Thanks for all the help, signing off...

Would like your impression on ATT Uverse, DVR, content, etc..

Not yet available in my area but real close and thinking of going in that direction.

 

ATT Uverse is of no interest right now until they implement Whole Home DVR and multiple feeds to muliple HD TV's. Right now you can only have DVR capabilities on one tv and can only watch one HD feed. ATT will not give a time estimate.

 

If AT&Ts Uverse and Verizon's FIOS live up to promise I suspect that satellite and cable service will be in deep trouble.

 

it'll be years before fios is widespread enough to make a difference.

 

Ret, thanks for the comments. Just glad to see more options becoming available.

 

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Not ready in my neighborhood yet but should be coming soon!

 

Maybe the smaller cable companies. But if Verizon can put up fiber optic cable, so can Comcast. That's just what they are doing in northern NJ. Verizon has been wiring my area but no word yet on when it will be ready.

 

I just felt that readers should be aware of limitations that could drive their decision. To me, not having the Whole Home DVR nor multiple HD streams right now is a non-starter. Unfortunately, when ATT calls their telemarketers do not even understand those issues which means people need to make sure they know what they are getting into. I will seriously consider switching in 2008 or whenever those capabilities I mentioned are available. Otherwise, I will wait. Others like you need have balanced their needs versus current limitations. I want to bundle my ATT DSL and telephone with Uverse, so potentially a big cost savings down the road. Fred

 

Quick comment about the on-demand options -- DirecTV is experimenting with On-Demand (theirs is called, appropriately enough DirecTV On-Demand or DoD) and it's really quite nice, so while they may currently be behind the cable companies in that area, they won't be for much longer (as in, once released it'll be neck and neck with cable).

One potential glitch with DirecTV's version compared to cable is that for DirecTV's options to work best you need hi-speed internet which is best delivered by, uh, cable companies and/or telephone companies like Verizon and their FiOS offering. Actually Verizon the preferred choice for now since cable companies are instituting limits on bandwidth usage and are dropping the download hogs in some cases where Verizon thus far hasn't put in any limits. You could use Directway or some internet over satellite to achieve the downloads if desired, but it's slower and in the past has had bandwidth restrictions as well.

Like the OP (original poster) above, I am a bit surprised at how enjoyable and highly useful video on-demand services are. I am lucky enough to get to play with the DirecTV on-demand offering having participated in the Cutting Edge releases for the DirecTV HD Plus DVR (HR20). It is implemented very nicely, and should be very nice for most customers once it's finally out in public release -- assuming you can handle the bandwidth requirements without using too much and causing concerns with your internet service provider.

One thought here though and that is this -- in the case of the cable companies, especially cable companies that are nailing customers for using too much bandwidth, there's an advantage to be had by the cable companies and in-turn for their subscribers in this area: they (cable companies) can *exclude* the measurement of the on-demand deliveries that are made to their own customers while counting that bandwidth usage against customers of other providers (like DirecTV, Amazon Unbox, TiVo with Unbox, iTunes, etc.) which should give everyone reason to call up their congress-critters and push for and demand net neutrality and clear notifications of bandwidth restrictions in terms of service agreements with the cable companies. Without net neutrality and without clear documentation about how much downloading is too much, more and more customers may find themselves locked in as slaves to the cable companies when they needn't be.

Choice is a good thing, and it is great to have a lot of competition here. Without competition DirecTV wouldn't be moving to offering a ton of hi-def content by year's end or early into the new year. Without competition they wouldn't be offering DirecTV On-Demand (or at least without competition and a big profit motive for them). Competition is great as it does make all of these competitors improve their DVRs, offer up more channels, more choice, and more user friendly options.

 

Well, I just joined the club. Yesterday I went to Comcast, picked up an HD DVR and hooked it up myself. I had scheduled an appointment for someone to come and bring me one Friday morning but he called and told me that his office ran out of DVR's.
So how does it compare to TiVo? You can make a season pass that's channel specific or record from all channels, which is as close to a wishlist as this unit gets. You can also pad your recordings. You can record two shows at once. If there is a three way conflict, you can see what other times a show is on and record it later.
One thing I can do without is the reduced picture that's always in the upper right corner. If a show is already recording you cannot be prevented from seeing it live before you hit play to start from the beginning. And while you can search for shows it doesn't have a letter grid, instead you go from box to box and put in the appropriate letter. A little slower but no big deal. Also, when you go to their version of the To Do List, you only see scheduled recordings for a specific day, not all at once. On the plus side, you get to see how much disc space is used when you go to your list of recordings.
I can't complain about the picture, it's as good if not better than Directv's HD. And I get Starz, Cinemax, the CW and PBS in HD now instead of later. No one I spoke to at Comcast knew when they would offer the TiVo software that's been announced long ago, so it may come later instead of sooner.

 

You have options for Broadband: Cable, DSL, Sat.

I do not see how Directv can have a potential glitch, as a user has the choice of what Internet Provider and Services they receive. In fact, we have DSL with NO Bandwidth Restrictions. We are not tied to a single Company, and can choose which ISP Provider we use.

So, it seems like Cable users have a glitch in that the Restrictions apply to them. With Cable, you have TV, you have Internet, you have NO CHOICE. Unless you switch!