AT&T U-Verse
 

I have been a long time subscriber to DirecTV with Tivo service and will be making the switch to AT&T U-verse in January. I will be saving about $30 bucks a month with this change. I have a feeling that the only thing I will miss is the Tivo service. Hopefully the U-Verse is comparable.
Anyone else out there have any experience with this one?
A quick comparison of the two;

DirecTV:
Two tuner DVR with 30 hours of record time in std. definition.
Record on two channels at the same time and watch something recorded at the same time.
More channels then I ever watch. (or would want to)
A life time subscription to Tivo.
Separate bill from my phone and internet statements.

AT&T U-Verse:
Record on four channels at once.
HD ready DVR with 133 hours record time in std. def., 33 hours in high def.
More channels then I ever watch. (or would want to)
My phone service, answering service, television, and internet all rolled into one bill.

I tried to sign up once (actually, I did). I had done some research because they kept calling my house and mailing stuff to me and finally a nice kid came door-to-door selling so I went for it. The sign up process was long that night, then a guy came out to connect it and after a couple of hours determined that the fiber terminated a couple of hundred feet too far away from my house. They keep pestering me, but until they come to my house first and confirm that it'll work, they can kiss my butt.

Besides that, like I said, I had signed up and thought that it was a pretty good deal.

The only thing that I've read is that if you are a hard core HD person, that the HD isn't as good as the Satellite stuff. What I've read is that they compress the HD channels more so the quality is not quite what it is on the satellite services.

Since I never got it, I can't confirm if the HD is not as good or not.

I know the Fiber Optic won't be a problem. The backbone for the service runs down our street. I remember joking with the crew putting it in a couple of years ago that I wouldn't complain if they ran an extra thread down my driveway. ;) I am literally less then 50' from the backbone.
HD won't be a big deal to me for quite awhile yet. I am still using my Sony XBR 36" TV with std. def. I won't be replacing it any time soon either.
The internet speed is going to be about the same or better then what I already have. 3mb download speed and 768kb upload. When I was still gaming, I always wanted more. Now I am happy with the speed I have.

Thanks for the input Steve.

I made the switch a over a year ago. It is awesome:

1. Cheaper than my old cable, dsl, etc.
2. I also get extra premium channels for the cheaper price.
3. Non-premium broadcast is also clearer than cable.
4. The router is free and super fast.
5. 4 units: 1 can record and 3 cannot. However, whatever gets recorded can be viewed by the other 3.
6. Customer service has been AWESOME. In 40+ years, I have never given any company an awesome rating....except for AT&T.

Try it. No contracts, no penalties, etc.

When it come available here, I will...

I switched from DirecTV to AT&T UVerse last February and I'm very glad I did. UVerse is less expensive, easier to use and more dependable. The 400 channel pkg is great and the Internet speeds are unbelievable. Good luck with the transition!

I ran both Directv, Comcast and Uverse for about one month. I wanted to check out the Uverse Internet against the Comcast Internet and the Uverse against the Directv TV.

The Uverse Internet was significantly faster than the Comcast cable Internet. Using the same CPU and a wireless connection, I was clocking Uverse about 2X Comcast for both download and upload.

The Uverse TV was no where near as robust as the directv. The channel selection was less at similar price points and the On Demand service only offerred CBS channels. The childrens programming for Uverse is almost non-existant compared to Comcast Television.

Anyway, I ended up with Directv for the television and Uverse for the Internet.

Just my input.

got it and love it. cheaper, no contract, and reliability is better than my cable used to be.

Funny, I was just looking at this today. The TV requires a set-top box, correct? If so that's my only reservation, as we currently have 5 TVs connected. Once we finish the basement, that total will jump to 9. If there was a way to get around the set-top box, I'd be all over it.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by a set-top box. The actual unit (DVR) is 12" wide 11" deep and a little less then 3" tall. Thats smaller then the present DVR that I have from DirecTV. The modem for the internet looks about average in size. I didn't look up the dimensions of that.
I think you would have to have one DVR per TV though. Or you could get really creative with an infrared rabbit.

I got it two weeks ago; hdtv, internet and phone. Same cost as Tiem Warner with three times the channels, unlimited phone, caller id, call waiting, and internet.
TV is excellent. Once you get the hang of things and set it up it is great.
Phone - picked up the call features and unlimited calling for same cost w/out
Internet - Seems ok, although I get moments of "nothing" using the wireless. I'm going to look into a repeater, although the router is on the same floor.

Overall I would say it's a two thumbs up. FYI - when I cancelled Time Warner they said "we would have done somehting on the p-rice etc..."

AT&T's Whole Home DVR is a nice feature too.

By set-top box, I mean some sort of tuner box for each TV. As opposed to cable where I just plug the coax into the TV. I really don't care about DVR, I don't watch that much TV anyway.

Strange quote from a man with 9 freakin TVs in his house.

Dang! I was thinking the same thing. Only one TV in this house. Thats enough.

Hey Dan, I have U-Verse with the everything package. If you want to come check it out let me know. I'm in Europe till the 13th.

Cheers,

actually, if i had one criticism with mine, it's the action of the remote. The menus are great, but there is a 1 second delay anytime i hit a button

Is it that many? One in the living room, one in the master br, one in the son's br, one in the office, that's four right now. Eventually we might have one in the other current br, and we're adding 2 brs, a new office, and a kids room downstairs.

Do you guys not have TVs in your bedrooms?

I appreciate the offer. You lucky dog! There on vacation or business?

Nope. :) Maybe some day.

I am looking forward to checking it out. It won't be installed until Jan. 23rd.

Mrs. Ruf and I have other ways of entertaining ourselves in our bedroom (wink, wink). Don't need a TV for entertainment.