AT&T U-Verse lights up in metro Chicago on January 28, 2008...

[Gilbert]

Happy New Year! So, how do you fine folk think about it? Give me the good, the bad, and the ugly about U-Verse. If it comes 60 miles west of Chicago to DeKalb, I may join up if the deal is good...

[kjnorman]

Until U-Verse can do multiple channels of HD simultaneously I think the roll out is a bet of a damp squib.

Still the competition would be good as the cable rates (even with WOW! and Comcast competing) and pretty horrendous.

[Gregg Lengling]

Actually Uverse is growing great, although having just 1 HD stream does put some people off, the majority of the TV viewers don't own and HD set and those that do usually at this time only have 1.  Remember our forum is a little biased as we've been the pioneers and have multiple HD sets in our homes, 5 plus years ago just having 1 (which most of us did) made us 1 of very few.

However Uverse will have 2 HD streams mid 2008 and that will for the time being satisfy most HD viewers.


BTW at the beginning of this year Uverse had a little over 1500 customers, as of Nov 1st they now have over 175,000....Not a lot compared to cable..but a heck of a start for a limited # of cities launched.

[flash]

...........still waiting for Uverse to arrive in Muskego.

I will jump on  their "all in one package" and save some cash when they get here.

[AndrewP]

...........still waiting for Uverse to arrive in Muskego.

I will jump on  their "all in one package" and save some cash when they get here.

I am waiting for DSL in Muskego for 7 years already. Got stuck with RR. :bang:

[gparris]

Gregg is absolutely on target with his words...absolutely!:D

Many of the configurations I do allow for just one HDTV per house and many do not use a DVR, while others don't care about the one HD channel at a time and love the DVR setup U-Verse offers.

"We" forum folks, among other configs I have done or have worked with do have a need for 2 or more HD channels at a time, but not all of the HD customers out there, honestly.

Many things about U-Verse are great, especially for the many subscribers not wanting to deal with the lack of HD channels that is TWC Milwaukee.

[waterhead]

Ok, the U-verse guy came knocking on my door last week. He said that because I am a current ATT customer (landline), I get first crack at signing up.

They offered me the free installation, plus a 30-day free trial.

Now, I know that I have been trumpeting the cause of free OTA TV. But with an offer like that , how could I refuse!

They installed the system yesterday. I have three receivers, one of them is a DVR. I immediately found one problem.

I do most of my HDTV viewing through PC based cards, and the u-verse system will not work with them. I guess that this is no different than cable, but I should at least get the unencrypted channels. I tried hooking up my Linux MythtV PC to the u-verse box, but it couldn't detect a signal. There are several settings for cable, so I haven't given up yet.

Since it will only output true HDTV to a set that supports HDMI, I can only see true HD on my 42" Westinghouse 1080p monitor. Since you can only view HD on one set at a time, I guess that this is OK.

The internet speed boost is noticeable. I can post those findings later, maybe I need to start a new thread for that.

Any questions, just ask. You have thirty days.

Paul

[Gregg Lengling]

Uverse is IPTV not cable TV so there are no PC cards out there yet that will decode the data stream, and plus they would have to be authorized.  The signal coming into your house is VDSL and then it is broken down into IPTV video streams than can be either sent to the boxes to decode via Ethernet (Cat5) or HPNA (coax).  So even if the STB's are fed with coax, this is a data network, not a RF network like cable.

[waterhead]

Yes, but the output of the box is a regular coax. I can hook it up to my old SD TV and get all of the channels, including down-res versions of the HD channels. If I had an analog card in my PC, I bet that it would work.

Since I have digital cards, this should still work, in theory. It must be outputting a common format for regular TV's to recognize the signal. It may be similar to some cable providers who strip the signals of all information, thereby making it difficult for a tuner card to scan for the channels.

There is a way to find the channels, using Linux. It is a tedious process, and I don't feel like doing it, yet. I guess that I could get a twelve-pack and sit down and try it. Glug2 {glug}

I know that I'm gonna dump most of it after the free trial, so it may not be worth the effort.

[Gregg Lengling]

Yes, but the output of the box is a regular coax. I can hook it up to my old SD TV and get all of the channels, including down-res versions of the HD channels. If I had an analog card in my PC, I bet that it would work.

Since I have digital cards, this should still work, in theory. It must be outputting a common format for regular TV's to recognize the signal. It may be similar to some cable providers who strip the signals of all information, thereby making it difficult for a tuner card to scan for the channels.

There is a way to find the channels, using Linux. It is a tedious process, and I don't feel like doing it, yet. I guess that I could get a twelve-pack and sit down and try it. Glug2 {glug}

I know that I'm gonna dump most of it after the free trial, so it may not be worth the effort.

It is only an RF modulator that provides Channel 3 (or 4) output to your TV, this provides a SD signal of any channel you have the box tuned to, it isn't a spectrum of channels.  IPTV only sends the stream of the requested channel to your home, not like cable that sends everything all the time.

[waterhead]

Just an update. I've been scanning, trying different broadcast modes. Using QAM-256 comes up with nothing. I just decided to try 8VSB, and low and behold it's finding the locals!

First I had to "fool" the box into thinking that I had an HD monitor that I was hooking into. When you switch it to a 1080i output, it does a HD test. If you can't read the instructions in the test, it times out and returns to the SD output. When I ran the test, I waited three or four seconds, then pushed the up arrow on the remote and the the OK button. This changes the output to HD

Update: The scanning is complete, and it only found 4.1, 4.2 and 6.1. But at least this is progress!

[Gregg Lengling]

Just an update. I've been scanning, trying different broadcast modes. Using QAM-256 comes up with nothing. I just decided to try 8VSB, and low and behold it's finding the locals!

First I had to "fool" the box into thinking that I had an HD monitor that I was hooking into. When you switch it to a 1080i output, it does a HD test. If you can't read the instructions in the test, it times out and returns to the SD output. When I ran the test, I waited three or four seconds, then pushed the up arrow on the remote and the the OK button. This changes the output to HD

Update: The scanning is complete, and it only found 4.1, 4.2 and 6.1. But at least this is progress!

It 's finding those stations on 8VSB because that is the over the air format....you are just picking up strong signals....hook an antenna up instead and you'll get all the local digital stations....This is not coming from the Motorola STB.

[Gilbert]

Hey gang,

Thanks for the help. Well, none of the channels would be going to any computers. But, anything...ANYTHING...is better than Comcast disservice.

[waterhead]

If you want to view HD with it, make sure your HDTV or HD monitor is HDMI compliant. I have a 42" Westinghouse and a 24" Samsung that are OK, both are 16x9 monitors. My slightly older 17" (2years) Samsung is 4x3 and I can't use it to watch HD from U-verse. It's not HDMI compliant.

[picopir8]

Did they switch boxes?  I got Uverse last spring and my box has component video as well.  I use that connected to my projector which does not have DVI/HDMI.  HD comes though just fine...