Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2008 > October > 01 > Entry
Impressions: AT&T’s U-Verse Total Home DVR service
When it comes to DVR service, I’m a little bit like the food critic in “Ratatouille”: almost impossible to please. I broke up with my beloved DirecTV TiVo because it failed to keep up modern cable/satellite TV trends (remote recording, video-on-demand), even though I originally spent $1,000 on what at one time was my dream set-top box.
Months back when AT&T first told me about their fledgling U-verse TV/DVR service, I treated it a little like a yapping chihuahua underfoot: it seemed cute for what it was, but what I perceived as its limitations (the number of streams that could be recorded/watched at the same time) seemed pint-sized for me and difficult to embrace.
This week, AT&T has rolled out a major upgrade to its U-verse service for all but those on the most basic tier of its U-verse TV customers (the one without a DVR) at no additional cost. The new upgrade adds new features like being able to record a show on the DVR, but being able to watch it on any other TV in the house that has a receiver connected to it.
The “Total Home” allows a home to record up to four programs at one time (two in HD, two in standard-def) or to watch five HD programs at a time (two live HD programs, three recorded ones).
That’s a lot of TV and a lot to absorb. It sounds good, but how does it work in the living room real world? AT&T marketing person Adrian Cardwell was nice enough to open up his South Austin home to me to check it out.
In his condo, Cardwell had a standard U-verse DVR set up downstairs and a non-DVR receiver upstairs in his home office. We started out by checking out the basic DVR software. Cardwell told me that the software was designed by Microsoft, which set off all kind of alarm bells in my brain, but it turns out to be a good thing. The clean menus and elegant touches remind me much more of Microsoft Media Center than the rest of Windows, and that’s a good thing.
When you use the programming guide, a slightly transparent window appears over whatever you were already watching and picture-in-picture live previews are shows for other channels you’re scrolling through. Not only do you get information on that program and a live video of a channel, but you’re also told what’s playing next on that channel. They’re nice touches that make channel surfing a little easier.
We watched part of an episode of “Heroes” and the picture quality was exquisite. Often times on some TV services, even HD TV shows are compressed to the point that you can see pixellation and jagged edges on some programs, especially when it’s paused. Not so with this show. It looked great.
We paused the episode, went upstairs and were able to continue the program right where it left off on the second television/receiver.
We tried some interactive services like Yellowpages.com where you can enter your zip code and receive guide information (say, area restaurants or stores) off the Internet. There’s also a photo application for viewing images from a Flickr.com account and an interactive local weather application.
Video on demand, which included HBO-on-Demand and other services, pulled up programs almost instantly. We pulled up a recent episode of “Entourage” and there was almost no delay in getting the show to start. (By comparison, DirecTV’s HD-DVR retrieves VOD programs via an Internet connection; shows end up in a queue and can take several minutes to download enough to begin viewing.)
Shows recorded by the U-verse DVR are “soft padded” by default. That means the DVR automatically records a minute early and two minutes later than the program is scheduled. If you’ve ever been screwed by missing the last minute of “Lost” or “American Idol” because your recorder cut off earlier, it might cause for celebration. Unfortunately, if you record a lot of shows on a lot of different channels, and only have so many simultaneous HD recording streams, this inevitably causes recording conflicts. Luckily, the soft padding can be manually eliminated if you’d rather recordings stop and start at their scheduled times.
DVR recordings can also be set up through a PC or a mobile phone, a feature I’ve enjoyed using on my DirecTV account.
Overall, I found the Total Home DVR package to be slick, responsive and very, very impressive. Of course, you should take that judgment with a grain of salt: trying out a product for an hour is not the same as living with it 24/7. I had no way of seeing how the new software responds to a demanding schedule of constant recordings: even the best DVRs sometimes fall prey to glitches, lost recordings and dreaded reboots.
One issue I do have with Total Home is that because the whole home is running off of one DVR, you’re limited to 37 hours of HD recordings or 133 hours of standard-definition. That sounds like a lot of space, but if you primarily record HD, all those high-def movies, episodes of “Mad Men” and “Ugly Betty,” concerts and especially sporting events quickly fill up that space.
With competing services, you usually get multiple DVRs, one for each room, each with its own large hard drive for recording. By consolidating recordings to a single box, U-verse allows great flexibility, but not a lot of room to grow.
I asked whether external hard drives might be an option for future expansion and was told that the ports are there to allow for that, but that the ability for customers to add their own hard drive space doesn’t exist at the moment.
