After 6 weeks, U-verse TV isn't working out for my family. Our experiences haven't been good and my wife is ready to call it quits and go back to comcast. We switched from AT&T DSL-internet and regular phone service to AT&T U-verse TV, phone, and internet.
1. We have had the DVR playback freezing problem on our uverse dvr - at least twice. Sometime in the middle third of a two hour movie playback the screen freezes. It appears that the rest of the movie is there but the only thing there is 40 minute playback of the same frozen shot.
2. We've also had some badly pixilated recordings.
3. And, I haven't even told her about the movies that we didn't request or watch but for which we were billed! I still have to clean that up.
4. I've noticed that the STBs will go to a screen that says "Press OK" to get service, or words to that effect. I have a Tivo connected to one of the STBs. This "sleep mode" won't be a problem if the STB allowed a channel change request to activate it but it doesn't seem to work that way - as a result I get a nice recording of the "sleep" mode instead of a show. I tried setting up a couple of low priority fake recording to keep the box awake but that didn't work. In fairness to AT&T, the technical support person told me that Tivo doesn't work with U-verse TV yet.
5. I've had to restart the Gateway a few times too. That, of course, takes out phone and internet too, it addition to the missed TV recordings. This process takes several tries - about 30-45 minutes each time.
6. The various STBs and recording streams interfere with each other. I was shocked to find it couldn't watch live TV because I had a stream going to a different STB and an HD recording going. There is no easy way to see what is going where and to select what to cancel. This is a drawback to streaming video that I didn't anticipate. I saw some impact of this on my internet service too.
7. When I initially ordered U-verse online the order application wouldn't allow me to add phone service. It turns out that the phone service was in my wife's name but the application didn't know how to handle that problem. Talking to a representative I was able to add a U-verse phone service installation order. After the installer left we noticed that we couldn't get into voicemail or get phone options to display on the web. I called and discovered that the service had been misconfigured. Once it was fixed, it took 24 hours for the fix to work it's way through the system.
8. Recently the Gateway died again when we were out of town (missed recordings again!). I couldn't get the physical link working so I called AT&T and asked for U-verse support. This was at about 9:00 PM. First I was told there was a massive overnight upgrade to the system happening. When I pressed for a more creditable explanation, I was told that there was a huge U-verse outage, that no one in our area (Ann Arbor, Michigan) had service, and that U-verse service would not be available again after 5:00 AM. By Noon the next day I had a physical link again.
I have to say that everyone I've talked to at AT&T has been helpful or tried to be. The U-verse installers, repair people, and service people have really tried. The service just doesn't seem ready for prime time (so to speak 
).
I expected start up problems but this service seems to be unreliable on a regular basis.
foolishcapricorn
callmeox wrote:1, 2, 5 and the last comment in 6 are not normal.
For 6, your internet traffic and TV streams are segregated from each other by the RG and the high use of one should not impact the other.
Your external stats look ok. How are your STB's connected to the RG, with Coax or Cat5? You can end up with STB quality issues like you are seeing on the internal side of the network if your wiring isn't up to snuff. A poorly terminated coaxial cable or a staple through a section of Cat5 could cause the issues that you are seeing.
If I was in the same situation, I would call tech support and have them dispatch a tech. Be sure to save a couple of DVR recordings that exhibit the symptoms that you describe in the event that everything is clean when the tech arrives.
Again, the quality issues that you are seeing are not normal if Uverse is properly installed.
Good luck and let us know what happens.
Thank you callmeox! Or should I say "thank you ox"
My STBs are connected to the RG with Cat5 that I installed myself. Before U-verse arrived there wasn't any sign of problems with it. I didn't want the install tech to use our coax because we are still getting comcast via coax while we wait to see how everything shakes out with U-verse. That said, getting a tech in to check things makes sense. I'll make sure we have some examples of the problems I mentioned saved and then request a tech visit.
After having had Comcast working with two (one Humax DVD burning TiVo and one series 2 currently) TiVo DVRs for years, I have to say that the user experience of the AT&T DVR, STBs, and remote feels unfamiliar and often unpolished. That is partly my lack of experience I'm sure, but the screen designs, menu traversal paths, the delays while data is fetched, the design of the remote, and some inconsistencies in how things work all play a role too. To be even-handed, I have to say that operating the TiVo has problems in some areas too! One good thing about the TiVo is that I didn't have to deal with the Comcast screens and remotes, even for live TV. If I can get TiVo and U-verse STBs to play nicely I'll be able to have a similarly buffered experience of the U-verse UI (except when I use the AT&T DVR).
I may try to do a user interface analysis with suggestions for AT&T. Especially if folks here feel that might have a helpful impact or at least trigger some good discussion. Again, if I'm going over old ground, let me know.
Thanks to all of the good ideas.
Update: I talked at Juan at technical support this afternoon. He connected to my RG and confirmed that the settings are correct. He is sending a tech out tomorrow afternoon to fix things. Another very nice AT&T employee.
Here are a couple of questions for you all. Does coax typically offer better performance than Cat5? I could suggest to the tech that he or she install coax for the connection to the STBs while leaving the cat5 for my IP connectivity to my living room ethernet switch.
Also, does anyone have a suggestion about how to keep the STBs from going into "screen saver / sleep" mode?
Another option to solve the sleep problem would be to ask the TiVo folks to change their U-verse support to send an "OK" signal to wake up the box before trying to change channels, but that might cause bad side effects and/or take a long time for them to implement. 
Of course, what would be really cool is to have a common network bus that these boxes could use to communicate status and control signals via TCP/IP. Of course, most service providers want to lock themselves in as the center of your entertainment universe.
I'll post an another update after the tech visits.
capricorn wrote:
Update: I talked at Juan at technical support this afternoon. He connected to my RG and confirmed that the settings are correct. He is sending a tech out tomorrow afternoon to fix things. Another very nice AT&T employee.
Here are a couple of questions for you all. Does coax typically offer better performance than Cat5? I could suggest to the tech that he or she install coax for the connection to the STBs while leaving the cat5 for my IP connectivity to my living room ethernet switch.
I have all coax in my home and I haven't had any trouble with my service however, I have heard where people have had coax and others had Cat5 and they had problems. You should have the tech check all of your cables to make sure they are functioning properly.
Also, does anyone have a suggestion about how to keep the STBs from going into "screen saver / sleep" mode?
At this time it appears the stbs go into sleep mode afer 8 hours. I don't know if it is 8 hours of no interraction with the stb or if the stb can tell that the tv isn't on. At this time there is not way to disable that feature.
Another option to solve the sleep problem would be to ask the TiVo folks to change their U-verse support to send an "OK" signal to wake up the box before trying to change channels, but that might cause bad side effects and/or take a long time for them to implement.
Of course, what would be really cool is to have a common network bus that these boxes could use to communicate status and control signals via TCP/IP. Of course, most service providers want to lock themselves in as the center of your entertainment universe.
I'll post an another update after the tech visits.
Residental Gateway
from the brief description sounds like your tvs are on hpna (coax) and maybe u have a bad cable ???
just a wild guess on limited info on my part....
randy
Note : maybe read this thread to see if it applies ? >> http://utalk.att.com/utalk/board/message?board.id=
in the DETAILS !!!!!!
