| reply to mpovit
Re: Best HD Service Okay, so after searching the interwebs for over an hour now, this thread has come the closest to answering my questions on HD providers!
Just got our first HDTV (Little behind on the times. We lost our home to Ike.) We live in the Houston area, have had U-Verse since 2009. But I've had an account with AT&T since it was SBC. (Signed up with SBC in 1997) And I can say first hand that (More so AFTER AT&T took over) the service in general is crap. Large parts of my area doesn't even get high speed internet. (Our pre Ike neighborhood STILL doesn't have it) & 3G/cell service is spotty. Which is shocking since Houston is the "Big City" y'all!
Anyways, on to my HD drama... At first I thought that we just didn't have the TV set up right. But after spending a week setting up our home theater, I can say that not only does my older DVD & VHS (Yes, I have VHS tapes still. It's a sick fetish of mine) looks AMAZING but my U-Verse programming looks like a big 'ol pile of POOP! Even to HD channels.
Anything I could try to improve it? Should I just switch providers? If so, what should I look for?
Before we had U-Verse, we had Disk Network (Through AT&T). Liked it. And it's priced way better than U-Verse.
Any ideas?
Or is this "debate" on here going nowhere?
**And I guess that I should add that I'm disabled (Have been my whole life) & watching TV is more than a "Hobby" for me, it's more like MY LIFE! |
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etaadmin
join:2002-01-17
Dallas, TX
kudos:1 | said by MandaMalice:Any ideas?
Or is this "debate" on here going nowhere?
**And I guess that I should add that I'm disabled (Have been my whole life) & watching TV is more than a "Hobby" for me, it's more like MY LIFE!
Save yourself some aggravation and just get Dish, DTV or cable. |
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| reply to MandaMalice
You are correct in your assessment that "the debate is going no where." Don't depend on strangers on the internet to tell you how to live your life. Make your own decisions based on your own experiences.
I do have a question for you, you mentioned that you had Dish Network before and enjoyed it. Since it was working for you, why did you change? |
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Reviews:
 ·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T U-Verse
| To me I don't care on everyone's opinion on this, since the reason I have U-verse is because I want to have as little as possible when it comes to companies to deal with. I have AT&T since I moved to the Houston area(Spring to be exact and even though I moved from Harris to Montgomery county, it still the same community). I think that anything under the term Best whatever is subjective even when others say otherwise. I have a 32" HDTV that's 720 and everything is ok to me. The HDTV has a great speaker on the bottom of the set(the HDTV that's replaced the one I have know is tinny in sound). I hope this end this thread be cause it's a waste of keystrokes. |
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| reply to etaadmin
said by etaadmin:said by MandaMalice:Any ideas?
Or is this "debate" on here going nowhere?
**And I guess that I should add that I'm disabled (Have been my whole life) & watching TV is more than a "Hobby" for me, it's more like MY LIFE!
Save yourself some aggravation and just get Dish, DTV or cable. Couldn't have said it better myself  ! |
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| reply to dslfan90
said by dslfan90I do have a question for you, you mentioned that you had Dish Network before and enjoyed it. Since it was working for you, why did you change?
And I'm not letting strangers on the internet to tell me how to live, just wanting to get feed back from others on topic!
Oddly enough, this thread has more useful info than anywhere else I looked. I'm not so much wanted to know which is the "best", but WHY someone prefers their provider. |
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| reply to Pbert35
said by Pbert35  the reason I have U-verse is because I want to have as little as possible when it comes to companies to deal with. I have AT&T since I moved to the Houston area(Spring to be exact and even though I moved from Harris to Montgomery county, it still the same community).
AT&T is really the ONLY option in the area. Yes, there are other companies, but they have the "hold" on the Houston area & have for as long as I can remember.
When I turned 17 I got my home phone with SBC (Back in 1997). Sometime in 2006 (I think?) AT&T took over. I can tell you first hand as a long time customer things went down hill.
Perfect example is when we moved in 2009 we couldn't keep the same land line number we had since 1997. So we just dropped having a land line. But still to this day if I ever call AT&T & they need to bring up my account the ONLY way they can "find it" is by the old land line number! They must have "Changed" the "Information list on the account" a million times now, but it's still the only way that they can "Bring up" my account. And don't get me started on my shipping & billing address drama! Cause they always know where to send the BILLS but still send everything else to the old address we lived at FOUR years ago...
