U-verse

hdonzis · 04-11-07, 11:34 AM

I just went to a U-verse party last night, and I have to say that the future of video in the home does NOT look bright! As far as actual picture quality and such, yes, it is a very good technology. But, it is the same old story of being stuck with proprietary technology that only does what it does and doesn't give you any other choice. If there is an IR blaster code that will operate the settop box, then maybe using it with a Replay would be reasonable (it has composite outputs).

The following information is what I was told at the party, so it could certainly be inaccurate. This party was at an AT&T employee's house, so there were about 8 different AT&T people there with varying levels of knowledge...

Being all digital (VDSL), it can run up to 4 streams into your house, although only 1 can be an HD stream (I don't know if you can have 3 regular streams while having an HD stream). The DVR can take all 4 streams, so it can be recording 4 shows at once. But, you can have up to 6 settop boxes, which means that if all the settop boxes are doing something, 2 of them have to be either watching a common stream or watching a recorded show. The Residential Gateway only supports 4 Ethernet connections although I don't know what the advantage of using the Ethernet connection over the coax connection (HPNA) is. The normal installation would be to use the coax connection for all the settop boxes. The DVR won't be available until around December and they are blaming Microsoft for that. They have posponed the release of running slave settop boxes off the DVR settop box, which makes viewing recorded shows in other rooms impossible currently (or, at least when the DVR settop box is released). Again, they are blaming this on Microsoft.

It is a Motorola settop box and has the usual DVR software. The channel guide was quite unresponsive, especially when scrolling. They like to compare everything to Time Warner's (in my area) settop boxes, but my Time Warner channel guide is extremely responsive and can scroll quite quickly if I hold down the cursor key. With the U-verse settop box, it would pause quite often, and then it would jump a whole bunch and end up past where I wanted to go (kind of like the FF/REW problem with many recording devices). I tried programming shows to record, and that was an awful experience! Show search brings up a rediculous key entry menu, but you can use the number pad on the remote to enter text, much like you can on your cell phone and such. The problem was that the box was so unresponsive that you couldn't usually get the character that you wanted by using the number pad. If you wanted to get a 'C' such that you pressed the '2' key three times quickly, if the box paused after it received the first key press, you ended up with an 'A' followed by a 'B'. I tried to enter something as simple as "24", but it required pressing the 2 key 4 times followed by the 4 key pressed 4 times. I was able to get the '2' to come out OK, but then it paused when I tried getting the '4' to come out and ended up with 2 letters. After I used the menu to backspace the two letters, I found that I could no longer use the number pad any longer to enter any more characters and had to switch to using the menu. The menu has a separate menu for entering numberics and then you have to go back to the alpha menu to finish up. There wasn't any "Done" key, and I went into "Options" to start the search. The menu stayed on the screen, so I wasn't sure that anything was happening, but it said "Searching for shows" on the side. When it finally brought up matching shows, it had lots of shows with "24" in them. I selected the show "24" and it started showing the scheduled airings. Only the shows for the current day had show titles and descriptions. The shows airing tomorrow and subsequent days did not have titles nor descriptions. The guy doing the demonstration did not even know that you could press the record key twice to create a repeat recording, but one of the other employees had found it by accident. Your choices are quite limited on how to schedule recordings (typical DVR scheduling). It holds 120 hours of normal programming (I assume that means a 120GB hard drive), and they didn't know how much it could hold of HD recordings. They said that you could only watch one HD recording at a time, but since they don't know much about the slave settop boxes, I'm not sure if they were confused about the 1 HD stream into the house limitation or not.

Anyway, I sure am going to miss the freedom of being able to choose DVR manufactures! Unfortunately, with proprietary video feeds (satellite, digital cable, U-verse, etc.) you are stuck with one DVR choice. You all already know the story about not being able to network DVRs and such. Many of the DVRs are going to support slave settop boxes off their DVR settop box, but that is kind of hit or miss (the Time Warner DVR does not support slaves nor networking). It's hard for me to believe that we have legislated so hard for video freedom (the ability to use TV features without the cable company taking them away) and now we are back to technologies that while you have a choice of your video provider, you have no choice in how it works with your TV...

Henry

gweempose · 04-11-07, 02:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hdonzis

I sure am going to miss the freedom of being able to choose DVR manufactures! Unfortunately, with proprietary video feeds (satellite, digital cable, U-verse, etc.) you are stuck with one DVR choice.

Isn't this precisely the kind of monopoly that CableCards were supposed to prevent?

hdonzis · 04-11-07, 03:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gweempose

Isn't this precisely the kind of monopoly that CableCards were supposed to prevent?

Yeah, that was all fine and dandy when the cable company was the only provider of video services and they could legislate making an interface that standardized alllowing to make CableCards. But, with U-verse, it is an entirely different technology that probably wouldn't even easily connect to the TV such that something such as a CableCard could be use.

