TV reception providers, Who do people use, and what is the Quality? (apartment complex, price)

[LittleCityATX]

UVerse! Better/newer technology all around.

Fiber-optic until close to your house (might even be fiber all the way to your house).

DirectTV has the Tivo DVR interface which is nicer, but otherwise UVerse is better.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by eileenkeeney

Cable?
Dish Network?
Direct TV?
Other?

I have never used satellite before, but have had concerns that there would be signal issues often enough to irritate me (as shown on the ads for TimeWarner cable).
But the truth is, I get outages with cable every so often as well (both internet and tv, or just internet, or just particular tv stations).

The satellite providers have specials right now, but I don't want a lock in to a contract, for which the price goes up, before the end of the contract.

What about DSL instead of Cable for internet?

TimeWarner does not even recognize the address of the house, they tell me it does not exist in their database, and I know it exists, and I was pretty sure I saw cable connections inside (but maybe it is not wired for cable).

I did some looking on the internet, and AT&T has a lot of specials, but they are gimmick heavy (I hate gimmicks, I would much rather just get a straight deal.)

Do the people who get satellite in this area (Austin, or more specifically North Austin), get pretty constant reception, or is it fuzzy a lot?

I had directv in north west austin for about 8 years and only recall losing the signal briefly (5 minutes?) a few times.

[calel]

UVerse is fiber to the node (the big metal AT&T boxes planted somewhere in your neighbor) and coax to your house.

I ditched cable TV altogether in favor of over-the-air antenna service. I realized that I barely watch TV as it is and the majority of the shows I like are on good ol' broadcast stations (or were already on a premium channel that I didn't have with cable either). Nearly all shows are available in some legal format online these days, be it Hulu, the network's website, or Netflix's Instant Watch. Or you can opt to pay per episode or season through a service like Amazon and iTunes. Or if you're willing to wait an entire season and some change, you can get DVDs through the mail from Netflix and enjoy an entire season in a few sittings. Depending on what the Hulu Plus service offers, it might be worth the extra $5-10 a month.

I went with Time Warner over AT&T's DSL service because RR seemed cheaper in terms of price vs speed. I don't trust Clear because I've seen my in-house connection get flakey...couldn't imagine my Internet being fed that way from a mega-router out in the vast beyond. I wish Cedar Park had other Internet provider options than those 3, but them's the breaks.

[Austin97]

Originally Posted by atxcio

Does UVerse suffer from the same problems as satellite TV does? Does it go out in the rain/clouds? Does the picture pixelize/freeze a lot (TWC this used to never happen, but it's starting to a little now).

I'm interested in UVerse, but I've been bombarded by those TWC ads which indicate AT&T is just repackaging satellite TV. Which would be fine, I guess, if the reliability was better than a home satellite dish.

I think when they say ATT is repackaging satellite they are talking about the dish package with ATT. Uverse is completely different and comes via a cable.

I would say the quality of uverse is worse than directv, but Im ok with it. It is heavily pixelated anytime there are a lot of flashing lights or smoke like if you are watching a concert. I would say the picture frequently stutters - something will stutter maybe once a week (although briefly).

Directv picture quality was extremely good, but it was worth the $ savings to me to switch to uverse as I dont watch much of the stuff that gets heavily pixelated and dont mind when things do get pixelated.

The uverse dvr is worse than the directv dvr which was worse than the tivo dvr.

Directv however was good enough that I didnt miss tivo too much. The uverse DVR does not let you prioritize season passes so every once in awhile something doesnt get recorded (maybe once every six months) We dont record that much though.

[mark311]

I've stayed away from satellite because they all require you to sign a two year contract for their service and put big mounting bolts in your roof.

It would be between AT&T Uverse and Time Warner Cable for me. AT&T Uverse currently edged out Time Warner for me because they currently have better DVR boxes. It's possible that I would go back to Time Warner in the future if they ever improve upon their DVRs. I had Time Warner for two years and Uverse for almost two years since I've been here. Both have similar quality for my area.

Really, you need to ask the other people in your neighborhood. Service quality can really vary depending on the quality of the lines that run into your neighborhood from each provider.

