Just switched to Uverse.

[FIREBIRD81]

Well, economic reasons and curiosity finally convinced us to switch to uverse and ditch Dish. They gave us a credit for the termination fee dish charged. I highly recommend telling them you have the full 18 months left on your contract if you switch. You will get close to $200 from them. So, what do we think of Uverse? That's a complex answer....

The internet is awesome! After years of dsl with it's rated vs. guaranteed speed crap, getting ACTUAL speeds of 6mb down and 1 up is a HUGE improvement. And...it costs less than our dsl did!

The phone is ok. I expected clearer voice with digital, but it's probabaly a little worse than pots.

The sd picture is beautiful. Dish was appalling to watch, damned near unwatchable most nights. It was so bad that I rarely watched any sd programming on our HDTV.

So how about the HD? Well.......this is where complex comes into the picture.....When all the stars align you see a picture that is showroom beautiful....FAR better than Dish. It's those moments that show you the potential of this service. Unfortunately, this is not consistent. In fact sometimes the picture looks noticeably worse than Dish, much softer with more artifacting. I also think there is a problem with the box decompressing the signal quickly....many users report a pulsing or shifting of their hd signal. If you look real closely, it's like a camera going in and out of focus. It's obvious that ATT uses a worse mpeg4 compression than Dish and that causes much of the problems. It's important to note that these problems are not always there. And when they are not....well, the picture is amazing!

The DVR is extremely basic. I miss my 622. We can watch any recorded show on any tv, but can only record on the main tv. LAME. Getting to the dvr menu requires going thru the main menu and is a little more difficult than just pushing DVR on the dish remote.

VOD---well any HD VOD will be movies only and will cost you. No big deal....dish's VOD was, well, LAUGHABLE. All of the premium channels have a plethora of movies and series available on vod. This is a featue I am loving.

All in all, the service is good. I think that as hardware and software continues to improve the hd will start showing it's true potential. I have far more hd channels than with Dish. Far more channel period than dish, for less money.

 

[jeslevine]

Appreciate the review Firebird. I am considering the jump myself. Right now Uverse has the 200 dollar promotional, and a 30 day money back guarantee

I am still delaying since Dish FINALLY announced some new HD on Wednesday

I never had the issue you have with SD on Dish.

What surprised me is you indicate that the Uverse DVR is lacking. I thought you could view any recorded program from any UVerse receiver? You indicate that doesn't work so well?

Thanks again for your insights

 

[paja]

I had the same experience when I dumped DISH for U=verse. Not much difference in the hd pq, but the difference in the sd pq was like night and day. DISH sd is almost unwatchable. Also, with the incentives, I'm paying 162 a month with the everything tv package, with hd , upgraded internet, and phone. Also got 140 cash back when I signed up. With DISH I was paying 137 a month just for tv. Since I got U-verse back in Oct 08, they have added many hd stations (another batch is about to light up) and my hd pq has gotten signifigantly better in the past few weeks. The seem to be aggressive upgrading their product. I am very satisfied.

 

[NottaBuckeye]

Got u-verse today

Installers were right on time. House has coax and Cat-5 to every room, so we located the hub in the utility room where all the cables run from. Had installers hook up both cables in three rooms. In and out in 3 hours. PQ looks excellent, although I haven't spent much time comparing to DirecTV.

I have zero complaints with DirecTV, especially with all the deals they kept giving me out of their retention department. Had DirecTV since '96 and account is on hold until we sell our house in CO and buy one here in OH. Bought a cheapie house to get by and decided to try U-Verse. Got the 450 package ($109), with elite internet ($35), and with two STB's ($7). Total of $151/mo. was discounted to $131/mo. for 6 months with another $275 in rebates! DVR is the newer Motorola VIP1225 with the larger hard drive. Installers also threw in extras like a power strip, a Netgear 8-port desktop switch, and all kinds of extra cables.

With no commitment, how could I go wrong with this package?

