I switched over from Dish about a week ago, to U400. I have a very high end home theater setup, with a 160 inch screen, 1080p projector, and DVDO scaler / deinterlacer and a 9.3 speaker setup.

 

These are my observations:

 

Compared to Dish HD, the U-Verse HD picture is not as good. It is obviously much more compressed, with very noticeable artifacts. Some channels are much better than others. HBO HD for example is almost acceptable. The HD picture is very soft. On some other channels, the HD quality is simply attrocious. On Dish, the Food Network HD channel is pristine, on U-Verse it is actually quite poor.

 

However, the audio on U-verse HD is better than the Dish 5.1 audio. The quality is obviously better.

 

Other than this, I am disappointed with the slow / sluggish on screen menus / remote (and to my horror discovered that this is simply a Windows CE device!!! No wonder!!), the bugs in the DVR, and the inability to have more than one HD stream at any one time.

 

If it were not for Blu-ray and HD-DVD to satisfy my HD needs, I would go back to Dish.

 

However, this is new technology, and it has promise, and there are features that I enjoy in the U-verse.

 

So I will give it a few more weeks / months before deciding.

 

AT&T, you really need to fix your HD features, and work on those bugs.

I used to have Direct TV and other then the snobs @ customer support I loved it.  But, as the trees grew in the neighborhood I lost my signal and had to cancel the service after 5 years with them.  Because I had upgraded to a HD receiver and got a rebate I had to pay a hefty penalty to cancel their service, insuring that I would never return.  I was left with 2 options, over the air or ComCrap, I chose Comcrap.  So as you can see I may not like all at U-verse but, they will be my entertainment choice for the future even though they

 

DON'T CARRY FSN-HD DETROIT OR LOCAL ON THE 8'S (forgive me for shouting but, we keep waiting..........)

Our HD Quality in Connecticut is pathetic.  Artifacts everywhere.  I'm tired of arguing about it. I am going to switch to

Direct TV or back to my cable company soon.  It is not worth it at this time. If anyone has COX and yo have an HD TV

I would not witch to U-Verse.  At least not at this time.  Save yourself the aggrivation.  

Newbie, I have to agree with you.  We have had Uverse for about 5 months and grow increasingly disappointed with it.  I know I was warned of the gliches and have tried to be patient.  I have noticed that the picture isn't as good as my brothers who have dish.

My brothers always tivo programs and even though we have the same channels I can't dvr the program because the unit takes too long to load.  If I were wanting to dvr a program that was going to be on Dec. 6th I should probably start searching now and maybe by Dec. 3rd it would be loaded.  It's just frustrating.  I wish you were able to do a quick search online but I tried it and the only thing that came up was the program guide which didn't show the concerts on HDNET. 

Not certain that dish is the answer but we might have to try it to see.

I used to have DISHHD and i wasn't pleased with its frequent problems during bad weather.  Almost every week It wouldn't work at least 3 or 4 times.  You talk about picture quality being better, sure it is a little, but on some channels that are listed as HD, the actual channel (ex. TBSHD) just stretches its standard definition feed.  There really is no HD feed for these channels, and that isn't AT&T's fault, but rather the channel.  As for sound, there is absolutely no difference, and if someone had the ears to notice any sort of difference, well, no one can so nevermind that.  AT&T does have its fair share of issues, but in my opinion, its better than DISH and better than Time Warner, both of which i've had.

We had Dish and cancelled it to go with AT&T U-verse.  We had upgraded to a new HD receiver also, and still had several months to go.  When I first called to cancel the service, I was told that I would have to pay a cancellation fee.  I then told them that I was told by AT&T that since it was Dish, a service AT&T sells, that the termination fee would be waived.  The first person I spoke with at Dish denied this (they were obviously an outsourced employee), and I was then transferred to someone in account mgmt.  When I told him the situation ( I also asked who was not telling the truth, Dish or AT&T?), he told me that ALL customers cancelling their service to go with U-verse would have their ETF's waived.  He took care of it very quickly, and I have not been charged any ETF's.

 

I don't know if it's too late for you to protest this, but it may very well be worth your time to pursue it.

 

Good Luck!

 

Linda

 

 

Even worse...while researching a question someone asked on another forum, I read that Windows CE is what is in their MSNTV2!! (formerly known as Web TV) Made me very glad I did get a PC instead of staying with WebTV.

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unherdable wrote:

I switched over from Dish about a week ago, to U400. I have a very high end home theater setup, with a 160 inch screen, 1080p projector, and DVDO scaler / deinterlacer and a 9.3 speaker setup.

 

These are my observations:

 

Compared to Dish HD, the U-Verse HD picture is not as good. It is obviously much more compressed, with very noticeable artifacts. Some channels are much better than others. HBO HD for example is almost acceptable. The HD picture is very soft. On some other channels, the HD quality is simply attrocious. On Dish, the Food Network HD channel is pristine, on U-Verse it is actually quite poor.

 

However, the audio on U-verse HD is better than the Dish 5.1 audio. The quality is obviously better.

 

Other than this, I am disappointed with the slow / sluggish on screen menus / remote (and to my horror discovered that this is simply a Windows CE device!!! No wonder!!), the bugs in the DVR, and the inability to have more than one HD stream at any one time.

 

If it were not for Blu-ray and HD-DVD to satisfy my HD needs, I would go back to Dish.

 

However, this is new technology, and it has promise, and there are features that I enjoy in the U-verse.

 

So I will give it a few more weeks / months before deciding.

 

AT&T, you really need to fix your HD features, and work on those bugs.

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"I just got lost in thought. It was unfamiliar territory"