EXCLUSIVE: AT&T HomeZone First Look

GaryPen said:
jhaifley - How's it going with the unit? Still working ok? Notice any bugs or glitches? (Did you figure out the FF problem? I can't imagine they'd release it that way.) How's the DVR interface? Easy to setup DVR recordings? How are the playback and live play functions? On-sceen program guide and menus?

Hi Gary,

Everything is going well so far. The FF problem was a noob problem on my end as I was pushing the track forward button instead of the FF button. The interface is nice (the colors are a bit loud sometimes). DVR recording setup is very easy. The multi-colored buttons on the remote are great, make changing options easy. Playback and live play work just fine. I have not had any lip-sync issues so far. The On-screen guide is good but I wish they allowed you to customize the interface a bit. I would like to be able to turn-off program descriptions on the main guide to get more listings on the screen but other then that, it works well. Channel changing is pretty fast. I like the web-remote function but will miss it if the music part is gone for good.

Now, the TV2 option is nice but I wish they would come up something similiar to a Media Center Extender so I could connect a receiver to my second TV but if I wanted to watch a show that was already recorded on the DVR, it would stream it to that receiver through the network connection. I know you can also do this with a couple of TIVO's. Hopefully Dish can do something like this soon. The reason is that although the TV2 coax picture quality is OK, it is not great. Another receiver would give me a direct connect through s-video or component and free up the second tuner on the DVR to record two shows at once.
 
jhaifley said:
Now, the TV2 option is nice but I wish they would come up something similiar to a Media Center Extender so I could connect a receiver to my second TV but if I wanted to watch a show that was already recorded on the DVR, it would stream it to that receiver through the network connection. I know you can also do this with a couple of TIVO's. Hopefully Dish can do something like this soon. The reason is that although the TV2 coax picture quality is OK, it is not great. Another receiver would give me a direct connect through s-video or component and free up the second tuner on the DVR to record two shows at once.

Actually, 2Wire developed the MediaPoint to work with the MediaPortal, which would stream media from the 'main' MediaPortal out to additional locations. If people want to pay money for it, i'm sure that it could be sold pretty quickly.

As for the TV2 option, you are partially correct in the use of the tuners. The MediaPortal tuners are 'agile', so either tuner can provide content to either television. Watching a pre-recorded show will not 'use' a tuner in the unit. If you are watching a program on TV1, you can record a 2nd show while watching a 3rd show from the DVR.
 
GaryPen said:
I'm wrong. I'm half-right. Make up your mind.

Actually, I'm 100% right. HomeZone is designed for people who cannot get U-verse. I'll bet you a dollar that they will phase out HomeZone availability for addresses that become eligible for U-verse.

AT&T Homezone complements AT&T U-verse services, the company's premier video service based on IP technology, which recently became more widely available in San Antonio and will be available in additional markets by year-end. While AT&T U-verse services will be the company's primary video offer in available markets, both offerings underscore the company's strategy to expand its video services portfolio, which includes AT&T | DISH Network service.

Source: http://att.sbc.com/gen/press-room?pid=4800&cdvn=news&newsarticleid=22403
 
ranger714 said:
Actually, 2Wire developed the MediaPoint to work with the MediaPortal, which would stream media from the 'main' MediaPortal out to additional locations. If people want to pay money for it, i'm sure that it could be sold pretty quickly.

As for the TV2 option, you are partially correct in the use of the tuners. The MediaPortal tuners are 'agile', so either tuner can provide content to either television. Watching a pre-recorded show will not 'use' a tuner in the unit. If you are watching a program on TV1, you can record a 2nd show while watching a 3rd show from the DVR.

Ok, I guess I have to get used to "powering off" TV2. It is easy to just shut the TV itself off but I suppose it won't free up that tuner unless you press the TV2 power button for the receiver.

I would pay good money for that MediaPoint. Anyone from AT&T listening?
 
AT&T Still Has IPTV 'Jitters'

This is another reason why its best to get your tv service from Dish or another carrier. Instead of haveing everything on one net connection. When your connection goes down your tv does and your internet.. IPTV is not that big of a deal its best to keep things seprate.. Overall IPTV is not going to be very reliable. :)



http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=101056

Industry sources say AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T - message board) is struggling with video packet loss on the eve of the major market launch of its U-verse IPTV service.

Word has it the U-verse network loses roughly two packets of data per minute. “A lost video packet is more than 1,400 bytes of information, and that's going to cost you a half second of video,” one source says. For the viewing public that can mean little annoyances like screen pixelation and jitter -- or, at worst, full screen freezes.

In the U-verse distribution network, video packets hop from AT&T’s video super headend, to regional headends, to the local central offices, to nodes in the neighborhoods. At each "hop," packets can arrive in incorrect order or overload the buffers within the routers and switches, leading to losses.

An AT&T spokesman chose not to comment on the packet loss issue.

Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT - message board), which supplies the IPTV middleware for the U-verse network, is said to be hard at work increasing its product's capacity for dealing with lost packets. Using a software algorithm called Resilient UDP, the set-top box, upon detecting missing or misplaced packets, sends a "resend" command up through the network. The missing packets are then sent down from a server. (See Microsoft Soups Up the Set-Top.)

