Thread: Review: AT&T U-VERSE

Per my post of 12/05/07 (#185), we had signed up for U-verse under their one free month promotion. Last Wednesday, three at&t techs showed up, on time, at 10:00 A.M. to start the install. Actually, at&t was having a "block party," on our street, I counted no fewer than eight trucks, so I guess they decided to get this area done all together. It did have the advantage of providing a line drop technician, which meant I avoided the problem Scott referenced in his initial review, whereby he had to wait until the specialist could come out and do the line drop from the main line; we had a "rover" in the neighborhood who was going where needed to make the new line drops.

"My" crew worked from 10:00 A.M. until 6:00 P.M. setting up the system. We learned from the lead guy that they had been warned by the dispatcher that our tract would be a problem, as it was built in 1960, and most, if not all, of the houses had the old telephone lines inside. Mine was no exception, which led to the ultimate conclusion of the whole experience, the dvr function could not get a good enough signal to work. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Early in the afternoon, the "gateway" had been set up, this being the brain of the whole system which drives the Internet and the television systems. Our two laptops, formerly served by an Apple Airport wireless unit, made a seamless changeover to the new wireless unit, did not lose any settings, and we had a pass code to set up the network access which was ten digits long, hopefully giving a bit more security. Our former dsl speed of 1.5 mbps was doubled, per the level of service we chose, and an online speed check confirmed it was right on the nose.



By 6:00 P.M., I had one guy still cranking away. He had a bit of a struggle figuring out how the subsequent telephone lines had been installed in the house. When the house was built, according to old-timers in the neighborhood, there was only one telephone line (this was before the plug-in jacks, too), and the "network interface device" (NID) was a small box in a galvanized metal container nailed to the garage wall, behind the workbench, etc. The crew installed a new NID, like the one in Scott's photo, on the outside of the house where the new line drop came to the house, and a new line routed into the garage, tying in to the old NID, which is where some later lines were added for more phone service in the house.

The tech got the two non-dvr receivers online, then started the program download for the dvr/receiver unit. He told me there were two download programs, so, "don't expect to see anything for about four hours." So, for several hours, while watching DISH via my other input, I would occasionally check on the U-verse download, and saw the "gear" symbol in the middle of the screen, with the progress bar inching, by microns, across the bottom. By the time we retired for the evening, the bar was still creeping along. As for the two other receivers, one looked great on my Olevia 32", which he had hooked up with an HDMI cable from the receiver to the Olevia. Even with the 720p screen, it was no different than the DISH signal I have going to it with component cables, thanks to the early 622's failure of its HDMI port. The other receiver was running a 15" Polaroid in the guest BR. The Polaroid produces a great picture, so I had high expectations. The picture, however, was not as crisp as I expected, and every fifteen to twenty seconds, it would freeze for about three seconds.

Next morning, eagerly started up the television to see what I had on the dvr/receiver unit: got a big red 'X' on the screen. Called at&t tech support, was told to restart the unit, which I did, and, of course, had to wait for several hours for resolution, that being....... another big, red 'X.' Subsequent call to tech service earned me a service call Saturday.

A note here about the at&t field techs, I will say all the ones we dealt with were very courteous and diligent in their efforts, quite willing to discuss any questions I had for them. However, the primary tech on my install confessed that mine was among the first he had done. The fellow I had to the house on Saturday was more like a "super tech," I had a hunch he really knew his stuff once he started rolling, but a field supervisor came by later with a freshly charged meter for him, and told me separately that he was one of their very best guys, which is significant in that even he could not get the dvr unit to operate on my system. He did confirm the unit itself was fine, but after tracing several of the telephone lines, he informed me that the problem in my telephone cables are all the "flat" type, which simply do not have the ability to carry the quality of signal the dvr needs to operate. Seems to be quite capable of running the Internet function. Other problem was that prior owners had added phone lines into other rooms by adding lines from downstream jacks, instead of going back to the NID, a.k.a. "daisy-chaining" the system, which, according to my super tech, just compounds a bad situation. The one exception of the unit which worked well was probably due to the fact that the room in which it was located was right next to the "old" NID, and the phone line for that room was tied into the NID, not "daisy-chained," conversely, the Polaroid unit was on a line that probably at the end of three intervening splices. He final conclusion was that, unless I wanted to rewire the system, at least for the rooms with television service, with Cat 5 cable, I would not have satisfactory service. He said they could do it, but it would be surface mounted. Since I had run all my cabling for the DISH service inside the walls, at great effort, no way I was going to have a bunch of wiring snaking along the walls and through the doors, this being compounded by a two story house. We discussed the options with him, and decided we would opt out of the television function, and keep the Internet function, which is a pleasant upgrade surprise.

