Greensboro, NC - HDTV - Page 291

Do you mind sharing your neighborhood or at least the city? I'm in HP and when I checked the other day it wasn't available.

I live along Silas Creek about a mile south of Wake Forest U. There is a new box on the utility pole outside my house, and I received a notice from AT&T. I called AT&T and confirmed our neighborhood can get Uverse. The question is...do I want it? I've read about the issues with PQ, and only 2 HD channels at a time for the whole house.

It's a different signal from DSL, which I have. AT&T said it would be an FTTP install, meaning fiber from the pole to my house. They'd install a fiber converter box and possibly use my existing coax to get the signal to each TV, with new set-top boxes.

Effective November 4th, the following channels will be added to Basic Cable: Comedy Central HD Channel 1304, Hallmark Channel HD Channel 1218, MTV HD Channel 1450, Nickelodeon HD 1205, Spike TV HD Channel 1310.



Effective November 4th, the following channels will be added to the Digital Tier: Nat Geo Wild HD Channel 1254, DIY HD Channel 1356.



Effective November 4th, the following channel will be added to Sports Pass: NHL Network HD Channel 1526.



Effective November 4th, the following channel will be added as part of a subscription to Showtime: Showtime On Demand HD Channel 1762.



Effective November 10th, Primetime HD On Demand Channel 1195 will be available as a Free On Demand service. Also, on this date, programming from CBS and NBC will move from HD Showcase On Demand to Primetime HD On Demand.

I ordered Uverse today and will have it installed next week. I'm going to give it a shot, and at the same time, I'll keep TWC during the 30 day trial period. If Uverse totally sucks at the end of 30 days, I'll turn on my TWC box and cancel Uverse.

I live in Cary and have Uverse. I only got the TV service for cheaper installation of their internet service. I've enjoyed having it, but the PQ doesn't compare to DirecTV. Its more compressed and subsequently softer. I don't have a comparison against TWC. I can say that the Uverse user interface is awesome. Its much better than any I've seen. Unfortunately, I'll be getting rid of it because I really only wanted Uverse internet. It's so much faster than anything I could have gotten from TWC, and I'll certainly be keeping it. If the Uverse PQ were closer to DirecTV's, I'd consider keeping it.

What speeds are you getting with Uverse? I noticed that Uverse offers up to 24mbps, but they never mention an upload speed. What speeds are you paying for and what are you actually getting? I have RR 10/512 speed, but I noticed that Uverse has 12mb for $20 cheaper a month. Just wondering on what there upload is like?

I've often heard that U-verse doesn't have great PQ, especially on bigger TVs. This is primarily due to the fact that only so much bandwidth comes to your house and then they break that into multiple HD streams and Internet.

After reading a lot of Uverse forums, picture quality seems to be the biggest complaint. It sounds like sports are problematic because of the fast action. I'll give it a try, and if it looks soft, I'll pull the plug.

I just discovered that "The Cool TV" channel has made it to 48-2. In the 10 minutes I've watched it, they've played a wide variety of different types of music videos. It's good we have another OTA option!

I noticed it too but for me 48-1 is also showing cool tv instead of the regular 48. Since 48 is the one HD local channel I don't get from Directv I rely on OTA 48-1 to see it in HD. Normally that won't be that big of a deal since I don't watch much on 48 except for some sitcom reruns. But sometimes the ACC Raycom games are shown on 48, especially basketball.

That wasn't the case last night. I watched a few minutes of "The Office" on 48-1 last night at 10pm. Also, I just checked and Cool TV is only on 48-2. Maybe there was temporary glitch this morning that caused them to show Cool TV on both channels.

Foxeng....I just noticed you guys were in HD this past week....when did that happen? My current work schedule and school have me doing strange hours so I miss local news usually....

Anyways It looks GREAT!!!

I've got U-verse Max Turbo, which is 24/3. Actual results:

Those speeds are pretty consistent.

The U-verse wikipedia page lists the internet packages and associated speeds: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT%26T_U-verse I don't know why AT&T doesn't list the upload anywhere.

What do you pay for that?

I have TWC RR's with turbo charge which I pay $67.90 for since I don't have any of TWC's other services (up $13 in the last year and a half).



