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U-verse has always been intriguing to me. My neighborhood has had U-verse for many years now (it was one of the first areas in Indianapolis to get the hook-up), but my own early in-store observations of the picture quality as well as the plethora of negative reviews of the service kept me planted firmly in the land of satellite TV (Dish for 5+ years and DirecTV for about 9 months). I also subscribed to Comcast for years for my Internet service.
On a recent phone call to AT&T to fix a wireless billing issue, a very persuasive tech representative convinced me to give U-verse a try. With the promise of significant savings for a bundle of TV and Internet along with no contract or commitment I decided to give it a shot. I admit that I'm also getting tired of rain fade with satellite. Here are my thoughts after a week with U-Verse.
U-Verse Installation and Equipment
My house was already wired with coax to each of the main rooms as well as in-wall Cat 5e Ethernet, so the installation of U-verse was very straight-forward. Aside from an issue of cleaning up an excess of coax in the crawl space, the installation was uneventful. I have a coax connection from the NID (the AT&T phone box mounted to the outside of my home) into the house, reusing the existing Comcast coax cable. that was already in place running from the side of the house into my home office. The coax connects to the AT&T residential gateway, which looks like a very large cable modem. From there, everything is Ethernet inside the use using my existing Cat 5e wiring.
For the TV service, I have a 67" Samsung LED DLP in the living room, and a 26" Toshiba LCD in the bedroom. The gateway also directly connects an iMac via Ethernet in the office, and a laptop, smart phone, Apple TV, and tablet via wireless.
My U-verse "profile" allows me 18Mbit/sec down for the Internet service and about 1.5Mbps up. The TV service gives me 3 simultaneous HD streams and 1 SD stream. From what I've read, some U-verse areas allow 4 HD streams plus 1 SD stream, but I must be too far from the VRAD or my neighborhood doesn't have the required infrastructure to support the extra HD stream.
U-Verse Internet Service
After a week, the Internet service has been speedy and reliable. I've had no issues with the Internet connection, and all of my (mostly Apple) devices work without any problems. My tests with speedtest.net give me a very consistent 17.3 Mbps download speed and 1.43 Mbps upload speed, with a ping time of just 37ms. While Comcast rates were much higher, especially the upload speed, the ping time is lower with U-Verse which actually makes it a bit faster and more reliable for me to work from home.
Note that using the TV service does slow down the Internet speed. With several HD streams going, my Speedtest.net results drop to about half, but 9 Mbps is plenty for everything I do, and the latency (ping times) remains low.
In summary, the Internet service from U-Verse is very good. I have no complaints. Those who need higher upload rates may choose to look to a different technology but I think most people will be pleased with what AT&T offers here.
Here are my grades for Internet service:
Comcast Internet: A
U-Verse Internet: B+
U-Verse Television Service
I've read dozens of reviews of U-Verse TV over the past years, and the collective voices of the Internet have not been kind. Based on what I read, I expected an HD picture quality of somewhere between standard YouTube and dog poo smeared on glass. The occasional dissident who would proclaim U-Verse to be BETTER than FIOS, DirecTV, Dish, and every other provider gave me a little hope, but i wasn't confident. As recently as a few years ago when I watched U-Verse in an AT&T store as well as at a friend's house, I noticed a very noticeable "pulsing" of static backgrounds due to the aggressive compression which absolutely drove me crazy.
I'm happy to say that the U-Verse HD picture is much improved from my last viewing, and it's very good in its own right. Is the quality better than DirecTV and Dish? Not quite, but it's very close now. ESPN looks very good. NBA channel and NFL network also look very good. Standard HD channels as well as premium movie channels look great. My locals are not quite as good (especially WTHR - NBC), but the differences between U-Verse and the satellite providers are mostly minor and easily forgettable if you actually watch the show instead of scrutinizing every pixel. I suspect that on a smaller set (mine is 67"), only the most finicky eyes would notice any issues at all with the U-Verse HD picture.
Here's how I would grade the picture quality of the services I've tried:
DirecTV: A-
Dish Network: B+
U-Verse: B
Comcast: B+
U-Verse On Demand seems to be very good. It's much better than DirecTV (which has never worked for me on their flagship HR34 receiver) and Dish (just pathetic no matter how you slice it). The DVR is really fast and fun to use, and has all the features you'd expect from a DVR. So far i haven't had any problems, but it's hard to evaluate a DVR's reliability after a week. I love that changing the channel is nearly instantaneous, just like it was in 1984 on basic analog cable! And audio quality is excellent - I've had no pops, clicks, or dropouts and the Dolby surround sound is perfectly fine.
