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AT&T U-verse HDTV

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#1 ·
U-verse TV, Internet & Voice ...

Check AT&T U-verse Availability


AT&T U-verse Keeps Getting Better With Service Expansion, More Upgrades and Apps


248,000 net gain in AT&T U-verse TV subscribers during Q4 reach 2.1 million in service, up more than 1 million in 2009, with continued high broadband and voice attach rates. Overall AT&T Registers 2.7 Million Net Customer Additions in Q4 2009 Posts $30.9 billion in revenues for the period. http://news.softpedia.com/news/AT-T-...9-133418.shtml


March 30th, 2010 AT&T U-verse High Speed Internet in All U-verse TV Markets Brings 24Mbps download speeds
http://news.softpedia.com/news/AT-T-...s-138774.shtml


The evolution of AT&T U-verseSM TV continued in the second quarter of 2009 as we introduced several service enhancements and interactive applications to customers at no extra cost. We began the rollout of our exclusive new Total Home DVR functionality that allows customers to schedule and delete recordings from any U-verse receiver in the home. And we launched the Mobile Remote Access App for iPhone, giving customers another easy way to remotely schedule DVR recordings. U-verse Internet Max customers received a 20 percent downstream speed increase for free. As AT&T U-verse builds on its history of ongoing upgrades for our customers, we continue to see customer growth and demand across our triple-play of services. Below is a recap on our AT&T U-verse growth and highlights from the second quarter. Update 2Q09 http://www.att.com/Common/merger/fil...rse_Update.pdf


DEPLOYMENT: Continued Network and Service Expansion
U-verse TV available in 105 markets (MSAs) across 19 states, with launches in Champaign-Springfield-Decatur and Corpus Christi and regular expansions in existing markets. U-verse Voice available in 93 markets, with launches in West Palm Beach, Orlando and Raleigh-Durham. More than 19 million living units passed by our advanced fiber network, with ongoing expansion.


Launched in order of introduction: June 2006 to June 2007


1. San Antonio, Texas

2. Houston, Texas

3. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif.

4. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.

5. Hartford, Conn.

6. New Haven, Conn.

7. Stamford, Conn.

8. Indianapolis, Ind.

9. Muncie, Ind.

10. Bloomington, Ind.

11. Anderson, Ind.

12. Milwaukee, Wis.

13. Racine, Wis.

14. Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas

15. Kansas City, Kan.

16. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, Calif.

17. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif.

18. Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, Calif.

19. Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich.

20. Ann Arbor, Mich.

21. San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, Calif.

22. Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, Ohio

23. Akron, Ohio


SOURCE: AT&T


Check AT&T U-verse Availability http://localization.att.com/loc/cont...p/home/explore

___________________________________________________________


Motorola Receiver/DVR VIP 1200 Series Installation Manual
http://www.att.com/support_media/ima...0-receiver.pdf


___________________________________________________________


AT&T: Lightspeed Could Dim Cable

By Karen Brown 1/31/2006 10:53:00 PM


AT&T Inc. continues to glow about its Project Lightspeed fiber-to-the-home initiative, this time telling a group of analysts at a New York conference Tuesday that the technology will force cable operators to pony up as much as $20 billion in plant upgrades to keep pace.


John Stankey, AT&T's senior executive vice president and chief technology officer, told analysts at the daylong conference that Project Lightspeed is on track to expand from its San Antonio controlled deployment to include several new markets starting this summer. AT&T is on track to roll out the Lightspeed-powered U-verse video service in 20 markets by year's end, Stankey added.


Based on the network build so far, AT&T is estimating that it will be able to offer big bandwidth to Lightspeed subscribers.


We've got the speed we need to deliver IP-based [Internet protocol] services, Stankey said. We've seen speeds of 25 megabits per second and more at shorter loop lengths.


Starting in late 2007, it can also pair bonding and compression technology to deliver even more bandwidth, Stankey added. In contrast, he said, cable operators will face a more constrained cable plant and limits to how much they can increase bandwidth using higher quadrature-amplitude-modulation transmission schemes.


In my opinion, cable needs to respond to our Lightspeed offering through capital expenditures. At the low end, that could total $20 billion, he told the analysts.


Lightspeed won't come cheap for AT&T, however. The company expects to spend $1.4 billion this year, $1.7 billion in 2007 and $1.3 billion in 2008 for Lightspeed construction. That will expand Lightspeed from 3 million homes passed now to 9 million in 2007 and 18 million by 2008.


