TWC has run two drops to my parents house to fix intermittent connection problems due to a bad cable between the street and the home. Both times the cable runs were over 200 feet. Granted they did a shitty job burying it, cut a few other services in progress, and it took two times to get it right....but it did eventually work.

Let me guess you live in a condo/townhouse and the twc install guy didn't want to jump through hoops to run a new cable? I think you're finding the wiring in this/your building is going to prevent either service from working. Have you tried a complete ghetto rig yet? Drop a cable out a window and run it around the foundation to the connection box.



My coworker claims the satellite STB's cant pause and rewind live TV. Only the master can. Is that true?

1/23/2009 6:17:28 PM

yes, i live in a townhouse

the line going out to the street was perfect, they tested that multiple times and in fact it was re-run a few years back apparently

the problem was between the pedestal connection and the main node for our subdivision and they didn't seem too interested in fixing anything, they told us that 6mbps was acceptable when we were paying for 10mbps.

rental agency won't allow cables going out the window, unfortunately.

and yeah, for the time being, the slave STBs can't pause/rewind/schedule recordings. according to every tech i've spoken to, however, this is slated to be included in the next software update which is coming "soon"

1/23/2009 7:12:09 PM

Haha, rental agencies won't allow a lot of things. Mine is pretty restrictive.

Everybody in this complex pretty much does whatever the fuck they want though. Management only reacts when owners bitch at them severely.

1/23/2009 11:42:21 PM

I'm not saying do it permanently but do it to prove a point.

1/24/2009 9:38:41 AM

BTT for Dailey - anymore feedback guys? Looking for +'s and -'s

1/30/2009 10:26:15 AM

+cheaper and more for the $
+better internet
+more hd channels
+one dvr box that can be seen anywhere
+data is not compressed as much as twc
+no delay while changing channels
+better customer service

-can only watch 2 hd channels at once
-no clock on boxes

2/2/2009 11:19:41 PM

Quote :

"+data is not compressed as much as twc +no delay while changing channels +better customer service"

this is all i care about

2/3/2009 8:41:23 AM

i got mine installed...so far, it has been enjoyable.

2/3/2009 3:07:48 PM

just got a promotional card in the mail for $200 cash back.

after further investigating the channel line up seems promising.

anyone have any feedback on the Setanta Sports package? I'm mainly just interested in Soccer.

currently don't have cable TV, just Road Runner and the 18 down and 1.5 up is what I really want.


how is the DVR interface?

2/3/2009 7:30:26 PM

Quote :

" how is the DVR interface?"

have you read the thread? it's been discussed...

overall though, it sounds badass

2/3/2009 9:28:31 PM

^you must be joking. If you aren't following a thread closely in tech talk, you'll be wasting your time to dig through for 'discussed' info. Its 90% trolling 10% relevant info.

2/3/2009 9:35:06 PM

dude it's only 4 pages
evan has discussed the interface
take the 5 minutes and read the thread


you and nacho haven't posted here much, so there's minimal trolling at the moment

2/3/2009 9:49:07 PM

as for the uverse hater/twc defender...

TWC sucks ass.

1.) TWC doesn't have to jump through hoops to re-run lines in an apartment complex, etc. The renters of the the units have to (renters must get several signatures of neighbors/other renters, have the complex owners agree to the maintenance, and then the complex owners request it)

2.) Tech support is horrible. They always give you some scripted BS that never fixes the problem and refuse to pass you onto the next level without someone coming to your place to check your indoor connection, even if this has been performed recently

3.) We would lose internet connection EVERY night. Took them 6 months to finally fix it. I'm not going into more detail with this fiasco - it would take me an hour to explain everything.

4.) Their prices are horrible - high prices for crappy internet & tv service, as well as TS & CS.

Nearly any alternative to TWC is much better

2/3/2009 9:49:14 PM

Quote :

"any alternative to TWC"

= NULL until Uverse makes it to your block

2/3/2009 10:10:48 PM

lol, true. they've made it to my block, but haven't released service

2/3/2009 10:38:25 PM

There have been 3-4 AT&T trucks in my North Raleigh neighborhood pretty much every day for the last month... hopefully it goes through soon. There is probably a good chance that I end up back at TWC in the long run but I just feel like I need to help motivate them to lower prices and/or improve service.

2/3/2009 11:26:11 PM

^ what part of north raleigh?

2/4/2009 7:57:15 AM

i know off leesville past 540 is practically at&t van central.

first time I've ever seen a utility truck getting towed out, lol.

2/4/2009 8:33:20 AM

that shopping center at leesville and 540 is always packed with the vans for lunch

2/4/2009 9:50:50 AM

hurry up and get here u-verse, my 6 months internet pricing is about to expire

2/4/2009 10:06:17 AM

I think I'll sign up...my only concern is, is the tv package really worth it or should i just get the min. tv stuff and get 18/1.5 net? I haven't had cable tv in 3 years...I just use over the air and apple tv for everything and have been more than satisfied. But the European sports package is tempting.

