Anyone have ATT Uverse TV?

[Kodiak33]

Re: Anyone have ATT Uverse TV?

I think the U-Verse total bandwidth cap is 250gb.

[CaptainZombie]

Re: Anyone have ATT Uverse TV?

Uverse is not DSL, it uses the same lines that you are getting the TV on for internet. Their speeds are almost constant and I don't think they enforce any caps, they do have some things if you use a ton of bandwidth but I don't know what they are.

I have the phone and have no issues, plus I love all the features for blocking all phone numbers. Any time a sales call, I block the number and there calls no longer come through.

The TV experience will differ based on your distance from box in your neighborhood. I don't have it, but I've seen it and it was terrible for sports on good TVs. You are also limited to 3 HD channels at a time, which may effect the picture quality or internet speed. For sports, I wouldn't like it, but the TV I saw it on was towards the edge of the available distance from the box so it may have been effect somewhat.

Uverse is VDSL, still DSL, kind of like DSL 2.0.

It's limited to 4 HD streams into your house, though the DVR boxes can only handle 3HD and 1 SD at a time.

Sports looked fine to me.

Currently the highest profile they give is 32/5 Kbps (it's rumored they are upping this, my line for instance can support 50Kbps) and that bandwidth is shared by everything (TV, internet, phone). One HD stream is about 5.5 Kbps, so if you run 4 of those what's left for internet is 10Kbps down, talk on the phone and it goes even lower.

I'm never really taxing the internet when multiple streams are being used though, which is typically during primetime TV. I've never had the internet noticeably slow down on me while I was trying to use it.

I will say the router they give you sucks, so if you have one set it up through DMZ+.

I'm happy with it, especially compared to the ****ty cable service, and it's much cheaper than DirecTV/Dish. I'm close to the VRAD though, 600 ft, the further away you are the worse it will be.

How can I find out how far away I am from the VRAD? I keep hearing mixed reviews about U-verse and want to try it out since it can save me about $50 a month, but concerned from some of the stuff I've read. Good thing I get free 30 day trial with this so I'll know in the first few days how this service works and if it sucks I can send it packing.

[p_rushing]

Re: Anyone have ATT Uverse TV?

How can I find out how far away I am from the VRAD? I keep hearing mixed reviews about U-verse and want to try it out since it can save me about $50 a month, but concerned from some of the stuff I've read. Good thing I get free 30 day trial with this so I'll know in the first few days how this service works and if it sucks I can send it packing.

There will be a big box in your neighborhood, usually they are somewhat near access points into each subdivision, but also throughout the subdivision depending on how large it is. Do a google image search for "uverse vrad" to see what they look like.

[Burns11]

Re: Anyone have ATT Uverse TV?

I think the U-Verse total bandwidth cap is 250gb.

Currently there are no caps. Well, they announced caps but they have problems monitoring uverse data and are still not monitoring and enforcing caps.

How can I find out how far away I am from the VRAD? I keep hearing mixed reviews about U-verse and want to try it out since it can save me about $50 a month, but concerned from some of the stuff I've read. Good thing I get free 30 day trial with this so I'll know in the first few days how this service works and if it sucks I can send it packing.

Can't tell until they get you hooked up what kind of connection you will have, and after you might have to get them out to fix it to get things working right. When installed they just worry about getting it working, not working optimally. My install went great, though others do have problems and some people are just too far away to get good service (AT&T has no problem selling you service you can't use).

Before they come, install UVRealtime and after the guy leaves have a look at the stats it shows for your connection. Pretty much look at the two tabs IP/Profile and Bitloading. Under IP/Profile basically just look at the bottom right and see if you have a green 32,339/5,040, that's all you really need worry about at this point. Then look at the bitloading, more color is good, blocks of missing color can point to problems (interference, etc). Below is my bitloading graph for reference, but I'm really close so yours may not look as good, I would say if the graph is less than half as full as mine might be problematic, and big gaps might be problematic. Hopefully dslreports.com is back up by the time of your install so you can contact a tier 2 tech on there if you have any problems.

