AT&T is promoting their U-verse in my area and offering up to$300 of incentives for me to switch from DirectTV to theirs.

Questions about U-verse:

1. Is it true that their fibre do NOT come direct to my house but to the "hub" at the street corner and then from that hub copper to my house?
2. If copper to my house, how do they split the phone-tv-internet? An all in one modem?
3. If an all in one modem, how does the modem connect to the TV? cat5 or coaxial? or either one?
4. For Internet, what is the speed?
5. For HDTV, how does the quality measure up to Cable or Sat?

Thanks for helping.

I just switched from Comcast to Uverse and so far I'm very pleased with the picture quality. My HD channels have quadrupled from what I had and I think overall the picture quality is much improved and little more consistent from channel to channel. There are still some bugs like the occasional audio dropouts, but it's not like I didn't see this with my Comcast service.

Questions about U-verse:

Is it true that their fibre do NOT come direct to my house but to the "hub" at the street corner and then from that hub copper to my house?Yes, they run fiber into your neighborhood, and use existing twisted pair (telephone lines) into the residence.

....how does the modem connect to the TV? cat5 or coaxial? or either one?HDMI or component video is used from the STB to HDTV. Either coax or Cat5 can be used for connection from the modem to STB's, Cat5 has been preferred.

For Internet, what is the speed?They have different tiers, 1.5 Mbps to 18 Mbps, area dependent.

For HDTV, how does the quality measure up to Cable or Sat?Not as good as DBS, typically not as good as cable (depending on location). See the HDTV Locals Forum for details on cable in your area.

IIRC there is a 2HD and 2SD limit ,and having the TV on will slow down your internet.

Search on some other U-verse threads, most of the ones I've seen criticize it's PQ.

The biggest issue (for my family) is you can only get 2 HD signals at one time. So, if I want to watch an HD broadcast and record one, someone in the other room cannot watch ANY HD programming (recorded or live). I've had cable, switched to DISH, switched to UVerse, and with the audio dropouts on all 5.1 broadcasts and with the limited bandwidth, I've switched back to satellite. NOTE: if you're really interested in broadcast quality, UVerse does some significant compression of it's bandwidth, resulting in serious black and white crush in it's signal.

UVerse does some significant compression of it's bandwidth, resulting in serious black and white crush in it's signal.

This has nothing to do with their compression. You're probably connecting the STB to your TV through HDMI. There is a box in the Uverse boxes which expand the levels to 0-255 instead of keeping at 16-235 for HDMI.

Either use the component cables or somehow, set your TV to use the full range for HDMI and not video range.

...um,no - not the problem. Might work in your area, but not in NC. I've been doing calibrations for a few years, and know a little about 0-255 and 16-235 problems - this is not it. FWIW, others see the same problem. Do a search on 'Uverse black crush'.

we were half the allowable distance away from the main box on the street, and the picture quality is way better than comcast. but the picture used to cut out for like 5 sec at a time at least once a day. had the tech walk me through some possible issues but nothing fixed it so we canceled.
apartment was pre-wired for uverse
really miss dish network :(

Yes, they run fiber into your neighborhood, and use existing twisted pair (telephone lines) into the residence.



Not for everyone, I actually got fttp, but I didn't have a phone line coming to the house before

Yes, they run fiber into your neighborhood, and use existing twisted pair (telephone lines) into the residence.



Not for everyone, I actually got fttp, but I didn't have a phone line coming to the house beforeIs your area new construction?

IIRC BellSouth had some FTTP areas but they were limited to 1.5Mbps.