Sorry it’s been slow around here lately but I have a good reason. We had a change of internet and tv today from Dish Network and AT&T DSL to AT&T U-verse. AT&T is already our telephone provider and by switching to a total AT&T package we end up saving $60 a month for the next six months as a bonus then saving $40 a month after that. That’s still $40 a month in savings which, in today’s economy, is great.
Changing TV providers and swapping internet is a stressful time. I don’t know how anyone else feels about this process but around here I’m always on edge when the possibility of losing internet access or hating my new service looms over me. I’m also really picky about my TV service because we have an HD tv and I want the picture to look really good to justify having one. I’ve always felt that Dish Network had a good quality picture in my area so swapping wasn’t even about getting “better” in that regard – just a lower price because it’s a bundle.
Today rolls around and the guy shows up and spends FIVE hours here. The first thing that happens is he goes down the street and disables our phone and internet. It’s only supposed to be down for ten minutes but remains down the entire five hours. Then we spend hours figuring out how the cabling is done in our house because we haven’t had to worry about it since we had DISH (they ran their own lines). After all that was figured out the guys started installing our boxes and getting things working.
I feel so lost now… all of my tv channels are different! Sci-Fi was 122 for years but now it’s 152 and I can’t even figure out what channel USA is on. The new on-screen guide is wonky looking compared to DISH and I’m feeling a lot of uneasiness from everything being so different.
The plus side in all of this, aside from a price drop, is how many more HD channels we’re getting. We now have USA-HD, Food-HD, Sci-Fi-HD, TBS-HD, TNT-HD, and all sorts of other HD channels in addition to our local’s in HD. I’m all about HD if you can’t tell. For now the quality is decent. I can’t discern much of a difference right now but I’ll keep an eye on it. I want crisp quality pictures. That’s enough talk about the TV though.
The internet portion is what I really, really require to be flawless. I need a fast and reliable connection. So far so good. I did a speed test and it came in just under 10mbps which is what was advertised. Being on 6mbps before wasn’t bad at all. An increase in speed for a decrease in price = good. We tested download speeds on Xbox Live and we got easily over 1mb/s download. I’m going to test how fast it downloads files from various places like Fileplanet where the speeds don’t seem to be capped for us. We were never able to get much faster than 650kb/s and now I’m hoping to push closer to 1mb/s.
I consider the “gamers” (Graev hates that word, don’t kill me Graev!) to be hardcore and our internet access should be capable of providing us with what we need. We’ll let you guys know how it goes over the next few days and report whether or not AT&T U-verse is worth looking into or if you should avoid it altogether.
Now I’m off to put my house back together.
Fiber is the way to go…
Haven’t heard anything about U-verse, but I hear FiOS is pretty good. Really though, nothing can be worse than most of the mainstream services.
Yes please keep us posted! I’m in Nashville where AT&T plans to roll out Uverse within the next few months. I’m curious to know if if the TV and Internet will be worth the change.
I’m curious too. Keep us updated. I already have AT&T Phone and DSL. No cable of any kind yet, still have rabbit ears for my TV until the government forces me to get a converter box. 🙁
HD Food Network is a dangerous thing.
I had to change the channel today when they were making chocolate marshmallow stuff… Graev almost attacked the TV in a hungered frenzy.
I was under the impression that AT&T’s HD was not the same as Dish and Direct TV, something about how they run the bandwith.
I never looked into it because D TV is the S**t. Once I got the HD package and noticed all my fav channels are in HD. Let me tell you Spongebob in HD rules. 🙂
I am still with AT&T dsl for a isp for now I have had no issues.
See if you can get any details on that AT&T Hd thing delthis. I’m not sure if it’s lower quality or what but it definitely looks different.
I have 15mbit FIOS, download at 2m a second. I love it so much. We also have FIOS TV, god I love it! TBH, I don’t even watch TV that much anymore though… Hulu.com and Bittorrent is enough to keep me going… no commercials + HD all streamed or downloaded in a matter of minutes is fine with me lol.
I mean, we even have an HD Tivo… and I find myself using less and less as the internet gets better and better.
We’ve been with Adelphia for many years (I know they’re now Time-Warner Cable) and have loved their Cable Modem service for several years now, until recently.
I’ve been running tests and I can get a 4Mbps (or better) download speed in the morning, but as the day goes on the connection gets slower and slower, until by the evening I’m lucky to get a 400Kbps connection.
We’re making the change next week to AT&T DSL. I set up the FIL’s DSL connection a couple of years ago, I think (I hope) I can handle the change of my own. AT&T is promising 3Mbps connection speeds, even if they only deliver 2Mbps at least I know it will be a consistent and steady 2Mbps. Hell, even a consistent 1.5Mbps is better than 400Kbps.