I still need to call at&t to inform them of the choice, I understand they will send me boxes to return the receiver units, after, of course, a sales pitch to try to find a way to make it work. I will say there is a gap between the knowledge of the sales force and the install force as to what will work, my salesman never mentioned the possibility of failure (of course not!) even though we were quite specific in telling him we had concerns about the age of the house and the state of the telephone infrastructure.

From what I saw on the "good" receiver, the U-verse looked great. I liked the instant channel changing, i.e. no lag like on DISH, and, in reading the guidebooks that come with the system, it looks like it has a lot of possibilities. It just has the limitation on homes that simply don't have the telephone line capability to handle this technology. Since the trial was on the one-month free option, we had kept our DISH service, glad we did.

So it goes

I wanted to do U-Verse, but to this date 5 months after the VRAD was installed in our neighborhood, while the people next door can get it, we still can't, and I did call about that, but they never called me back.

Why should I fight to pay money to someone? Eh screw it.

Probably you just need to be moved to a different pair closer to your home. If you want I can open an escalation and have it fixed for you PM me if you want. Thanks

I have had the AT&T U-verse service since it became available in Los Angeles. Other than the initial problems with instillation, I have been quite happy. For the most part, it has been problem free. I love all the HD channels which have been added. I check out Time Warner every once and a while, and they have not added any HD channels in my area. Also, I like the added benefit that I can get Wi-Fi for my laptop free at any basic AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot which includes Coffee Bean and Mcdonalds.

I had U-Verse installed a couple of weeks ago. Installation was smooth and painless. My internet speeds blow away my service with WOW. I hooked up my Lingo VOIP in minutes. The HD pictures are very good but not as good as OTA. No blackouts on NFL Network.

I"m happy.

Originally Posted by tommccann

I had U-Verse installed a couple of weeks ago. Installation was smooth and painless. My internet speeds blow away my service with WOW. I hooked up my Lingo VOIP in minutes. The HD pictures are very good but not as good as OTA. No blackouts on NFL Network.

I"m happy.

I'm in St. Louis, and am currently being bombarded with postcards and e-mails from AT&T asking me to check out the U-Verse service. I'm currently with AT&T/Dish, and am really thinking about making the change. I'm not unhappy with Dish -- but the offers and additional features make it very tempting.

I have read a lot here and elsewhere about the slow response of the remote in the guide. This is particularly troubling, as are the reports of ongoing software glitches (spontaneous reboots, etc.).

My Dish 522 has been rock-solid for almost three years now, so I'm one of the lucky ones. But I've read about tons of people on this forum about lots of problems... but are the U-Verse issues more widespread than anything on Dish's DVRs, especially as it pertains to basic functionality (pausing TV, recording multiple streams, etc.)

Thanks.

Originally Posted by CopyChief

I'm in St. Louis, and am currently being bombarded with postcards and e-mails from AT&T asking me to check out the U-Verse service. I'm currently with AT&T/Dish, and am really thinking about making the change. I'm not unhappy with Dish -- but the offers and additional features make it very tempting.

I have read a lot here and elsewhere about the slow response of the remote in the guide. This is particularly troubling, as are the reports of ongoing software glitches (spontaneous reboots, etc.).

My Dish 522 has been rock-solid for almost three years now, so I'm one of the lucky ones. But I've read about tons of people on this forum about lots of problems... but are the U-Verse issues more widespread than anything on Dish's DVRs, especially as it pertains to basic functionality (pausing TV, recording multiple streams, etc.)

Thanks.

I was also concerned but have been pleasantly surprised. I had Dish Network during the early years and was never all that satisfied with the picture quality. I have 4 sets hooked up (first 3 boxes are free, the fourth I pay 5 bucks a month). I had considered Dish but it could not compete cost wise.

Good luck!

If its available sign up for it and try it out (but keep your other service) if you dont like it you can cencel it and owe nothing.

Let us know how it goes!

I had mine installed today with 5 receivers which is causing a few problems since I didn't know that it wouldn't support more than 4 steams at one time. The technichian told me that I had 67 mb at the box on my house but the system only uses 25 mb to run(Ithink it was mb - but the system needs 25 and I have 67).

Does anyone know if there would be a way tohook up my own DVR to get a second tv to record or even an old computer with a tv card or something?

Thanks,