TR Custom Parts
Mark Hueffman - Owner
- Joined
- May 25, 2001
Reviews, good or bad? Thinking of switching from Comcast. Have 8 TV's in the house, how does it work with mulitple TV's?
AT&T U-Verse users??
- Thread starter TR Custom Parts
- Start date
groumoutis
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2009
There was another thread about U-verse a week or so ago.
You can't expect everything to be trouble free for starters. We have had uverse for a couple years and have had Comcast and dish network in the past. With that said I prefer uverse. We also prefer their Internet as well. Our house was already wired for cat 5 so the install was fast. There are some things I don't like with the uverse set up though, but the good outweighs the bad when comparing them.
You can't expect everything to be trouble free for starters. We have had uverse for a couple years and have had Comcast and dish network in the past. With that said I prefer uverse. We also prefer their Internet as well. Our house was already wired for cat 5 so the install was fast. There are some things I don't like with the uverse set up though, but the good outweighs the bad when comparing them.
TexasT
Texas, Where are you from
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2002
TR Custom Parts
Mark Hueffman - Owner
- Joined
- May 25, 2001
So do you need CAT 5 run to each TV set?? Have 8 in the house! Don't want the install guy ripping my whole hose apart!
No, you don't need cat5. My signal comes into the house by phone/dsl to the modem. The modem has cat5 out to my desktop pc, wifi and it ties into the existing co-ax to the tv's. The co-ax is disconected from comcasts main line, so it acts as a cicuit for only my house. We have a box at each tv, but only one of them has dvr. But, we can watch dvr'ed shows on either tv. I've had it for a couple weeks and I like it so far.
groumoutis
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2009
We have 4 tv's and all of them have cat 5.
My neighbor still has Comcast and my Internet is faster than his and faster than when we had Comcast.
I didn't dislike Comcast but they didn't have nfl network in our area so we switched. U-verse has a better picture in my area than Comcast. We went from Comcast to a local cable company that was fiber optic so going to u-verse was easy. The installation. To go to cat 5 was easy since we have a full basement and an attic for the second story. It was painless.
My neighbor still has Comcast and my Internet is faster than his and faster than when we had Comcast.
I didn't dislike Comcast but they didn't have nfl network in our area so we switched. U-verse has a better picture in my area than Comcast. We went from Comcast to a local cable company that was fiber optic so going to u-verse was easy. The installation. To go to cat 5 was easy since we have a full basement and an attic for the second story. It was painless.
TR Custom Parts
Mark Hueffman - Owner
- Joined
- May 25, 2001
On those receiver boxes on each TV, is that required? Got a couple sets that I don't care about for ALL the channels and DVR follow deal. Just want basic local channels on those. Would I still need the receivers?
TR Custom Parts
Mark Hueffman - Owner
- Joined
- May 25, 2001
Just found out my sister made the switch from Comcast to UVerse. Will be over there on Christmas so will be able to get a real world demo of it. I am sure her know it all husband will clue me in on all that is involved.
JayDaBully
SNAKE
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2011
The difference between comcast and AT&T "internet wise" is the megabytes. Comcast uses broadband and may offer more MBS then AT&T. AT&T is a DSL service.
For example if BroadBand speed is 12mbs then Dsl is maybe 9mbs.
But when you're on broadband connections and theres a bunch of people online .You're sharing that 12mb connection with everyone else who is on their comcast servers at the time. Which = to maybe 6mbs.
With that DSL connection, its just you...................
For example if BroadBand speed is 12mbs then Dsl is maybe 9mbs.
But when you're on broadband connections and theres a bunch of people online .You're sharing that 12mb connection with everyone else who is on their comcast servers at the time. Which = to maybe 6mbs.
With that DSL connection, its just you...................
silentbutdeadly
Member
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2005
Its actually Mbps...not MB's...big difference in speed between megabit and megabite.
groumoutis
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2009
If you don't want the extra channels then hook up an antenna to the ones you want locals on. Like I said before the Internet is still fast. A lot of it depends on the computer you are using. We only use apple and one pc and the pc belongs to my 11 year old. We had pc's on both and Comcast was slower but not by much. We live 40 miles from a large city so it may be different in a larger city.
I've had U-Verse for 2 years, and the only way I'll go back to Comcast is if I either move to where U-Verse isn't available, or they offer me a permanent, sickeningly-sweet deal along with a bulletproof SLA. In other words, not gonna happen. The service itself only has slight differences in our area, the price is only slightly better, but Comcast has been the worst to deal with for anything. They even kept charging me for service months after I switched, it took 3 calls to finally make them stop and give me a refund. Turds.
Installation was easy inside the house, as I'm already wired for Cat5e, but you can still use existing RG6. The hookup externally was a bit more tricky. Here's the catch: The site or rep may say U-Verse is available at your address, but the tech still needs to test the connection from your house to the VRAD and sign off on it for the profile subscribed (they had different profiles determining how many simultaneous HD vs SD signals you could receive; standard at the time was 2HD/2SD plus Internet). I got lucky; my house is near the distance limit from the VRAD and the line just barely tested OK. After replacing the wire from the pole to my house, the signal improved enough for the tech to approve. Almost didn't happen...
