Next Question: Any experience with AT&T / U-verse?

"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura) 06/25/2015 at 15:39 • Filed to: None

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I can save a ton of dough if I dump Dish Network and Comcast and bundle POTS/Internet/TV with AT&T. Free DVR, $300 gift card, only a 12-month commitment.

Picture quality: I had an analog RGB picture tube until a month ago. I now have a 52-inch Panasonic plasma that I bought for $200 and 720p is looking really good, so I don’t need 4k, or whatever.

Bandwidth is limited to 6/12/18 megabits down per second. I’d be trying it out at 6 because I’m CHEAP.

Thoughts?

Cherry_man1 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2015 at 15:42

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FUCK UVERSE. I have had nothing but trouble with them in my area (Kansas City) Also never call tech support with anything they are terrible.

mcseanerson > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2015 at 15:44

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All cable broadcast is 720p no matter what is being advertised. The networks broadcast in 720p so it doesn’t matter what happens after that. POTS is better than digital phone any day of the week. Deciding factor would be the internet technology. What is Comcast using and what is AT&T offering. If AT&T is offering fiber then do it. If AT&T is offering DSL I’d stay away.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2015 at 15:45

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We had that DirecTV/U-Verse setup for several years until we recently moved.

The U-Verse was okay. It worked great at first, but as they sold our area, it got saturated and we’d have issues with long load times for Netflix or problems gaming at peak hours. I had to run a cable across the house for my 360 just to keep it connected to Live.

I would go for the 12MBps at least. They only guarantee at least half their posted speeds, so if you only pay for 6, you’ll really only get 3. 3 is too slow for anything useful really.

qbeezy > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2015 at 15:45

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Fun fact. With uVerse, your internet connection is bundled in transport with you TV signal. Watching 2 HD channels and recording on the DVR? Internet I’d going to suck. And tv signal always takes priority over internet traffic. Everyone and they moms on? Just watch TV. Internet will crawl.

Michael > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2015 at 15:46

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I’m in the Atlanta/Athens area, and I’ve never had trouble with them. Once your promotion period is up (12 months) your rates will go up about 40%. When you threaten to cancel, suddenly they go down to your old rate, plus or minus $5 (it has actually been less than my promo rate before)

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Michael 06/25/2015 at 15:47

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Thanks. I’m about ready to try them out. Bandwidth is the big question.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 06/25/2015 at 15:48

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Yeah. I hear you. I’ll ask about that. Thanks for the tip.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > mcseanerson 06/25/2015 at 15:49

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They claim it’s fiber, but at only 6/12/18 mbps. DSL is barely a drip at my address.

mcseanerson > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2015 at 15:51

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What’s the upload speed?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > qbeezy 06/25/2015 at 15:51

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Interesting. I’ll ask them about that as well. Thanks for the tip.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Cherry_man1 06/25/2015 at 15:52

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Tell us how you really feel! What kind of trouble?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > mcseanerson 06/25/2015 at 15:52

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Added to my list of questions.

mcseanerson > qbeezy 06/25/2015 at 16:04

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If they are doing that you should nail them to the wall. Even if that is how their technology functions they need to provide you with sufficient speeds to achieve your agreed upon download speed. Also, is this to an Ethernet connected computer or WiFi? Because nobody guarantees shit over WiFi.

mcseanerson > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2015 at 16:05

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What is Comcast supplying you with now as well? Download/Upload? Is it fiber or coax?

mcseanerson > Michael 06/25/2015 at 16:05

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That’s pretty much industry standard operation.

Roundbadge > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2015 at 16:06

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I have Uverse. It’s okay. Internet speed isn’t all that great, and that’s been nagging at me lately.

I recently had trouble with an HDMI cable that connected my DVR to my Pioneer stereo. I was having some other trouble the the UPS backup for the router, and when the tech was there I started asking about replacing the DVR if the HDMI cable hadn’t been the issue. He told me that they wouldn’t replace the box for HDMI trouble, and that I’d have to use HD component video because that’s the only way they ever connect their devices. I scoffed at that, since the installer didn’t even bother to use HD component video cables when he initially installed the service to begin with, and was told, “Well...that’s how we do it.”

mcseanerson > Roundbadge 06/25/2015 at 16:10

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Typically installers run HDMI since it’s a single cable and a lot faster to install rather than five component cables and also most customers prefer HDMI over component cables as they perceive it to be better. Standard procedure when HDMI starts causing issues is to switch to component cables and honestly it’s the better choice in most situations anyways. If it upsets you that much just bug your sales guy until they give you some perk to make up for it.

mcseanerson > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 06/25/2015 at 16:12

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That sounds like it might be a lie. I don’t know if they can even do that legally. I know the ISP I used to work for promised 80% of your download speed which was much more reasonable especially as seeing with troubleshooting and using a wired connection I got most customers 110+% of their advertised speeds.

As for wireless speeds I don’t guarantee jack shit and nobody should guarantee anything more than that.

Takuro Spirit > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2015 at 16:20

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Its okay. Tech support sucks and they recently took away UVerse support away from the store near my house, they only do box swaps.

They’re hesitant to give you service credits but will pile on free premium channels or faster internet at a discount.

I’ve had them since it first came to Milwaukee and have moved twice now and its gotten worse both time as far as price and support.... first they nixed the package we were on and didn’t tell us and the price went up unexpectedly. We’ve gone through three different DVR boxes in the past 3 years as well, losing shows saved to the HD with “No way to recover” or “transfer” them to the new box. Makes we wonder what that USB port on the front is for, besides charging my phone....

