AT&T U-verse

We got our AT&T U-verse service installed today. It took a couple of hours, but the tech did a good job. We decided to only get the TV service and not the DSL because Wanda’s employer pays for our Internet access through Time Warner.  I was sick of maintaining the separate media centers, and getting direct HD content is nice.

It has an amazingly clear picture (even with SD channels), and I like the menu interface much better than Time Warner’s. A few drawbacks include having to pay for each TV receiver (though that’s standard with other digital providers too), the menu includes channels that we don’t get in our package (so I have to scroll through a lot), and currently we can only watch recorded (DVR) shows on one TV. However, the tech said that by the end of the month, AT&T should be rolling out the “Home DVR” service, which lets you watch recorded shows on all TVs (it’s a simple software update).

One cool feature that we won’t get unless we sign up for DSL is the ability to record shows remotely. That would be cool, but it’s hard to complain about free broadband.

The technician was from Milwaukee. He said they’ve been busy lately due to the dispute between our local Fox affiliate and Time Warner (that means no Fox on Time Warner). He said AT&T was bring people in from other regions so they could keep up with demand. We didn’t switch because of the Fox thing, though. I wanted a maintenance-free, quality solution, and I didn’t like Time Warner’s DVR interface. AT&T’s interface is very decent (albeit a little slow). It’s based on Windows, so getting used to it was pretty easy because it’s very similar to Media Center.

October 18th, 2008  Television   Tags: at&t, digital, dvr, tv, more...

Time Warner HD DVR

A couple of weeks ago, Wanda and I signed up for the Time Warner HD DVR package to go along with our new HDTV. Although we were very fond of our media center, I decided to try the HD DVR for the following reasons:

1. It tuned HD content.
2. I assumed it was easier to maintain than an actual computer connected to the TV.
3. The media center took up more room, and I thought the slim DVR would look nicer in our cabinet.

Ultimately, we ended up cancelling it and just reverted to our trusty HP media center. Here’s why:

1. The user interface was lousy. It looked like something that was designed in the 1980′s using CGA graphics. We also thought it was much less intuitive than Windows Media Center Edition.
2. The extra HD channels I received over the ones I already got over the analog service were non-impressive.
3. The remote sucked.

We now have our HP Media Center hooked up to it, and we like it much better. We hooked it directly to the TV via the monitor port, and the resolution is quite impressive (as compared to a composite connection which we were using before). It doesn’t tune HD, but we don’t really get any HD content we’re interested in anyway, and even if we were, we could switch to the normal tuner for that. Windows Media Center is definitely one thing Microsoft got right. Easy to navigate, intuitive interface, and simple remote with all functions a few clicks away.

March 27th, 2005  Television   Tags: dvr, Entertainment & Media, Gadgets, Television, more...