OK, they've managed to drag their mangy fiber optics into my neighborhood and knocked on my door, but of course they only tell you the good stuff ...

Anyone who has U-verse and an opinion on it vs Comcast?

In particular, I'm wondering about their equipment - do you need to use their router? it seems that it's built into their modem thingy. Anyway to bypass it? Or is it just so awesome there's no need to and I should just chuck my own router?

Also, their DVR seems a bit odd. They say "you can record 4 shows at once!" and then back that up with a DVR and can only hold 260hrs of SD or 60hrs of HD content? How is that sane?

We currently have Tivos with way more than that (mostly kids shows). I know Tivo won't work with Uverse, so that's not an option. Is there any way to expand the storage on the AT&T boxes?

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Skill without imagination is craftsmanship. Imagination without skill is Modern Art.

I've had uverse for several years now; the only thing I miss about comcrap is the high speed internet. Uverse is clearly slower in our area. I do not miss the comcast bill - my uverse bill is still cheaper than comcast. I keep rechecking this every so often and it still seems to be true.

I do use their router just because it was better than what I had at the time and they set it all up. I think you can use your own and if you have it on hand when they install they may set it up to work - or at least they will bypass their own router. They set up their unit and a ups for the system.

They give you one dvr w/out a rental fee if you go w/ certain plans and they do only hold a certain amount. I've never been bothered by it because I often delete after viewing the first time.

I can't give it a glowing report because of the internet speed problems but it's ok.

Couple of years for me -- my net is a consistent 11-12 mbps down/1.5 up and is never out. I use their modem/wireless router and it works fine. range is fine, I get signal out to the front and backyards no problem.

we are doing the 450 bundle -- you should be able to get all 3 services for about $130ish (at least for a year)

we record the kids shows in SD rather than HD, since they would never know the difference.

60 hours of HD = 2.5 DAYS of 24/7 viewing. That is insane. However, we only have 9% left. =)

But Im not sure their math is right? tells me with 9% left I still can do 14 hours of HD and 38 SD. Lets say 10% of space = 15 hours of HD. 15 hours x 10% = 150 hours of HD. SD @ 40 hours x 10% = 400 hours of SD. (assuming 10% +10% + 10% + 10% + 10% + 10%+ 10% + 10%+ 10% + 10% = 100%).

maybe their literature is outdated?

so far no complaints on any of their services.

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The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs [www.fakesteve.net]

You can use your own router (I am) but I'm pretty sure their "gateway" is still a required piece. (I just have my own router hooked up to theirs with wireless turned off on the gateway.)

The number of simultaneous shows you can record is about bandwidth and the number of hours of recording capacity is just the size of the hard drive in the DVR. No way to expand the DVR capacity that I know of.

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I've had Uverse for around 2 years. Overall pretty good. I use their router for the hardwired stuff and use my Airport Extreme in bridge mode for the wireless. The AT&T modem doesn't have 802.11N speeds. I also have the fastest internet at 24mbps (23 actual) and 3mbps up (2.9 actual).

Uverse in my area seems to be pretty consistent 3.0 mbps down vs average of 25mbps for Comcrap. No brainer. I don't believe we have any fibre optic though and I don't know what these people are paying. One client claimed they doubled her speed from non-Uverse and they did. I'd checked and It was slightly over 1 mbps down with vanilla AT&T DSL before she switched to Uverse and she now gets 3.

What they are offering me is 18mbs down/3mbs up with their U300 TV lineup and free HD for 6months for about $30 cheaper than comcast.

I'm reluctant to make the switch because of the Tivo's and lack of expandability on the AT&T boxes. (Tivos have more storage to start and are very easily expandable)

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Skill without imagination is craftsmanship. Imagination without skill is Modern Art.

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olnacl
Uverse in my area seems to be pretty consistent 3.0 mbps down vs average of 25mbps for Comcrap. No brainer. I don't believe we have any fibre optic though and I don't know what these people are paying. One client claimed they doubled her speed from non-Uverse and they did. I'd checked and It was slightly over 1 mbps down with vanilla AT&T DSL before she switched to Uverse and she now gets 3.

thats the "basic" uverse service.

unless $30 is breaking you, doesnt sound like a switch is in order.

with the insane amount of recordings you have, makes even less sense.

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The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs [www.fakesteve.net]

We've had U-verse for a couple years now. TV, internet and home phone. The service is good... Been using all their equipment. Started out with U-450 (which is everything) and now have U-300 (no HBO-Cinemax). Phone is unlimited long distance and internet is 12MB down and 1.5MB up.

The only problem is the discounts are all gone now and they don't seem too interested in dealing. Our bill is now around $180 per month. (DVR and two receivers)

May have to drop Showtime and landline, or switch back to Charter (ugh!), or maybe go all streaming/rental.

YMMV

Good Luck,

Once I can convince my wife to give up her @comcast.net email and get a yahoo or gmail account, I'm going to jump ship from Comcast to U-verse. It will save about $30/month and give us a much better line-up. Once that promotion goes away, I'll swap out equipment and go back to Comcast (or threaten to) on whatever promotion they offer.

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Dubya
We've had U-verse for a couple years now. TV, internet and home phone. The service is good... Been using all their equipment. Started out with U-450 (which is everything) and now have U-300 (no HBO-Cinemax). Phone is unlimited long distance and internet is 12MB down and 1.5MB up.

The only problem is the discounts are all gone now and they don't seem too interested in dealing. Our bill is now around $180 per month. (DVR and two receivers)

May have to drop Showtime and landline, or switch back to Charter (ugh!), or maybe go all streaming/rental.

YMMV

Good Luck,

Yeah, I think the days of asking for a discount and getting a response of "How about U-450 and everything else for $120/month" are gone.

But I was able to negotiate a little better deal than you. It took quite a while on the phone while the rep was trying to leave no stone unturned looking for discount codes but I actually came out a little ahead of my 1st year promo. I have exactly what you have minus one receiver (you didn't mention HD but I have it and assume you do too). My first year was about $160 and change and now I'm at $151 and change. Dropping to U-200 wouldn't have saved a lot.

After all the 1st year promos expired they tried to jack me up to $209.

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