That works fine if traffic levels are normal, the source says. But if packet loss should occur during the final minutes of the Super Bowl, a million resend requests could pummel the network at the same time, seriously burdening the system.

One source close to the situation says Microsoft has already built in a 15 to 30 second delay to live video streams to allow some time for dealing with packet loss. AT&T, the source says, is uneasy about the scaleability of the setup.

Microsoft TV Edition product manager Jim Baldwin says his company's middleware platform adds roughly a quarter of a second delay for packet error correction and another second of delay for instant channel changing, but that's it. Baldwin says AT&T is perfectly happy with his company’s Resilient UDP approach to packet loss, but says AT&T may decide to use forward error correction as well.

The Scientific-Atlanta Inc. encoders at the headend of the system, Baldwin says, will add a certain amount of latency to the video streams, but AT&T will decide how much. Scientific-Atlanta chose not to comment for this story. (See AT&T, Verizon Tout Telco TV .)

Meanwhile, AT&T may be hedging its bets. Sources close to the situation say AT&T engineers are experimenting with forward error correction (FEC) on one leg of AT&T's video network. Applied near the headend encoders, FEC adds additional video bitstreams that can be used to reconstruct damaged streams on the fly, downstream in the network. Also at the headend, the video packets are tagged sequentially so that the system can detect interruptions in the packet order downstream. The FEC technology monitors the bitstreams at several points in the network, including the set-top box, to detect missing or damaged packets.

Baldwin says FEC works well when the type and size of the packet loss is predictable. But IP networks can lose a whole packet, groups of consecutive packets, or just one bit within a packet, he says.

U-verse was already under criticism, as analysts have noted the initial Project Lightspeed rollout of broadband access won't have the punch to carry high-definition TV, and some question whether Lightspeed will roll out as quickly as AT&T hopes. (See Is Lightspeed Slowing?)

Flickers of trouble?
U-verse debuted in late June in AT&T’s home turf of San Antonio, Texas, and the AT&T spokesman says the service is getting good reviews from users. The few actual U-verse users contacted by Light Reading say the packet loss issue, at least so far, hasn’t been very visible on their TVs. (See AT&T to Launch Lightspeed Next Month.)

“The flicker [pixelation] has only appeared a few times,” says U-verse user Alan Weinkrantz. “But keep in mind that I also have HD Cable from TimeWarner, and there are times when I also get flicker or a nano-of-a-second blur on that.” Weinkrantz, whose day job is as a technology public relations man, has become a minor celebrity through his U-verse user's blog.

“I had some pixelation the very first day after I got service,” writes another U-verse customer, Chad Brantly. “The next day, I got a call from AT&T. They said that they had been having some problems in my area, but they had just done a hardware update and things should be better. Since then, I haven't seen any pixelation. The service has been great,” Brantly writes.

A few unhappy U-verse adopters, however, have shown up on a bulletin board called Uverseusers.com. One of the five discussion threads on the site is called “pixelations and freeze-ups,” wherein three users -– “eapinsatx,” “dilbert” and “nohbdy” -– complain of moderate to serious pixelation and screen freezes.

Heavy Reading analyst Rick Thompson points out the San Antonio debut is probably happening in a very "controlled" network environment. With the technology world watching, AT&T is surely taking steps to make sure the fledgling service makes a good first impression.

But the issue of scaleability looms for AT&T’s engineers, as the carrier plans to roll out U-verse in 15 to 20 markets by the end of 2006. (See AT&T Readies Lightspeed in North Texas.) "It's one thing to get a complex technology like IPTV rolled out to a group of a few thousand users," says independent telecom analyst Kermit Ross. "But it’s quite another thing to kick that up a notch to a few hundred thousand and then yet another thing to kick it up to a few million users."

In other words, once AT&T cranks up the numbers, any failure to tame packet loss will be evident on millions of TV screens.
 
AT&T U-Verse DVR 'Hack'

This is not good read this...

http://www.broadbandreports.com/shownews/77274

When AT&T began offering customers in San Antonio U-Verse TV service over "Project Lightspeed", they were only doling out one DVR per customer. If a customer had a second (or third) TV, AT&T gave them another DVR as a receiver, but just disabled the recording functionality. Engadget and the U-Verse users website explore how customers were cracking open their systems to re-enable the DVR functionality. Calling this a "hack" seems generous - users simply have to apparently re-connect a hard-drive.
 
Yeah like I said pushing everything across your net connection is not a good thing. Its best to try to keep things seprate that way if one thing goes down it does not take down everything..
 
AT&T is rolling the service out slowly and offers it in only two other markets, San Antonio and Ohio. AT&T plans to launch the service to all its customers in the fall, said Daniel Fishlow, director of video services marketing for AT&T.

Woohoo!
 
I played with one of the HD homezone receivers for a couple of minutes today and it's form factor is similar to a 622. I have a meeting with ATT about Homezone next Wednesday.
 
Rollout January, they said it would output HD to 2 TV's with seperate tuners, not just HD to one, I have my doubts but thats what 2wire said.
Unless there is a redesign from the current 622 based HZ receiver I wouldn't necessarily pbuy stock in that statement.

he 250 gig HD will be partitioned so the Video side won't have the full 250 Megs.

They talked about other things and ran overtime so the Homezone was short. I'll check my notes later, I'm late for a party.
 

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