gbienvenu's profile

Contributor

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1 Message

Thursday, November 29th, 2012 8:39 PM

ATT U-Verse major limitations

We just subscribed to AT&T U-Verse two weeks ago. This report comes to you 2-1/2 years after your disappointing experience. We too have multiple daily tv viewers. We all record in SD so that we don't run out of space. It looks like space will not be an issue. However,  we also did not understand the limitations of this system when we signed on. Does four streams mean, only four things can go on at any one time? If so, why are we renting 7 boxes? We have six adults living here and they all want to record and watch television. Now we're told that we can piggyback onto another tv watching live tv or watch something that is recording. How do you find out what is recording or what someone else is watching if AT&T only lets you choose from watching a recording or interrupting another tv? We don't know who we're interrupting. It's causing mass confusion and anger around here. I would like for someone to clearly explain what the magic combination is. Can we have two SD recordings, watch live television on two sets and watch recordings in other rooms? We don't know. When we call tech support, they don't seem to know anything other than the fact that they only provide four live steams to each residence. This has been repeated to us more than once, but they don't explain what that means. Why can't we watch recorded shows everywhere at the same time if we have a "whole home dvr"? If shows are recorded on a hard drive, we should be able to view them anywhere, anytime, but that's just not the case. When the representative came here, he clearly knew that we had 7 televisions and 6 adults. It shouldn't have been hard for him to see that we were going to run into trouble right away, since he should understand the limitations of the system he was selling us. AT&T should tell people who have more than three televisions and who want to record shows that they are going to have conflicts. It's madness around here. I blame myself because I ordered AT&T U-Verse because of recommendations from family and friends and the fact that it would be cheaper. I did not however do my homework. Our situation is not the same as the typical household. We should have stayed with Cox even though they have gotten outrageous in price. We could only afford to have two dvrs and one box in our house, which meant we had to share tvs and coordinate in order to watch the show everyone records. I never dreamed that AT&T would cause more problems than they solved for us. Often, two or more family members can't watch tv from 7:00 pm to midnight. That's when we are all home! I hate to switch back to Cox, but at least we could watch tv in every room, even if it wasn't recorded shows or we didn't have access to expanded cable because there was no box. At least everyone could watch television. I called AT&T to ask if we could expand our package to include more streams, and I was told no. It's amazing this enormous company hasn't figured out how to provide customers with services that fit individual needs.

Teacher

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16 Messages

11 years ago

aviewer - with the exception of having U300 instead of U450, I'm like oufanindalls in that I use Hide to get rid of shopping, religious and foreign language channels I will never watch.

 

I've then used Favorites to maintain a small, easy-to-scroll-through list of the moslty HD channels we watch most often, still leaving me the option of using the full guide for those times when there's "nothing" one of our usual channels.

 

(I guess this is another advantage of DirecTV over UVerse in that you can have I believe four different guides/lists on DTV: All channels, channels you get, and two custom lists. There's also the quick-list where you can hit the down button on the remote to bring up a 3x3 grid of 9 easy-to-select super favorite channels.)

 

I agree on Channel Shortcuts - too many button pushes for the return.

Tutor

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10 Messages

11 years ago

I just found a post on another forum:  Seems that recording 4 HD shows at the same time used to possible.  I have the same profile as this guy but I can't record 4 HD at the same time.

 




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« on: October 11, 2010, 03:14:19 AM »
 

Just got a message that popped up here in 78109 Converse at 3am this morning that asked if I wanted to  restart my box for the update.
Funny thing is .. I have been able to record 4 HD shows at once for a few weeks now.

Has anyone else received this update?

wan profile: 0 SD / 4 HD;Max Bandwidth: 31947200
Ingress Profile: 1SD / 3 HD; Ingrfess Bandwidth: 26960400
Egress: 18973600, 1SD/2HD

Expert

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14.5K Messages

11 years ago

No, recording 4 HD channels at the same time has never been possible,  The poster in the message you mentioned is stating incorrect information.  The Ingress Profile controls how many and the types of channels that can be recorded at the same time.  The Ingress Profile of 1 SD/3 HD only allows for 3 HD channels to be recorded at the same time.

ACE - Expert

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27.6K Messages

11 years ago

texasguy, can you please explain what 'wan', 'ingress' and 'egress' mean?

Expert

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14.5K Messages

11 years ago

Sure! Assuming one has the 4 HD profile, here is what the profiles mean and what one can do:

 

WAN Profile (Streams into your gateway):  You can watch up to 4 different live channels at the same time.  All 4 can be on HD channels.

 

Ingress Profile (Streams into the DVR):  You can record 4 programs at the same time.  Up to 3 of the 4 programs can be on HD channels.

 

Egress Profile (Streams out of the DVR):  You can watch 3 recorded programs at the same time on TV's connected to non-DVR receivers.  All 3 can be recordings from HD channels.  At the same time, you can also watch a recorded program on the TV connected to the DVR.

ACE - Expert

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27.6K Messages

11 years ago


@texasguy37 wrote:

Sure! Assuming one has the 4 HD profile, here is what the profiles mean and what one can do:

 

WAN Profile (Streams into your gateway):  You can watch up to 4 different live channels at the same time.  All 4 can be on HD channels.

 

Ingress Profile (Streams into the DVR):  You can record 4 programs at the same time.  Up to 3 of the 4 programs can be on HD channels.

 

Egress Profile (Streams out of the DVR):  You can watch 3 recorded programs at the same time on TV's connected to non-DVR receivers.  All 3 can be recordings from HD channels.  At the same time, you can also watch a recorded program on the TV connected to the DVR.


The profile tells the tale!

Expert

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10.1K Messages

11 years ago

Just for completeness, the recording count includes watching on the DVR.

Tutor

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10 Messages

11 years ago

Thanks TexasGuy et al.  I sure hope that AT&T techs and installers are reading this because in my experience, they have no idea what the profiles mean.

ACE - Expert

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27.6K Messages

11 years ago


@jteixeira wrote:

Thanks TexasGuy et al.  I sure hope that AT&T techs and installers are reading this because in my experience, they have no idea what the profiles mean.


....and for that, you get a "kudo"!   Smiley Very Happy

ACE - Master

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6.9K Messages

11 years ago

That's ok, when I was first installed at my new house I had the 3HD/4SD profile and the tech had never seen that one before.  Too bad an update removed it.  With a family who doesn't care about HD, having the extra SD streams was a blessing when recording mulitple shows at the same time. Not once did we get all streams are in use message.

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