I would like another high speed alternative but North State's Plex isn't in my neighborhood yet (I'm near the Palladium theater in High Point) and no U-Verse yet (I would only consider U-Verse for Internet and prefer Directv for TV.)

Not to mention changing everybody's email address in the house isn't a trivial thing to do so I if I do switch it has to be really worth my while.

If you are only interested in the internet for Uverse, then it is $68.00 for the 24MB tier. There is also a $149.00 installation fee. If you were to get all of there services (Phone, internet, and TV), then there is only a $29.00 installation fee but they give you $300.00 cash back.

I have been looking at Uverse for internet only, but am drawn away because of the installation fee. I am happy at the moment with Dish Network, but I am hearing that they could drop Fox if they don't come to an agreement by Nov. 1. If that happens, then I might look into the whole AT&T Uverse package. Not interested in TWC since I got to have NFL Network and Redzone.

Guess you haven't been on the thread in a while. It got talked up pretty good. It happened on the 10 O'Clock News on Sunday Sept 12th.

Funny about that is the last time you asked about it, we were in rehearsals with the new set and equipment, but I couldn't say anything! I was surprised when it happened and not a peep out of you. Now I know why! If you go back up the thread, there are some pictures and links to videos about it.

Glad you noticed.

Sidebar: Since we have gone HD, we have been posting our 5/6pm web promos in 720p.

I wasn't happy about the installation fee, and when I complained to the rep setting up my installation appointment, he mentioned getting the TV service for a month and then canceling, which I am about to do. I will say that it was nice to try. If the PQ were on par with DirecTV, I'd be keeping it.

Well, Dish has already lost FX, National Geographic, and most Fox RSNs. They're still without ESPNEWS HD, Disney Channel HD, ABC Family HD and Disney XD HD. Them losing Fox Networks wouldn't surprise me.

Now since Fox 8 isn't no longer owned by Fox itself, I would think that Fox 8 would be safe from being dropped. I think only Fox owned broadcast channels are in danger. Maybe Foxeng can chime in to confirm.

Wow that long? Yea I really have been busy, lol. I'm gonna start DVR'ing the 10pm news I think and watch it in my free time....you guys are awesome!

Yes, it is unfortunate that Dish has lost those channels, but to me, it is not a big deal. Rarely watched anything on those channels. We still have ESPNEWS, Disney, ABC Family and Disney XD in SD, so that is fine. Now, when Duke Basketball season starts up, then I am hoping that Fox Sports South is back. If Fox8 goes away after Nov. 1, then that is a dealbreaker. I am only 11 months into a contact with Dish Network and I do have a 2 year deal. So, if I was to cancel and move to Uverse, then the $300.00 will help pay for that cancellation fee. I wish DirecTV was an option, but we have a lot of trees in that direction, so I don't have any Line of Sight.

No, we are not effected by that. I don't think even the O & O affiliates would be effected anyway. They have different contracts than the cable networks.

Dish and DirecTV use satellites at the same locations. DirecTV uses 101 as their main location with Dish having a couple of transponders there and Dish uses 119 as then main location while DirecTV uses 119 for spot beams. You might want to go back and recheck that.

I am on the Eastern Arc for Dish Network, so the sats point to 61.5, 72, 77.

For Dish they have had 1 contract already expire with Fox. And you're right that the O&O affiliates are on another contract, but it's this other contract that is in peril on November 1st.

OK. I don't understand all I know here, but it seems that for some reason, the former FOX O & O's (including WGHP) IS part of this dispute with Dish.

According to a press release from FOX ( read here ) it appears that at 11:59pm on October 31st, if a new agreement hasn't been reached, WGHP WILL be off Dish along with the remaining FOX O & O stations.

It hasn't been explained to us yet what is happening so I have no answers.

How did the install go? How is the picture?

I'm in Clemmons, on Time Warner cable. Since the last time they shuffled around the clear qam channels, I'm getting frequent dropouts of the audio on several of the HD channels, especially WFMY. These dropouts last just a fraction of a second, and there is no interruption of the video when it happens. I don't use a cable box. I only have one TV, so I can't say it isn't the set, but the same thing happens on my (non-TW) dvr so I suspect it is the cable signal. Has anyone else noticed this? Any ideas of what I can do about it?

