AT&T U-verse - Austin

[S.P. Rodriguez]

I know we've hashed out this point repeatedly but I don't know if we ever covered AT&T U-verse.  Does anyone know how solid the Astros coverage is with AT&T U-verse?  I've stuck with DishNetwork because I get every televised Astros game.  AT&T U-verse is offering a pretty good package but I'm not interested if I lose the only sports coverage I care about.

[Bench]

I know we've hashed out this point repeatedly but I don't know if we ever covered AT&T U-verse.  Does anyone know how solid the Astros coverage is with AT&T U-verse?  I've stuck with DishNetwork because I get every televised Astros game.  AT&T U-verse is offering a pretty good package but I'm not interested if I lose the only sports coverage I care about.

I don't know about Austin or DishNetwork, but U-verse is better in every respect than Comcast.

Guess that's not too helpful to you, but after years of dealing with Comcast I feel obligated to say it. 

[Lurch]

When I looked at it last, they couldn't stream 2 HD channels at the same time.  So you couldnt be watching one channel and recording another, both in HD.  They were supposedly working that issue out city by city.  I'd confirm it's fixed in Austin before going that route.

[the KEG]

The 2 simultaneous HD feeds are now available, at least in the Houston area.  Not sure if that is the case for all of them though.

That said, the first and only thing to really annoy me about Uverse is the lack of the MLB Network.  Other than that, it's waaaay better than Comcast/Time Warner. 

I get a good amount of the home games in HD, too.

[Col. Sphinx Drummond]

When I looked at it last, they couldn't stream 2 HD channels at the same time.  So you couldnt be watching one channel and recording another, both in HD.  They were supposedly working that issue out city by city.  I'd confirm it's fixed in Austin before going that route.

It depends on the distance from your house to the neighborhood vrad hub. There is a fiber optic cable buried to that point and it line shares or piggy backs on the old copper cable from there to your house. The digital signal degrades on copper as it gets further away from the hub. Usually for video the limit is about 3,000 feet, give or take several hundred feet, depending on the age and condition of the cable. If one lives within 2,600 feet, give or take a couple of hundred feet, one should have no problem receiving more than one HD stream. Unfortunately, sales people are notorious for misleading or building up hope, claiming it will work great no matter what -- then leaving it to the field techs to work out any kinks. The technicians can fix a lot but they can't move you house closer.

[Limey]

Availability seems totally random with U-Verse.  I can get it where I live now, 12 miles outside the Galleria, but my new place in town (Shepherd Square area) doesn't have it.  It's just off Kirby and Richmond, and there's an effing huge AT&T station on Buffalo Speedway and W. Alabama.  That's annoying.

I want it to get Setanta (Limey) Sports without having to have a dish.

[VirtualBob]

I called about it and found it was not available in Austin ... or at least not in my neighborhood.  Anyone have any insight into when Austin will be included in the service area??

[matadorph]

I called about it and found it was not available in Austin ... or at least not in my neighborhood.  Anyone have any insight into when Austin will be included in the service area??

I got an offer in the mail earlier this week, so it must be available in my neighborhood (east of UT).

[Limey]

I called about it and found it was not available in Austin ... or at least not in my neighborhood.  Anyone have any insight into when Austin will be included in the service area??

If you go to the website, you can put in your street address and get told the same thing - not available.  However, you can then give them your email addy and they'll email you when it becomes available at that street address.  I presume that they're monitoring the interest, and if you get enough people in your neighbourhood to show interest, they'll eventually put in the fibre optic node.

I asked at an AT&T store about the process of upgrading in my area, and they told me that there's no way to know.  It'll just be there one day.  Or it won't.  Don't know why I was expecting any other kind of answer, but it didn't kill too many brain cells to hear it (about the same as a Gibson, straight up with Grey Goose).

[Andyzipp]

According to my mom (who up until a year ago was the Project Manager for U-Verse installations in Texas), Austin isn't considered a viable market yet because infrastructure changes that would need to happen aren't being allowed by Austin and Travis County.  She expects Williamson Co to start receiving the service towards Q3 of this year.

Houston, BTW was a test market for the entire U-Verse platform.