My Husband & I joke that it's all part of their "Master Plan". Cause at this point it's easier to deal with it, than try & CALL them to fix it!
(We are already working on a "Game Plan" to deal with changing providers)
Back to providers: I hadn't even thought of DTV till reading this thread! Since AT&T & Comcast have been fighting for control around here, I didn't even know that they where even an option around here. But after it was suggested, I looked it up & found out it was! |
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| You mentioned that this is your 1st HDTV. So I assume that you, not AT&T, set up your connection to the TV. I have a couple of setup questions:
1. How is the U-verse receiver connected to the HDTV?
2. What Aspect Ratio is set on the U-verse receiver |
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| I guess you are asking cause you have knowledge on this???
(PLEASE SAY YES!!)
Cause me & Hubby have been going around & around on this!
TV is mounted on the wall. Cables are running through the wall. We have the power cables running separate from the audio & video cables. (I've had issues with interference with the DVD & VCR in the past & try to keep everything separate now.) I have no idea what "brand" the HDMI cables are, but the same one I'm using to the DVD player is the same that I'm using for U-Verse. As far as the cable set up goes, I fell pretty good about it.
Now, the Aspect Ratio!!!! Hubby wants it to fill the WHOLE SCREEN saying "Why did I buy all these inches & not use them all!" BUT I DON'T like everything looking short & fat!
At first I thought that was why EVERYTHING (U-Verse, DVD & gaming) looked like crap. But I've since been able to clear that all up with everything BUT U-Verse.
And THAT is what brought me here!
Hubby pre set a screen setting just for him to use when watching TV. So all he has to do is hit it on the remote when he wants it to fill all those inches up!
But I'm at a lost when it come to the U-Verse setting. One thing that has bothered me for the last few years in the lack of a REAL "Operation Manual" with U-Verse. I like to sit down & read it through before I change setting or add new components. But all we got was a brochure on why U-Verse rocks. And the site offers little help because it's a MESS to wade in.
Soooo.... Please say you have these answers!!! |
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| Based on your message, I'm not sure how you have things set up for your TV. I would suggest that you visit the forum found in the link below. Open a topic on that forum and you will get responses from customers who will actually want to help you resolve your issues.
»forums.att.com/t5/AT-T-U-verse-C···ttuverse |
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| reply to MandaMalice
said by MandaMalice:Okay, so after searching the interwebs for over an hour now, this thread has come the closest to answering my questions on HD providers!
Just got our first HDTV (Little behind on the times. We lost our home to Ike.) We live in the Houston area, have had U-Verse since 2009. But I've had an account with AT&T since it was SBC. (Signed up with SBC in 1997) And I can say first hand that (More so AFTER AT&T took over) the service in general is crap. Large parts of my area doesn't even get high speed internet. (Our pre Ike neighborhood STILL doesn't have it) & 3G/cell service is spotty. Which is shocking since Houston is the "Big City" y'all!
Anyways, on to my HD drama... At first I thought that we just didn't have the TV set up right. But after spending a week setting up our home theater, I can say that not only does my older DVD & VHS (Yes, I have VHS tapes still. It's a sick fetish of mine) looks AMAZING but my U-Verse programming looks like a big 'ol pile of POOP! Even to HD channels.
Anything I could try to improve it? Should I just switch providers? If so, what should I look for?
Before we had U-Verse, we had Disk Network (Through AT&T). Liked it. And it's priced way better than U-Verse.
Any ideas?
Or is this "debate" on here going nowhere?
**And I guess that I should add that I'm disabled (Have been my whole life) & watching TV is more than a "Hobby" for me, it's more like MY LIFE!
Well there is a chance that your settings are wrong but Dish has a good bit better picture quality than U-verse. I agree that Dish has better pricing, if I were you I'd check out Dish especially with their new Hopper/Joey receivers. |
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| reply to dslfan90
quote:
Based on your message, I'm not sure how you have things set up for your TV. I would suggest that you visit the forum found in the link below. Open a topic on that forum and you will get responses from customers who will actually want to help you resolve your issues.
