[ale] AT&T U-verse TV

[scott mcbrien]

U-verse has been stable for about 5 months, the "master" described earlier
is called a Residential Gateway or RG, which is connected to the satellite
set-top boxes by coax, but can also be RJ-45.
The good:
The channel line up is really nice, more HD channels than Comcast and we
generally get better service than we did with Comcast.

They have a nice selection of On Demand free programming.

The meh:
Customer service is about the same.

Cost is about the same.

The set top boxes have an HDMI output, but apparently it doesn't work, but
was supposed to be fixed with a firmware update (I'm still waiting, that was
told to me in December)

The bad:
I don't like the UI for the DVR, but then I'm a spoiled Tivo bitch.

The setup SUCKED.  The tech was at the house all day and missed a lot of the
network devices (which he assigned static IP addresses too and configured
the router to reject any non-static devices), which meant I spend the next
day or so adding all the network printers, all the little bits and bobs of
laptops here and there that do different things in the house.  Then whenever
you have an issue, they make you factory reset the box and you get to do it
all over again.  After the second time, I installed my own DHCP server and
make the RG do nothing other than route.

Because of the above, Customer Service often tries to not help with an issue
that's upstream

Lastly, and probably most importantly, the 2wire PoS Residential Gateway has
the crappiest 802.11 signal I've ever seen on any device.  I'm often
disconnected from it if I'm not in the same room as it, doesn't matter the
settings, doesn't matter the channel.  To add to the misery, the RG gets
upset if you run in "router behind router" configuration, which is what I
was doing to try and supplement the network by adding multiple access
points.  I really, really hate that equipment.  Words alone can not describe
the amount of loath, disdain, and despise I have for it.

-Scott

On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 9:47 PM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:

> I kind of like that  "no extra $$ for the analog second tv" with
> comcast. I'm not giving the kids channel options as one will want
> nothing but cartoons and the other will want every movie channel.
>
> Yet part of me likes the "we only have one tv" aspect of AT&T. Better
> things to do than brainrot all the time.
>
> On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 8:56 PM, Atlanta Geek<atlantageek at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > We have it.
> > It wasnt really cheaper because we had to get the tier that had the one
> > channel the kids had to have.
> > We got 2 converter boxes where with comcast we only got 1.
> > With comcast we got a single digital box and several analog tv hookups.
> Now
> > we have 2 digital boxes but since there is no analog  channels we only
> have
> > the two TVs.
> >
> > Occasional macroblocking but no wrorse  than comcast.  Boxes tend to need
> to
> > be rebooted a little more often.
> >
> > We arent switching back.
> >
> > On Tue, Jun 16, 2009 at 8:30 PM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >> is less $$ than Comcast for comparable tv channel count (actually AT&T
> >> offers more channels than comcast per tier).
> >>
> >> What do the technology guinea pigs of ALE think of the quality of
> >> their picture? How big is (another friggin') converter box?
> >>
> >> I have no plans to use their Internet or phone products (I _LIKE_ my
> >> Speakeasy and Vonage combination!)
> >>
> >> --
> >> --
> >> James P. Kinney III
> >> Actively in pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Ale mailing list
> >> Ale at ale.org
> >> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > http://www.atlantageek.com
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ale mailing list
> > Ale at ale.org
> > http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> --
> James P. Kinney III
> Actively in pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness
>
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>
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