AT&T Universe -- anyone tried it?

[Morat20]

My cable company is Comcast. Also known as "We cannot deliver a reliable signal free of pixelation, our DVR's are complete crap -- from the UI to the parts -- and you'll replace our DVR's or boxes at least twice a year, and we're not actually going to come out there and do it for you. We're busy sucking too fucking much".

Needless to say, I've had enough of THEM. I thought about the other options (Various satellite stuff -- no other cable choices), but since I'm using AT&T's DSL service at the moment (I've never had problems with them and never really needed to switch to cable), I'm thinking of trying their AT&T universe setup.

My in-laws are pretty fond of it, and so's my sister in law -- but they've only had it a few weeks. Anyone got experience with this? I've ordered the U200 -- won't get installed until almost Christmas, there's a bit of a backlog -- and bundled it with their Elite internet service (3 to 6 down, 1.5 or so down) and am trying to add their Voice (it's amusing as shit to me that AT&T is now offering, effectively VOIP) -- a bit more pricey than the cable "all in one" solution, but fuck Comcast. I'd rather pay 15% more for something that goddamn WORKS. Picking up 3 boxes (living room, master bedroom, kiddo's bedroom).

So anyone had experience with it? The install process? The "ease of use" factor? UI? DVR work well? Can you lock off boxes, so as to say -- keep my kiddo from streaming the Playboy channel to his room? :) How's the internet service? Can I interface it with my home wireless network, or do I have to subordinate my network to their universe wireless setup? Are there any interference problems?

Or am I the only one desperate enough to try it? :)

[Trippy]

If multiple simultaneous channels of HDTV is what you are after U-verse sucks major donkey balls cause it only has enough bandwidth to fit one HD channel at a time. There's also rumblings about how VDSL (which U-verse uses) has slightly higher latencies on the Internet side of things compared to regular ADSL. Whether or not the extra latency actually matters, I couldn't tell you. I stopped looking at it when I saw it could only handle a single HD program at a time. I needed to be able to record at least 3 HD channels, preferably 4 simultaneously and Comcast Digital Cable allows me to do that (after a whole lot of struggle).

Edit: simultaneous channels, duh

[Morat20]

I currently have zero HDTV's (although that number will zoom up to ONE sometime in the spring, I think) so that's not a problem. I don't think slightly higher latencies are a problem, although it's good to know. I didn't actually check how they were squeezing so much bandwidth in -- I'll have to look up VDSL.

[Segoris]

I wonder if this depending on location (most likely), because where I am AT&T is a bit worse. Images on AT&T are interrupted more and have just been nothing spectacular, making Comcast look better then they really are. This is comparing my usage of Comcast on a 20" Sony WEGA (about 5 years old now, not that great of a TV) versus my friend's AT&T on his huge ass Flat Panel tv (I don't know the size, but definately 42" or larger).

And you said you were looking at other options, again location variance being my best guess, DirecTv = pure shit. Both my parents and another friend have it and I don't know how the hell they can deal with it.

For comparison, I'm in the suburban Chicago market. It may be completely different by you

[Nerf]

We have UVerse in Arlington, Tx and it's been great so far.  We previously had time warner cable until it went out one day and TWC said they could come fix it..in 3 weeks.  U-Verse install crews were out the next day, and any time we've had a problem they've been out in a day or two at most to fix it.
The only issue we had was some freezing and sputtering that was caused by an old bad cable line between us and the hub or somesuch, and they came out and replaced in a few days once the problem was identified.
Great service, great quality thus far.

[Morat20]

We have UVerse in Arlington, Tx and it's been great so far.  We previously had time warner cable until it went out one day and TWC said they could come fix it..in 3 weeks.  U-Verse install crews were out the next day, and any time we've had a problem they've been out in a day or two at most to fix it.
The only issue we had was some freezing and sputtering that was caused by an old bad cable line between us and the hub or somesuch, and they came out and replaced in a few days once the problem was identified.
Great service, great quality thus far.

Apparently Comcast has pissed off much of Houston -- the earliest install date was December 23rd for Universe. I set it up -- I'll let people know how it goes. Right now, they can't be any worse tham Comcast -- and if locality is an issue, my in-laws and sister-in-law are within 5 miles of me, so I should get the same level of service.

I'm most worried about my home network. I have NO idea how this dang thing works, and it replaces my internet service as well, so I'm mostly concerned about how interference (it runs wirelessly, right?) with my home wireless and getting their internet service to play nice with my router (it's generally such a hassle to get tech support to bypass whatever dumbass installer they have and just give me the settings I need).

