U-verse (again)

[Roy]

I typed in U-verse in the search and found responses everywhere from awesome to sucks.....LOL. I just wondered if any opinions have changed? I signed up for it yesterday on the U300 Elite and the HD premium tier. Supposed to be out and do the install Jan 21 and the montly cost is almost what I'm paying now for phone, cell and internet.

I can cancel but the savings after dropping DirecTV were too hard for me to pass up. I've been with DirecTV since '97 so it isn't a quality issue. If I can get the same or better service for less I'm all for it.

So is U-verse good or bad?

[kamari]

Originally Posted by Roy

I typed in U-verse in the search and found responses everywhere from awesome to sucks.....LOL. I just wondered if any opinions have changed? I signed up for it yesterday on the U300 Elite and the HD premium tier. Supposed to be out and do the install Jan 21 and the montly cost is almost what I'm paying now for phone, cell and internet.

I can cancel but the savings after dropping DirecTV were too hard for me to pass up. I've been with DirecTV since '97 so it isn't a quality issue. If I can get the same or better service for less I'm all for it.

So is U-verse good or bad?

I ordered U verse back in august (U200). The only negative thing I can find about it is the lack of slow motion replay. My GF's time warner has that and I was pretty addicted to it watching sporting events. Other than that it's a magnificent package. I've never had an outage in a storm, no "searching for station...please standby" garbage, picture quality is absolutely amazing, and I constantly record and delete shows from my phone or comp while at work...don't be fooled by that new verizon commercial, lol, uverse been doin it for a long time. I pay $115/month, that's the only real complaint I'd have, but I hadn't paid the cable bill in 4 years so I lost track of what a good package should cost. That's cable, internet, HD package, and 2 boxes.

I guess you can tell that overall I'm a happy camper.

[photonewb]

I've had mine since Dec 30 and so far I'm happy with it. Channels are clearer and to me that's a good thing. Cost is much cheaper than with Comcast and to me that's a good thing.

Setting up the DVR is simple, you can actually search for a show, get this, by name!!!!

So far in my 2 weeks I'd have to say Uverse>Comcast.

Also Uverse is giving up a $100 cash reward for signing up ($200 if you do it online, wish I'd known that little difference).

But you'll wait about 6 weeks or so, at least that was the wait in Houston when I ordered mine.

[Jake]

It's gotten better in the last year. I use to hate it, but now that I can recored 2 HD shows at one time, I'm happy.
I still think the HD quality could be better, but it's not bad for the price.

[kamari]

Originally Posted by photonewb

But you'll wait about 6 weeks or so, at least that was the wait in Houston when I ordered mine.

YIKES! I won't complain again about my 8 days.
One other note (and this is just nit picking now) is that you can't program another remote to function as your uverse remote. Programming the uverse remote is a few pretty easy steps though to power up dvd or stereos.

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by Roy

I typed in U-verse in the search and found responses everywhere from awesome to sucks.....LOL. I just wondered if any opinions have changed? I signed up for it yesterday on the U300 Elite and the HD premium tier. Supposed to be out and do the install Jan 21 and the montly cost is almost what I'm paying now for phone, cell and internet.

I can cancel but the savings after dropping DirecTV were too hard for me to pass up. I've been with DirecTV since '97 so it isn't a quality issue. If I can get the same or better service for less I'm all for it.

So is U-verse good or bad?

Roy -
My DH is a tech with AT&T, and installs u-verse. So this is insider info, and if you share where you got it - I'll kill you. Seriously.

The installation matters. ALOT. It's actually the 'most' important part. I don't know how many t.v's you are getting setup, or the condition of your home wiring, apparently if you have crappy wiring - it's going to matter. ALOT.

I don't understand 'all' of what I'm going to say - alot of it is just repeating what my DH tells me - but if the connection isn't clean across the system (from the moment it hits your house, to the boxes inside) , errors build up on the lines, and after a while, it impacts the speed, etc of the entire system causing failures/problems.

So you need to get a clean install - that's the main issue. If your install is not clean - you'll have ongoing issues. If you START having issues - that's where you need to tell them to look.

The techs are provided x number of hours to do a job and if they run into issues - and it takes longer, then their efficiency (the measurement that ATT uses to measure how long it takes them to do a job) is penalized. So be nice to your technician. Connect with him/her - and offer them a cold drink if they have to climb up in your (even now) hot a$$'d attic.

They are HUGE on customer service though - my DH goes on repair tickets and fixes issues like this as well - and it's just part of the fact that they are offering something no one else is offering - there ARE going to be issues with it.

I don't currently have U-verse because it isn't available in my neighborhood - but the moment it is - I'll be getting it. Of course... if I have issues, I'll just yell at my DH to fix them. *grin*

If you have any questions - don't hesitate to ask - I can bug my DH about them. ;-)

Donna

[Roy]

Sounds good so far. I have a 5 day wait but I could of waited longer. I still have service so that wasn't an issue. They also had a promotion like you mentioned Richard of $100 cash reward or $14 off per month. I took the $14.

The HD through DirecTV has been excellent except when a storm comes rolling through. I haven't seen the quailty for HD from U-verse. In fact the only family member I have with HD is my Son and he's with Dish.

[MikeyG1965]

Wish I could get it. I wouldn't even complain if I had problems. I live in the "sticks" and at the moment, my only internet connectivity is an AT&T aircard. About 3 times faster than dial up, but any downloading or looking a photo is out of the question.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Roy

Sounds good so far. I have a 5 day wait but I could of waited longer. I still have service so that wasn't an issue. They also had a promotion like you mentioned Richard of $100 cash reward or $14 off per month. I took the $14.

The HD through DirecTV has been excellent except when a storm comes rolling through. I haven't seen the quailty for HD from U-verse. In fact the only family member I have with HD is my Son and he's with Dish.