 

[IcEWoLF]

Before this, they had the 250$ promotion.
I had U-Verse when it first came out here in Reno, the whole triple play, they gave me like 100$ and plus 2 months free no charge with all the channels.
It was cool of them.
However after 4 months I cancelled, since I didn't want to pay for 2 tv services at the same time.
I am highly considering moving from DTV to Uverse again, but I'd miss the DTV HD-DVR, its far better than U-Verse, and the response time on the DTV receivers is by far better than U-Verse.
I still have U-Verse Internet, and it has not been disappointing me since I came from Cable Internet.
Overall I'd like to get AT&T for TV, but NFL ST will keep me away from them for a while.
Plus all my locals with U-Verse would be in HD.
Right now I do not get PBS/CW in HD yet...still waiting dammmit.

BTW, with U-Verse, I even got the 2 Wire router/Home Entertainment modem, its amazing, its big, but its awesome, works like a charm and its wireless too, so my Iphone benefits from it too.
Never had any problems with wireless.

 

[IcEWoLF]

Also I do want to note that the U-Verse channel switching is blazing fast, its seamless, that means you don't even see a black screen when you switch channels, I was really happy with the service quality I had with U-Verse.
If I need to, I may end up cancelling DTV.

 

[jeslevine]

Well I just ordered UVERSE. To be installed March 21. We will see how it goes, and I will get an opportunity to give my view

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

UVERSE's SD channels have always looked great, that was one of the best things about the service to me.

The big limit that I ran into was the 2 HD stream limit in your house at a time plus that was added to the poor HD video quality. However with that said you should have seen what the HD quality looked like when UVERSE first started. While the HD now is not as good as Dish or DirecTV it is however much better then when they first started the service.

 

[jeslevine]

UVERSE's SD channels have always looked great, that was one of the best things about the service to me.

The big limit that I ran into was the 2 HD stream limit in your house at a time plus that was added to the poor HD video quality. However with that said you should have seen what the HD quality looked like when UVERSE first started. While the HD now is not as good as Dish or DirecTV it is however much better then when they first started the service.

I will soon be able to compare UVERSE's HD with Dish. Like you Scott, I am not too thrilled about the 2 HD stream limit either

 

[IcEWoLF]

So, how do you guys like U-Verse so far?

 

[jeslevine]

I will let you know in a week IcEWoLF, that is when I am supposed to get it installed

 

[jcalton88]

Uverse very good

Uverse has so far been a very good service for me. I didn't get all the extras and perks that I should have, but that was my fault for not holding out. The HD streams is a bummer, but the DVR works good. I am coming off of DirecTV with DVR receivers in two rooms so it is taking some getting use to but I was told that by the first week of May they are sending an update that will allow you to record a show from any receiver instead of just the DVR receiver.

PQ is unsurpassed from what I have experienced. I have had both off-the-air HD as well as DirecTV HD, and my neighbor had Dish HD, and so far the SD channels surpass most of the other mentioned HD channels. Be prepared to adjust your color settings to your liking, its a little saturated right out of the box.

Overall very happy with the service.

Oh, and the gateway is a pain to setup. There is no thought of a userfriendly interface, so if there is anything special you want done and you aren't knowledgable with the ins and outs of networking and computers make sure to tell your installer what you want. They might be able to help (they are suppose to anyway, but never know with the installers). For most basic needs its pretty much plug and play though. No QoS on my gateway, maybe on others?

 

[wase4711]

what do you need help with in the gateway setup?
I think its really easy to setup, but if you need help, just ask!

 

[jeslevine]

I finally got UVERSE installed yesterday, and from my perspective I am pleasantly surprised

I ordered U300 with 6 MEG internet. I ordered 4 receivers, and am about 1200 feet away from the VRAD.

I had them leave my comcast and Dish service intact, and they used new coax to connect the Gateway and the receivers.

The installer was right on time and it took about 6 hours to install. The only problem during the installation was registration of one of the receivers, but that was quickly resolved with a call by the installer.

The quality of the TV signal is excellent, both SD and HD. The SD from UVERSE beats Dish hands down, and the HD quality is about the same between Dish and UVERSE, though Dish might be just a touch better, hard for me to tell though.

