AT&T U-Verse (TV & Internet) - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

SwampYankee · #1 05-14-2007, 03:58 PM

We signed up for AT&T U-verse last week and they came Friday to install the boxes and the router. This is the over-the-line service they offer as opposed to the deal they have for the dish. I became more and more frustrated with Cox and since I already had my cellular and home phones through SBC/Cingular/ATT, I could bundle them all together and save quite a bit. So far so good.

The picture quality on my Visio LCD is excellent and while the speed of the internet connection (at the level we signed up for) was supposed to be a tick slower than Cox cable internet, it is actually a bit faster than I was getting. They had a deal if you signed up you got free installation for up to 3 tv's (usually $495-additional tv's were $5 each), computer modem or wifi unit, a free DVR and all 400 channels for 2 months. While it's nice having all of the movie channels, the Mrs. and I rarely have the time to watch the ones we rent so I can see us probably paring the selection down to the 200 channel level and dropping a few of the movie channels.

They estimated between 2 and 8 hours to run new wire from the street to the control box and from the control box through the house. They were done in about 3.5 hours. If anyone is tired of the cable company but was leary of going with a dish, has Cingular cell service and ATT for their home phone I'd recommend the U-Verse. There were AT&T trucks EVERYWHERE around the neighborhood last week hooking people up. So much for breaking up Ma Bell.

mgburg · #2 05-14-2007, 04:17 PM

One problem with being the first on your block with the latest and greatest...evenually, EVERYONE will be hooked up to the same line that feeds your set.

Watch those speeds drop and drop and drop...

And then, when something happens in your neighborhood, or even nationally, watch the bandwidth fade away...

There's only so many "bits" that can fit into/onto a "pipe" and it's just a matter of time before you start to get frustrated with AT&T and their equipment.

BUT, if your neighborhood and local government entities did their homework, you'll have 2 or more "overbuilders" on top of the original company that wired your neighborhood and that alone may keep those bandwidth figures from collapsing under their own weight.

Good luck with your hook-up though.

Keep us posted as to whether it's still a bargain in 4 or 5 months!

MTI · #3 09-25-2007, 05:43 PM

Any updates on how U-verse is doing? Our local telco is going to be offering it here soon.

Larry Delor · #4 09-25-2007, 06:56 PM

So, this is TV via IP ? The visual equivalent to Vonage? Hmmm

I wonder how this compares to Fios.

MTI · #5 09-25-2007, 07:33 PM

I understand that the telco has to have fiber optic cable in the neighborhood otherwise it's a wait till it does. Supposedly, since it's TV over IP, programming can be viewed on any screen in the house, whether it's a TV, computer; setting the DVR to record can be done remotely over the 'net. I have heard that the service has bandwidth issues and that deployment of HD channels seems to be slow.

powerpig · #6 09-25-2007, 08:05 PM

While I can't speak on the AT&T service, FIOS and fibre in general has pretty much unlimited bandwidth. If you're have connectivity problems, it's probably at their head end.

wbrian63 · #7 09-26-2007, 09:19 AM

We have it - replaced Time Warner just after Comcast gutted them out.

Installation didn't go very smoothly. They initially verified that I had signal to the distribution box down the street, and assumed that signal reached the house. (We no longer have regular phone service - cellular only.) The signal didn't reach the house due to a cut cable in the backyard. However, they were determined, and we did get everything up and running by the end of the day. Took every bit of 6 hours to get the job done.

Internet speed (paid for highest package 5mb down 1mb up) is as good or better than what we had with TW.

One of the things I don't like about the service is that they want to come out and install any additional boxes for you. You can't go to an AT&T Uverse store and pick up a box and plug it up like you could with cable.

Had some problems with pictures stalling. Had AT&T come out to install an extra box for an additional TV, and while the tech was there I asked him about the picture stalling. He went from TV to TV at all the connection points and checked and re-terminated several connections. Plus he replaced most of the wall jacks with newer items. His statement was the service is very fussy about signal quality.

Haven't had a single stalled picture since. His 1-hour install-a-box-and-go turned into a 4-hour schlep through the system. Real dedication to customer service there.