If your in my area anytime soon you can stop by and check out the u-verse HD.

[Roy]

Thanks Donna. I don't know the wiring condition either. We bought this home in 1978. Everything works and there hasn't been any fires so I think the wiring is fine. Our community is all underground, we have no poles other than street lights to our homes. We're only hooking up one TV as of right now. We have a second TV but it never gets watched so I didn't see the point. It's only going to get in the 40's today if we're lucky so it should be nice and cozy in the attic but who knows abot the 21st? I'll treat the installer nice though.

I don't know you and didn't hear or read a thing. I don't wanna get killed...hehe.

[Roy]

Thanks for the offer Jake. What's for dinner?.......LOL

There's only two of us. We can leave the dog at home.

[Hogleg 44]

Roy...
I just got it the day after Christmas. The installer was supposed to show between 8 and 10 am. Guess what!!! At 11:00 I called and they hadn't assigned my install to an installer yet. I was HOT!!!. At 12:00 my Wife called. She stayed cool, and was able to speak to a supervisor, who got the next available installer to take our install, but it still was after 2:00 before he made it. But he did call us and let us know when he would be here.
It took him until 7:00 to get it done.....with me helping him pull wire.

Later we discovered the installer deleted my wife's telephone line during the install, (NOT COOL!!!!) but they send someone out bright and early Saturday morning and restored it.
The telephone guy said that the Uverse guys don't know beans about the landline service, so be sure that everything works before he leaves.

The TV is great. We got the 300 with the HD add on. I am getting my TV via an HDMI hookup because I already had the HDMI cable hooked to a TV input, and the back of my TV is not easy to get to. The HDMI causes an error message when the U-verse starts, but it disappears right away and everything works fine. The installers don't even carry HDMI cables because the Motorola receivers give these messages even though they are equipped with HDMI ports. The installer said I might get some component cables to replace the HDMI if the HDMI causes problems. (Which it hasn't yet) He would have given me a set but there were none on his truck. ???? I found some component cables in my mass of old TV stuff and hooked them up myself the next day. The HDMI seems to produce a slightly better picture than the component cables.

Everything worked great with the internet on my Wife's PC. IE didn't have any problem with the U-verse modem.
Safari, on my Mac doesn't like the modem at all!. It was extremely slow loading on any emails or websites with lots of graphics. Fast on text, but slow on graphics. Firefox was much better. Camino best.
This must be a known bug with U-verse that no one is fixing, because a Google search on the subject will produce a lot of hits!!!
I have Safari working pretty slick now by trying a trick I found in a U-verse forum by switching my Mac to Open DNS address servers from the DNS set in the U-verse modem. For now Safari seems to be working at warp speed. (I really found that I prefer Safari to Firefox). I do seem to get a rare advertisement pop-up, that may come from the Open DNS. But it isn't obtrusive so far. I'm not sure at this point that that's where they are coming from.

Other than the Safari issue...I am very happy with the U-verse so far!

If I can help you with my experience so far, let me know.

[Roy]

Thanks a lot Paul. It's all Windows here. I've only got one computer hooked up direct using IE on XP Pro. The laptop (Vista Business) is hooked up wireless with a wireless router which I was told they would replace with a new router.

My TV is not old to me but it is older than what's out now. It's a rear projection Mitsubishi Diamond series and has a DVI connection I use for DirecTV. I'm running a HDMI from the receiver and converting to DVI at the set. My DVD is hooked up with component cables and I have one open set of component left. I was hoping to keep the HDMI/ DVI. I can tell a difference.

The guy told me there is no land line but it's VOIP and there's no long distance fee unless it's overseas. I'm not real clear on that. I just wonder if there's anything I need to do? I don't want to get charged the fee I'm paying now for land line. The ticket shows U-verse voice unlimited.

All I know about the internet is that it's the Elite. 6.0M. I'm on the Pro 3.0M now.

[Jake]

Originally Posted by Roy

Thanks for the offer Jake. What's for dinner?.......LOL

Fillet mignon with some bacon wrapped shrimp and a main lobster tail......or a frozen pizza. Depending on the night.


One other thing I don't like is I can't get DD 5.1 via HDMI. I have to use the optical output.

[Hogleg 44]

Originally Posted by Roy

Thanks a lot Paul. It's all Windows here. I've only got one computer hooked up direct using IE on XP Pro. The laptop (Vista Business) is hooked up wireless with a wireless router which I was told they would replace with a new router.

My TV is not old to me but it is older than what's out now. It's a rear projection Mitsubishi Diamond series and has a DVI connection I use for DirecTV. I'm running a HDMI from the receiver and converting to DVI at the set. My DVD is hooked up with component cables and I have one open set of component left. I was hoping to keep the HDMI/ DVI. I can tell a difference.

The guy told me there is no land line but it's VOIP and there's no long distance fee unless it's overseas. I'm not real clear on that. I just wonder if there's anything I need to do? I don't want to get charged the fee I'm paying now for land line. The ticket shows U-verse voice unlimited.

All I know about the internet is that it's the Elite. 6.0M. I'm on the Pro 3.0M now.

With our pkg we are still on two hardwire land lines, with the same services we have always had, unlimited US long distance, including Canada I think. So I don't know about the VOIP. But the service is delivered to the house using our underground phone line from the pedestal in the easement.

We started out on the Elite, but upgraded to the Pro 10.0 after it seemed the Elite was slower than our old SBC DSL. I'm not sure it was now, after discovering the real source of my Safari slowdown. But I will most likely stay with the Pro because of the faster upload service. (Uploading Photos.) I haven't had many to upload since getting the upgrade, but what I have uploaded so far, seemed to be quicker...???? Time will tell. It is only a phone call to go back to Elite.