I hate it when WoW goes from a 50ms latency to a 1K+ latency just because my neighbors start surfing.
Keen, I don’t have back up on this but a friend explained that AT&T lowers the picture quality so it can stream all channels at the same time. So when your changing channels there is not a 3 sec blank screen like with Direct TV and maybe Dish. With AT&T the picture pops in right away.
He explained how he can no longer have Direct TV due to the trees in his yard and switched to cable. HE can tell the difference and after several talks with AT&T tec support the problem was with the bandwidth on the cable line.
He is a good friend and I believe him but I have no other info.
Good Luck, I love my Direct TV and the picture is great.
I believe you Delthis because the picture does indeed load instantly instead of delayed. Hmm. Ill keep my eye on the picture quality.
On Direct TV and Dish Net, if you got a dish on your house your getting the pic from your getting the the network from ether Direct TV or Dish Net no matter how yor buying it from. There just second party providers, like AT&T. If your getting Direct TV or Dish Net from a cable and you have no dish on your house then thats a different story
If got a dish on your house your getting the pic that everybodys getting, its the same signal. Different pic qualities come from the install of the system.
I have AT&T fiber optic stuff now I guess. It’s from a cable. Before I had DISH Network and had a satellite. I still have DISH setup until I decide I’m happy with AT&T.
Dish DVR rocks. I do not see anything surpassing it, unless it gives you a lot of cool remoting features.
I have fiber optic phone and DSL 2Mbps and it rocks, no video channel yet but maybe soon. TV is Direct TV HD system with HD DVR. Its the best by far. I sold and installed all types of satellite systems from 10 and 12′ 70meg ( the first systems you could get) to todays systems. As far as DVR’s go they are all about the same.
The DVR box is making a very high pitch ringing noise nonstop… the only way to get it to stop is by turning it off…. It’s driving us INSANE.
You shoulsn’t be hearing anything more than the same hard drive sounds you hear in your computer.
This is frustrating. The day the technician installed the system we heard the noise 10 min after he left and asked him to come back and replace it. He did. Now today the sound is back in this new system.
It’s a high pitch ringing that literally makes me ill. It’s not super loud but it’s loud enough to hear it anywhere in the room and be like “What…is…that…NOISE?!”
The only solution is to raise the volume. =(
😐
Well that sucks man I hope you figure it out
Hmm, from Envy to Pity in 21 posts. Good luck with the noise Keen. That sort of thing drives me nuts.
That said, you guys are in CA right? I wonder when U-verse will come to my backwoods corner of the state.
interesting, i’m on TW which is pretty much the only choice. I get about 5MB. I’ll be on business abroad soon and will be stuck with 512k for months lol. Oh well, fun times ahead.
Had the AT&T U-verse people come back out and install a new box. If the ringing comes back I’m having them remove all their stuff and I’m switching back to DISH.
Oh no, it’s back. Make the ringing stop! Make it stop! AHHHHHHH!
That’s it. I ripped it out and put the DISH network back in.
DO NOT get AT&T U-verse. It’s horrible.
Oh No!!! I just had the Uverse installed, prior to reading any of the posts here, of course. I found this site by doing a quick google search on the problem. Keen is correct. The box makes the worst noise i have ever heard. I am screwed.
Hi Keen,
We just got AT&T Uverse a couple of days ago and we are having the same issue with the box. The ringing is driving my wife, the cats and myself absolutely bonkers!
Ive had ATT uverse for about 4mths now./ ITS HORRIBLE!! It freezes everyday, I mailed in my payment one time and it got to them a little late, my service was disconnected, I have internet and Cable, they charged me 30 for each service just to reconnect. Im switching this friday!
Switched from Cox cable and internet to ATT U Verse about one month ago.
TV often freezes, Internet appears nice and fast. Phone was ATT, now ATT U Verse. Shortly after all day install we started having noise on the pnone line. Usually starts about 3 to 5 minutes into a call, gets to the point where you have to hang up and call back.
Then last sunday our main house line went down completely.
Technicians have been back twice now, I have spent over 1 hour on the phone with ATT at least twice.
The third time (Yesterday) I refused to spend time on the phone and told them to send me a technician, since I would not work with them on the phone any longer (tired of wasting my time) they said they would charge me $35.00 for the visit told them I would not pay it.
They then sent another tech today who got lines going again, but did not know if it would solve the problem and suggested that they have had this problem in other places and it is very difficult to fix.
Within an hour of the tech’s visit today the noise is back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Calling them again tomorrow..
I also have constant noise on the Att voice over internet phone line and the tech people finally admitted it is a “known” problems for which a “fix is upcoming”.