2/4/2009 1:12:22 PM

Quote :

"^ what part of north raleigh?"

Six Forks and Lynn Road/Spring Forest area.

This morning I passed 5 working AT&T vans on my way to work (a 6 minute drive to the Capital Blvd split)

2/5/2009 12:21:33 AM

Quote :

"is the tv package really worth it"

fox soccer channel is worth it

2/5/2009 12:45:56 AM

^I really hope you aren't serious. Fox Soccer Channel is on TWC and it blows. I want something serious not a joke.

2/5/2009 1:01:51 AM

For the people that have U-verse

Were is your IP address located?

Mine is in New York wondering if anyone else is.

2/6/2009 9:15:50 PM

they are coming to install the service in our house next Friday. I plan to leave TWC connected for a few extra days to do a side by side comparison and write back on it. The price and internet speeds look promising, and I really want NFL network for next season. We'll see how it goes.

2/7/2009 4:41:53 PM

so how is it wired to each room?

2/7/2009 7:09:57 PM

did you really just ask that?

2/7/2009 7:19:16 PM

CAT5e or CAT6 or What

2/7/2009 8:38:09 PM

I was looking for this:

Quote :

"From the VRAD (Video Ready Access Device -- your Fiber Node) in your neighborhood to the side of your house (the NID - Network Interface Device), the U-Verse signal is carried on Cat 3 Twisted Pair. It it known as a VDSL signal. From the NID to the RG (Residential Gateway - Modem/Router/WiFi Access Point all-in-one), the signal can be carried on Either Cat 3/5/5e/6 twisted pair OR Coax cable. The signal is still VDSL. From the RG to the STBes (Set Top Boxes), the connection can be either Coax cable (using HPNA over Coax), Twisted Pair Cat 3/5/5e/6 (using HPNA over Twisted Pair, which requires the little rat-tail balun, as well as RJ-11 Terminations), and/or Twisted Pair Cat 5/5e/6 (using 100 Mbps Ethernet - which uses the RJ-45 port on the STBes)."

2/7/2009 8:43:28 PM

^the AT&T installers in Cary refuse to use anything other than coax. they said they would use existing Cat5e if it was available, but they absolutely cannot use the existing twisted pair with RJ-11 connectors in the house.

today turned into a fiasco. The appointment was scheduled from 8-12, and they sent a post card confirming that. The home installer showed up at 12:30, and the line technician showed up around 1:30 after phone calls were made by the installer. They told me how they planned on disconnecting TWC lines so they could get in the living room and then proceeded to install cable upstairs before they even bothered to check to see what the signal strength was. I'm glad I talked them out of messing with TWC, because the technician got a poor signal at the pedestal and said that they would have to send crews out to repair the main line into the subdivision because of the number of splices in the line. They also have to bore under the road to replace the line from the pedestal to my house.

All in all, they could be installed fiber to the subscriber for the cost of all the work they're currently doing. The only reason AT&T is able to afford this is because everyone is working on performance contracts and getting dicked out of their money when the existing infrastructure doesn't work.

2/13/2009 2:37:59 PM

sounds like a pain in the ass

2/13/2009 2:42:37 PM

maybe, but I will give them credit for actually routing a new coax line into another room in the house and making the installation look professional. I called TWC out to do the exact same thing a month ago, and the technician gave me 100 excuses on why he couldn't do it and how I needed to hire an electrician. The AT&T guy helped me figure out the cleanest way to get a cable jack to where I needed it and routed the new line to the upstairs bedroom in about about an hour. It looks ten times better than the installation TWC did downstairs two years ago, and both installations looked better than the cable jammed through the window seal installation that DirecTV did for the previous owner.

2/13/2009 3:49:18 PM

They finally finished the installation this morning. So far I am very happy with it. I subscribed for the 6/1 internet connection, and I'm getting just that according to speedtest.net - 5745kb/s down and 949kb/s up right now.

The picture is 100 times better on SD and HD channels. SpeedHD and DiscoveryHD no longer looks like a webcam with a bad cable. There are more chanels to choose from, and more content on demand as well.

There is a ton of content on demand just from AT&T not counting the premium channels. Right now I'm looking at 973 titles that are available, most of which in the free - $2.00 range. There are 139 new releases available, which are $4 for SD and $6 for HD. You can also watch the movie extras content on demand as well for the just out on DVD movies, which makes this option just as appealing as blockbuster to me. The on demand content loads in about 2 seconds.

