Is AT&T U-Verse any good?

Question

I'm mostly concerned about the quality of the picture compared to Cable or Directv. Has anyone seen what it looks like in person?

How about HD channels? I have an HDTV, and would defenitely love to take advantage of what HDTV has to offer. How do HD channels on U-Verse compare to HD channels on Directv?

Also, is the speed of the internet package I select gonna affect picture quality on my TV service?

Answer 1

If they run the FIBER OPTICS directly to your home, THEN it's BETTER than Cable !

But I have heard that in some cities they only run it to a nearby neighborhood NODE....

And in that case, it's no better than cable.....

So I think you should call them and see how they run their lines to your home....

With RF coax or Fiber Optical Cable....

Internet runs at a completely different frequency spectrum than TV signals, so they don't affect each other.....

Answer 2

I have UVerse… and UVerse looks pretty good.

The SD channels are as good or better than most anything else out there.  (Based on little logos that sometimes show up half cut off on the edge of the SD screen, it looks like for local channels UVerse encodes the middle 4:3 of the HD signal.  The end result is a very high quality SD signal. In my option anyhow.  (Now why would I be watching an SD channel when the HD one is there?  UVerse is limited to showing/recording 2 HD channels at once.  So if I have used up my 2 HD channels, I sometimes record/watch that 3rd or 4th show in SD)

As for the HD channels, some folks report UVerse is better, others worse.  I suspect it is roughly the same.  (it looks fine to me personally, a little lower quality than Over The Air or Blue Ray, which is what I understand you should expect from satellite or cable)  

DirecTV has more HD channels than UVerse.   (My suggestion is rather than just looking at the number of channels, go to the webpage for each and count the HD channels that you will actually watch.  For example: If you could care less about hockey, then having DirecTV’s NHL HD probably doesn’t matter.   If you are a hockey fan, however it could make your choice for you.  DirecTV has several channels UVerse doesn’t; UVerse has a few DirecTV doesn’t.)

Note that the UVerse DVR does allow you to record up to 4 programs at once (2HD ones). This is the “big deal” feature for me.   Most other DVRs are limited to recording one or two recordings at once.

The speed of the internet package does not appear to affect the picture quality on your TV.  Even at 10Mbps with 2HD running I didn’t find any users reporting any impact either way.  (and while in general the previous poster may be correct… For UVerse specifically, being IP Based TV, it does share the exact same frequencies with the IP Based internet service… )  

As for the fiber or copper connection the previous fellow suggested… While it is true that fiber does have a higher maximum bandwidth than copper (in general)… With UVerse the bandwidth is fixed at around 25Mbps regardless of your possible top speed over fiber or copper.  So the extra possible speed you could in theory get with fiber, is not actually used.  You will get the exact same service with either type of connection.

Good Luck, and happy viewing.