Internet speed is slow at peak times, and like others said when watching and DVRing shows in HD.

Picture and sound are great on my 55” LCD and whatnot.

qbeezy > mcseanerson 06/25/2015 at 16:25

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Lol they mention something to the tune of, “peak load speeds”. They can’t help it on old copper. If you’re not on fiber or coax, then you’re screwed. Old phone lines can’t handle the traffic.

jariten1781 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2015 at 16:39

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Depends on what you have with Comcast.

U-verse is all over IP and it’s usually FTTN. That sucks, for both TV signal quality (stuttering/archives) and internet speeds (ie, if there’s a ‘power user’ sharing your node you’ll never get advertised speed). If it’s FTP in your area it can be pretty great.

If you don’t have problems with your dish you’ll likely have worse TV on U-verse. If you don’t have problems with your internet you may have worse throughput. I’d check if they’re FTP; if they are switch; if they’re FTTN and you watch a lot of TV don’t switch, if TV is a secondary thing it’s probably worth the risk to save some money and try it out. Also, make sure you call your current guys and tell them you’ll be switching before you commit...discounts will come from every direction and will make the cost savings significantly less.

mcseanerson > qbeezy 06/25/2015 at 16:42

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If you’re on DSL then yeah I wouldn’t touch U-verse with a ten foot pole. If they are offering fiber it’s a different story though.

Cherry_man1 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2015 at 16:44

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Well they don’t have any equipment that supports multiple game consoles and most recently when moving we had to reschedule the move of services and they forgot to take off the end service at old location note, so for about a week I haven’t had service cause tech support couldn’t give me a clean answer and shuffled me around to multiple people. Also the call center for tech is in India, so sometimes they are very hard to understand and the automated answering bot they have is shitty.

mcseanerson > Takuro Spirit 06/25/2015 at 16:50

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Everyone’s tech support sucks. It’s the nature of the beast in the cable industry. That USB port is probably there for them to change the firmware in their facility. That said some cable providers do offer a way to record your DVR programs to an external HDD. If you really want something like that you’d be better off building a media center PC with a Cable Card.

Roundbadge > mcseanerson 06/25/2015 at 21:49

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I agree regarding component being superior, but with the DVR and the PS3 both running through the stereo to the TV, switching from digital to analog would prevent me from using the stereo as a switching source. This stereo, being an extremely ‘economical’ option, doesn’t convert from analog source to digital output. It’s really just a convenience issue.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > mcseanerson 06/25/2015 at 22:00

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Coax. I just ran a speed test and got 82 down and 6.2 up.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > mcseanerson 06/25/2015 at 22:01

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Dsl is not even a trickle at my address.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Roundbadge 06/25/2015 at 22:02

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Don’t you hate it when you know more than they do? Really frustrating.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 06/25/2015 at 22:04

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Was that service via DSL or fiber?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Takuro Spirit 06/25/2015 at 22:05

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DSL or fibre?

“Charging my phone...” LOL

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > Cherry_man1 06/25/2015 at 22:06

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Yuck.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > jariten1781 06/25/2015 at 22:08

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Check for understanding: FTP is good, FTTN is less good, right?

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2015 at 22:18

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As I understood it, it should have been fiber to the pole and then the copper line to the house.

I do know we had some connection issues -tree next to pole, animals chewing the cable- so about 6 months or so before we moved they hung a new cable to the house as well.

At that point it should have been fiber to the house and just our phone lines inside. It did help with our connection. They also gave us two new modems.

Other than their service being oversold in our area and ATT being the giant blue Deathstar of Love; they are such a fucking greedy, asshole of a company, I really don’t have many complaints about our service with them. It worked. They don’t have data caps.

What other choice do you have anyway?

If you’re lucky maybe one other ISP option

mcseanerson > Roundbadge 06/25/2015 at 22:30

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That’s another reason they wait until you have a problem to switch to component. The reason people have problems with HDMI, or at least so we’re told, is because two devices have issues trying to establish a handshake typically do to being designed for different revisions of HDMI.

mcseanerson > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2015 at 22:31

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That’s pretty good for coax. I don’t know if I’d leave that for U-verse.

mcseanerson > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2015 at 22:31

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DSL is a trickle at everyone’s address.

jariten1781 > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/25/2015 at 22:48

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Yes, in FTP they bring the fiber to your house (premesis) and you have a direct connection to the distro center (good). In FTTN they bring it to a utility box (Node) that you share with neighbors...usually ok, but if you have a neighbor that is a heavy user, torrents/multiple simultaneous video streams/etc it will bog your service and since U-verse has IPTV it bogs not just internet but could also cause the TV to degrade (will be like your satellite in inclement weather). Not especially likely, but not especially rare either.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > mcseanerson 06/26/2015 at 01:38

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Quite the financial incentive.

mcseanerson > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/26/2015 at 08:09

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It would be a drastic change in your internet experience. You’d need the 18 mbps and honestly just a little strain on that and it will feel very slow.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > mcseanerson 06/26/2015 at 11:40

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I know. Thing is, the most I ever do bandwith wise is waste time watching YouTube from time to time. I don’t game and rarely download much.

I’m going to call Comcast today and see how close they can get to what Uverse is offering.

mcseanerson > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/26/2015 at 12:09

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Yeah, 20mbps is honestly fine for basics, it just becomes an issue depending on how many people use your service and how much they use it. I’m starting to realize 20mbps is not enough at my house.