AT&T U-verse HDTV - Page 132

Things can happen. You can send a message to the techs over at the direct forum at dslreports.com. Give them the basics and ticket number if they gave you one over the phone. Could be issues with needing a new trunk line ran from where your house is, back to the VRAD, could be not enough slots available, could be that something else happened in the area, especially with the storms we have had lately.

You can also PM Alex over that forums.att.com and see if someone will contact you that way. Either way is good.

Anyone know when U-Verse will off the ability to watch the shows on my DVR on a pc? Like slingbox.

Not going to happen with the current Media Room platform.

Might I suggest buying a SlingBox for that type of functionality. The only thing on the horizon is watching specific shows from channels that agree to have AT&T make the shows available for download through the U-verse app for remote viewing.

I'm considering making the switch to U-Verse and had a few questions regarding recurring monthly fees.

1. I see that they charge $7/mo for each wireless receiver. Is this the only option for viewing programs on secondary tvs? Do they offer hard-wired receivers that would cost less? With our current cable provider, we only have 1 HD-DVR on the main tv and the secondary tvs use free digital converter boxes. The boxes don't get all of the channels that the main tv gets, but that's ok with us. Does U-Verse offer free digital converter boxes in lieu of receivers with monthly fees?

2. I also see that there is a $6/mo fee for the internet equipment. To avoid the monthly fee with my current provider, I simply bought my own cable modem. What kind of equipment is required to get AT&T internet? Is it something that can be purchased like a cable modem or am I stuck leasing it?

Besides all of the other usual taxes and surcharges, are there any other recurring monthly fees like the two mentioned above?

The $6 is for the required wireless gateway. But it works very well.

Addl fees: 10$ HD Technology Fee

With the U200 package, no extra movie or sports packages, including taxes, should run you about $87 for 12 months. Then it goes up $50, but they will negotiate to +$15

The DVR is junk in operation, but the picture is good.

OH, and I only have one TV, so don't know about the extra box.

They ONLY offer full secondary boxes, that work off of the main DVR box, which are $7 each, regardless if they are wired or wireless.
You CAN get 1 FREE (no extra monthly charge) secondary box, if you upgrade your base prog pkg to U300; that one can be either wired or wireless. So basically, if you need a 2nd box, you could get the next prog pkg for less than $4 more.

IIRC, the max # of wireless receivers you can have, is 2.

I've just started having an issue with Uverse. This weekend while watching NFL games, my center channel on surround with commentary would fade in and out constantly. It happens about every five minutes. Has anyone else had this issue?

What channel, what game? I spent the Sunday watching other stuff, so I did not have my Denon AVRS on at all. Saturday had no problem with the College games.

Well after 22 months with with Time Warner Cable, I've finally decided to join u-verse with am expected install on Fri. 11/9. For me wasn't neessarily TWC's internet service themselves as it was the lack of carrying the local RSN, Fox Sports San Diego (granted it was added right at the end of the season on u-verse) which carries all the Padres and the majority of Clippers games. Then the kicker for me to switch was the fact that u-verse added TWC Sportsnet, which granted is the home of the Lakers, but at the same time they'll be carrying a lot of San Diego State basketball games. So in the end I got the u-verse 200 channel package with their internet "Max" package of 12mbps download. My only concern is how accurate does AT&T measure data use? I know they're having issues implementing their meters and send emails approaching the data limit. What I do know is that between me & my roommate, we used a combined 190-200 gigs a month. I know the picture quality isn't quite as good as cable or satellite, so my expectations are lowered, however I have heard that AT&T has made considerable progress in improving picture quality compared to to when the service first started. The good news is, I'm probably not more than 300 feet from the VRAD, so that should help. Overall, though I'm looking foward to giving u-verse a try.

There is no measurement of data use, which is what is great about UVerse.

Let us know how it goes. I too have been a long time TWC customer, but for cable TV only. My phone and Internet are AT&T. I have been thinking about making the switch for some time now.

I'm happy that we on TWC finally got NFL Network and RedZone, but the complaints about their STBs and Navigator software are reaching legendary proportions.

I recently (August) switched from BrightHouse (A TWC affiliate). The DVR with Uverse is so much better. It allows programming from any STB. The wireless STB works better than I expected even though the signal has to go through several walls.
I kept BHN for internet because Uverse has a cap and I work from home and don't want to hastle with that. I have the Uverse internet as a backup in case BHN is down. If you have any questions, let me know.

Jim

Watched the Colts game around 1PM, and then the Niners game on Monday night. Somehow I fixed it, reset the box, wireless router, and then detached and reattached the optical cable. It seems like I had to reattach the optical cable and it worked fine, it was really strange. It was secure before I reattached it, so I don't know what happened.

If it was ESPN, it is a known issue with their feed to ATT. As for the Colts game, CBS locals in various markets also have known issues with sound, same with ABC. Nothing we can do, other than deal with it, until someone on both sides get their acts together.