[Venkman]

I'm no tech, but usually I let them come install the modem hardware and then I take care of the rest, which usually just means modem to router and then to the rest of the house (they bring the hub, I bring the network sorta thing). I've never needed any sort of special configurations, whether on ADSL or on Cable Modem (I've had DSL twice and Cable thrice, in different locations). VDSL may be different but I can't imagine it being too different. A different wi-fi channel should fix it if some stuff is wireless.

[Jeff Kelly]

As to the VoIP thing. All of the major telecom companies worldwide route their voice traffic via IP and have done so for tghe past years. The large telecom backbone networks are right now IP only. It's only the lines to the customers that haven't made the switch yet.

[Nerf]

The Uverse modem is also a wireless router+wired router as well, so you might not even need to use your current hardware.

When they installed it here they set every computer in the house up and made sure they were online before they left.

[Hawkbit]

We switched to Uverse about six months ago when a door-to-door salesman came out to tell us about it.  We were pretty unhappy... no, I was at the end of my fucking rope with Time Warner's shitty service. 

Best move we've made in 10years.  Clean UI, clean signal.  Fast.  Lots of channels.  Only $10 extra per month to go HD.

The signal's a little different than normal cable.  First, the line comes in from the street and goes to the router/modem.  From there the signal gets routed to all TVs and PCs.  It's got 4 rj45s and it's wireless (very secure). 

My only single bitch about it is that we get spikes and brown-outs almost daily here.  Which means the router goes out, and the TVs take  5 minutes to come back up.  I just went out and put the router on a UPS.  Fixed.  Now it's perfect. 

[Morat20]

The Uverse modem is also a wireless router+wired router as well, so you might not even need to use your current hardware.

When they installed it here they set every computer in the house up and made sure they were online before they left.

Problem is I've got a wireless router (which yes, is secured. Morons and their unsecured networks. I had to draw pictures of neighbors downloading kiddie porn off my parents unsecured router before they decided to man up and learn to find the wireless key when they needed to connect a new device) -- which connects two PCs (via wires -- no wireless cards), my 360 (typing in a wireless key is a PITA using the controller, I might add) and my wife's laptop.

I'm sort of hoping I can be really lazy and piggyback my existing network off their hub, rather than try to run wires to all my PC's and reconfigure the 360 and the laptop. Mostly, I suppose, because the way I run the ethernet cables just isn't going to work unless I get them to place the U-verse hub/router on my desk, which takes a 20 foot phone line. (My house is not exactly cable friendly).

I've never actually tried it, but I'm pretty sure I can't piggyback my router onto their router.

[Trippy]

I've never actually tried it, but I'm pretty sure I can't piggyback my router onto their router.

If both devices are really routers, you can. You'll just have two local subnets. I do it this way at my parent's place (wireless router is connected to wired-only DSL router).

[Lantyssa]

I did it in my apartment for a while when we needed a line to the back room.  Actually, doing it for my Vonage box now that I think about it, not that I have anything on it at the moment.

The most important thing is to give the two networks different subnets.  Even if the routers can figure things out (and don't trust they will), troubleshooting gets to be a pain.

[Cheddar]

Necro!

Does Uverse still only support 1 HD channel at a time?

[Trippy]

Depends on the service level/profile:

http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB401042&cv=813#fbid=AZcyLYlTZig

[MahrinSkel]

Necro!

Does Uverse still only support 1 HD channel at a time?

I think it supports recording on 4 HD or SD channels simultaneously right now, and you can watch real time SD on any number you have set-tops for over and above that (no more than 4 HD channels being recorded or watched real time in the whole house, but you can always watch recorded shows that are spooled).  Bandwidth is so-so (about 12MBd, 1.5 MB/sec), and there seems to be about 40-60ms of added latency (but good packet delivery).  Not fantastic for gaming, but not bad enough to be a major factor.

When my hub went out they sent a tech out to diagnose and replace it the next day, free.  Lost the recorded shows but the series recordings list was preserved.

--Dave

[Cheddar]

Huh.  Was leaning to this over Time Warner, guess I need to do more research.

Not that we have crazy needs.  We downsized to 3 TV's (my room, mom's room, and family room) so 4 is not necessarily a game breaker.  I do like the idea of wireless set top boxes.

Edit.  Huh.  Their requirements in link above are convulated.  Really expected more from them.

[Evildrider]

I dunno how good it is, but my cousin works for AT&T and she gets free U-verse.  She has Comcast now.   

