OT xfinity/ U-verse/direct Tv

Two words: Sunday ticket. 

We used to have AT&T Uverse at the old house - loved the product (rock solid reliability, fast internet, cheap (if you play hardball) channel packages).

at the new house Comcast Xfinity was our only viable choice - love the voice control remote and the full featured guide/DVR and the Internet is blazing... When it works. Had service freezes on both Internet and TV - not as good...

UKMatt

I've had Dish, U-Verse and now Cox Contour.  Kinda wishing I had the U-Verse back but I needed better internet than they could get to me because I'm something like 7400 feet from their switch.  It worked for several years but got too much traffic on my block I guess so I went with cable.

The U-Verse HD DVR is the best one I've had.  Hands down, no comparison.  My Cox Contour DVR will do up to 6 HD streams at once and holds 6gig which is all well and good, but the remote receivers won't pause live TV 75% of the time and doesn't have as much functionality to begin with.  I was constantly pausing and/or rewinding live TV so I could blast through the commercials.  They even have a special FFWD button that goes exactly 15 seconds so you can just hit it a few times and usually land right on the beginning of your program after the commercial is over.  I used the crap out of that.  It's pretty disappointing since it's all on Cisco equipment and U-Verse was Windows CE based.  U-Verse is a better mousetrap if you have enough signal strength at your location.  AT&T was always giving me free stuff too for being with them so long.  Even when I canceled U-Verse entirely, they threw in an extra gig of data on my mobile share wireless plan for free.

Xfinity here in Mid Tennessee has the SEC network. I just bundled my security system with the cable and Internet... Saved about $1600 a year. I was blown away at the bundle prices. 

Comcast is the worst company in the US for very good reasons. If you're willing to bite the pillow for them because they are the only game in town for high speed(like me) go for it. If you have other options for high-speed internet, run away quickly to the competitors. They keep raising my rates so I am always calling, service drops all the time(including phone service, which they should get fined for). Around me, the menu interface looks like basic cable from the 90's. Horrible to navigate and don't you dare hit the wrong button.

The only semi-competent part of the Comcast company is the "customer retainment specialists" that you are transferred to when you say you want to cancel service. Semi-competent is relative, of course.

The only good thing about Comcast is the accessibility it gives me to streaming apps like NBC Sports, NFL Mobile, NHL, and Watch ESPN. The Watch ESPN is great because I can watch the entire suite of ESPN channels and then stream them right to my TV via my Chromecast. Most providers offer this accessibility with certain packages that you sign up for, so it's not Comcast-specific.

AM = After Modem, I went with a 3meg ATT DSL service.   Too Slow for any reasonable video use.   I activly didn't want all the 'extra' boxes of UVERSE in my house so I went with Cox cable when I upgraded.   After enduring several price increases and for even LESS internet speed, I called and said the 'ATT Word'.    Pricing now where it SHOULD be.  
I've been a Dish customer for a long time.  

AT&T and Direct TV are now one and the same.

henapple said:

Dylan, I've had great experiences with them lately. They now have a really nice service center... Set up like a Verizon store. 

Mine is set-up like the cashier's office at the local tow company. Only difference is that the tow company employees have better customer service skills. They make the DMV look like Shambala.

Comcast has zero competition in my area in regards to high-speed internet since they bought out the other 2 cable providers. They don't have to care, so they don't.

For xfinity internet, in GA they have a data usage cap at 300 GB.  You get charged extra if you go over.  Since most people have cable and internet from the same company I just thought I would mention it.  

Mross said:

AT&T and Direct TV are now one and the same.

Yep, beginning of the end for DirecTV I think.  I've been very happy with DTV for the last 10 years.

The clincher for me is that you can run satellite TV on a generator, but you can't get cable, because the cable lines need to be powered to get the signal to your house.

We have Direct Tv cheaper than cable and they have Awesone spirts packages. Only con is when a severe storm rolls in you might lose reception.

StillSmoken said:

Thanks for the reply guys.  For those of you with Att is the internet good enough to stream video?  

Extremely location dependent as the speed you can get depends on your local area offerings, distance from certain equipment, etc. Go to their website and type in your address and see what speed level you are eligible for. Anything 5 Mbps or above should be fine for HD streaming (people often say you need faster, but if you look at the speed the streaming sites send data, it rarely goes above 4 or 5 Mbps for any sustained period - it may max out briefly to send a burst of data, but not throughout a movie/show). I have AT&T U-Verse Power tier (40 Mbps down/6 Mbps up) and the service is rock solid. Tried to get the 75 Mbps tier for faster upload speeds (I sling a lot from my house), but was too far away from their equipment.

StillSmoken said:

Thanks for the reply guys.  For those of you with Att is the internet good enough to stream video?  

As @HofstraJet pointed out it depends on your speed. I am sure in Kennesaw they have a lot better plan than I have in the sticks. 

I am on the 18MB plan which is the best I can get, and I can stream with no problem. I actually could stream before on the 6MB plan as long as there weren't two or more of us streaming at once in the house. 

I love Comcast!  They keep lowering my rates!  Run to them, fast!