Dish vs. U-Verse (AT&T Fiber)

[berck]

I've had both. I much prefer UVerse's channel line up over anybody else. They have nearly an HD channel for every channel. What I didn't like aobut UVerse was two things...
1) Their DVR box is very sensitive to HDCP issues. When I called about the problem, the tech support guy in India swore up and down that it was my TV and not their box. When I finally convinced him to send somebody out, that person said this happens all the time.
2) Their modems cost you money, and they keep raising the price all the time. Last I knew, it was $10/month and that was three years ago. It was going up $1/year at the time. It is required because of receiving the TV stations.

Having said that, there were a few additional positives about those two negatives above.
1) If you have to switch out the DVR box, the new box will still get all your scheduled recordings. Just not the stuff you've recorded (unless they've updated their cloud feature.
2) The nice thing about the required modem rental is that you can watch TV from ANY device while on your network at home. As many as you want.

 

[ncted]

I've had both. I much prefer UVerse's channel line up over anybody else. They have nearly an HD channel for every channel. What I didn't like aobut UVerse was two things...
1) Their DVR box is very sensitive to HDCP issues. When I called about the problem, the tech support guy in India swore up and down that it was my TV and not their box. When I finally convinced him to send somebody out, that person said this happens all the time.
2) Their modems cost you money, and they keep raising the price all the time. Last I knew, it was $10/month and that was three years ago. It was going up $1/year at the time. It is required because of receiving the TV stations.

Having said that, there were a few additional positives about those two negatives above.
1) If you have to switch out the DVR box, the new box will still get all your scheduled recordings. Just not the stuff you've recorded (unless they've updated their cloud feature.
2) The nice thing about the required modem rental is that you can watch TV from ANY device while on your network at home. As many as you want.

At least for Fiber in my area, they are saying there is no equipment fee for Internet or the first 4 TVs, it is all included, at least during the 24-month promotion period. There is a broadcast channels fee of $6 and the usual TV taxes.

How did you resolve your HDCP issues? Do you still have U-verse or something else?

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[david_jr]

FWIW: 5 tuners has been fine for us, but I can totally see people wanting more these days. Even 7 seems a little slim if you have a big household. Then again, kids these days seem to watch everything on their phones, so what do I know?

At my house the people who "watch everything on their phones" tend to set timers for recordings of their favorite shows not bothering to make sure it is for new only and I will end up with 80 or 90 episodes of Better Call Saul or Night of the Living Dead or say Preacher or even Breaking Bad. We only have 6 tuners spread over 2 HWS so we have had some conflicts. I am constantly having to ask them to edit their timers and to delete some of those episodes if they've watched them already or if they're not going to watch the repeats. I'm not planning on upgrading anytime soon, but 16 tuners is tempting.

 

[scoob83]

I have had both UVerse and Dish. I had UVerse in two separate towns. The picture quality is hands down much better on Dish than UVerse.

 

[dare2be]

I have had both UVerse and Dish. I had UVerse in two separate towns. The picture quality is hands down much better on Dish than UVerse.

Yeah, but was that on the new AT&T fiber, or the old technology?

 

[KAB]

At my house the people who "watch everything on their phones" tend to set timers for recordings of their favorite shows not bothering to make sure it is for new only and I will end up with 80 or 90 episodes of Better Call Saul or Night of the Living Dead or say Preacher or even Breaking Bad. We only have 6 tuners spread over 2 HWS so we have had some conflicts. I am constantly having to ask them to edit their timers and to delete some of those episodes if they've watched them already or if they're not going to watch the repeats. I'm not planning on upgrading anytime soon, but 16 tuners is tempting.

In your revealed scenario, being tempted is just delaying what you already know...you should go to H3.

