AT&T U-Verse customers please share your experience

Conradicles

Thinking about ditching Charter and getting AT&T U-verse. This would be the bundle with internet, phone and HDTV. The Verizon service is not available in my area.

Please share your thoughts/opinions.

Thanks!
Eric.

EndersShadow

I personally went from Comcast to Uverse and love it. Whole Home DVR is what sold me but also how nice the installers were as well. Hell when I moved one of them even helped me run surround wires under the carpet while wiring everything via ethernet.

They also gave me a free 6 port switch for upstairs to connect up a bunch of different stuff.

I have had one or two issues with the DVR HDD going bad, but they are quick to replace it and credit me for days it was down.

Beyond that no real issues.

Only thing is you cannot use your own router and I dont think theirs is wireless N. For me I wanted to hardwire everything and with the switch upstairs I can so it wasnt a big problem.

cheddar

EndersShadow wrote: »

Only thing is you cannot use your own router and I dont think theirs is wireless N. For me I wanted to hardwire everything and with the switch upstairs I can so it wasnt a big problem.

I use my own wireless router with their box with no problems. Their box has a jack for internet and a bunch of jacks for hardwired connection to their router (also in the box). Just connect your router directly to the internet jack and you've bypassed the internal router. You can still plug things into their router if you want, but anything plugged into your router or via wireless will go directly out to the internet with your router as the firewall, etc. At least that's how I think it works, been a while since I set it up...

cheddar

As far as uverse goes, much better service than comcast. It may have been because they were rolling out their service for the first time, but they always seemed to go that extra bit with no charge when any difficulties came up. It's basically IP (internet) TV. So they have an extra incentive to keep the internet connection very stable and provide things like the router which is required by their TV service. I expected the picture to be poor because it depends so much on streaming channels over IP but was pleasantly surprised by the HD quality of the channels. It's still compressed and comes nowhere near something like blu-ray or even over the air TV, but it can hold its own against something like comcast.

The only drawback I noticed is that you have to have a box for each TV to receive the channel stream. That's why you can transfer shows around to each TV with the DVR. But it also means you can't just plug a coax into a TV to get the channels. You have to pay for more boxes.

Conradicles

cheddar wrote: »

I expected the picture to be poor because it depends so much on streaming channels over IP but was pleasantly surprised by the HD quality of the channels. It's still compressed and comes nowhere near something like blu-ray or even over the air TV, but it can hold its own against something like comcast.

Cheddar, you seem like somebody who knows what they are talking about when it comes to video. When you say "Hold its own", do you mean the same quality or slightly worse?

The last thing I want to do is take a step down in picture quality.

I have had Dish, DirecTV and Charter Cable in the past. I like them all, with Charter being dead last. Charter has good picture quality at my house for some odd reason. My Mom's house Charter was terrible, no horrific.:eek:

edbert

I have had Uverse for a few years and the quality is good-great and easily compares with Direct TV. The nice thing is you rarely have outages due to weather unlike any other provider out there. I have only had a few major problems with Uverse but they have stepped up each time and made sure that I am completely satisfied before leaving the job. And you can't judge Uverse customer service against AT&T customer service, it's completely different.

Like Cheddar said, you definitely see the artifacting every now and then and there is a difference between over-the-air and Uverse, but over-the-air is only locals anyway and if you really want to use that for however many channels you can pull in, no one is stopping you from doing that anyway.

Ace944gs

This is an incredibly timely posting. They just laid Uverse fiber in my neighborhood, and yesterday was the first day things went live. AT&T sent a sales person door-to-door, and for the first time in my life I actually entertained them.

Pricing and options seem very competitive with Time Warner, but I wasn't sure about the service level. Sounds like many of you have had very positive experience...

Does AT&T require signing a contract of any sort (like Direct TV)? I currently deal with TW because the other options wanted me to sign up for 2 years, which I can't/won't do.

Poee7R

I have family that are very happy with Att's Uverse. Only thing that would stop me from getting their service is the Bandwith cap. Other than that, the reason I chose Cox over them in my area is at the time, Cox had a better deal on a comparable package.


http://www.uverseguide.com/att-imposes-uverse-bandwidth-cap/


Dave

EndersShadow

Ace944gs wrote: »

Does AT&T require signing a contract of any sort (like Direct TV)? I currently deal with TW because the other options wanted me to sign up for 2 years, which I can't/won't do.

