?

Thanks..

boogieman03

I can record 2 HD shows and 2 standard def shows all at the same time. They're working on have 3 HD streams right now, but I don't think they've released that yet. I do this off of 1 DVR. I can play both HD and SD shows on any TV, HD or standard def tv. ( For the record, I have 1 HD TV and 1 standard def TV)

Hope that helps a little bit.

Boondock Saint

I don't have HD or a land line but I can say I enjoy Uverse and haven't really had any problems with it for the past 3 years. I love recording 4 shows at once. Help a lot.

The rare times I've needed customer service they haven't been all that great, in my experience at least, but oh well.

Goldberg74

My only beef with U-verse (which I've had since the start of the year) is that only the DVR can pause live TV. It can't be done with the standard receivers... at least not yet (I was told that they are going to adding that functionality sometime in 2010).

We keep the HD-DVR, the modem and stuff in our bedroom but do most of our TV watching in the living room and can't pause live TV in there.

Hopefully they add it sooner than later.

Patman

How large is the hard drive in the Uverse DVRs?

Sweet Baby James

Just make sure that you are located close to the VRAD. If you're not, you'll have to go with a lower profile and will only be able to get one HD feed.

Mad Dawg

Some areas have the capability for 3 feeds now, but you won't know until the installers check and they don't advertise it. Sadly, I found out that I'm too close to the VRAD to get 3 HD feeds. Still don't understand that, but it is in my area.

WallyOPD

If you could pause live TV wouldn't that make it, by definition, a DVR? It would have to be recording a buffer.

Goldberg74

It would record the feed on the DVR over the in home network and play it back. I wondered the same thing, but that is what they said.

WallyOPD

Ah, well then that would be pretty useful.

calhoun07

TV blah blah blah...

What I am REALLY wondering about U-Verse (not in my area yet, but I think it will be soon...I've seen AT&T workers quite a bit in my area recently) is how does the Internet compare to cable broadband.

Sweet Baby James

Much better and more reliable than Charter Pipeline. Of course, Charter sucks ass, so take that for what it's worth.

shaun3000

Regarding UVerse, I don't know anyone who hasn't had problems with it. Everyone I know who's had UVerse has had it go down at LEAST once a week. Hell, one of my friends is a MANAGER at AT&T corporate and WORKS ON THE UVERSE PROGRAM! Even HE can't maintain stable uptime. And when it goes down, you can' do anything: No DVR, no internet, no SQUAT. You're completely locked out until they get it back up and working.

Achtung

Yep, this is what my parents are stuck with--1 HD feed, 3 SD feeds. A bit annoying when they try to record one HD program and watch another show, because they have to switch over to SD.

Other than that, the product, is actually pretty good. The DVR interface is slick and simple to use. But I do despise AT&T's customer service for cancelling installation not once but twice.

General Zod

Thanks for all the responses.. I think we'll stay with what we have for now. I wish AT&T was a little more forthcoming with the limitations.

flagstone

Hi, I'm flagstone. Now you know someone who hasn't had a problem with UVerse every week. I've only been on for a couple of months so far, but no problems with uptime for me so far.

For the question about hard-drive capacity, I'm not sure in terms of bytes - the GUI only reports percentage available. I've got 38% available, and that's with what looks like roughly 32 hours of HD programs recorded. That would work out to a little over 50 HD hours capacity total.

Gooter

I just wish it would come to my subdivision already! My friend who lives less than a mile away has U-Verse. Both of our subdivisions are less than 7 years old. His is slightly newer though. Just don't understand why he has it avail yet I do not. :-(

flagstone

One thing: if you are basing availability on what the UVerse web site says, it is not always correct. My house was in a small "hole" in their database (all of my immediate neighbors showed as available, I did not). If you aren't sure, you might try entering some of your neighbors' addresses in and see if they show up - if they do, you'll probably need to go through customer support to get an installation set up.

Thrush

Its available in my area and I'm thinking of switching myself after looking at how many more HD channels Uverse has than I get with Comcast.

A question to Uverse users. What is the channel change speed like? One of the reasons I cant tolerate satellite is the lag between channel changes, it drives me nuts. That and rain fade.

slideways

Channel change speed is instantaneous. I recently changed from DTV to UVERSE. I debated the change in my mind for months, purely because of the inferior HD pic quality issue. I must say overall I am happy with the product, not once have I had UVERSE go down (have had it for about a month), however the pic quality isn't as good as DTV. Not that bad on most shows but if your a sports watcher you'll notice it.
I'm not sure of the actual size of the hard drive. We have not had a space problem but we also haven't be letting stuff build up on the DVR. The only 2 HD streams has bit us a couple of times. Something the 3rd HD stream will resolve though

ANDREMIKE

untill I can hook up the wire directly to the TV to get a picture i am stuck with Comcast. I refuse to pay for 7 boxes for my house. You'd think that this would be a easy fix for these sat/Uverse companies, by putting 1 box coming into your house and then run a cable line to each TV and have independent control..

bunkaroo

I'd love to get Uverse except it's STILL not available in my area, which by the way is one of the largest suburbs in Chicago. Go figure.

I'm thinking about Direct TV since WOW's HD channels are pathetic in quantity and quality. Plus they dropped HDnet which is pissing me off. Comcast doesn't have HDnet either so not going to them.

My question about DTV: If I have 4 TV's and they all need a box, how does the cabling work from the dish? Does each box have to have a direct connect to the dish? My current cable setup has a couple splitters involved but I've gotten the impression this is not possible for dishes.

It won't be a big deal if this is the case but I'm just trying to be prepared so I know how to direct the installer.

Thrush

Hmm That may be a deal breaker. Is the HD pixelated or just lower resolution?

shaun3000

Low bandwidth, high compression, lots of pixelation.

Thrush

Damn