With the HD selections from UVERSE compared to Dish, UVerse wins that category

The Dish receivers and Dish user interface is better than the UVerse Motorolla receivers, but UVerse's receiver's are OK.

You are only allowed one DVR receiver whose recordings can be viewed from any other receiver in the house, which works quite well.

Overall, my first impression is that I am quite happy with the Uverse television service. The only drawbacks are a maximum of two HD streams, and you cannot start a recording from a non-DVR receiver. Both of those issues I have been told they are planning to address later this year, but who knows?

The Uverse internet is good, and delivers as advertised, however, in my view Comcast internet is superior. The price of the Comcast internet compared to UVerse makes Uverse a bargin though, and unless there is some reason you need the lower latancy and faster speed Uverse is more than adequate.

Those are just my first impression of UVERSE. I didn't get the VOIP so I cannot comment on that.

 

[wase4711]

you'll really like uverse internet better at 6pm on a weeknight, when you still get the same speed as you do in the middle of the night..Comcrap slows down terribly when every one gets home at dinner time and logs on to the internet, whereas Uverse speed is ALWAYS the same..if you find that not to be true, then call uverse and let them know..

My speed never varies more than a few kbs at any time of day or night..
Yes, the SD picture on UVERSE blows away every other provider, hands down, and, I think the HD is as good as anybodys, except maybe a good OTA antenna getting local HD stuff..

Glad your install went well!

 

[jeslevine]

wase4711, I haven't had the issue you talk about with Comcast internet slowing down, and from what I can see you are absolutely correct, the uverse speed does seem remarkably consistent. For sure, you cannot beat the price of uverse internet compared to Comcast, and I suspect within a couple of weeks I most likely will be droping Comcast internet.

You and I definitely agree on the Uverse television

As I said before my experience is quite position about Uverse, and I am glad I have it. Your reviews and information about Uverse was quite objective, and motivated me to try it in the first place.

I will be keeping Uverse, but am not sure what level of service if any I will keep with Dish yet

Again thanks for your inputs regarding Uverse, not only did it accurately convey what to expect, but how to handle the installation.

 

[wase4711]

You must be on a pretty empty Comcast "node"; in my area, I used to watch the speeds drop to almost dial up like as the day would go on, and, around 7 or 8 pm at night, it was terrible!
There really isnt any reason to keep Dish, since they have no real programming that is better or different than Uverse; plus, with the upgrades that Uverse continues to roll out, it seems silly to pay for another TV service.
A little insiders "secret"...You can call Uverse up at any time, and ask if there is some sort of "deal" to try an upgrade package. I think until May 5th, you can get the top package, U450, for 1/2 price for 6 months! It will probably end up costing you less per month than you are paying now for a smaller tv package!
Just make sure you mark you calender in 6 months to call and get a different deal!

Glad I was able to help you sort this out. There is so much bad information on the internet about Uverse, that it annoys me to see so many people posting bad stuff. 99% of people who love the service never post about it; only the 1% who hate it, or had bad installs seem to post, and that makes people who are cruising the web, trying to find out about it, think its terrible. As you yourself have seen, its really not that way!

 

[Bagman]

UVERSE's SD channels have always looked great, that was one of the best things about the service to me.

The big limit that I ran into was the 2 HD stream limit in your house at a time plus that was added to the poor HD video quality. However with that said you should have seen what the HD quality looked like when UVERSE first started. While the HD now is not as good as Dish or DirecTV it is however much better then when they first started the service.

Scott,

Thanks for all you do on Sat Guys.

However, I just got UVERSE and have Dish. I went against my better judgement and did a side by side comparison of Dish and UVERSE but was pleasantly surprised. In my opinion UVERSE HD is as good or better than Dish. Seems to me that you have not had UVERSE for a while? I agree with some other posters that the 722 is the best receiver out there but over all i am very pleased with UVERSE.

 

[jeslevine]

I am on the same page as you are Bagman, was quite impressed with uverse

However, I wish you could initiate a recording from a non-DVR, which I hear will be coming in a future release

 

[wase4711]

you guys know you can initiate a recording online from any web browser, right?