U-Verse Installed

MrSnarkyPants

Active SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Feb 20, 2005
15
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Went in fairly painlessly last week. My setup:

1. CAT-5 from NID to wiring cabinet in guest bedroom closet. (The builder did a great job pre-wiring the house.) I mounted a shelf at the wiring cabinet to hold the RG. There are CAT-5 homeruns from family room, master bedroom, and office to the RG in the closet.

2. DVR in family room, STB's in master bedroom & office. I also have CAT-5 feeding a switch in the office to feed both PC's there. I took out my Linksys and am using the wireless on the RG to take care of the laptop downstairs.

3. Installation took about two hours.

Thoughts:

1. Standard definition blows D* away. HD is comparable to what I got over the air. I have seen the occasional blocking, but it resolves itself within a second. I'm happy with the picture quality. It's an improvement over what I had with D*.

2. We only have one HDTV in the house, so having only one HD stream only presents a problem when DVR'ing one HD show and trying to watch another show in HD. We do have the option of switching over to the OTA antenna to watch something local. However, I'm looking forward to them loosening that bottleneck.

3. We had a thunderstorm blip the power the first night, and I learned firsthand that the RG has to boot up before the STB's do. I had to call support that evening to get the line reset before the RG would fully boot up. The wait for a technician at 10:30 on a Sunday night was no more than a minute and the tech knew what she was doing. I bought a UPS the next day for the RG. We haven't had problems since, despite thunderstorms every day down here.

4. The U-Verse supplied remote control will turn my Harman/Kardon home theatre receiver off, but not on. We're back to using the Logitech Harmony in the living room (see below) so that's not a huge deal. If you have an older model H/K receiver, you might run into the same thing.

5. My Logitech Harmony remote needed a firmware upgrade before it would control the Motorola DVR. (Newer Harmony remotes should work fine. I had to move from v2.x to v7.x to be able to send the right IR frequency to the Motorola box.) I had to be bumped to tier 3 support at Logitech to get this resolved, but I was happy that they had free phone support for a remote that's at least 4 years old.

6. The U-Verse supplied remote control won't talk to my off-brand TV set in the office. For the amount of time we'll spend watching TV in that room, we'll just use two remotes. It's not worth raising a fuss over a $50 cheap Chinese TV.

7. The DVR isn't TiVo, but it's easier to use than the new D* one. I've already used the web-remote control twice. The on-screen guide sometimes takes a second or two to pop up or react, which is similar to the D* R-15.

Overall, we're happy with the service. We're keeping it.
 
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Suburban Houston.

I wonder when and if we will get it in New Orleans. We are an AT&T area and they have been digging up my subdivisions Blvd. and snaking big orange cable along with black cable for the last few months. Anyone knows how I can check it out if they are about launch universe in my area? I live north of lake Pontchartrain and this is where everyone from NOLA is relocating so the area is booming in population.
 
I wonder when and if we will get it in New Orleans. We are an AT&T area and they have been digging up my subdivisions Blvd. and snaking big orange cable along with black cable for the last few months. Anyone knows how I can check it out if they are about launch universe in my area? I live north of lake Pontchartrain and this is where everyone from NOLA is relocating so the area is booming in population.


The orange stuff is the conduit for the fiber.
 
The orange stuff is the conduit for the fiber.




Called inerduct . Spelling may not be correct .

Talking to our oldest boy . He said his brother-in-law ( Houston ) is in an apartment complex with U-Verse . Compares favorably with cable .

Wyr
 
Anyone knows how you can tell if it is being installed in your neighborhood?

If it's fiber your talking about you will see two large spools, one with orange, one with black contents. They will either use a machine that tunnels a few feet deep, or actuall dig a trench to install the fiber. If they have already done all that you might see the ends sticking out of the ground it thry haven't been terminated yet.
 
VRAD cabnets

Anyone knows how you can tell if it is being installed in your neighborhood?

Look for beige colered AT&T / SBC cabinets in an alley , that are new . But some of the cabinets you may find will / may not be VRAD .

VRAD always has a power ( 120/240 VAC ) cabinet feeding it .

Some / all RT cabinets do also .

You may also find cabnets that act kind of like splice cabinets . They will not have any power feeding them .

Wyr
 
Look for beige colered AT&T / SBC cabinets in an alley , that are new . But some of the cabinets you may find will / may not be VRAD .

VRAD always has a power ( 120/240 VAC ) cabinet feeding it .

Some / all RT cabinets do also .

You may also find cabnets that act kind of like splice cabinets . They will not have any power feeding them .

Wyr

Thanks for all the information. The website says they don't offer it in my area yet. I've seen the big orange spools, black spools and I've seen them snaking something down my street. I have not seen those cabinets yet.
 
Thanks for all the information. The website says they don't offer it in my area yet. I've seen the big orange spools, black spools and I've seen them snaking something down my street. I have not seen those cabinets yet.

I just spotted a couple of sets of large beige cabinets that look brand new down an alley way in front of my street. So I guess we will be getting it soon. :up
 
I just spotted a couple of sets of large beige cabinets that look brand new down an alley way in front of my street. So I guess we will be getting it soon. :up
As I mentioned earlier, don't get your hopes up too much for a quick startup. Austin's had VRAD's all over the place for over a year and not schedule for active until November.
 
As I mentioned earlier, don't get your hopes up too much for a quick startup. Austin's had VRAD's all over the place for over a year and not schedule for active until November.


VRAD's have been going in , here , for 2 - 2-1/2 years . Not finished , maybe not even 1/2 finished .

This is not a quick easy process . Miles and miles and miles .......... of alleys .

Wyr
 
VRAD's have been going in , here , for 2 - 2-1/2 years . Not finished , maybe not even 1/2 finished .

This is not a quick easy process . Miles and miles and miles .......... of alleys .

Wyr

My D* contract runs out next summer so if it is then and I have a different alternative to Charter Cable I will be a happy camper.
 

Starz on demand

TWC San Antonio is adding HD channels!

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