I do not think so. They are month to month plans.

One more annoying thing that I just remembered (and its not really that bad). If you move you cannot just take your current equipment to your new place and have it work.

You have to ship the equipment from your old address back and setup an install during which they will bring you all new equipment. Its due to how the hardware is registered with their system.

However you only ship the boxes back, so technically you get an extra set of remotes, some extra ethernet wires and power adaptors for your new equipment so its not all bad, just a slight hassle...

Toxis

Uverse pros: whole house DVR is awesome, every Uverse box has an Ethernet plug to be used for a quick hardwire point for another device (TiVo, BluRay, PS3, etc), menu layout is nice, and I hear the customer service is pretty decent.

Cons: depending on where the node is located in relation to your house, your signal can be utter garbage. Problem is you cannot know how it'll look till you install it and try the 30 day trial. Personally, I've seen it work but I'd say 3/4 of the people I've dealt with say the picture is worse than Time Warner/Comcast while the other will say it's DirecTV good. Hit or miss! If you're too close to the node, the picture will be "hot" and the picture will show it. Now the Internet has never impressed me. It's DSL and if you play any online games, get ready for a serious amount of lag. To the point I don't see how my buddy even plays. I wouldn't be able to deal with it. Lastly, they had some serious issues with their HD DVR a while back as they outsourced the Motorola box to some other company and it was having rediculous amounts of problems. And when AT&T didn't have more to swap with real Motorola, they just sent an installer to come change the splitter and some coax fittings to hold you over and claim nothing was wrong, hoping by time you called back, they would have more boxes. I heard this from a local installer not long ago so it's not hearsay.

With that, along with the fact I can't use my TiVos, I'd never switch. But some people have different experiences and maybe these issues are just in KC...

EndersShadow

Toxis wrote: »

But some people have different experiences and maybe these issues are just in KC...

Its gotta be KC cause I have none of those problems. It also may have to do with if your connection is using existing cable lines or not. My entire setup is wired with ethernet which IMHO is the way to go over coaxial. My upstairs TV is connected via about 50+ feet of ethernet wire with a switch in the middle and I have no issues with picture.

I play Xbox Live all the time and never have any lag at all. I actually hear more about lag from my freinds than I ever get.

Now wireless signal can be an issue I totally agree. For me though since they ran all the cables for me and I put my Node in the main TV area (which has my blu-ray player, xbox, ect) and connected everything else via a switch in the office I have no issues with that.

Our laptop works everywhere in the apartment. Hell our signal is so strong our little neighbor kid is using our Wi-fi to trade Pokemon on his DS Lite lol.....

Sucks thats how it is for you though, cause I will never switch back to cable again.

Toxis

I am a TWC customer but as I work in the install side of the business, and take all the calls from customers, I'm going off many people's experiences. Not my own other than two of my friends who are very tech savvy. One loves it and the other would pay to get rid of it.

EndersShadow

Toxis wrote: »

I am a TWC customer but as I work in the install side of the business, and take all the calls from customers, I'm going off many people's experiences. Not my own other than two of my friends who are very tech savvy. One loves it and the other would pay to get rid of it.

Gotcha, I am a tech guy myself (manage the IT for a office) and have loved the ease of use at my place. As we both know setups vary based on how far you are from the central office, wiring in your house, ect. As I am in an apartment there isnt too far to go from the NID to me and then its all new external wiring rather than old possibly bad wiring in the walls lol.

I liked Comcasts service to a point but their customer service line was horrible and I kept having DVR boxes going bad that left me with no service for days and that was why I paid to get rid of them lol.

Toxis

Agreed but with TWC. Hence why I have two tivos and won't give them up!

cheddar

Conradicles wrote: »

Cheddar, you seem like somebody who knows what they are talking about when it comes to video. When you say "Hold its own", do you mean the same quality or slightly worse?

The last thing I want to do is take a step down in picture quality.

I have had Dish, DirecTV and Charter Cable in the past. I like them all, with Charter being dead last. Charter has good picture quality at my house for some odd reason. My Mom's house Charter was terrible, no horrific.:eek:

My gold standard is blu-ray and over the air broadcast HD. Of course nothing really compares to blu-ray, but in fine object detail, color, etc., I've found watching sports and prime time with over the air HD is a pretty good second.