The other problem with the CableCard was that it was only legislated that you had to be able to view the video content. I don't know exactly why it was a problem, but at least in San Antonio's Time Warner Cable, you couldn't get the channel guide through the CableCard and you couldn't get some of the other features of the settop box. That wasn't part of the requirement, so they weren't breaking any laws. There wasn't anything that said you had to get all of the provider's features provided by the settop box through the CableCard, only the video content.

Anyway, it seems like CableCards are going the way of the dinosaurs, so that point is probably moot anyways. To me, it was the idea of the legislation that should live on. It is a shame that after all those years of complaining that the cable company took away the features of modern TVs and finally getting some legislation passed, that now we have moved into an entirely different technology and what it being done about it...

Henry

rf75 · 04-11-07, 04:08 PM

How's your internet speed? maybe IPTV will be the answer.

hdonzis · 04-11-07, 05:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rf75

How's your internet speed? maybe IPTV will be the answer.

Thanks! I was only commenting on my findings of U-verse. I wasn't really looking for anything. But, that might be good to know for the future...

Henry

jburnham · 04-11-07, 09:56 PM

I had Uverse for exactly one month. Two ReplayTVs weren't enough for us and I foolishly thought it was time to leap to the next technology.

I love the idea of Uverse and the feature set - particularly the features that are "coming soon". My favorites:
SD picture quality
4 channel DVR
whole home DVR (coming)
multiple HD streams (coming)

I can tolerate:
DSL speeds
early adopter pain - failed hardware and delayed features

I can't live with:
Constant hiccups when watching shows - SD or HD
Slow, nonresponsive DVR
connection failures

I hooked up my cable modem and ReplayTV a couple of days ago. The picture quality is inferior, but at least I can watch the entire show without interuptions. The kids are so happy to have ReplayTV back that they've spent the afternoon on the sofa (probably not such a good thing). I'll keep an eye on the UVerse forums and maybe I'll try it again next year.

dvasco · 11-14-07, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jburnham

I had Uverse for exactly one month. Two ReplayTVs weren't enough for us and I foolishly thought it was time to leap to the next technology.

I love the idea of Uverse and the feature set - particularly the features that are "coming soon". My favorites:
SD picture quality
4 channel DVR
whole home DVR (coming)
multiple HD streams (coming)

I can tolerate:
DSL speeds
early adopter pain - failed hardware and delayed features

I can't live with:
Constant hiccups when watching shows - SD or HD
Slow, nonresponsive DVR
connection failures

I hooked up my cable modem and ReplayTV a couple of days ago. The picture quality is inferior, but at least I can watch the entire show without interuptions. The kids are so happy to have ReplayTV back that they've spent the afternoon on the sofa (probably not such a good thing). I'll keep an eye on the UVerse forums and maybe I'll try it again next year.

The whole home DVR is a must. Can the current Uverse DVR recordings be organized the the way the 5xxx units can organize them?

icecow · 11-14-07, 04:13 PM

atANDt has devolved versatile fiber optic bandwidth down to proprietory multicast streams of TV. So is it safe to assume I won't be able to watch my favorite webisodes using my UVERSE STB even though one would think that was the point of the multicast structure?

Also, if I start a sentence with 'at&t' do I capitalize the a?

dvasco · 11-14-07, 04:37 PM

It's AT&T when the globe is not next to its name. It's at&t when there is a globe.

