DirecTV to UverseTV: Should I Switch (Poll)

[mdonnelly]

So I currently have the DirecTV Ultimate package at the promotional price, but my 2 year agreement is up next month.

Chatting with at&t online, I found that UverseTV is now available at my address, and I can get that installed at the new user price for 12 months.

at&t fiber is not available in our city yet, but at&t has built fiber networks just West and North of us.

Has anyone had both, and if so how do they compare in channels, pq and reliability?

DirecTV Ultimate: 250+ channels, $79/month - going up to $146/month next month, no charge for extra receivers

UverseTV: 450+ channels, $100/month, $20/month extra for two more receivers

Is it worthwhile to keep DirecTV and pay the additional $30/month, or switch to UverseTV.

 

[rad]

If it’s the old UVerse that’s using copper twisted pair I’d walk away. Unless it’s changes you were limited to using two HD channels max.

 

[ncted]

So I currently have the DirecTV Ultimate package at the promotional price, but my 2 year agreement is up next month.

Chatting with at&t online, I found that UverseTV is now available at my address, and I can get that installed at the new user price for 12 months.

at&t fiber is not available in our city yet, but at&t has built fiber networks just West and North of us.

Has anyone had both, and if so how do they compare in channels, pq and reliability?

DirecTV Ultimate: 250+ channels, $79/month - going up to $146/month next month, no charge for extra receivers

UverseTV: 450+ channels, $100/month, $20/month extra for two more receivers

Is it worthwhile to keep DirecTV and pay the additional $30/month, or switch to UverseTV.

As rad alluded to, it may depend on how it is delivered. Will you be able to actually watch more than 2 HD channels at a time with the Uverse available to you? I think AT&T was upgrading everything to at least 4 HD streams, but I cannot say for sure. PQ, even on Fiber, is probably not quite as good as D*. Reliability is supposed to be good. Do you use the DirecTV Mobile DVR feature at all? If so, then I don't think Uverse has an equivalent feature. I personally considered Uverse on my AT&T Fiber account, but decided to go with Satellite service because of the Mobile DVR/Dish Anywhere functionality was missing on Uverse.

I know a lot of people who were unhappy to switch from Uverse to DirecTV when AT&T was pushing that, but most of them are happy now that they have DirecTV. I'd probably stick with D* if I were you.

 

[osu1991]

Its been a couple of years, since I've seen Uverse. My cousin over in Yukon,OK got talked into switching from Directv to Uverse. It didn't look very good over copper, no fiber there at that time. No idea if it's changed since then. She went back to directv within a month.

 

[dishrich]

So I currently have the DirecTV Ultimate package at the promotional price, but my 2 year agreement is up next month.
Chatting with at&t online, I found that UverseTV is now available at my address, and I can get that installed at the new user price for 12 months.

How ARE you getting your internet now? And if it's thru AT&T, if/does that factor into the pricing your getting on either it, or TV? (either D* or Uverse TV)

 

[Claude Greiner]

I would recommend AT&T U-verse as much as I would recommend someone getting Dish.

If I had a choice between U-verse or Dish I would recommend dish

 

[dishrich]

I would recommend AT&T U-verse as much as I would recommend someone getting Dish.

If I had a choice between U-verse or Dish I would recommend dish

Do you feel this way regardless if it's U-verse on fiber or copper (ADSL) based???
At least with it on fiber, those DVR's have 6 tuners & can do HD on ALL of them at once...nor does it steal any bandwidth from the internet side. Some of the posts I've read with fiber TV subs say that picture quality is a little better, w/out all the starved bitrate/motion artifacts like macroblocking & pixelation, that you typically see on the copper version.

 

[Claude Greiner]

Do you feel this way regardless if it's U-verse on fiber or copper (ADSL) based???
At least with it on fiber, those DVR's have 6 tuners & can do HD on ALL of them at once...nor does it steal any bandwidth from the internet side. Some of the posts I've read with fiber TV subs say that picture quality is a little better, w/out all the starved bitrate/motion artifacts like macroblocking & pixelation, that you typically see on the copper version.

Good point.

I’m really not a fan on the actual hardware. However I feel a lot better seeing it on actual fiber and not 18 meg over old twisted pair copper.

 

[ncted]

Good point.

I’m really not a fan on the actual hardware. However I feel a lot better seeing it on actual fiber and not 18 meg over old twisted pair copper.

Yeah, it is an ancient Ericsson platform running Windows CE IIRC.

 

[mdonnelly]

The overnight polls are in, and it's 9-0 in favor of DirecTV. I think if we had fiber here I'd be more inclined to jump, but for now I'll keep the satellite. Thanks all.

 

[ncted]

The overnight polls are in, and it's 9-0 in favor of DirecTV. I think if we had fiber here I'd be more inclined to jump, but for now I'll keep the satellite. Thanks all.

Wait! No! You mean we aren't going to endlessly debate this?

 

[paranoia]

Wait! No! You mean we aren't going to endlessly debate this?

good point.