With comcast, because of the extra compression they use so they can send hundreds of channels over coax, the picture looks a little softer and you sometimes get digital artifacts popping up either because of the compression or the scaling involved. If you don't watch a lot of blu-ray, you might not even notice the lower quality of the cable signal most of the time, but it's obvious on the rare occasion when something like pixel blocks appear out of nowhere. I experience the same types of issues with uverse. Most of the time it looks clean, though. Although I haven't done a side by side, I can't say one has an obvious edge over the other. But uverse definitely looks like cable and not like something being 'streamed' over the internet. Some things like old school analog TV looks a little better to me passed through uverse because it's been pre-scaled and digitized rather than relying on your TVs internal scaler.

jmwest1970

FWIW, Uverse has been in my town for 2 years now, but they haven't installed in my neighborhood. I had been looking forward to it coming here, but now I don't really care if it does. I've had several friends that converted from our local, city owned, cable company to Uverse only to tell nightmares of AT&T service and quality. All but 1 person I've talked to has went back to cable. The problems they've described were limit on number of concurrent recordings on the whole house DVR, mysterious charges on their bill every month, quality of tv signal, and slow internet. I've seen the video quality problem and slow internet problems in person and found them to be the source of my distrust in Uverse. Not to mention it is "Ma Bell" selling the service. Maybe it's better elsewhere, but not here.

Gadabout

I have had Uverse since I bought the new house 3 years ago. Before that I was running Charter cable at the other house.

The good to very good:
- Customer service for Uverse is great. I have had to call them a couple times. They have 2 technician levels (1 & 2). If the level 1 person can't help you, they switch you to a level 2 person. The level 2 folks really know their stuff and have never failed to solve the issue right when I'm on the phone.

- The internet speed that I pay for is the speed I get. I was paying for 12Mbps service with Charter but usually got around 8 - 10 when I tested it. I'm running the same speed with Uverse and always get really close to 12Mbps when tested.

- I had a cable box die. They had an installer come out the next morning and drop off a new box and waited till I plugged everything in to make sure it was going to run OK.

- It is really rare to have any video drops or loss of service. It seems every know and then I do have to unplug the power from the DVR to reset it and then everything is back to normal again.

- The picture quality is as good or better than most I have seen. That being said there are occasions that I will get artifacting and video freezing. It is a rare occurrence and usually the issue lasts less than an hour (this is on HD channels, normal channels were fine)

- Kind of a nice feature to be able to program your DVR from the internet, should you forget to before you leave home.

The down side:
- The drop for my fiber is in my garage. There is a battery backup in the box and when the battery goes dead it lets out an ear piercing scream. The heat kills the batteries in Texas. The first replacement was free from APC, but I suspect I will have to pony up the $60 for the next one.

- For me I get the weather channel like you would get in a hotel, with no local weather on the 8's just a broadcast of the forecast for the nation. Uverse interactive does make up for this a bit as I can get the local weather for my town that way.

- Occasional artifacts and video freeze as mentioned above but it happens less than it did with Charter.

- I wish the DVR had more capacity. Mine has about 25 hours worth of HD content on it and the storage resources left are around 40%. I'm guessing it will hold just over 37 hours. I wish it held a bit more.

- No TIVO

Overall, I'm very satisfied with my Uverse experience. Also, before you sign up see if they have any rebates offered on their web page. When I had mine installed, I got $250 back in Visa gift cards and free installation.

Scott

Conradicles

Yes the $250 in Visa gift cards seems like a great deal. Thanks for all of the input folks!

Conradicles

Bump for more feedback if anybody would like to share. We are on the fence now...

tonyb

Everybody pretty much covered most pro's and con's but let me add to this as I have had both and have Uverse right now. Yes, on the bundled packages, or triple play, the pricing is only good for 6 months. When I signed up they told me a year, which is why I went with AT&T, 6 months later my bill shoots up 25 bucks. Picture quality between comcast and Uverse is about the same, but comcast has a better selection in the free on demand, more movies, more regular tv series and prior shows with some going back 2 seasons. ATT isn't even close in that regard. There are also some minor things with the remote thats aggravating, like after 5 minutes of watching a show, you can't just hit the back button to get the menu or prior channel, it takes 2 more button pushes. Comcast had a button specifically for the menu or you could hit the back button at anytime to get the prior channel. If comcast wasn't such ****, I wouldn't have changed. They have the best service imho, but the absolute worst customer service I've seen at just about any company I can think of. Uverse is starting to get on my nerves too with CS, try and talk to a human being takes 5 minutes of phone prompts and automated questions.

