This is a new "cable" TV and internet service from AT&T. My co-worker signed up for it today and I am tonight.

https://uverse1.att.com/un/launchAMSS.do

It's only in limited areas right now, but it works off of their fiber-optic network. They are basically taking our Comcast cable line and moving it to their network. They spent the entire summer last year hooking up these huge network switch boxes outside of our communities in this area and have Fiber labels on them. Now I know why.

The reason this is important is because Comcast HD will be degrading many of their HD stations starting now:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...ork+resolution

I didn't know this was coming, but we noticed a difference in the HD quality of the stations lately, which is why I started doing some research on my AV geek forum.

If you want to know the technicalities, Comcast has a certain amount of data/bandwidth they can use for HD stations. They separate these into data channels, not to be confused with the TV channels. These channels currently handle 2 HD stations on one channel. Now they are squeezing 3 HD stations into 1 data channel, which means less data per HD channel, which means a quality difference.

If you follow the link above, you will see the comparison. The Verizon service they reference is the same kind of service as this new AT&T U-verse. It's a completely fiber-optic digital network where your main feed into your home runs directly off a fiber-optic connection that is somewhere local in your community.

What does this mean? They have literally unlimited data bandwidth, so your HD stations are more like Blu-Ray quality, REAL HD quality, and not compressed data or degraded to fit into a signal it wasn't designed for.

Anyway, anybody that is a big home theater nut or HD TV watcher needs to know about this. We will be getting more channels with internet at almost 30% to 40% cheaper then Comcast's service, and there is no contract.

I'll post more details about it when and after we order the service. According to my friend who spoke to them, it requires no addtional wiring. They use your existing cable wiring in your home, so you just disconnect the old Cable provider equipment, and plug in the new. Pretty sweet setup..

 

Looking forward to hearing what you think about it.

 

Thanks! My wife and I are doing some research on it. It's very interesting, basically a big computer network in your house for TV.

 

What is the premium they want to charge for it?

 

Well, my wife and I just looked up the price packages. The Basic 200 channel package is $59, and $10 extra for all of the HD stations. We get LESS channels with the extended Comcast package we have now and are spending over $100 a month for less.

We've spent hours looking up feedback and so forth on this and it's a really good deal. Everybody seems to be happy with it except only having 1 HD station at a time viewable or recordable, but thers is an upgrade coming soon that will allow 2 HD streams at once.

I'm going to place an order tomorrow I think. It JUST came to this area in the past 60 days.

 

That sounds great. Long as you have the HD stuff at home to take advantage of it that is a cheap price. I pay about $115.00/month for Cable and Internet. We don't get any premium movie channels either. ( don't watch much TV anyway )

 

Of course like usual it's no available to us [&o]

 

Sounds like Verizon's FIOS deal in some parts of the country - fiber optic, on-demand, huge bandwidth. The cable companies are going to have to change their technology to keep up.

 

Not sure it is available in my area either.

 

YUP....CRTC Sucks!!!!