[BUWebguy]

According to my mom (who up until a year ago was the Project Manager for U-Verse installations in Texas), Austin isn't considered a viable market yet because infrastructure changes that would need to happen aren't being allowed by Austin and Travis County.  She expects Williamson Co to start receiving the service towards Q3 of this year.

Houston, BTW was a test market for the entire U-Verse platform.

So I'm guessing that asking about Waco would just get a laugh and a "yeah, right"?

[MusicMan]

Folks in Waco have been taught that the AT&T U-Verse is 4,000 years old and was created in 6 days.

[Ty in Tampa]

I asked at an AT&T store about the process of upgrading in my area, and they told me that there's no way to know.  It'll just be there one day.  Or it won't.

This is the way it was with FIOS. I waited, waited, saw people digging, then men in red shirts going door-to-door signing people up.

[Limey]

This is the way it was with FIOS. I waited, waited, saw people digging, then men in red shirts going door-to-door signing people up.

During the Ike power outages, my boss' wife cruised the local area with a couple of cases of beer, trying to tempt the work crews to come and fix their electricity first.  It didn't work then, but maybe the AT&T guys are more malleable...

[JackAstro]

I called about it and found it was not available in Austin ... or at least not in my neighborhood.  Anyone have any insight into when Austin will be included in the service area??

I'm in 78749, and it's been available in our neighborhood since last summer, I think. My neighbor has it, and his opinion has been mixed. I'll try to get his two cents on the pros and cons.

[MRaup]

I'm in 78749, and it's been available in our neighborhood since last summer, I think. My neighbor has it, and his opinion has been mixed. I'll try to get his two cents on the pros and cons.

We've got U-Verse at my place. Other than the occasional blip/signal hiccup, I've been pretty pleased with it.

Apparently it's available in 78731, but only south of Far West right now.

[Gizzmonic]

My girlfriend's sister has AT&T Uverse in San Antonio, and there is a problem with the HDMI between the AT&T receiver box and her plasma TV.  The receiver box kept reporting that the set was not HDCP compliant (not true) and switching the resolution down to 480p...she didn't care but I told her she should be getting HD if she pays for it.  I put her back on component cables for the time being.  Unfortunately, I've seen this happen a lot with HDMI, but that's a whole different subject.

[UpTooLate]

I don't know about Austin or DishNetwork, but U-verse is better in every respect than Comcast.

Guess that's not too helpful to you, but after years of dealing with Comcast I feel obligated to say it. 

I couldn't agree more.  Comcast sucked.  We've had U-verse now for three months and really like it.

I now understand why Comcast was coming out with such negative commercials about AT&T getting into the cable business.  My advice to anybody would be to get the service as soon as it's available to you.

The wife and I got the Level One package (no premium stations).  We get like 300 something channels.  We can record up to 3 programs at one time and the second T.V. can be watching a different recorded program than the first.  In spite of having so many freaking channels, when it gets down to it, you find that you watch only about 5-10 channels on any regular basis.  It's real nice if you want the extreme specialty channels on history, sports, music, science, or whatever. 

[S.P. Rodriguez]

We've got U-Verse at my place. Other than the occasional blip/signal hiccup, I've been pretty pleased with it.

Apparently it's available in 78731, but only south of Far West right now.

Did you have it last season?  Any idea on the FSN-Houston pickup?  Dish has a tendency to run FSN-Southwest (i.e. Rangers games) on the main channel.  But the FSN Houston (Astros coverage) is always on the alternate channels.  From what I can tell, it looks like AT&T Uverse offers both channels.  But their documentation is inconsistent. 

[MRaup]

Did you have it last season?  Any idea on the FSN-Houston pickup?  Dish has a tendency to run FSN-Southwest (i.e. Rangers games) on the main channel.  But the FSN Houston (Astros coverage) is always on the alternate channels.  From what I can tell, it looks like AT&T Uverse offers both channels.  But their documentation is inconsistent. 

A vast majority of the games were on toward the end of the season (I moved in in September).

[Col. Sphinx Drummond]

According to my mom (who up until a year ago was the Project Manager for U-Verse installations in Texas), Austin isn't considered a viable market yet because infrastructure changes that would need to happen aren't being allowed by Austin and Travis County.  She expects Williamson Co to start receiving the service towards Q3 of this year.

Houston, BTW was a test market for the entire U-Verse platform.