[Chimpy]

My mom has U-Verse. The TV quality and the interface on the set top box are very good (for one tv) but the internet is meh and it is expensive.

The VDSL implementation AT&T uses has a max combined upstream and downstream speed of roughly 35 Mb/s which is split between TV (which uses like 20) and the internet. They may have upgraded their DSLAMs and CPEs to handle higher throughput since I last read their specs since U-Verse is not available in my neighborhood (and they are expensive).

[Morat20]

I dunno how good it is, but my cousin works for AT&T and she gets free U-verse.  She has Comcast now.   

I've been pretty happy with it. I have to perform a manual reboot of the system every few weeks (unplug the UPS and router, wait a minute, plug it back in) because it'll end up stale DNS information or something that'll kill the internet, but that's apparently because I've got some weird set-up due to being on the edge of their service area.

Admittedly, I had Comcast before and my experience with comcast was such that, well, ATT would have to commit multiple actual crimes to make me consider switching. (As my choice remains fucking Comcast).

I think my only real bitch lately is my new TV is STILL not hooked to a cable box because I've not yet gotten them to replace the standard box with a HD one, because when I called to do so they kept trying to upsell me services until I got too pissed off and just hung up. It's a smart TV and frankly, other than HBO for Game of Thrones, we don't really watch cable.

[Chimpy]

If your smart TV has an HBOGo app you don't even need to hook up to the cable box to watch Game of Thrones (with about a 5 minute delay versus airtime).

[Yegolev]

Necro!

Does Uverse still only support 1 HD channel at a time?

I'm supposed to get two to watch and four to record, and I usually do.  My problems with ATT are to do with the unstable equipment, but really this is the case with pretty much any retail equipment as far as I can tell.  It mostly works without hitches, though.

Comcast's crimes against me are numerous.  ATT has not yet achieved that level of evil.

My disclaimer is that I had a new cable run from the neighborhood box, which I can see from my house.

[Morat20]

If your smart TV has an HBOGo app you don't even need to hook up to the cable box to watch Game of Thrones (with about a 5 minute delay versus airtime).

I know. I'm thinking about just not getting the box. Actually, I'm thinking of hacking back the cable package I have pretty heavily too.

[Cheddar]

Gonna try uverse.  Time warner is alternative, but fios spoiled us.

And damn.  Now I get angst at lack of fios.  :(

[Lantyssa]

Can't you pull some strings to get it into your new neighborhood?

[Logain]

Who even has cable anymore? North Dallas u-verse is absolutely shittastic. Horrible prices, slow speeds, unresponsive techs, blatantly dishonest salespeople. AT&T has lost me as a customer for life. Switched to time warner and have been very satisfied. But again, this is in north Dallas.

[Merusk]

Who even has cable anymore?

People 34 and up who aren't super techy and those under who want live sports.

"Cut the cord," you say? Yeah, it's too much of a hassle for 90% of users who can't even bother to learn how to properly maintain a car, and those are simple comparatively.

It's changing, for certain, but that's enough of a market for the cable companies to have enough dollars for some really serious anti-competitive lobbying in the next 10 years.  Yes by that statement I am saying you've only seen the tip of the Big Cable dick getting ready to fuck you, no matter how sore you are right now.

[Cheddar]

Cable cutting has dramatically slowed down and even reversed.  Not going to quote numbers, but there was an "oh shit" moment around 2012 with a sigh of relief late last year.

The future is definitely a la carte with bundle options.  Internet is king now, but still money in direct content.

[Merusk]

I suspected as much when I stopped seeing all the stories and fanfare and nonsense from the internet about it.  All I had was that and anecdotes from people who I know that tried and decided it wasn't worth the hassle.  Good to have someone 'on the inside' confirm my suspicions.

As I said above it's a lot of fiddling for folks who still regard computers as magic boxes.  Even the millennial have this hurdle and they grew up with the things rather than adopting them in the late teens/ early 20s like the X's.  Plus, once you have a family and obligations along with a job it becomes like building your own PC.  "I could spend hours fucking with this, or I could spend less than a day's wage in difference to say, 'here you go, provide me with the service.'"

[Logain]

I haven't watched cable television in several years now. I'm 28 though.

[shiznitz]

How do you watch live sports?

[Yegolev]

Drunk at a bar, I'll guess.

[Teleku]

Bingo.

[Logain]

Yeah, bar or the bowling alley.

[Rendakor]

I haven't watched cable television in several years now.

Same here.

How do you watch live sports?

I go to a sports bar for the occasional UFC, but am otherwise entirely disinterested in sports.