Here's how I would grade OnDemand/DVR/Audio from the providers I've tried:
DirecTV: D/C+/A (*)
Dish: F/D/B (**)
U-Versie: B+/A-/A
Comcast: A/D/?
(*): I rated DirecTV DVR as a C+ because the HR34 is still so damn sluggish. Yes, it's improved from its initial release, but it still feels like you're slogging through molasses every time you try to navigate the thing. If it were faster, the DirecTV DVR would get an A from me.
(**): I rated the Dish DVRs as a D because they've become so glitchy. As of earlier this year, sometimes there would be no picture when you power the unit on, sometimes the picture would just freeze up randomly, and sometimes you would only get a partial recording.
Conclusion
I've been pleasantly surprised by U-Verse. The Internet service is excellent, and the TV service is very good. I like it enough that I'm going to suspend my DirecTV service for 6 months and give U-Verse a good, extended run. For anyone who has been on the fence about U-Verse after reading the horror stories in some of the forums, I'd say give it a try - there's a lot to like.
On a recent phone call to AT&T to fix a wireless billing issue, a very persuasive tech representative convinced me to give U-verse a try. With the promise of significant savings for a bundle of TV and Internet along with no contract or commitment I decided to give it a shot. I admit that I'm also getting tired of rain fade with satellite. Here are my thoughts after a week with U-Verse.
U-Verse Installation and Equipment
My house was already wired with coax to each of the main rooms as well as in-wall Cat 5e Ethernet, so the installation of U-verse was very straight-forward. Aside from an issue of cleaning up an excess of coax in the crawl space, the installation was uneventful. I have a coax connection from the NID (the AT&T phone box mounted to the outside of my home) into the house, reusing the existing Comcast coax cable. that was already in place running from the side of the house into my home office. The coax connects to the AT&T residential gateway, which looks like a very large cable modem. From there, everything is Ethernet inside the use using my existing Cat 5e wiring.
For the TV service, I have a 67" Samsung LED DLP in the living room, and a 26" Toshiba LCD in the bedroom. The gateway also directly connects an iMac via Ethernet in the office, and a laptop, smart phone, Apple TV, and tablet via wireless.
My U-verse "profile" allows me 18Mbit/sec down for the Internet service and about 1.5Mbps up. The TV service gives me 3 simultaneous HD streams and 1 SD stream. From what I've read, some U-verse areas allow 4 HD streams plus 1 SD stream, but I must be too far from the VRAD or my neighborhood doesn't have the required infrastructure to support the extra HD stream.
U-Verse Internet Service
After a week, the Internet service has been speedy and reliable. I've had no issues with the Internet connection, and all of my (mostly Apple) devices work without any problems. My tests with speedtest.net give me a very consistent 17.3 Mbps download speed and 1.43 Mbps upload speed, with a ping time of just 37ms. While Comcast rates were much higher, especially the upload speed, the ping time is lower with U-Verse which actually makes it a bit faster and more reliable for me to work from home.
Note that using the TV service does slow down the Internet speed. With several HD streams going, my Speedtest.net results drop to about half, but 9 Mbps is plenty for everything I do, and the latency (ping times) remains low.
In summary, the Internet service from U-Verse is very good. I have no complaints. Those who need higher upload rates may choose to look to a different technology but I think most people will be pleased with what AT&T offers here.
Here are my grades for Internet service:
Comcast Internet: A
U-Verse Internet: B+
U-Verse Television Service
I've read dozens of reviews of U-Verse TV over the past years, and the collective voices of the Internet have not been kind. Based on what I read, I expected an HD picture quality of somewhere between standard YouTube and dog poo smeared on glass. The occasional dissident who would proclaim U-Verse to be BETTER than FIOS, DirecTV, Dish, and every other provider gave me a little hope, but i wasn't confident. As recently as a few years ago when I watched U-Verse in an AT&T store as well as at a friend's house, I noticed a very noticeable "pulsing" of static backgrounds due to the aggressive compression which absolutely drove me crazy.
I'm happy to say that the U-Verse HD picture is much improved from my last viewing, and it's very good in its own right. Is the quality better than DirecTV and Dish? Not quite, but it's very close now. ESPN looks very good. NBA channel and NFL network also look very good. Standard HD channels as well as premium movie channels look great. My locals are not quite as good (especially WTHR - NBC), but the differences between U-Verse and the satellite providers are mostly minor and easily forgettable if you actually watch the show instead of scrutinizing every pixel. I suspect that on a smaller set (mine is 67"), only the most finicky eyes would notice any issues at all with the U-Verse HD picture.