Has anyone noticed anything with WXII on TWC? Over the past week at different times the HD channel looks like it briefly gets "washed out". People's faces are the most noticeable when it happens. Also sometimes when a show goes to commercial you'll notice it when the screen goes black before the commercial starts.

Noticed it on both my HDTVs. One has a HD box, and the other is a HD DVR. This is the only channel I've noticed it on too.

I've been noticing this over the past two weeks. While watching SNL there is a lot of macroblocking as they go to a commercial. The HD quality seems to be dialed down. I also noticed color banding on other channels where I never saw it before. It looks like TWC is adding a little more compression.

I had Uverse installed yesterday and it was a long, long process (6 hours). But ultimately, it works as advertised. I signed up for Uverse TV and 12mbs Internet. And for a little background info, I installed new phone lines, coax, and Cat6 (all home runs) to every room when I bought the house 5 years ago, so I have a clue.

Here's how it went...

The lineman arrived an hour early and installed a new Cat5e from the pole to my house, and he installed a new bridge in the network interface box (NID) attached to my house. It took him about an hour to finish.

The premises tech arrived about an hour later to do the inside work with wiring, set-top boxes and gateway. For both installers, this was clearly a new experience with Uverse with a lot of trial and error.

The PT started working in my basement pulling a new Cat5e from where my gateway was placed to the NID. I went downstairs to help him fish the wire into the wall, and I was greeted with an air biscuit that could knock a buzzard off a $h_t wagon. The stench, combined with the smell of my singed eyebrows was intolerable. Not a good start.

The PT connected the Cat5e to the NID and crimped an RJ11 to the other end for connecting to the gateway. Next, he plugged in the gateway to communicate to the head-end and start the service. No joy. He re-terminated both ends. No joy. He took the gateway outside and connected it to the NID directly. It worked and synced with the system. He reconnected the gateway inside and it still didn't work. He messed with the NID, removed the bridge, installed "beans", nothing was working. Now, we're 3 hours into the install and the PT starts contacting Tier 2 support.

While waiting for support, he re-terminates the coax lines to feed my 3 TV STBs and installs the STBs in each room. Tier 2 finally calls back and asks him if I'm keeping dial tone, or using Uverse voice. I have to keep dial tone for my house alarm. Then the proverbial light bulb flickers to life. He needs to install a filter in the NID to allow Uverse to coexist with dial tone. Bingo.

At the 5th hour, we finally have sync at the gateway to the head-end. I have a 25/2 profile which means I'm qualified for 3 HD streams to the house. And I'm 1250 feet from the VRAD well within range. He fires up the STBs and all is good.

I have a fairly complex home network with several computers, laptop, XBOX, 2 switches and a wireless connection. It's all buttoned down with security, MAC filtering, etc. so I was concerned that I'd have to redo all of that to connect to the gateway. But I just connected my network with one wire to the gateway and it all worked (I turned off the gateway's WiFi since I had my own system). Frankly, I was shocked, considering the tech's experience.

He finished by programming the remotes and gave me a brief tutorial of the features. At the 6 hour mark, he cleaned up the install, left me the paperwork and took his bowel troubles with him. If he didn't leave, my wife was about ready to give him the bum rush to the curb.

Now, to video quality and usability. There is no doubt it is lower than TWC, but given TWC recent PQ, it's a close call. There is slight softening to complex scenes, grass, trees, etc. The MLB playoffs looked great, HBO very good, FOX very good. But the usability...it's fantastic. It's liberating compared to the "gator" on TWC. Full HD interface and very fast channel changing, guide updates and searching. I can watch 4 channels at once with multiview, watch the DVR in other rooms with STBs, and remotely program the DVR. It's almost as polished as a TIVO, it's that good. And it's faster than TIVOs HD interface.

To sum up...I'm happy with Uverse, even with the very slight PQ issues. The interface is terrific. The install sucked, but I'm sure they will improve as the experience grows and more people sign on.

Curious about where in the Triad you are located ...