AT&T U-verse HDTV - Page 122

Way to live in the past. Comcast got in trouble for throttling and P2P blocking, and totally changed their ways. They're much more transparent about their network management techniques now. And they don't "just cancel service" if someone exceeds 250GB. In many cases, if your node isn't too crowded they won't even do anything. And for a first offense, the worst they'll do is send you a letter.

But if you're going to regularly exceed 250GB, your best bet is simply to not use Comcast.

OR, you do at least have the option of a CC (uncapped) business account - I doubt that AT&T even has such an (uncapped) option on DSL or U-verse...

Comcast had done something to block PirateBay as recently as a couple of weeks ago. How exactly are they more transparent? It's in black and white on their ToS that they will throttle your account as they see fit. You seem to be extending a lot of latitude and trust to Comcast that you don't afford to any other carrier. Comcast is one of the most draconian carriers on the market based on their past practices but we should trust them because they said they would do better?

I love how the fan boys of other providers hang out in the U-verse thread just to spread FUD. It's amazing how much time people spend to undermine a carrier in hopes that it will validate their own personal choices.

Any why would you doubt that? AT&T is the largest ISP in the nation and has more business DSL and U-verse customers than any other carrier. Those customers are not subject to any usage tiers on either platform. Thanks for your misplaced doubt.

No, they didn't. That whole thing was caused by issues outside of Comcast's control, and the Pirate Bay even came out and said as much. People at Comcast actually reached out to TPB's ISP to try and figure out what was happening. Try again with the FUD.

LMAO! This is the "AT&T U-verse HDTV" thread, and I just so happen to be an AT&T U-verse HDTV customer. All of this ISP talk is actually off-topic anyway.

But Comcast is the provider and if their customers can't reach PirateBay, blaming another entity is passing the buck. PirateBay also said no such thing about Comcast trying to help nor did Global Crossing. That was just PR on Comcast's part to try and defuse the negative PR. It might not have ultimately been Comcast's fault but given their track record, few are willing to trust them as much as you are.


Well seeing as you just said that you were a Comcast customer 10 posts back (see below), you can understand the confusion. Highly irregular for someone to have U-verse TV but not Internet, usually it is the other way around.

Kind of how an AT&T employee comes here and shills for the service, where everything always works and you get exactly what you pay for, HD always looks great, and it's a much better deal than anything you can get with any other provider.

I'm not a fanboy for Comcast or any other provider, just trying to balance out the smoke that's constantly being blown here.

That is a complete crock. I don't have to shill for the service, we are the fastest growing content provider in the country and we have won the JD Powers award for highest customer satisfaction in every region where we compete for several years now. As for your other comments, I tell people to look for their own eyes and pocketbook and see what works best for them.


Actually I would be the one that clears the smoke. This thread is constantly subjected to misinformation about the product, the majority of which is not first hand experience but rather something that they read on another forum since they don't even live in a U-verse coverage area.

Going from 100 to 200 subscribers is 100% growth. It's easy to grow fast when you're new.

When you go after the people who only care about how much they're paying, and you're the lowest-priced option around, of course you're going to have satisfied customers. They don't care about things like reliability or PQ.

Like what? The fact that the HD PQ is awful is not misinformation, it's pure fact.

'07 - 231,000
'08 - 1,000,000
'09 - 2,064,000
'10 - 2,985,000
'11 - 3,410,000 (End of 2Q)

In comparison, FiOS launched 2 years before U-verse and has 3.7M customers. U-verse will pass them in overall subscribers by 1Q '12 at the current rate if not sooner. Through the 2nd quarter of this year, Comcast has lost 238,000 subscribers, DISH has lost 135,000 subscribers and TWC has lost 128,000 subscribers. DirecTV has added 26,000, FiOS has added 184,000 and U-verse has added 202,000.

So much for your theory


Because people that don't see things like you do are idiots? That's what you are trying to say so why don't you just say it. The reliability of U-verse is on par or better of that than any other provider. The PQ differences have been hashed in ad nauseum and you are not adding anything new to that discussion.


Awful is your opinion, not a statement of fact and not one that most people readily agree with. Could it be better? Sure and it gets better with every internal release. But with the lowest churn and the fastest growth, your musings obviously don't resonate with the public at large.

Wow, you take this stuff way too personally. You should really recuse yourself from this thread.

The best options is simply to be honest. Admit the limitations exist and explain them.

I had Uverse TV and I churned out. Biggest issue Uverse has vs. other providers is distance. If you are close it may work at peak capability -some say even at it's best it's not up to other providers ymmv - but if you go away from the access point things go south fast.

For me it wasn't bad, and for many it would be certainly acceptable, for me there are better options. People here tend to be very quality oriented not budget oriented.

The PQ doesn't vary with distance from the VRAD. The only thing that changes is the number of concurrent streams you can access, and possibly reliability.

You will note I said "Peak Capability" not QUALITY...

