Question for those with U-verse

[kevbeck122]

How's the picture quality?  I went to the Brookfield AT&T store where they have the U-verse demo setup and SD channels seemed pretty bad to me, almost like watching something on youtube full screen... maybe because it was stretched but I don't know.  I don't understand why they don't have the U400 package for you to demo.. all they had was U200 and no HD package so all I could see were the SD channels.  How are the HD channels?

[Mrtanner]

I came from TWC to Uverse.  I thought the SD channels (2-99 on TWC) looked better on Uverse.  The HD channels seem to have the same resolution as TWC, but they seem a little darker on my LCD front projector.

[RLJSlick]

Went over my buddy house last week and he has U-Verse, and his digital channels looked OK, not bad at all, but I wasn't impressed with the HD at all.

[kevbeck122]

Sounds like a lot of people don't like the HD, at least those with big screens.  The biggest screen I have is 30" right now.. so I guess I'm ok.  I do notice imperfections easily though.

[Mark Strube]

I have the exact same question about U-Verse right now. Especially the locals. Just to be clear: they are taking the local MPEG 2 feeds, and converting them to lower-bitrate MPEG4? For channels like NBC, are they starting with the full 19mbps feed, or the same bit-starved feed as off-the-air (due to Weather Plus)? If U-Verse was being projected on a, say, 30 ft wide screen... would you opt for off-the-air instead?

[kevbeck122]

A lot of people over at uverseusers.com seem to say stick with OTA.  Also.. according to the channel lineup, all they have local wise are ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX.  I don't know what their source for the locals is.. but they drop it down to about 8-9Mbps or lower MPEG4.

[jjallou]

A lot of people over at uverseusers.com seem to say stick with OTA.  Also.. according to the channel lineup, all they have local wise are ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX.  I don't know what their source for the locals is.. but they drop it down to about 8-9Mbps or lower MPEG4.

This has been discussed already. The OTA source for Uverse is the local off air Digital stations. Either chopped & cropped to SD or provided in HD (with the exception of 18 & 24).

http://www.milwaukeehdtv.org/forums/showthread.php?t=6975

[kevbeck122]

I know they're local stations, but are they coming from OTA or fiber?  TWC gets some of the locals from a direct fiber connection, while others are from OTA... AT&T might do the same.. or get everything OTA.

[tencom]

Uverse  local OTA reception tower, is at 35th and Wells, in Milwaukee, there are several antennas on the tower that appear to be television yagi antennas. I don't think thats an Ideal location, for great reception.

[jjallou]

Uverse  local OTA reception tower, is at 35th and Wells, in Milwaukee, there are several antennas on the tower that appear to be television yagi antennas. I don't think thats an Ideal location, for great reception.

How is that not a good location for great reception? Several antennas probably cut for each frequency on a tower higher than most peoples houses less than 10 miles from the broadcast towers. Seems like a perfect situation to me. :rolleyes:

[picopir8]

IMO...

Uverse SD is better than analog cable, and slighty worse than digital cable.  About on par with DirecTV.

HD picture quality better than DirecTV but worse than cable.

Considering the price though, its the best bang for the buck.