The equipent surprised me with just how small it is. Both boxes make my PS3 look huge in comparison. The remote control is also a lot smaller yet almost identical in layout to the TWC scientific atlanta remote. I kind of wish it had a clock on the box display, but that's not a big deal by any means.

There is a home channel for the TV that you can configure the way you want online. You can get the weather, stock, and news feeds you want placed on your home page. Seems like a nice feature for when I don't feel like getting on the computer to see the day's forecast. While you're online, you can also program your DVR for recording the shows you want. The search options and record options give you more variety that TWC did for making sure you record the right shows. You can specify the time of the week to record shows labeled as new, so you won't end up with multiple recordings of shows that have their new episodes repeated all week long. You can also watch your DVR content on any box in the house, which is convenient. You can't set up content to record on the satellite boxes, but that shouldn't be a large issue. If I see something I want to record on another TV, I can always hop online and set it up with a mouse and keyboard instead of with a remote. Seems like it would be easier that way anyway.

I am most pleased so far with the functionality of channel surfing. When I tell the remote to change channels, it changes instantly. TWC always wanted to think about what to do for a couple of seconds before actually changing the channel over an HDMI hookup. The box responds instantly to telling it to pause, rewind, play, and fast forward. I'll report back later on how the recorded content works from the remote boxes once I have a show I want to watch in another room.

3/7/2009 12:16:26 PM

HELL YES! IT'S AVAILABLE AT LAKE PARK NOW!

3/7/2009 12:27:21 PM

Quote :

"Were is your IP address located?"

mine was in san antonio. i fixed it though.

Quote :

"the AT&T installers in Cary refuse to use anything other than coax. they said they would use existing Cat5e if it was available, but they absolutely cannot use the existing twisted pair with RJ-11 connectors in the house."

ours was installed using the phone lines.

Quote :

"The equipent surprised me with just how small it is."

Quote :

"When I tell the remote to change channels, it changes instantly."

Quote :

"The picture is 100 times better on SD and HD channels. SpeedHD and DiscoveryHD no longer looks like a webcam with a bad cable. There are more chanels to choose from, and more content on demand as well."

yup.

also, if any of you want to see what the interface looks like:
http://www.microsoft.com/mediaroom/

(this is one microsoft product that i'm actually impressed with. )
they're planning on adding a whole lot of stuff to it in the future, and it's a really easy platform to develop for (the boxes are running windows ce, haha)... so expect great things. at&t seems willing to do it.

3/7/2009 1:00:02 PM

want

3/7/2009 1:21:19 PM

wow, there's 14 HBO HD and 12 Cinemax HD channels. I don't think there were that many HBO channels total on TWC.

3/7/2009 2:28:18 PM

hahaha

i mean seriously, i think we have close to 100 HD channels... and they're adding MORE.

3/7/2009 2:31:06 PM

and the beauty of it is that the channels actually LOOK like high definition now. The only channels I watched in HD on TWC that actually looked like high definition were the ESPNs, CBS, NBC, and ABC.

3/7/2009 4:46:52 PM

i miss the clock

3/7/2009 5:13:09 PM

Quote :

"want "

seriously, who do i have to call and sweet-talk onto getting this into my neighborhood

hell, i'd settle for just being about to see a timetable of if/when it's supposed to be here

3/7/2009 6:23:44 PM

lol 100x better picture makes me wonder if you were watching static before.

3/7/2009 6:24:23 PM

they never said anything to us even though i had been bugging them ever since they announced they were expanding into NC... it just magically said i was eligible one day on their website

just keep checkin.

3/7/2009 6:25:12 PM

North Raleigh, North Cary, and Lake Park. is that the only confirmed locations you can get uverse around here?

3/7/2009 6:55:55 PM

When my DSL line was connected, I asked the telephone guy how long the local loop was for my line. I don't think I've heard of so much copper in a loop, something like 3.5 mile long loop.

3/7/2009 7:34:52 PM

haha, sounds like you're not getting u-verse any time soon.

3/7/2009 8:43:33 PM

Quote :

"ol 100x better picture makes me wonder if you were watching static before."

SpeedHD and several other HD channels might as well have been static. Usually about half the screen was occupied with black squares because the picture was being lost. It royally pissed me off that I had to watch the SD speed channel because the HD channel didn't work.

3/7/2009 11:24:33 PM

Quote :

"North Raleigh, North Cary, and Lake Park. is that the only confirmed locations you can get uverse around here? "

Part of my neighborhood in 27519 can get it. I'm lucky enough to be on the exact opposite side of the neighborhood from the VRAD, about 4500 feet away. I switched from cable to dsl/sat and talked to the tech out here hooking up the DSL and she said they were working on some things that could push the signal out to 5000 feet, but she didn't know if/when they'd implement it.

3/8/2009 9:28:29 AM

I'm way too impatient for this, want NOW

3/8/2009 11:28:34 AM