And this pretty much sums up why I'm so annoyed with AT&T.
Any quality their produces many have are DEEPLY over shadowed by the poor service giving.
Like I said, I have had the same account since 1997 when I took over the account my mother opened 1995. Had the same land line number from 1995 to 2009. Bought my mother her first home computer through SBC. Have ALWAYS had my land line, cell phones, internet & satellite through them.
That was until 2005 when I got my first home computer & found out that they flat out refused to provide high speed internet in my area. After I paid them to come out & check the lines I found out that I was less than a mile from the "cut off" for DSL & they had no plans to ever provide the area with DSL. (And as of today, they have made good on at least that)
And from then on, it was one issue after another. After Ike, we moved "into town" more. That had giving me the hope that I would no longer have any problems since it there was no longer an location issue.
But in the last four years I have not seen it get any better. And the fact that my only hope to get help with this is by talking to other customers online pretty much makes up my mind that I need to go elsewhere.
But I do thank you for your help & like I've said before, while this thread may be annoying to others, I've found a great deal of help just reading over it.
But for me the bottom line is having an account in good standing with a company as long as I have SHOULD bear some weight with them. And it does not. And if a customer that has been this faithful for this long has reached a point of "Enough" should show that something is really wrong with the service they are giving.
It's been said on here that some replying to this thread "work for" AT&T. If that is true, please take some meaning from this. It doesn't matter how good of quality they can ever offer if they continue to give such poor service. And that is coming from a loyal customer of 15 (Plus) years.
As of now, we are comparing DTV & Dish Network packages. |
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| If you are unhappy with your current service whether it be U-verse or any other provider, you should change to a service that you will be happy with. No one TV service will make everyone happy or will fit everyone's needs.
Some people are very happy with their U-verse service while others are not. It doesn't make one person right and the other person wrong. People have different needs and don't see things in the same way. My only objection to some of the the messages are from those who try to convince others that they should switch from one service to another. I think people have the intelligence to make their own decisions based on what is best for them. After all, no one else is paying your bills or living your life.  |
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| reply to MandaMalice
said by MandaMalice:It's been said on here that some replying to this thread "work for" AT&T.
I'm curious. Where did you see this? |
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| reply to dslfan90
quote:
I'm curious. Where did you see this?
You know, I'm not sure! Maybe it was just implied or I read too much into a statement. If I did, I'm sorry! I'll have to read over the thread to see. I may have read something like that in another thread. |
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| I have seen that statement made on this forum by some who consistently post negative messages about U-verse. If someone posts a comment that does not agree with their negative viewpoint, they are frequently accused of being an AT&T employee.
One could also make a similar baseless accusations that those who consistently make negative comments about U-verse must work for DirecTV, Dish, or the cable company. Such accusations would be equally as foolish. |
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| said by dslfan90 :I have seen that statement made on this forum by some who consistently post negative messages about U-verse. If someone posts a comment that does not agree with their negative viewpoint, they are frequently accused of being an AT&T employee.
One could also make a similar baseless accusations that those who consistently make negative comments about U-verse must work for DirecTV, Dish, or the cable company. Such accusations would be equally as foolish.
Quick question - do you have, or have you had, U-Verse TV and a HD TV? |
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| said by petemitchell :Quick question - do you have, or have you had, U-Verse TV and a HD TV?
Is this a Gallup poll? I will say that I have several HDTV's. I have also have had service from DirecTV, Dish Network, Comcast Cable and U-verse. |
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Reviews:
 ·Charter
| reply to dslfan90
said by dslfan90 :I have seen that statement made on this forum by some who consistently post negative messages about U-verse. If someone posts a comment that does not agree with their negative viewpoint, they are frequently accused of being an AT&T employee.
One could also make a similar baseless accusations that those who consistently make negative comments about U-verse must work for DirecTV, Dish, or the cable company. Such accusations would be equally as foolish.
Except that the arguments have a base. The base is science and mathematics. 5.7 mbit mpeg4 is the lowest bitrate of all the hd sources.
Are you attempting to say that logic based on science and mathematics is baseless...? |
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| Interesting. Reading someone else's mind and accusing them of being something that they are not is "logic based on science and mathematics"?
We must be in the 23rd century travelling on the Starship Enterprise. |
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