One thing they don't tell you about is that you can't watch HD programming on more than one TV at a time. Occasionally, while browsing through the channels we'll get a popup on the screen that tells us of that limitation. I've yet to figure out what's triggering it, because rarely do we ever watch more than 1 TV at a time, and when you switch off the TV, the cable box turns off, too.

A serious limitation of the service, far as I'm concerned, is that the tuner boxes won't stay powered up without a TV connected and ON. Even then, they won't stay powered up for more than 24 hours. We have a whole-house audio system that we used to feed from a dedicated digital cable box to get the commercial-free music channels. Audio-out to an amplifier, which is connected to a impedance-matching box that feeds the rooms in the house. Almost every room has speakers with a local volume switch. We leave the system on 24-7.
Got a separate AT&T box to serve that purpose and discovered this little annoyance. Tried to trick it by plugging in a cheapo LCD TV and leaving that on - still cuts off after 24 hours. Solved the problem by ditching the AT&T box in favor of Sirius via PC - still get periodic interruptions, but not as bad, and the PC has to be on 24-7 anyway.

Overall, we're getting far better service and many, many, many more channels than we did from TW, all for about the same $ every month.

SwampYankee · #8 09-26-2007, 09:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wbrian63

A serious limitation of the service, far as I'm concerned, is that the tuner boxes won't stay powered up without a TV connected and ON. Even then, they won't stay powered up for more than 24 hours. We have a whole-house audio system that we used to feed from a dedicated digital cable box to get the commercial-free music channels. Audio-out to an amplifier, which is connected to a impedance-matching box that feeds the rooms in the house. Almost every room has speakers with a local volume switch. We leave the system on 24-7.
Got a separate AT&T box to serve that purpose and discovered this little annoyance. Tried to trick it by plugging in a cheapo LCD TV and leaving that on - still cuts off after 24 hours. Solved the problem by ditching the AT&T box in favor of Sirius via PC - still get periodic interruptions, but not as bad, and the PC has to be on 24-7 anyway.

Hmm, that's interesting about the boxes powering off. We haven't had that problem. We rarely watch the tv in our bedroom, but the box has been on since it was installed because we lost the remote. But maybe it has to do with that main control box? Rarely do we have 24 hour period that nothing gets used so maybe that's why we haven't had a problem? I'm not sure.

They did spend about 4 hours for the initial install for a suburban location with the wires on the poles. Some of the neighborhood folks have complained about the almost desk-sized distribution boxes on the poles but since the phone company owns the poles there's nothing they could do about it. I did notice that some shrubbery is starting to appear around the more visible ones.

You bring up good points regarding the HD on one box (although we only have on HDTV, if someone had several that could be an issue-can you get additional HD boxes?).

The only time I noticed any freezing of the screen was when we had about 40 shows recorded. After we blew some of them out it never happened again although it might have been purely coincidental.

One slightly annoying thing, if the box loses power completely (gets unplugged, surge protector strip has the power switch stepped on by a cat, or if the main box loses power for similar reasons) it takes a good 5 minutes for it to "re-boot". There is a main box that sends signals out to the additional boxes.

Internet service is at least as good as what we were getting from Cox Cable. Some might just be due to our computer running better now. We've never had a band-width problem but if we required a faster connection there is a faster option available.

One thing I have noticed is on the HDTV, the picture isn't as clear as it was with the HD channels from Cox. Like when watching NASCAR, the pic was crystal clear-you could read the ads on the walls and the stickers on the cars. Now, it's slightly blurred. If watching animated stuff (Simpsons, Family Guy, Disney movies) if there is fast action or even when the characters are talking there is some micro-pixelization where it will leave every other pixel out in the part that is moving. I'm far from a videophile but it does annoy me. Not enough that I've called AT&T yet (I will eventually) but I have to admit that it might be a TV setting. I just haven't bothered with it.

Overall we are still pleased with it. We have a lot more channels now for less money per month and by bundling it with our phone and cellular service I get it in one bill and have some discounts as well.

MTI · #9 09-26-2007, 08:41 PM

Thanks for the updates. TWC has the cable monopoly out here and U-verse may be a welcome alternative if they have the right programming and service.