Watched some college football yesterday and the games all looked fantastic. ESPN2 was especially good. Tennis looked great on CBS as well. NFL today so we'll see. But still no issues at all with HD PQ for me. I've seen nothing yet to make me go back to DirecTV.

Same here. I kept looking for all the macro blocking and such in the games, didn't get any. We also have DirecTv until contracts up, only difference was the Uverse pic was maybe a tad softer. Perfectly acceptable.

I do take derogatory comments personally. You inferred that U-verse customers don't know enough about HD to understand PQ and all they care about is the price. That's simply not true.


This is accurate. The bandwidth allocated for the video stream is the same if you are on top of the VRAD or at the outer limits of qualifying for the service. The only thing that changes in addition to the number of concurrent streams is the tier of Internet that you can purchase. If you are are on the outer edge of the service area, you only qualify for 12M. On any distance sensitive service from any carrier, if you are at the outer limit of the coverage area you have a higher likelihood of experiencing a service related issue. That's not a given of course, just an increased chance.

Yes it is, it's the same bandwidth which is insufficient to support true HD resolutions.

UVerse is restricted to a fraction of the bandwidth used to encode a Bluray disc, for example. UVerse uses 5.7Mb/s total using MPEG4 compression. Bluray uses up to 48Mb/s using MPEG4 or AVC compression (40 Mb video and 8 Mb audio).

Vern

That's a bad comparison. There isn't a carrier on the market coming anywhere close to Blu-ray standards for their video feeds. DirecTV gets high marks for PQ and they are using an ~8M stream. It's an acknowledged fact that U-verse's stream is less than that.

That is a blatant misrepresentation of the truth.

ATSC, which is often touted as the "gold standard" of HD broadcast, is only capable of delivering 18 Mb/s MAXIMUM. Many OTA channels multiplex additional broadcasts onto their signal, further reducing the bandwidth available. Many cable systems multiplex up to 4 channels onto a single frequency using QAM, which can only deliver 36 Mb/s MAXIMUM, but must be divided four ways leaving only 9 Mb/s.

It's clear and not a secret that U-Verse uses a low bitrate for their HD broadcasts, but don't try to imply that Cable or Satellite provide a substantially superior signal comparable to Blu-Ray.

Source: I'm an Electrical Engineer, with an area focus on digital signal processing.

Games have all looked great today. NBC game right now looks especially crisp, which is surprising since my NBC has 2 subchannels.

All I can say is nice job Uverse, you've got a customer that will stay long term until you mess it up.

Tighr, My, but you are sensitive today.

No implications were made or intended.

Just a comparison to the current gold standard for consumer HD which is BD.

The fact remains that Uverse is at the bottom of the heap in HD bandwidth per channel.

Your comment is also somewhat disingenious since you are comparing a hard limit for Uverse against a soft limit for other media. For example, not all OTA stations use subchannels.

I came from a FIOS location, however I was unfortunate enough to move to a location where FIOS is not available. I tried Uverse and was digusted with the levels of macroblocking, pixellation, and other compression artifacts present in the Uverse HD signal. Switching to DirecTV yielded a major improvement in image quality. It's not BD level quality, but at least it's acceptable.

BTW, I'm a former projectionist and currently work with video editing, so I have lot's of experience assessing image quality.

Vern

You must be aware that 4 channels per QAM is not the norm, and statistical multiplexing means that each channel is not limited to 9 Mbps (or 12 Mbps on a more common 3-packed QAM).

Maybe U-verse gets your local NBC via a direct (fiber) feed & NOT OTA - which can make a big difference; U-verse does get direct feeds on some stations in some markets. (they get one of PBS's on fiber, as their transmitter is too far away from U-verse's receive facility)

My picture is pretty mediocre. Lots of blocking yesterday but seems to be intermittent. It also dropped service for 10-15 minutes during the Michigan game on saturday and then the Lions game on Sunday. Just had the service installed on the 7th. Hopefully it gets better or I will just switch services. Being in an apartment makes that trickier.

It won't.

Helpful, as always.

Maybe you don't want to hear it, but it's the truth. AT&T has only ever lowered bitrates.

You should contact customer care and let them know you are experiencing issues. Since you are within the first 30 days after installation, they will likely dispatch a tech to make sure there are no bridge taps or issues with the line.


That's a little disingenuous. While the bitrate was lowered to accommodate the launch of additional HD streams, PQ improvement efforts are part of every internal release.

Why is it exactly that you kept U-verse TV but switched to Comcast Internet? It seems like you would want to just make that a double play with Comcast.

I didn't switch anything. I moved to a new place, and since I couldn't get my first choice (DirecTV) I decided to give U-verse a shot. Their promo pricing made going with two providers cheaper than going with Comcast alone, and U-verse Internet was never an option in my mind. Once my U-verse promo pricing expires, I will be dumping them for Comcast. If not sooner.