The only glitch I've had so far (that's not related to power outages etc) was a profile upgrade (to 3HD/2SD) that was pushed out to everyone on my node. Everyone got it, regardless of whether the line could handle it or not (mine couldn't). I had to call AT&T and have them restore me to the old 2/2 profile and lock it so it couldn't be changed automatically. Other than that it has been rock solid and reliable.
Also, the advantage of the DSL-based Internet is that your speed won't suffer when more people in your node are online, as can happen with cable. My Comcast would slow to a crawl sometimes during peak hours; I've never had a slowdown on U-Verse. But YMMV.
Merry Christmas!
Installation was easy inside the house, as I'm already wired for Cat5e, but you can still use existing RG6. The hookup externally was a bit more tricky. Here's the catch: The site or rep may say U-Verse is available at your address, but the tech still needs to test the connection from your house to the VRAD and sign off on it for the profile subscribed (they had different profiles determining how many simultaneous HD vs SD signals you could receive; standard at the time was 2HD/2SD plus Internet). I got lucky; my house is near the distance limit from the VRAD and the line just barely tested OK. After replacing the wire from the pole to my house, the signal improved enough for the tech to approve. Almost didn't happen...
The only glitch I've had so far (that's not related to power outages etc) was a profile upgrade (to 3HD/2SD) that was pushed out to everyone on my node. Everyone got it, regardless of whether the line could handle it or not (mine couldn't). I had to call AT&T and have them restore me to the old 2/2 profile and lock it so it couldn't be changed automatically. Other than that it has been rock solid and reliable.
Also, the advantage of the DSL-based Internet is that your speed won't suffer when more people in your node are online, as can happen with cable. My Comcast would slow to a crawl sometimes during peak hours; I've never had a slowdown on U-Verse. But YMMV.
Merry Christmas!
The only bad I've heard is for folks with home alarms. I have a friend that works for an alarm company and he says U-Verse is using 12 to 1 compression, which doesn't allow the alarm signal to be received by the alarm company correctly. Locks up their servers when signal is received. They now refuse to provide service to U-Verse users unless they go with a cell based caller. That is the only reason I haven't switched.
TR Custom Parts
Mark Hueffman - Owner
- Joined
- May 25, 2001
Well, here we are 2 months later. Finally pulled the trigger and got U-Verse installed yesterday. Still learning about it but so far I am impressed. Install took almost 11 hours! One guy got stuck doing the install that involved hooking up 8 tv's, high speed internet and phones. Took the day off and glad I did, he needed to know stuff the wife would have never known. The tech worked without taking lunch or supper even though I offered both meals to him. Gave him $20 when all was said and done to buy dinner.
Only drawback I have seen is that you can't have more than 4 tvs on at a time and that includes if you are recording programs with the DVR. In other words, say you are watching tv and recording 3 programs at the same time, you won't be able to watch any other tvs as you are taking up the four signals. Doubt if this will ever be a problem as there are only 3 of us in the house.
Their remote is pretty good, have the main set with our home theatre all programmed and can control everything with UVerse remote. Hate doing the remote juggling thing so looks that isn't an issue.
Messing around tonite, I have linked our computers so we can view all the pictures on any of the tvs as well as playing music that I have downloaded too.
Icing on the cake was I just got the newest Comcast cable bill yesterday during the install of UVerse and it went up another $15 from last month. Needless to say they got all of their equipment back today!
Only drawback I have seen is that you can't have more than 4 tvs on at a time and that includes if you are recording programs with the DVR. In other words, say you are watching tv and recording 3 programs at the same time, you won't be able to watch any other tvs as you are taking up the four signals. Doubt if this will ever be a problem as there are only 3 of us in the house.
Their remote is pretty good, have the main set with our home theatre all programmed and can control everything with UVerse remote. Hate doing the remote juggling thing so looks that isn't an issue.
Messing around tonite, I have linked our computers so we can view all the pictures on any of the tvs as well as playing music that I have downloaded too.
Icing on the cake was I just got the newest Comcast cable bill yesterday during the install of UVerse and it went up another $15 from last month. Needless to say they got all of their equipment back today!
BobbyBuick
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 24, 2001
Im getting ready to bundle an iphone ,cable internet and maybe a home phone
going to dump dish and verison
going to dump dish and verison
I work for Comcast in the Bay Area. Truthfully, I'd say 60% of customers that leave Comcast for U-verse, comeback to Comcast within a year. U-verse is not a bad service, but Comcast broadband internet and On Demand cannot be matched. You will notice that your Internet speed will slow down substantially if you have multiple TVs on simultaneously with U-verse...
groumoutis
Active Member
- Joined
- May 1, 2009
Rigo,
You need to come to Indiana to work. You could order a full grown elephant from India and call Comcast for service repairs at the same time and the elephant would arrive first even if the elephant swims and walks all the way!
You need to come to Indiana to work. You could order a full grown elephant from India and call Comcast for service repairs at the same time and the elephant would arrive first even if the elephant swims and walks all the way!
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