Here's how I would grade the picture quality of the services I've tried:
DirecTV: A-
Dish Network: B+
U-Verse: B
Comcast: B+
U-Verse On Demand seems to be very good. It's much better than DirecTV (which has never worked for me on their flagship HR34 receiver) and Dish (just pathetic no matter how you slice it). The DVR is really fast and fun to use, and has all the features you'd expect from a DVR. So far i haven't had any problems, but it's hard to evaluate a DVR's reliability after a week. I love that changing the channel is nearly instantaneous, just like it was in 1984 on basic analog cable! And audio quality is excellent - I've had no pops, clicks, or dropouts and the Dolby surround sound is perfectly fine.
Here's how I would grade OnDemand/DVR/Audio from the providers I've tried:
DirecTV: D/C+/A (*)
Dish: F/D/B (**)
U-Versie: B+/A-/A
Comcast: A/D/?
(*): I rated DirecTV DVR as a C+ because the HR34 is still so damn sluggish. Yes, it's improved from its initial release, but it still feels like you're slogging through molasses every time you try to navigate the thing. If it were faster, the DirecTV DVR would get an A from me.
(**): I rated the Dish DVRs as a D because they've become so glitchy. As of earlier this year, sometimes there would be no picture when you power the unit on, sometimes the picture would just freeze up randomly, and sometimes you would only get a partial recording.
Conclusion
I've been pleasantly surprised by U-Verse. The Internet service is excellent, and the TV service is very good. I like it enough that I'm going to suspend my DirecTV service for 6 months and give U-Verse a good, extended run. For anyone who has been on the fence about U-Verse after reading the horror stories in some of the forums, I'd say give it a try - there's a lot to like.
15 Replies
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27066 views
Supporting Founder
Lifetime Supporter
Thanks to Fitch Ratings ( who gives the ratings on Credit and debt, as approved by the SEC, so they have accurate numbers) we have the totals.
DIRECTV's video subscriber base is the third-largest traditional multi-channel video programming distributor (MVPD) in the U.S. with about 8.2 million subscribers at the end of 1Q26.
The last time it was reported, it was 8.8M at the end of 2Q25, so only a 600,000 loss for 3 quarters, which is a major improvement, since for many years before that, it was losing 500,000 a quarter, 2 Million a year.
It is now losing less than Dish/Sling combined, I believe the Genre Packs are helping to retain and get subscribers.
DIRECTV's video subscriber base is the third-largest traditional multi-channel video programming distributor (MVPD) in the U.S. with about 8.2 million subscribers at the end of 1Q26.
The last time it was reported, it was 8.8M at the end of 2Q25, so only a 600,000 loss for 3 quarters, which is a major improvement, since for many years before that, it was losing 500,000 a quarter, 2 Million a year.
It is now losing less than Dish/Sling combined, I believe the Genre Packs are helping to retain and get subscribers.
5 Replies
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347 views
Recently came back to DirectTV Satellite service and have two boxes, Gemini and a main HR54.
DirecTV is charging me two "TV access fees" of $10 each, but can only watch TV on the one without the server. Is there anything I can do to fix this?
DirecTV is charging me two "TV access fees" of $10 each, but can only watch TV on the one without the server. Is there anything I can do to fix this?
24 Replies
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938 views
Staff member
HERE TO HELP YOU!
Cutting Edge
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
67110 Replies
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2662366 views
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
I feel like this was discussed in another thread, but I can't find it. I have T-Mobile and my last iPhone upgrade was in 2020. I want to get a new iPhone, but what is the best way to go about doing it? Should I order the iPhone from T-Mobile directly, or should I buy from the Apple Store? I feel like there are pros/cons to each option.
2 Replies
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32 views
I have a Hopper with Sling. (Don't know exact model.) A couple nights ago, I went into the DVR screen, and noted that it was recording three programs. Yet I was able to view live TV (that was not one of the channels being recorded.) Did something change? In the past, it would only let me watch one of the channels being recorded, or any recording in the DVR menu. Maybe it was streaming, although there was no indication of that?
Apologies if this has been covered; I searched and didn't find anything.
Thanks.
Apologies if this has been covered; I searched and didn't find anything.
Thanks.
9 Replies
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351 views
iJustine
Time for another AWESOME video from iJustine!