 

[ncted]

It is looking more and more like U-verse in my future. The people I've talked to in the neighborhood on Nextdoor who have it all seem to like it. Even the people on the cheapo channel lineups are getting the IPH8110 DVRs, and they say it has been very reliable. Of course, it is fiber, and it was only installed a couple of years ago, so you'd expect that. Also, a lot of them are former TWC customers, so their expectations might be low. I didn't find any converts from DirecTV, but a few from Dish. The former Dish customers all said the PQ was comparable, but probably not as good as DirecTV. The one thing I didn't seem to be able to get any information on was how timer conflicts/overlaps were handled:

1. If the DVR cannot record an episode due to a conflict, but that same episode airs later on that day or week, like many cable shows do, will it be recorded at that time?
2. If the DVR is recording 2 shows sequentially on the same channel, does it use 2 tuners during the overlap time, or is it smart enough to figure out how to only use 1 timer and then include the overlapping parts on both recordings?

 

[Tony S]

The one thing I didn't seem to be able to get any information on was how timer conflicts/overlaps were handled:

1. If the DVR cannot record an episode due to a conflict, but that same episode airs later on that day or week, like many cable shows do, will it be recorded at that time?
2. If the DVR is recording 2 shows sequentially on the same channel, does it use 2 tuners during the overlap time, or is it smart enough to figure out how to only use 1 timer and then include the overlapping parts on both recordings?

1. Yes, it will record the skipped episode if is shown again later.
2. My HWS uses 2 tuners for sequential shows.

 

[ncted]

1. Yes, it will record the skipped episode if is shown again later.
2. My HWS uses 2 tuners for sequential shows.

That is what I would expect from a hopper. Not sure about the uverse dvr though.

 

[ncted]

I decided to get a Slingbox to try. If I decide to go with U-verse, this will be a necessity.

 

[berck]

How did you resolve your HDCP issues? Do you still have U-verse or something else?

I got AT&T to come back out and replace the DVR. The installer said that it happens all the time. I should have said something when I saw the first installer working it because I had seen the issue pop up a couple of times, but went away. As a side note, the DVR box actually will put out an R G B signal at 1080p/i. I didn't think it was supposed to do that because of the HDCP, but it does. Frankly, the video quality looked better than the HDMI input. I was surprised, but you have to play tricks for getting the audio then.

 

[silverdiskdj]

I have had DISH for many years in the past, and currently have U-Verse due to the package I could get with internet. I have actually been quite impressed with U-Verse. For $105 a month, we get four rooms of U-Verse, 50/10 internet, for two years. That TV package is the U-300 package, which includes many channels and Starz. The internet stays at $30 a month as long as I keep TV packaged with it. No fee for the modem, either. The last time I had DISH, I had been on the Flex Pack to save money, due to the added costs for the DVR for the Hopper. The downside is that we loved the Hopper as it opened Netflix and such... but I love the fact that nearly all general entertainment channels are in HD and we don't have to deal with the lack of HD on certain other channels anymore. Picture quality is slightly better for us with U-Verse than with DISH. We had DISH until February of this year, then flipped to U-Verse. That is at least our experience. If you want package flexibility, DISH is your clear winner. I love the selection of packages and choices you could get. I just hated the fact that you had to pay so much for the DVR service and extra rooms.

 

[dare2be]

If you want package flexibility, DISH is your clear winner. I love the selection of packages and choices you could get. I just hated the fact that you had to pay so much for the DVR service and extra rooms.

Yep, that is one of the reasons I'm still with Dish. Package flexibility and I'm not being gouged on DVR or extra room fees.

 

[ncted]

Yep, that is one of the reasons I'm still with Dish. Package flexibility and I'm not being gouged on DVR or extra room fees.

Now I'm not sure which one is gouging for DVR and extra room fees. U-verse seems to charge a flat fee for up to 4 rooms, including DVR service, while Dish has the fees. Am I missing something?

 

[dare2be]

Now I'm not sure which one is gouging for DVR and extra room fees. U-verse seems to charge a flat fee for up to 4 rooms, including DVR service, while Dish has the fees. Am I missing something?

The only thing you're missing from my post is that my fees are grandfathered, and I'm only paying a total of $7.

