Uverse TV opinions? (Dallas: home, buying, movies)

[smuggy_mba]

I was planning on getting U-Verse; their 400.00 cash back offer seems good. I've had U-verse when it first came out and had it for a year till comcast gave a better deal and TV seemed fine (same as comcast) on my LED TV.

I have heard horror stories about U-verse slow internet speed and that's what keeps me from making the switch since U-verse makes you sign a contract to get the better price.

[houston-nomad]

Originally Posted by cgibsong002

Hey everyone.. just wanted some insight into your thoughts on Uverse TV specifically. In my new apartment, I'm locked with ATT, so I know I'm doing internet already. My choice comes down to TV or no TV. If I got TV, with the channels I'd want, in HD, I'm basically looking at a difference of $50 for TV or non TV.

I've never used Uverse before, which is why I'm asking. I've used Xfinity and I've used Verizon Fios. I know Uverse comes with a DVR, which is a nice bonus. How is the on-demand content? How about pay-movie content, and pricing? Any additional features that Uverse offers that I might not be used to?

If I don't get TV I've already got my bases covered, so I'm not really looking for info on that. Just looking for insight as to whether ATT is a great value or nothing special.

I thought U-verse was great when we had it. DVR is great, on demand is good. HOWEVER, the prices went up and up, totally unpredictably, until we were paying out the wazoo. And the folks on the phone really couldn't fix it or tell me why. So we dropped it.

I'd say get it, give it a try, if you find it's not worth it or they jack the prices, drop it. Get a $20 antenna and a $75 roku.

[smuggy_mba]

and what's up with the "HD Fee" in 2014?

[colcat]

I would have highly recommended Uverse until this past weekend. They customer service sucked when I had an issue with my tv. Anyway, as far a the cost, those rates are negotiable.

[cgibsong002]

Originally Posted by smuggy_mba

and what's up with the "HD Fee" in 2014?

Yeah this bothers me as well. Like.. it's 2014. You really need to pay extra for something that should be standard? HD is even standard OTA for free. I think I'm leaning more towards skipping the TV

[georgemichael]

I've have U-Verse since '06 or '07 and I've only seen artifacts when the network is hiccuping and that has been rare for me. I had it in an apartment and in a house. both have been fine and as of right now the pictures quality for me and my family members is pretty dang good! And if you are only watching one TV at a time as it sounds I seriously doubt you will see any network issues. being as you had Verizon IPTV (very cool!) I would think you would be very familiar with U-Verse. It is also IPTV. I've wondered how similar they are. If you just meant you used FIOS for just the internet, my apologies on the misunderstanding. U-Verse definitely is not Fiber Optic Service.

[Spartacus713]

AT&T Uverse has the best technology overall. However, as they have expanded their market share, they have increasingly embraced the monopolist's mindset, much like Comcast before them. Of course being part of AT&T, it is a mindset that has already been established in that company for many decades, so it was kind of a natural transition for them.

Comcast has good technology too, but not as good as AT&T Uverse's, in my opinion. What both of these companies increasingly share are the strong arm pricing practices that force you to spend a lot more money than you want to, forcing you to buy a huge number of channels that you do not want in order to obtain access to the few that you do.

The Dish has the best pricing. DTV costs more. Uverse is better in terms of technology. Comcast is the devil.

[Augiec]

I've tried Uverse in an effort to shave some cash from the fixed costs. I found the quality of the dvr to be better, and the picture quality was a little worse. What was the deal breaker for me was the slow internet speed. I did a speedtest on my comcast connection the night before switching and was getting 80mbps. On uverse that dropped to 21! It got so bad that my wife & toddler started complaining when they tried to stream Thomas on Netflix because it would stop to queue up content.

In short, we had Uverse for a day or two tops before switching back to Comcast. I'm sorry Uverse is your only option OP.

[Ashl10]

Ive had uverse cable and internet for almost 2 years now no complaints over here except for when there is a bad storm and the power goes out theres a chance its going to fry your cable box but they replace it for free..other than that i love uverse!

[ilikeme]

Originally Posted by georgemichael

And if you are only watching one TV at a time as it sounds I seriously doubt you will see any network issues. being as you had Verizon IPTV (very cool!) I would think you would be very familiar with U-Verse. It is also IPTV. I've wondered how similar they are. If you just meant you used FIOS for just the internet, my apologies on the misunderstanding. U-Verse definitely is not Fiber Optic Service.

FIOS TV is in no way simillar to U-Verse. I lived up in the Dallas area for 4 years and studied audio and video engineering. I also had FIOS the whole time. FIOS is not IPTV, it is run very similar to traditional digital cable TV, such as Comcast. They even use boxes that look and act identical to what Comcast and Time Warner use. The only part of FIOS TV that is similar is that it does use the internet for guide and ON-Demand shows/movies. Everything else is run virtually identical to traditional cable tv except that it runs on fiber all the way to the house, unlike cable TV which only has fiber to the neighborhood node.