Nevertheless, AT&T has rolled out a very robust software upgrade to its customers and is continuing to build out some very fat Internet pipes. Streaming multiple HD streams doesn’t seem to affect home Internet use or other services that rely on that same bandwidth. Much of that can be credited to fiber optic connections, but even in Cardwell’s home, which has copper connections instead of fiber within the home, he’s had no bandwidth issues.
This week’s ongoing fight between Time Warner and KXAN is causing some cable customers to take a look at alternatives. It may be a coincidence or good planning on AT&T’s part, but U-verse is worth a look for those looking for another TV programming option.
I also took a look at AT&T’s new Home Manager device, but I’ll write about that in a future post. If you have U-verse, let us know what you think in the comments, please.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Internet, Movies & DVDs, Shopping, TV
Comments
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By Ed
January 31, 2009 5:57 PM | Link to this
Try looking at Slingbox to get your DVR to stream to your laptop or computer, even when your at work.
By Redyelllow
October 2, 2008 4:18 PM | Link to this
I love my AT&T. I often record four channels at once and LOVE it.
I also was recently upgraded to total home, and am frustrated I can't delete from the other rooms. I have to go back and delete them from the original room, or via the web.
Like Jack I also wish I could watch the shows on my laptop, especially while traveling.
I'm really impressed with the service thus far though!!
I
By Omar Gallaga
October 2, 2008 1:23 PM | Link to this
I'll try to restate what I just said another way:
For people who are looking for an alternative to Time Warner or whatever their service is RIGHT NOW, Sezmi is as theoretical as the Tooth Fairy at the moment.
Also, there is absolutely no way to know what pricing/availability will be until it is actually here and in people's homes.
A year is a long time to wait and a lot can happen between now and then. I would expect U-verse, the satellite services and Time Warner will have a lot more to offer in another 12 months. Comparing them to Sezmi now for this market would be a waste of time until it actually arrives.
By teh80
October 2, 2008 12:35 PM | Link to this
Omar,
ww.sezmi.com
Is in 10 million homes in England, but is government sponsored there.
Expected to start in Portland Oregon in December, then Cali, then Texas.
Its a viable economic product that really could change all of these alternatives, at half the cost.
teh80
By Omar Gallaga
October 2, 2008 12:02 PM | Link to this
Austin: I can't take a commission on this, but I'm happy to let people know what options they have on their TV service.
teh80: Very difficult to do a comparison involving a product that hasn't been rolled out locally. Even comparing anticipated features doesn't work because that can change before the product actually rolls out here. I don't like reviewing/comparing anything until it's actually in the market and in final form, where people can get their hands on one.
patrick: DirecTV's On Demand is still very rough and there's no HBO On Demand at all, which is very disappointing.
By teh80
October 2, 2008 11:36 AM | Link to this
Has anyone done a comparative analysis of this program and the Sezmi product that should be available in Texas late next year?
By patrick
October 2, 2008 8:34 AM | Link to this
Though initially skeptical, I've become curious about U-verse. We have Dish Network and generally love it, but I wish it had more on-demand options.
By Austin Aaron
October 1, 2008 6:15 PM | Link to this
Interesting read. You should get commissions for those that buy after having read this review. I'm so damn tired of the $145 TWC bills I receive every month. 2 recordings at once blows beyond all comparisons. Especially since our box is stuck on recording A&E 24-hours a day and will not turn off even when reset. Setup a time for the tech to come out and you are rewarded with a 6-hour block of time that you must be present, or suffer a reschedule a week later.
Definitely something I will soon be looking into. And even though I know they are totally unrelated, I wonder how reliable AT&T's internet service is? I already despise their 3G cellular service. Difficult to take the jump with AT&T again.
By Jack Leblond
October 1, 2008 4:40 PM | Link to this
We've had the U-Verse running at home for a few months now. I am very happy with it.
The on-demand is very fast, and updated on a good frequency.
We have only bumped into the 4 stream max one time, and that was because one of the kids was trying to record 4 things at once - and the adults wanted to watch something else on another set. Sorry kids, adults win.
Two features I wish it had - 1) The ability to watch recorded shows remotely via laptop etc. Or, the ability to export recordings to disc, memory stick - whatever. 2) I wish the DVR was aware of schedule changes, too many times we have pulled up a regular show only to catch the end of something else instead because something ran long, or into overtime.