 

[ncted]

I have had DISH for many years in the past, and currently have U-Verse due to the package I could get with internet. I have actually been quite impressed with U-Verse. For $105 a month, we get four rooms of U-Verse, 50/10 internet, for two years. That TV package is the U-300 package, which includes many channels and Starz. The internet stays at $30 a month as long as I keep TV packaged with it. No fee for the modem, either. The last time I had DISH, I had been on the Flex Pack to save money, due to the added costs for the DVR for the Hopper. The downside is that we loved the Hopper as it opened Netflix and such... but I love the fact that nearly all general entertainment channels are in HD and we don't have to deal with the lack of HD on certain other channels anymore. Picture quality is slightly better for us with U-Verse than with DISH. We had DISH until February of this year, then flipped to U-Verse. That is at least our experience. If you want package flexibility, DISH is your clear winner. I love the selection of packages and choices you could get. I just hated the fact that you had to pay so much for the DVR service and extra rooms.

Thanks, I really appreciate the feedback.

 

[ncted]

Well, I can say that the Sligbox does an excellent job of transcoding content for place-shifting. That said, the loss of connection every time I try to use trick-play functionality on iOS devices is kind of a deal killer. It works great on the Mac desktop client, so I am unsure why the iOS client would suck quite so bad. Trying to figure out now if there is anything I can do to mitigate it.

 

[ncted]

Well, after hours of fiddling with settings on my iPhone, I was only able to make things with the Slingbox slightly less unreliable. Additionally, when I showed the interface to my wife, the lack of 30-second skip was apparently a deal-breaker. She is used to the Mobile DVR interface on the DirecTV app, and I think the trick-play delay with the streamed content would probably drive her nuts anyway. We're going to need to be able to download content in most cases. Unfortunately, I think this will disqualify U-verse as an option. We both use this functionality every day. So, Dish is the obvious choice then, which means I have some Dish Anywhere questions:

1. Does anyone here use Dish Anywhere to download content to their iPhones to watch out of the home? If so, when you transfer content, does it stay on the Hopper as well, or does it get removed, like with the EHD?
2. It looks like Dish Anywhere has 30-second skip based on what I can see of the interface. Does this work well to skip commercials?
3. I don't suppose Autohop works on Dish Anywhere downloads? What if you stream instead of download? Will it give you the option of enabling Autohop when playing back an eligible recording?
4. Do you find Dish Anywhere to be a generally reliable piece of software? I have to constantly troubleshoot DirecTV's Mobile DVR functionality, while Tivo's "just worked" 99% of the time.
5. Anything else I should know about Dish Anywhere?

Thanks,
Ted

 

[navychop]

1. It is a move, not a copy. Some have reported exceptions to this.
2. 30 second skip ahead works for me- BUT: Click each time with a slight pause between each click. After five clicks, wait 1-2 seconds before clicking again. If you go too fast, it may kick you out of the app.
3. I don't use PTAT so I don't use autohop.
4. I have little trouble. Not as good as being in front of the Hopper, but more than good enough, with a decent connection. I've watched with a connection as slow as around 1.5, but that was iffy.
5. You need to Prepare the programs you want to move. You can set the box to just prepare all of them automatically.

There is also a DishGo, which lets you record a huge amount of stuff to watch from later. This, I suspect, works even better than the DA and phone/tablet combo. Certainly holds a whole lot more programming. 100 hours and connects to up to five devices at a time.

 

[ncted]

1. It is a move, not a copy. Some have reported exceptions to this.
2. 30 second skip ahead works for me- BUT: Click each time with a slight pause between each click. After five clicks, wait 1-2 seconds before clicking again. If you go too fast, it may kick you out of the app.
3. I don't use PTAT so I don't use autohop.
4. I have little trouble. Not as good as being in front of the Hopper, but more than good enough, with a decent connection. I've watched with a connection as slow as around 1.5, but that was iffy.
5. You need to Prepare the programs you want to move. You can set the box to just prepare all of them automatically.

There is also a DishGo, which lets you record a huge amount of stuff to watch from later. This, I suspect, works even better than the DA and phone/tablet combo. Certainly holds a whole lot more programming. 100 hours and connects to up to five devices at a time.

Great info. Thanks. Do you typically use both transfers and streaming, or do you prefer one over the other?