SCompRacer

We have had AT&T U-Verse TV, internet and phone package for nearly a year. Phone and internet have been fairly reliable. There were some issues in the beginning where they didn't install the correct gear to interface with the house alarm. I recall a couple of resets had to be performed for the internet (at the power supply in the basement that feeds the oustside box). We don't watch that much TV here, least I don't. When we do, aside from more than occasional artifacts and video freeze, we get missing channels. You are watching something than the screen goes Black. We have to change channels and go back, usually the channel returns. When this happens while recording, you can get an hour of darkness recorded.

They have changed the outside box, inside power supply, U-Verse box and installed new wiring from outside to the box inside and we still have problems. The repair guy that was here yesterday told me I should connect the video direct from their box to the TV, and just route the sound to the receiver. He claims he has fixed numerous problems like ours (an unofficial fix - phone help has never suggested this). Something about the U-Verse signal "doesn't like going through receivers." I have a Marantz SR7002, and he said it doesn't seem to matter what kind of receiver. So if this fix works, there goes the convenience of my receiver with multiple HDMI inputs. We will have to change the TV input now to watch DVD, Roku, etc.

I'm near ready to go back to DirecTV. Aside from [occasionally] losing service in bad thunder storms, and having to clean the dish in really heavy wet snows, we rarely had an issuse in the 19 years we were with them. Oh, and our subdivision is only 13 years old.

Conradicles

tonyb wrote: »

Uverse is starting to get on my nerves too with CS, try and talk to a human being takes 5 minutes of phone prompts and automated questions.

Yes I just experienced this a few minutes ago...wow...can I get a human!

mufsoman

I just entertained two individuals from ATT and discussed U-verse service. We now have the fiber optic lines in our subdivision. They offered a really good bundle deal for TV, internet and home phone with a 2 year price lock. So I am considering a potential change from Direct TV to U-verse. With the research I have done, it seems to be a general opinion that DTV has the best picture quality and service reliability. Can anyone share a comparison of the DTV vs. ATT fiber optic U-verse picture quality? I will not sacrifice picture quality. Apparently the fiber optic cable runs to hub, then coax is run from the hub to the house. Seems like that is a weak link in the chain? Should I make the change or stick with DTV which we have had for +8 years? Thanks

disneyjoe7

From what I seen picture is better or equal to U-Verse vs. Sat. I have a girl friend which had U-Verse and I had DTV.

Note also I install / service equipment of U-Verse service in an ATT central office.

Gadabout

Apparently the fiber optic cable runs to hub, then coax is run from the hub to the house. Seems like that is a weak link in the chain?

That's not how it works at my place, but mine was a new build 4 years ago, with fiber in place. Mine is Fiber to house. Then to a box, that splits out regular phone lines and also to cat 5. Cat 5 runs thorough the house to the router. You can run Coax from the wall to DVR, but the ATT guys told me they preferred working with Cat5 to the DVR.

I made the builder aware of this and he began asking buyers if they even wanted Coax wall plugs in the house. Some choose the Coax option, mainly for Satellite customers. I personally have both.

Not sure what the DTV has but my DVR only supports 1080i. They might have new ones now but I don't think so.

Scott

EndersShadow

Uverse right now is a max of 720p for signal :sad:. Even if the broadcast (local shows) is 1080p you only get the show in 720p. I am waiting for them to fix this.

Personally starting to think Netflix is the way to go over cable. Amazon on Demand can fill in any shows we cant get on Netflix as well as movies so it replaces On Demand...

Gadabout

I forgot to mention on of the best things about Uverse, has nothing to do with picture quality. It's the only company that I have had internet service with that I have actually gotten the advertised speed. I have a 12M account and every time I have checked the speed it's right at that speed.

That being said, there is talk of them implementing data transfer limits. So far I haven't seen this enacted on my account. If I had a family where everyone was streaming something different and playing online games, I might be leery of switching. ( Engadget Article )

Scott