I nearly pulled the trigger to switch my TV and Internet to AT&T U-Verse, but after some research I found some show stoppers. Let’s start off with why I was even considering the switch. Two things really. Much faster Internet: 24 down and 2 up (was to be rolled out in a few months) and better features on DVR, including more storage. The show-sharing capabilities of the “Total House” feature seemed pretty cool too.
So why did I decide to stay? The biggest reason is that U-Verse limits the *entire* house to a maximum of only *two* HD streams, not matter how many boxes you have. Yup, you read that right. It’s a house limitation, not a box limitation. The fine print says, “Four channels can be recorded to the DVR or viewed simultaneously: up to two can be HD.” The way they word it, it almost seems like a good thing! ;-) Anyways, that is lame. I’ve got two dual-tuner HD DVRs now. I can be watching an HD football game and recording another HD football game on my TV, and Jac can be watching an HD channel on the other TV. Can’t do that with U-Verse. In fact, she could also be recording another HD show. And this can happen *every* Sunday during football season =), so it’s not a remote possibility.
The other issue may or may not be a problem. From what I read only one DVR actually records and the others can control or playback content on that DVR. So, some people have reported that you can only pause live TV on the TV with the DVR. According to the sales guy, our area will be getting only DVRs so each unit actually records. We shall see, since my neighbor is getting the service. In any event, although each may be a DVR, the entire house is still limited to 2 HD streams max. It has got to be a bandwidth issue.
In the future, they may increase the HD cap and I’ll revisit at that time. Until then, Time Warner still has my business, for better or worse. I am hoping, however, that this competition will force them to improve the DVR features, price, Internet speed, channels, etc. Competition is good!
FYI I’m still sticking with ViaTalk for my land line. You just can’t beat this service!