[mark311]

Originally Posted by atxcio

Does UVerse suffer from the same problems as satellite TV does? Does it go out in the rain/clouds? Does the picture pixelize/freeze a lot (TWC this used to never happen, but it's starting to a little now).

I'm interested in UVerse, but I've been bombarded by those TWC ads which indicate AT&T is just repackaging satellite TV. Which would be fine, I guess, if the reliability was better than a home satellite dish.

No, I have had Uverse for almost 2 years now and the quality is very good. I honestly can't even remember a time that my service has gone out. Maybe my Internet service went out for a few hours one time during a storm, but that's it. My neighborhood is only about 15 years old and has pretty good lines running into it.

There is a stream limitation with Uverse. For example, you can't have 3 HD streams running to 3 different TVs in your house at the same time (you can have more if you're watching standard Def programming). If you have 3 kids and 5 TV's in your house, then you're probably better off with Time Warner. You can't just hook coax directly up to all of your TVs. Uverse does require that each TV has it's own set top box rented from AT&T and that can add up quick if you have more than two TV's. However, It does provide some cool features like being able to watch recorded shows in every room even though you only have one DVR.

[tourbound129]

I had Time Warner for 4 years until 5 days ago. I switched to Directv and will never look back. I'm not a fan of the 2 year contract but I will deal with it.
The mounting bolts are a non-issue. There are plenty of mounting options (pole in your yard, they can mount it to the side of the house or to the far outside of the roof over the back patio like mine is. If by some small chance the roof did leak it wouldn't even matter). I have 2 dual tuner HD DVR's with multiroom video for $49.99/month.

I switched to Clear for internet (I'm getting 10+Mbps down and 1Mbps up). Clear is costing me $15 for the first 2 months and $40/month after that.

After taxes on Directv and Clear its the same price Time Warner was charging me for 1 DVR after I threatened to cancel and they gave me a 15% discount.

Be careful with ATT Uverse unless you know someone in your area that has it. Their online address checker and customer service both told me it was available. I waited all day for a tech to show up only for him to ring the doorbell and tell me I was to far from the node. I immediately called ATT customer service and ripped some 2nd or 3rd level manager a new one for wasting my entire day. With all the technology we have available it is unacceptable that they can't determine if I am within range of the node. The tech looked at his GPS when he got in my neighborhood and knew right away I wouldn't be close enough. ATT will never see a dime of my money.

[motherofthree]

Originally Posted by mark311

No, I have had Uverse for almost 2 years now and the quality is very good. I honestly can't even remember a time that my service has gone out. Maybe my Internet service went out for a few hours one time during a storm, but that's it. My neighborhood is only about 15 years old and has pretty good lines running into it.

There is a stream limitation with Uverse. For example, you can't have 3 HD streams running to 3 different TVs in your house at the same time (you can have more if you're watching standard Def programming). If you have 3 kids and 5 TV's in your house, then you're probably better off with Time Warner. You can't just hook coax directly up to all of your TVs. Uverse does require that each TV has it's own set top box rented from AT&T and that can add up quick if you have more than two TV's. However, It does provide some cool features like being able to watch recorded shows in every room even though you only have one DVR.

We rarely record in HD since the STD on our HD tv's is so good.

If you max out on recordings at one time, you can still watch anything you have recorded. There are times when we are recording 4 different shows, and 3 different tv's are watching 3 different recorded tv shows all at the same tv. Pretty cool.

[F&N]

We have AT&T Uverse & have been satisfied. Any minor issues we've had, were cleared up right away with good customer service.

[eileenkeeney]

Originally Posted by tourbound129

I switched to Clear for internet (I'm getting 10+Mbps down and 1Mbps up). Clear is costing me $15 for the first 2 months and $40/month after that.

After taxes on Directv and Clear its the same price Time Warner was charging me for 1 DVR after I threatened to cancel and they gave me a 15% discount.

Clear has an offer, where you can get DirectTV for only $29.99 if you also get Clear internet (which I think was only $30).

But now, after some more reading, I realize that Clear is wireless to my house.
My connection to my employer, will disconnect when it gets one of those tiny single interruptions that are common with wireless (which I would not notice if my work would not disconnect me).

But I am curious if you have a pretty reliable connection with Clear, or if you often have trouble connecting?

I think I am tending toward DSL and an old fashioned TV Antenna.