It's been available in and around the Austin area for about a year now, but still not everywhere. The roll-out is goofy, partly because AT&T is goofy and partly because of regulatory mandate to make it available first in neighborhoods that would probably be overlooked if the for-profit corporation was not regulated. While AT&T does a reasonable job facilitating communications for others, it amazing how difficult it is to communicate with them and communications really breakdown between their own departments.   

[Andyzipp]

It's been available in and around the Austin area for about a year now, but still not everywhere. The roll-out is goofy, partly because AT&T is goofy and partly because of regulatory mandate to make it available first in neighborhoods that would probably be overlooked if the for-profit corporation was not regulated. While AT&T does a reasonable job facilitating communications for others, it amazing how difficult it is to communicate with them and communications really breakdown between their own departments.  

Didn't mean to insinuate that there was no service in Travis County, but it'll be a while before it has widespread availability compared to other markets.

And yes, AT&T>Southwestern Bell>SBC>AT&T is a huge clusterfuck of a company.  Both my parents have worked for them my entire life, so I am well versed in their shortcomings.

[VirtualBob]

Didn't mean to insinuate that there was no service in Travis County, but it'll be a while before it has widespread availability compared to other markets.

And yes, AT&T>Southwestern Bell>SBC>AT&T is a huge clusterfuck of a company.  Both my parents have worked for them my entire life, so I am well versed in their shortcomings.

The parents or the company?  And is there a causal relationship somewhere here??

[Andyzipp]

The parents or the company?  And is there a causal relationship somewhere here??

The company. I am my parents only shortcoming.

[Wild Dog]

I have it here in Round Rock and it's been great.  Of course, no MLB channel...

[Col. Sphinx Drummond]

Didn't mean to insinuate that there was no service in Travis County, but it'll be a while before it has widespread availability compared to other markets.

I work for AT&T too. Up until about 10 months ago, I had been working on splicing the fiber optic cable into the VRADs. It's already widespread, even in the heart of Austin. Houston and San Antonio had big jumps on Austin.  El Paso just opened up though.

[S.P. Rodriguez]

Well folks, I made the switch.  So help me, if AT&T just told me I'll get FSN-Houston coverage to get me to agree, that service will get yanked for good and I'll distance myself from AT&T as much as possible (Yeah, I'm with just about the entire population, in that I've been jerked around by AT&T.  So they get no margin for error.)

Thanks for all the feedback.  I've heard good and bad (mostly that folks have had trouble early on, but supposedly the kinks are worked out).  I'm hoping for the best, but I'm not canceling Dish until I'm sure I'm set.

[Limey]

Hey!  U-Verse customers!

What does the box plug into?  A phone jack?

Comcast has fucked something up and I'm shut out of a shit-load of channels - many of which I pay extra for - and including the Sci-Fi channel.  This means I missed the second part of the BSG two-parter, which ended last week with a grenade being rolled into the room where Adama was making a stand.  I am beyond fucked off.  It also includes FSN, which is only marginally less annoying because it's not baseball season yet.  I count 45 channels gone, including 26 channels between 21 and 67, channel 80 and then virtually all the HD channels between 283 and 303.  I didn't even count the Spanish language channels missing the 500s, because I can't count that high in Spanish.

Anyway, I'm thinking of switching to U-Verse just because Comcast don't deserve the $180/month I pay for TV and internet.  I'm going to be moving in a few months, but AT&T don't seem to need a contract.  If someone is going to have a service tech come out*, then I'd rather it be AT&T** to switch me over.  Trouble is, I don't have phone jacks anywhere near where the TVs are.

* I spoke with three different agents and got three different answers.  One sent a refresh signal (which I'd already done through the automated menu), one said they'd have to send a technician and one said that it was due to the analog/digital switch on Feb 1 and it would be working again in a couple of hours.  This last one is complete rubbish because Feb 1 wasn't the date for the switch and cable was supposedly immune to any issues, and the channels were working on Wednesday (Feb 4) but not Thursday or since.

**  How fucked up do you have to be for someone to even think that this could be correct.

[Col. Sphinx Drummond]

Hey!  U-Verse customers!

What does the box plug into?  A phone jack?

Hey Limey!