Replacing copper with fiber links leading to the customer premises could save the telco as much as $700 million in annual operational costs by 2011, Stankey said. It can also ramp up average revenue per user to at least $60 -- the average now for its Dish Network direct-broadcast satellite customers -- and it will be able to keep all of that revenue.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/...=Breaking+News
 
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#3,106 ·
Add me to the Great PQ on Uverse club. I was OTA exclusively until last month. (52" Samsung)

Sports have no artifacts or pixelation that I can see. Sun night football had some audio level problems (surging?) last night but the PQ was like OTA. I am only 3 houses from the VRAD and I'm wondering if that makes a difference. During the install the tech found a potential problem in my house and one in the neighbor's yard. Subsequently they found another problem between me and the VRAD. So perhaps the troubleshooting diligence is better some places than others. Also I have no audio dropout issue. My only real complaint is the remote seems to have about a 2.5ft range. We're on the second remote too. Probably have to change the box.
 
#3,107 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by feathermerchant /forum/post/0


Add me to the Great PQ on Uverse club. I was OTA exclusively until last month. (52" Samsung)

Sports have no artifacts or pixelation that I can see.

Same here. Prepare to be met with some, uh, skepticism, for having an obviously untrained or noobie eye for HD. Or you work for AT&T or are a fanboi. You must be one of the above. Take your pick. ;-)
 
#3,109 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by Darth Indy
YES! It has been bugging the crap out of me. It still does it. It only happens on ESPN HD. Doesn't do it on any other channel or any other ESPN HD channel either .
OMG! I thought it was just something with my setup. It's good to see I'm not alone on this issue. I asked the tech that came over today and he hadn't heard of anyone having this problem.
 
#3,110 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by dabrooks /forum/post/19680455


Same here. Prepare to be met with some, uh, skepticism, for having an obviously untrained or noobie eye for HD. Or you work for AT&T or are a fanboi. You must be one of the above. Take your pick. ;-)

Umm... don't you work for AT&T?


I always thought that if I ran a company that was trying to sell a crappy product, and I didn't really care about improving the product, I'd search the internet for criticism of my product and then post positive reviews to at least offset the negative ones.


Now look, I'm not specifically accusing anyone of doing this, and I suppose it might be just as likely that competitors of u-verse are posting negative reviews, but pardon me if I'm just a little skeptical of the "I love my u-verse PQ" crowd.


On a different topic, my first u-verse bill arrived (or rather, the e-mail arrived telling my first bill is in the mail), and the e-mail tells my bill is $300! That's double what my monthly rate should be. Is that because I'm actually paying for two months (the preceding month, plus one month in advance) on the first bill? Sure hope that's the case. I haven't seen the actual bill yet.
 
#3,111 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by mirak /forum/post/19685692


On a different topic, my first u-verse bill arrived (or rather, the e-mail arrived telling my first bill is in the mail), and the e-mail tells my bill is $300! That's double what my monthly rate should be. Is that because I'm actually paying for two months (the preceding month, plus one month in advance) on the first bill? Sure hope that's the case. I haven't seen the actual bill yet.

Mine was set up that way, so I would certainly hope so. Unless they also charged you for installation, which is supposed to be free if you bundled with internet.
 
#3,113 ·
Ok, quick update. First, regarding the bill, the first bill you receive includes both the pro-rated charges for the service you've already received, plus the next month (in this case, December 15 to January 14). That's why my first bill was basically double. Bravo (seriously) to AT&T for making a bill you can actually understand.


Second, as unsatisifed as I am with the HD PQ, I have consistantly found that u-verse's customer service is excellent.


While I was on the phone asking about my bill, the CSR asked if I was satisfied with the service. I said that I liked everything except for the HD PQ, and explained the problems with compression and motion.


The CSR wasn't sure if this would help, but he changed my streams from 3HD-1SD to 2HD-2SD, the idea being that this might increase my bandwidth and reduce the compression problems. I can understand how this would increase my bandwidth, but I'm skeptical that this will do anything to reduce the compression.


Anyway, it's worth a shot, and if it doesn't work, I can always switch back to 3-1 with a phone call (not that I'd probably ever need to watch 3 different HD streams at once).
 
#3,114 ·
My Setup for Uverse is:

50" Panasonic S2 Plasma (1080P)

Cisco Uverse Set-top-box run via HDMI into a Denon AVR-791 and then to the TV (also HDMI)


I do get the lip-sync issues on the local NBC channel, and it also blacks out quite often, sometimes for hours. Only channel that seems to do this.


As far as changing profiles, I believe AT&T has a cap, so that as long as you are on the 32/5 profile, setting stream differences shouldn't matter.


Had REALLY bad audio drop outs last night. Worst its been in a few months probably.


