I hear ads on the radio that with this product you have a single DVR, but you can play video to any TV in the house. I presume this is done by requiring some other type of AT&T equipment on each receiving TV, but I haven’t found confirmation of this via Google.
You have to rent a receiver for each TV aside from the main one where the DVR is attached. I forget the price, but I believe it’s $7 per receiver. You can use the U-Verse website to add/remove packages and see how much different items cost.
That’s what I figured, thanks!
Yes a single DVR and addtional recievers at $7 a pop. The thing that suprised me though was that they needed to install a modem on the phone line even though I was not getting internet. I think the affect of this is that you cannot simply plug a TV into a live cable feed and get a signal, you need to rent thier additional box just to get the TV to work.
That’s true, but obvious if you think about it (unless I’m misunderstanding you). With U-verse the TV signal comes through the phone lines, not the cable lines, so there has to be something to convert it to a form the TV can receive.
That’s kinda neat, being able to get that much bandwidth out of the phone line. Anybody know what the data rate there is? Can you actually view multiple HD shows/movies simultaneously?
It’s not really accurate to say it comes over the phone line. It only comes over copper for the last mile. Uverse uses Fiber to the Node, so the vast majority of transport is done on fiber, and only the last several hundred feet come over copper.
We only have one HD TV in our house, so I can’t confirm exactly what you are asking, but I can confirm that the system is able to simultaneously record 2 HD programs to the DVR. From that I assume you could watch 2 HD programs at the same time.
I admit I am a lay person when it comes to the phone system, but to me this seems like a technical nitpick. It comes into the house on the phone line, to me (and I would wager most people) this translates to ‘cable’ TV on your phone line.
I have AT&T Uverse and it does indeed come through the phone line as previously stated.
My setup is 3 receivers (2 HDTV 1 SD, same receivers for all) and DSL for the computer.
You can DVR record up to 2 HD shows at once or 4 SD shows at once. What AT&T “forgets” to tell you is that yes, you can record 2 HD shows at once but cannot watch HD/SD if both are recording. Your main box (you will have at least 1) allows you to pause and rewind live TV, the other smaller boxes don’t.
My bill with all the charges,taxes, etc for (3) Receivers, U200 package (2nd tier, no movie channels) 6 MB DSL for $124. I am very happy with the speed of the internet and the TV service. I do wish they had a better “on demand” feature like Comcast but that’s about it. Box sizes are aesthetic and small.
Just fightin’ ignorance 
Especially since I was replying to a comment about bandwidth on the phone line, and anyone with DSL can attest that phone lines’ bandwidth is miniscule compared to a cable.
You’re absolutely right, but it wasn’t relevant to the point I was making. At least, I don’t think it was.
ETA: By the way, I’ve had U-verse for about a year now, on three TVs (one HD, two old standard models) and am generally very pleased. It works as advertised. I also get DSL through them.
That’s correct, but there’re work arounds. While recording the maximum number of live shows, you can watch any of the live shows being recorded or any previously recorded shows. You can do the pause-rewind of a live show on the smaller boxes if you press the record button first (because you can pause and rewind recorded shows, even if it’s being recorded concurrently).
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Compared to my previous cable provider (rhymes with Farter), U-verse is a huge step up in quality of service. My only complaints (besides the recording limitations) are that the first month of service required something like 5 house calls because of multiple cable box failures. Eventually they traced the problem to noise on the line from the pole to the house. They fixed and replaced everything (multiple boxes and the outside line) without charge except for the inconvenience of it all.
The other complaint is that they messed up transferring my previous phone number to the U-verse system. But they eventually fixed the problem and gave a significant amount of rebates on the monthly charges.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
To answer the OP directly, the connections for U-verse are complicated. The primary box is a modem connected to the phone line. (If you have poor in-house telephone wiring, you may be limited to the locations this can be connected.) The modem connects to the DVR box via a CAT5 network cable. The modem connects to other TV boxes over the in-house coaxial cable. The modem connects to the telephones over the in-house telephone lines. If you want to use your own router, you’ll also need another CAT5 cable from the modem to it. There’s also a UPS battery box that powers the DVR.
I also forgot to mention that each U-Verse box can act as a wired router for internet. Useful for the newish HDTVs / Blue Ray players / Game Consoles that have internet features. Much nicer than relying on wireless.