Got u-verse installed yesterday and my first impression of it is fairly good. I got their u200 tv package with their "Max" internet package (up to12mbps download/up to 2mbps upload). I previously had Time Warner Cable. I have a 47" 3D LG HDTV in the living room & a 40" Panasonic 720p HDTV in the bedroom.

Pros:
1. Fox Sports San Diego & TWCSN
2. The on screen guide/menu is lightning fast & much more updated than Time Warner Cable's.
3. Channel lineup makes sense. For HD channels just add a 1 then the SD channel number (eg: Fox News Channel SD is ch. 210/ HD ch. is 1210). Also the grouping of channels makes sense variety channels, news channels with news channels, sports channels with sports channels, etc.
4. Internet so far is very reliable as I get 95% of my advertised download speed about 75% upload speed.
5. Total Home DVR

Cons

1. Only 3 HD & 1 SD streams can be used simultaneously (not too much of an issue for me as there's only 2 HDTV's hooked up).
2. 250 gigabyte data cap with $10 overage for every 50 gigs once the cap has been surpassed (although it looks like at&t still hasn't enforced th an I average about 190 gigs, so not a big deal).
3. No Pac 12 Networks (not a big deal since I have access to their online streaming platforms for all their games through my friend who has Time Warner Cable).

Neutral
1. Picture quality. Native 720p HD channels looks great, native 1080i HD is ok, it does get slightly blocky on 1080i channels in fast motion scenes, but it isn't so bad that it makes me want to switch back to Time Warner Cable. My expectations of picture quality going into getting u-verse wasn't that high to begin with but honestly it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be as 1080i channels are still watchable and it does exceptionally exceed my expectations.

Anyways, in full disclosure I only live about 500 feet from the VRAD, so that helps. Overall in the end, the pros outweigh the cons and upto this point, very satisfied.
Edited by Tom Wellman - 11/10/12 at 4:07pm

There is no Internet Cap for UVerse.

Officially there is a cap however it isn't enforced, but AT&T at anytime could enforce it.

Officially there is not a Cap, and ATT cannot enforce it. Reason why is that they still have not figured out how to differentiate from TV & phone traffic, from Internet traffic.

The good thing is, someone actually created a program to tell people what they are using, it is Uverse Realtime, which has been discussed in this thread, but if it is buried, the link is http://www.uvrealtime.com .

Got u-verse real time installed over the weekend and bought the premium version of it (I figured what the heck, $25.00 for a lifetime subscription is very reasonable with upto 3 residential gateway changes). I assume in the first screenshot, this is for internet data use only? Or does it measure both internet data and IPTV usage (which I know the latter isn't counted against the unenforced cap)?


In the second screenshot, does this clarify data that goes through each of the ethernet ports, and which ports do I use to measure internet use and which one do I use to measure IPTV use? I know "Ethernet 1 interface" connects from the gateway to the u-verse STB, "Ethernet 2 interface" connects to my PS3, "Ethernet 3 interface" connects to my Slingbox, and "Ethernet 4 interface" connects to my smart HDTV. I'm guessing that Realtime is able to measure use through each ethernet port individually. And "Coax/HPNA interface" measures IPTV data. Any clarifcation on this would be appreciated.

Read the pdf that comes with it. It explains about what the meter does, and what the tabs show. BTW, yes the meter is only for Internet, not TV. And yes, Port 1 happens to be the TV stream. Again, read the PDF that came with the file.

If U-verse enforces an internet cap I am in trouble. I previously was a light user until my wife got a box to watch Hong Kong TV live. I suspect I now am a heavy user.

Rick R

There is no way they are able to, due to the way the system is setup currently.

They're all going to have caps eventually, we'll have metered billing for pretty much any HSI because the FCC is going to look the other way and the HSI providers want to protect their video business.

The state of broadband in this country is appalling and is entirely due to corporate payoffs to protect monopolies/duopolies.

Nor with Uverse, due to how it is set up. Caps and metering is nothing more than a money grab, and has been shown to actually lose money for companies, due to Churn.

Looks like U-verse added ME TV (136) on 12/13/12.

Great classic (old) TV shows.

Just certain markets. Not every market has it. If you are running UVerse Realtime, it should report back to SomeJoe's database that your market has it.

I just got a Denon 3313 AV receiver and can pass-trough the UVerse HDMI signal to the TV when the receiver is off however I only get the sound when set to stereo. When I switch to surround, the video passes through but no sound. I assume it has to do with the TV, a Hitachi P42T501. Is there a way around this issue so I can leave the sound set to surround?

It could be your set. Did it ever output sound when the UVerse box was connected to it before, and the box set to Surround? Look under the Audio section of the settings menu and see what happens if you set Surround to Normal, and then see what happens.

Our setup, we use a Soundbar for normal tv viewing, with the soundbar connected to the UVerse box, and leaving it in Surround mode still allows sound output. There are some HDsets that do not decode Dolby Digital Surround from the various providers set top boxes.

Another item to try, is a different HDMI cable from the receiver to the tv and see what happens, also check the settings on your Denon for the standby settings.

Thanks. I never thought to try the surround setting when it was just connected to the TV but I'll try it and see if I can make it work.