Quote:
Originally Posted by
MOMager 
I was a loyal DTV customer. I thouht I'd never switch ... Even though the signal would go out when it was super windy, etc., I loved it. However, what I loved most was the NFL Ticket. About 4 years ago Uverse came by and we opted to try it. We kept our Direct TV in our family room and had Uverse there and in all other rooms. I WILL NEVER GO BACK TO DIRECT TV!!!!!! Here are my reasons:
1) the on demand options for Uverse are so much better. You can go from kids shows, to network to premium chanels and then you can get basically any movie out there, as well ... The new featured movies or just in are at a normal cost for on demand, then there's 100'sof other movies for $2.00's ... If you have the Premium stations, all is catagorized so you never need to pay to see anything you want that's airing on those stations ever at any time (ie: HBO, SHOWTIME, etc.)
2) I like the Uverse HD picture quality better.
3) You can record and watch 4 things at once. I know DTV just made their's 5, but the DVR has less space and Uverse will soon be adding up to 6 at once. Watch a dif as you record ... Love it.
4) The interactive usage is also fabulous. From playing games, to to FB, kids multiview in HD, the family map, HSN by remote, weather and local, a food network app, managing your account, flickr and the uverse interactive channel for everything you want to know and need to know, if you choose.
5) my internet speed is extraordinary and so is my landline service which is so much cheaper having this all hubbed together.
If you are a huge TV watcher, love options, don't want to lose service due to weather, etc. and need fast an dgreat wireless then Uverse is the one you want. Again, I never thought I'd like it. Its so much better ...
6) Also there's the new box where you can move it anywhere and that also means you can take your tv with it ... Go outside, etc. You're not stuck in a spot if you want to shift a room around.
I have a friend who FINALLY just got off his blackberry for his new iphone 5 ... Also a DTV user, lol! He said he would never like the iphone more than the BB. Well, he LOVES his iPhone. He also keeps telling me that nothing compares to DTV, but he hasn't tried Uverse. Let me tell you, if he did, it would be his iPhone over the BB story as its that huge of a differnce. Again. I kept my DTV for awhile in one rm, just in case. If you're going to change from cable, don't go lateral ... Upgrade to U-verse, as it has it all and you'll be very happy you did it.
If I have typo's, I'm sorry ... My child just came in and I haven't time to proof read ... I have to get him back to bed.
I hope this helped and I know DTV lover's are going to bash me! LOL. Its OK ... ;-)
Somebody's got to take on the BS... so here I go.
1. Comcast supposedly has the biggest on-demand selection of any provider, but in general these On-Demand systems aren't that great. I'm building an MCE 7 box, and I was thinking of paying $10/mo to keep a regular box for On Demand, and I realized it's cheaper just to buy the occasional show I want off of iTunes or Amazon anyways, and use my new DVR's 3TB hard drive to record everything I might want to watch.
2. There either was something wrong with your DTV setup, or you're just lying. U-Verse is by far the worst out of all the providers. I see Comcast, DirecTV, and U-Verse semi-regularly, and DirecTV > Comcast > U-Verse, although because of MPEG-2 vs. MPEG-4, Comcast might win for programs with a lot of detail and little motion.
3. U-Verse is crippled in that you can't add more tuners if you want them. DirecTV's DVR is 1TB, vs. 500GB for U-Verse (similar because they are both MPEG-4, although U-Verse will go a little farther per GB because they compress the snot out of their content). Cable has 4-12+ tuners and as many TB of storage as you want just because of CableCard and ability to BYO DVR. With either DirecTV or cable, you can keep adding more tuners if you want them (although I think you're more limited by the quantity of good programming on TV than technology), whereas on U-Verse the system is limited by the number of streams (usually 2-4) you can get into the house. DirecTV's whole-home DVR can scale up to about 23 tuners (9 dual plus 1 5-tuner), cable can scale to 4x the number of CableCards they will rent you. Even if AT&T were adding software support for 6 streams, so few U-Verse customers would have enough bandwidth for it that it wouldn't really matter.
4. That's not really part of the core experience, and just sounds gimmicky. Not really a reason to choose a TV provider.
5. U-Verse internet speeds are not extraordinary. I'm on Comcast's Blast! package, and it's currently at 25/4, and it just about to get upgraded to 50/10 (most areas are upgraded by now). FIOS offers reasonably priced packages up to 75/35. U-Verse is still limping along at 24/3 if you're close enough to the VRad, which most customers aren't, and will end up maxing out at something pathetic like 18/2. They also force you to use their equipment, whereas with cable, you own your own modem and router. Pretty soon with CableCard on the video side, the only thing in my apartment that Comcast owns will be the CableCard itself. As for landlines, yes they have a certain reliability to them, but that's about it. You're better off with another TV and internet provider, and if you really want the reliability of copper, just getting the cheapest most basic landline you can get, and doing normal day to day calling through cell phones or Ooma. Also, you can't bundle POTS landline service with U-Verse, you have to use U-Verse Voice, which is VOIP, and carries the power and reliability limitations that any VOIP system does.
6. Windows MCE can also do this in various forms if you're creative (i.e. Powerline networking with an extender, you need power anyways).
Quote:
Originally Posted by
MOMager
Thank you!!!!! I was frightened I'd get an opposite response. People who haven't had U-Verse don't get why it's so great. I heard Fios doesn't compare and its even more expensive ... However that's the closet thing to U-Verse. Direct TV is trying really hard to up their anti because satellite, which IS better than cab;e was once in and now with fiber optic and all you get from that, is fading away. Digital is the way to go ... Cable it the new Antenna, Satellite the new cable and fiber optic, i.e.; U-verse the new Satellite ... Its just the best for all your needs.
HAHA. Fios doesn't compare? Are you out of your mind? FIOS is the only widespread service that doesn't re-compress MPEG-2 streams, and since it is cable it can be used with MCE or TiVo just like traditional HFC providers. It is actually fiber, unlike U-Verse's fake fiber. FIOS also offers internet speeds up to 75/35, which U-Verse couldn't offer even if they wanted to. Cable is more fiber than U-Verse, because of the last-mile bandwidth being so much higher, and in many cases, cable nodes literally cover smaller areas with the fiber pushed farther out than U-Verse's lawn fridges. And your last sentence... WHAT? Everything is all-digital at this point other than maybe a few backwoods cable providers who are stuck in the past. The facts and the data don't lie. U-Verse is a pathetic system, and will continue to be comparatively worse than HFC-based systems as the cable providers keep pulling tricks out of their sleeves to crank the bandwidth up, while AT&T is stuck with that they have until they go all-fiber. Think years in the future when cable is running everything except locals and expanded basic SD on SDV, running a ton of D3 channels between 860mhz and 1ghz, and is running MPEG-4 or HEVC for all their HD content, and fitting 4 high-quality streams per QAM. They would effectively have unlimited bandwidth, and AT&T will still have.... 30-50mbps if they're lucky. Who's going to win? The provider with the most bandwidth.