In most instances, the residential gateway RG (a combined router-modem), can be set up on either coax or the existing phone wires/jacks. There is a device called a balun (a frenquency filter) that is installed outside where your phone line comes into the house, it can be set up there for coax or phone wire. Cat 5 wire (twisted pairs) is the best option, followed by coax, then the non-twisted. Again in most cases, they should be able to use your existing coax outlets and it work just fine. The older the house the greater possibility of inhibiting factors. In most areas they are distributing the service partly over wires that were installed before the U-Verse technology was developed, when it was just a gleam in Ma Bell's eye.

l don't know anything about prices or channel availability.

[Limey]

Hey Limey!

In most instances, the residential gateway RG (a combined router-modem), can be set up on either coax or the existing phone wires/jacks. There is a device called a balun (a frenquency filter) that is installed outside where your phone line comes into the house, it can be set up there for coax or phone wire. Cat 5 wire (twisted pairs) is the best option, followed by coax, then the non-twisted. Again in most cases, they should be able to use your existing coax outlets and it work just fine. The older the house the greater possibility of inhibiting factors. In most areas they are distributing the service partly over wires that were installed before the U-Verse technology was developed, when it was just a gleam in Ma Bell's eye.

l don't know anything about prices or channel availability.

Thanks.  I actually did some further research and got pretty much the same information.  Pricing looks to be about the same as Comcast, but a ton more HD channels than Comcast (including Sci-Fi, whoop!).  I'll see how enthusiastic I am for the change in an hour or two.  If Comcast get their shit together, I'll stick with them because I could be moving at any time in the next few weeks/months, but if not I'll take my business away because, now, I can.

FWIW, I'm going to have my new place wired with CAT-6 for future proofing.  I'll run coax, telephone and CAT-6 lines to each TV location - four to the family room, two each to the other TVs and 8 to the study.  That should be enough for TV and networking I think.

[HudsonHawk]

FWIW, I'm going to have my new place wired with CAT-6 for future proofing.  I'll run coax, telephone and CAT-6 lines to each TV location - four to the family room, two each to the other TVs and 8 to the study.  That should be enough for TV and networking I think.

So you're only planning on having what, four TVs?  And they're all inside?  Lightweight. 

[Craig]

Most importantly, have you gotten to see last night's BSG yet?

[Limey]

Most importantly, have you gotten to see last night's BSG yet?

Bought it on my Apple TV.  Awesome*!

*  Both the AppleTV and BSG.

[Craig]

Bought it on my Apple TV.  Awesome*!

*  Both the AppleTV and BSG.

I'M COMING FOR ALL OF YOU ... AND YOUR SHITTY COMCAST TOO!!!

[Limey]

So you're only planning on having what, four TVs?  And they're all inside?  Lightweight. 

Nope.  Two CAT-6 connections for each TV, one for the cable box and one for an Apple TV, in each TV location.  The main TV gets 4 CAT-6 connections and the study gets 8.  Apple TV works extremely well wirelessly, especially if you have a dedicated wireless "n" network, but as I'm getting the place properly wired, it would seem silly not to use the extra bandwidth/speed.  Eventually, I expect to have a media server (waiting on Apple to pull their finger out on this), which will then stream music and video content to all the TVs via an Apple TV, which has a brilliant interface.

[Limey]

I'M COMING FOR ALL OF YOU ... AND YOUR SHITTY COMCAST TOO!!!

At least they didn't fuck with us too much this episode.  We knew Zarek was lying because we'd seen the truth.  However, I thought Gaeda's itchy knee was going to be more meaningful than it was.  I was waiting for him to go into toxic shock at any moment.

PS  While I was bitching Comcast out as to why an obvious programming glitch needed to be handled by a house call, the channels came back.  Looks like I'm stuck with Comcast for the foreseeable future.  That's all I've got at the new place until AT&T run some fibre my way (can't countenance a dish, I'm afraid, despite the numerous glowing and sensible reports from dishers - and DSL internet blows).

[Craig]

At least they didn't fuck with us too much this episode.  We knew Zarek was lying because we'd seen the truth.  However, I thought Gaeda's itchy knee was going to be more meaningful than it was.  I was waiting for him to go into toxic shock at any moment.

Well, Gaeda did get a couple of seconds of relief ... which makes me think of the line from "All Along the Watchtower. "There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief." Bah, probably just another red herring.