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YJjxjYvmQ8s
Direct YouTube Link - Good Bye, Tim! Last WWDC
The official iJustine Website's Website
Buy her book!
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YJjxjYvmQ8s
Direct YouTube Link - Good Bye, Tim! Last WWDC
The official iJustine Website's Website
Buy her book!
0 Replies
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10 views
Pub Member / Supporter
Cutting Edge
WANTED DirecTV LCC
Anyone have a DirecTV Local Channel Connector that you'd like to get rid of at a reasonable price? DirecTV is currently in a contract dispute with owner of my local ABC affiliate.
12 Replies
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298 views
I did that. The response was that the LCC is not available. Escalated the issue to a tech support person with the same results.
Could be out of them I guess ... I'd keep trying, every 3-4 days.I did that. The response was that the LCC is not available. Escalated the issue to a tech support person with the same results.
If they are not out of them as them WHY you can't get one, seeing Your in a Dispute. Thats what they are for.
I would make them give you a real answer, don't let them off the hook.
I had one, and it worked well, but I believe I gave it to another D* friend (also had a AM21), I know I gave them away ...
According to the tech support guy, they don't have any in stock. He said I should receive an email when and if they have them. I even told him I would accept a refurbished unit.
I'm not sure your going to find any Refurbished ones as D* doesn't ask for them back.According to the tech support guy, they don't have any in stock. He said I should receive an email when and if they have them. I even told him I would accept a refurbished unit.
Pub Member / Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Did anyone have a price increase today on their equipment? I own my VIP211k's, and they have been $5.00. My bill that I received last week shows the "add-ons" as being $5.00. However, I just logged into my Dish account, and my "add-ons" are now $10.00. Did the additional receivers go up by $5.00 recently?
As I mentioned, my last bill shows $5.00 and under the notes, nothing is mentioned about a price increase.
As I mentioned, my last bill shows $5.00 and under the notes, nothing is mentioned about a price increase.
11 Replies
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197 views
Hello everyone, new guy here. I'm trying to solve problem I'm having with Dish bonus view channels. When I'm watching the bonus view channels then I switch back to regular dish channels, after few minutes the screen flips to black and after 30 seconds flips back to regular channels and continues to flip back and forth until I turn off TV. After I wait 30 minutes and turn back on , I can use regular channels again. So, its after I switch from bonus view channels to regular dish channels the problem starts. Been trying to fix this for a month, but no luck
Here what I've done.
i contacted Dish support and they sent me a new Joey3, but no help. Switched to a different HDMI input on TV, no help. Used different HDMI cable , no help. Used different electrical wall plug, no help.
Finally got a Dish tech to check it. He ran all systems check and was OK. Finally he brought in a small TV and plugged in the HDMI out from the Joey to the small TV. He could not get the problem to occur on his small TV, so the new Joey was working OK. So, then the problem must be myTV. He made some phone calls and came back with the answer that there must be a problem with the analog to digital switch in my TV. Has anyone ever heard of a problem like this, or is it time to be looking for a new TV? My tv LG OLED65C8PUA. TV has been trouble free til now. Thanks
Here what I've done.
i contacted Dish support and they sent me a new Joey3, but no help. Switched to a different HDMI input on TV, no help. Used different HDMI cable , no help. Used different electrical wall plug, no help.
Finally got a Dish tech to check it. He ran all systems check and was OK. Finally he brought in a small TV and plugged in the HDMI out from the Joey to the small TV. He could not get the problem to occur on his small TV, so the new Joey was working OK. So, then the problem must be myTV. He made some phone calls and came back with the answer that there must be a problem with the analog to digital switch in my TV. Has anyone ever heard of a problem like this, or is it time to be looking for a new TV? My tv LG OLED65C8PUA. TV has been trouble free til now. Thanks
6 Replies
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100 views
Staff member
HERE TO HELP YOU!
House of the Dragon, the prequel to Game of Thrones, premieres on HBO Max on 8/21. I will be warching
www.syfy.com
View: https://youtu.be/fNwwt25mheo
S~
'Game of Thrones' spinoff 'House of the Dragon' fires up release date at HBO, drops new character pics
The wait’s felt a little like watching for a dragon egg to hatch, but HBO’s hugely anticipated Game of Thrones prequel series finally has a release date. House of the Dragon will debut the first of its initial 10-episode season this summer, the network revealed today in a series of tweets that...
View: https://youtu.be/fNwwt25mheo
S~
39 Replies
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5646 views