04-11-07, 11:34 AM	#1 \| Link	<a href='http://rev.avsforum.com/phpAdsNew/adclick.php?n=a4ac4393' target='_blank'><img src='http://rev.avsforum.com/phpAdsNew/adview.php?what=zone:30&n=a4ac4393' border='0' alt=''></a>
hdonzis Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: San Antonio, TX Posts: 1,355	U-verse I just went to a U-verse party last night, and I have to say that the future of video in the home does NOT look bright! As far as actual picture quality and such, yes, it is a very good technology. But, it is the same old story of being stuck with proprietary technology that only does what it does and doesn't give you any other choice. If there is an IR blaster code that will operate the settop box, then maybe using it with a Replay would be reasonable (it has composite outputs). The following information is what I was told at the party, so it could certainly be inaccurate. This party was at an AT&T employee's house, so there were about 8 different AT&T people there with varying levels of knowledge... Being all digital (VDSL), it can run up to 4 streams into your house, although only 1 can be an HD stream (I don't know if you can have 3 regular streams while having an HD stream). The DVR can take all 4 streams, so it can be recording 4 shows at once. But, you can have up to 6 settop boxes, which means that if all the settop boxes are doing something, 2 of them have to be either watching a common stream or watching a recorded show. The Residential Gateway only supports 4 Ethernet connections although I don't know what the advantage of using the Ethernet connection over the coax connection (HPNA) is. The normal installation would be to use the coax connection for all the settop boxes. The DVR won't be available until around December and they are blaming Microsoft for that. They have posponed the release of running slave settop boxes off the DVR settop box, which makes viewing recorded shows in other rooms impossible currently (or, at least when the DVR settop box is released). Again, they are blaming this on Microsoft. It is a Motorola settop box and has the usual DVR software. The channel guide was quite unresponsive, especially when scrolling. They like to compare everything to Time Warner's (in my area) settop boxes, but my Time Warner channel guide is extremely responsive and can scroll quite quickly if I hold down the cursor key. With the U-verse settop box, it would pause quite often, and then it would jump a whole bunch and end up past where I wanted to go (kind of like the FF/REW problem with many recording devices). I tried programming shows to record, and that was an awful experience! Show search brings up a rediculous key entry menu, but you can use the number pad on the remote to enter text, much like you can on your cell phone and such. The problem was that the box was so unresponsive that you couldn't usually get the character that you wanted by using the number pad. If you wanted to get a 'C' such that you pressed the '2' key three times quickly, if the box paused after it received the first key press, you ended up with an 'A' followed by a 'B'. I tried to enter something as simple as "24", but it required pressing the 2 key 4 times followed by the 4 key pressed 4 times. I was able to get the '2' to come out OK, but then it paused when I tried getting the '4' to come out and ended up with 2 letters. After I used the menu to backspace the two letters, I found that I could no longer use the number pad any longer to enter any more characters and had to switch to using the menu. The menu has a separate menu for entering numberics and then you have to go back to the alpha menu to finish up. There wasn't any "Done" key, and I went into "Options" to start the search. The menu stayed on the screen, so I wasn't sure that anything was happening, but it said "Searching for shows" on the side. When it finally brought up matching shows, it had lots of shows with "24" in them. I selected the show "24" and it started showing the scheduled airings. Only the shows for the current day had show titles and descriptions. The shows airing tomorrow and subsequent days did not have titles nor descriptions. The guy doing the demonstration did not even know that you could press the record key twice to create a repeat recording, but one of the other employees had found it by accident. Your choices are quite limited on how to schedule recordings (typical DVR scheduling). It holds 120 hours of normal programming (I assume that means a 120GB hard drive), and they didn't know how much it could hold of HD recordings. They said that you could only watch one HD recording at a time, but since they don't know much about the slave settop boxes, I'm not sure if they were confused about the 1 HD stream into the house limitation or not. Anyway, I sure am going to miss the freedom of being able to choose DVR manufactures! Unfortunately, with proprietary video feeds (satellite, digital cable, U-verse, etc.) you are stuck with one DVR choice. You all already know the story about not being able to network DVRs and such. Many of the DVRs are going to support slave settop boxes off their DVR settop box, but that is kind of hit or miss (the Time Warner DVR does not support slaves nor networking). It's hard for me to believe that we have legislated so hard for video freedom (the ability to use TV features without the cable company taking them away) and now we are back to technologies that while you have a choice of your video provider, you have no choice in how it works with your TV... Henry

04-11-07, 04:08 PM	#4 \| Link
rf75 DNRC member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: WNY Posts: 148	How's your internet speed? maybe IPTV will be the answer. __________________ Defend equal access for all to the Internet - http://www.savetheinternet.com

11-14-07, 04:13 PM	#8 \| Link
icecow The Other Oprah Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Redlands, California Posts: 7,831	atANDt has devolved versatile fiber optic bandwidth down to proprietory multicast streams of TV. So is it safe to assume I won't be able to watch my favorite webisodes using my UVERSE STB even though one would think that was the point of the multicast structure? Also, if I start a sentence with 'at&t' do I capitalize the a? __________________ I'll take Deletable Downloads for $400. Thank you God, that my enemies are attacking me.

11-14-07, 04:37 PM	#9 \| Link
dvasco Advanced Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 589	It's AT&T when the globe is not next to its name. It's at&t when there is a globe. __________________ the www.gbpvr.com advocate

04-11-07, 09:56 PM	#6 \| Link
jburnham New Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Posts: 8	I had Uverse for exactly one month. Two ReplayTVs weren't enough for us and I foolishly thought it was time to leap to the next technology. I love the idea of Uverse and the feature set - particularly the features that are "coming soon". My favorites: SD picture quality 4 channel DVR whole home DVR (coming) multiple HD streams (coming) I can tolerate: DSL speeds early adopter pain - failed hardware and delayed features I can't live with: Constant hiccups when watching shows - SD or HD Slow, nonresponsive DVR connection failures I hooked up my cable modem and ReplayTV a couple of days ago. The picture quality is inferior, but at least I can watch the entire show without interuptions. The kids are so happy to have ReplayTV back that they've spent the afternoon on the sofa (probably not such a good thing). I'll keep an eye on the UVerse forums and maybe I'll try it again next year.