[mrclutch]

Re: Anyone have ATT Uverse TV?

I agree with all that has been said except the Router. I had them come back and work on it the first week but have had no trouble since then and I have had it well over a year. I haven't even had to reset it one time.

[Burns11]

Re: Anyone have ATT Uverse TV?

Depends on how you use the internet. Wireless stability is good and strength is decent, but no N, it can slow down over time or get bogged down temporarily, it's missing some features.

[CaptainZombie]

Re: Anyone have ATT Uverse TV?

And the fun begins with their customer support, some of the crazy stuff I have read around about. I called 3 times yesterday and could not get an accurate answer. The first time I called, I was verifying my price that the door to door salesman and rep over the phone had quoted me......the guy on the phone tells me my bill is going to be $40 more and that there are install charges which the salesman said there wasn't going to be. After some back and forth, the guy on the phone tells me he's going to leave it at the original $137 I was quoted on Tuesday....so I go off on him that he was trying to rip me off. He was to transfer me to tech support to inquire about the location of the VRAD........I get disconnected.

I call back a second time trying to find out about the VRAD location, get hung up on. I call a third time and after 25 minutes of the ladies computer "supposedly" running slow she tells me that she can't tell me where the VRAD is since I don't have service yet. I'm like WTF, there has to be other on my block that has U-verse.

Between this bad customer service experience and what I have read around how bad the service can be it has me kind of reconsidering this.

[ehh]

Re: Anyone have ATT Uverse TV?

Every cable/dish provider has awful customer service and they all get trashed on the Interwebs. Just go with which one has the best price or channel lineup (which ever you prefer) and call it a day.

[CaptainZombie]

Re: Anyone have ATT Uverse TV?

Every cable/dish provider has awful customer service and they all get trashed on the Interwebs. Just go with which one has the best price or channel lineup (which ever you prefer) and call it a day.

Yeah that is true. The VRAD is down the block, so I have to be under 1,500 feet from it. Since it's a 30 day free trial, I'll check this out and if it sucks I'll figure something else out. Saving $50 a month sounds more enticing at the end of the day.

[55]

Re: Anyone have ATT Uverse TV?

My VRAD is about 300 feet away, which is awesome. It is right in the backyard of the guy across the street.

[CaptainZombie]

Re: Anyone have ATT Uverse TV?

I found the closest VRAD yesterday and it's about 1 block down the street in a neighbors backyard. Based off of Google Earth, I am about 1,000 feet from the VRAD than which is good.

At the most we will most likely have 2 TV's running with the HD stream and a computer or two could be running at a the time. Hopefully this isn't too taxing on the bandwidth.

[Burns11]

Re: Anyone have ATT Uverse TV?

3 HD streams in use I'm getting between 7 and 12 Mbps (I have max) over several tests.

[55]

Re: Anyone have ATT Uverse TV?

2 HD and 1 SD stream right now and I am getting 17 down and 3 up on my laptop.

[CaptainZombie]

Re: Anyone have ATT Uverse TV?

3 HD streams in use I'm getting between 7 and 12 Mbps (I have max) over several tests.

2 HD and 1 SD stream right now and I am getting 17 down and 3 up on my laptop.

It sounds like you guys are getting some solid results with more than 2 HD streams and bandwidth. Their coming tomorrow morning, so we shall see tomorrow how this turns out.

What kind of wiring do they use for U-verse? Will they be using the coax used by Comcast or do they run different wiring?

[Burns11]

Re: Anyone have ATT Uverse TV?

They will use existing cat-5 network if available or coax, they will probably charge you to run cat5. There are reports of problems with running the DVR box off coax, so have them do it off cat-5 if possible (easiest if you are going to have the RG* in a room with a TV). Installation can take a while too, just FYI.

* RG, Residential gateway, is what AT&T calls the "modem"