Anyone have the Motorola box instead of the Cisco? Wonder if there is any PQ or audio difference. I would hope not, but this is AT&T we're talking about....
 
#3,115 ·
I've got one of the Motorola boxes and have had no audio issues. I don't have a 5.1 surround sound. I do have it connected to my stereo. I have had occaisional problems where the picture would freeze and go black. Changing the channel and going back to the problematic channel usually fixes the issue though.
 
#3,116 ·
Dropping down to 2 hd streams didn't change anything. The bottom line is that 5.5mbps is simply insufficient for High Def, especially if there's heavy motion. Some folks don't notice it, and to each his own. You can't really see the macroblocking and other problems when viewed from a normal distance - the picture just looks soft. You have to take a close look at the screen to see why it looks soft - that's when you can see all the compression problems.


I just hope that not all providers join in this race to the bottom, more heavily compressing their streams just to offer more of them. I didn't buy an awesome HDTV just to watch Blu Ray - I want real high def TV!
 
#3,117 ·
Your only hope as of right now is FIOS. All the others have been in that "race" for many years now (including OTA).


Sure, they occasionally upgrade their systems for more bandwith and/or efficiency, but when they do, it's with the intention of quickly cramming it chock full 'o' more channels, and it soon ends up right back at the same low quality again.
 
#3,119 ·
AT&T U-verse HDTV, Yea the 5.1 drop outs are a fact of life and I have just given-up on a fix at this point. For live channel sufing its only the two channel setting works for me, but for on demand movies its good with 5.1, I still get drop outs but there are only a few and very far apart, acceptable for the price over comcast and a cheap hooker.
 
#3,120 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Timothy31 /forum/post/19692701


I've got one of the Motorola boxes and have had no audio issues. I don't have a 5.1 surround sound. I do have it connected to my stereo. I have had occaisional problems where the picture would freeze and go black. Changing the channel and going back to the problematic channel usually fixes the issue though.

Its only over HDMI and only if you have the set top box turned to digital audio. I thought my recent cable box replacement had fixed the issue, turns out it was set only to stero in the menu. I changed it back, and immediately the audio dropouts were back.
 
#3,121 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Black993 /forum/post/19704374


Its only over HDMI and only if you have the set top box turned to digital audio. I thought my recent cable box replacement had fixed the issue, turns out it was set only to stero in the menu. I changed it back, and immediately the audio dropouts were back.

That's why I switched from using only an HDMI cable to using HDMI + optical toslink. Toslink straight from the receiver to the U-verse box.
 
#3,122 ·
Just out of curiousity, if I wanted to compare the compression and bit rates used by my local cable providers, how would I do that? I've tried calling customer service, and they're worthless. What questions would I even ask? The only thing I know to ask is (a) do you use mpeg2 or mpeg4 encoding, and (b) what's the maximum bit rate for HDTV programming. Are those the right questions?
 
#3,123 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by mirak /forum/post/19735655


Just out of curiousity, if I wanted to compare the compression and bit rates used by my local cable providers, how would I do that? I've tried calling customer service, and they're worthless. What questions would I even ask? The only thing I know to ask is (a) do you use mpeg2 or mpeg4 encoding, and (b) what's the maximum bit rate for HDTV programming. Are those the right questions?


I guess it really depends on who you talk to. I wouldn't think the general employee would know that information. I left my Brighthouse connection for a few days when I signed up for Uverse to see what the difference was. Brighthouse was better picture/audio quality, but in the end, price and loyalty to my (ex)employer won....
 
#3,124 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by mirak /forum/post/19735655


Just out of curiousity, if I wanted to compare the compression and bit rates used by my local cable providers, how would I do that? I've tried calling customer service, and they're worthless. What questions would I even ask? The only thing I know to ask is (a) do you use mpeg2 or mpeg4 encoding, and (b) what's the maximum bit rate for HDTV programming. Are those the right questions?

Nobody will give you this info. Most likely even Tier 2 does not know. I can tell you that U-Verse uses MPEG4 AVC at around 6Mbps and DD at 640Kbps for audio.
 
#3,130 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by don_mccarter /forum/post/19635979


Today I used a split screen PIP with u-verse and CBS to check out the

noon football game. I could not tell a difference in PQ.

U-verse furnished a Motorola VIP1225 which is set at 1080i and

connected by HDMI. My other TV's have a VIP1200.

I get 3hd and 1sd streams.

Hello, mine will be installed on 1/10/2011 and I'm also slated to get the VIP1225. If you run 5.1 surround through your AVR do you notice the audio dropouts that others have been reporting?


Any other folks with this STB who have NOT experienced the dropout with 5.1 surround?


Thanks.
 
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