U-verse no longer taking new customers. DIRECTV Stream is the alternative

[GottaB 595]

My new-ish neighborhood only offers U-verse and Suddenlink.

 

AT&T isn’t perfect but it has LHN and AT&T SportsNet for Astros games.

 

I went to change plans and the only way to do that is to call AT&T. Fuck that. Before I call to discuss a damn thing, I want to know what the options are.

 

It looks like they are shifting to DIRECTV Stream. It still has LHN and ATTSN.

 

Anyone use it already? Any issues I should know about.

[Js1 85579]

I’ve used it and every iteration of it for like 6 years. I don’t find too many issues.

The Apple TV app kinda sucks and sometimes is slow and requires closing and reopening. Otherwise I have zero streaming or quality issues.

DVR is sufficient for me but I don’t record a lot. LHN and ATT Sports Net are a plus. 

[TexasGary 849]

I have it and there are pros and cons.

The pros for me is that you can take it anywhere.  There is an app for the phone and tablet.  I think there is an app for Roku and Amazon fire.  I have an NVidia Shield and was able to side load the app on it.  The picture quality on the Shield via the app seems to be better compared to the quality on the Stream set top box.  They now have unlimited DVR.  There is no contract it is month to month.  If you were use to DirecTV satellite like me the channel numbers are the same.  

The cons

Its expensive.  I have the top package and I think its around $160 per month, however its the only streaming service that I could find that has LHN, AT&T Sports and Bally Sports Southwest (Rangers and Astros). That package has HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime.  It also includes access to HBO Max.  They have less expensive packages if you don't need the premium stuff. The set top box is extra.  I think they charge $120.  My box randomly shuts off several times a day (you don't have to buy the box if you can / will use one of the other solutions via the app.  The volume on certain channels goes way down when watching something that has an explosion or some type of really loud noise.

[joe dirt 285]

we must live in the same neighborhood bc we have the same two options. except me. suddenlink is unavailable to me, but is available to every other house around me and was confirmed by their techs. though they couldn’t say why. 

we switched from uverse to directv stream a couple years ago when it was called at&t tv. didn’t save any money and lost a shit ton of channels. but they were all channels we never watched anyway. what we did gain was the ability to watch live tv on all 6 of our tvs thru the appletv apps. before, we only had uverse boxes on two tvs. 

besides the occasional app freeze, we haven’t had any issues. being able to watch on my phone or ipad from wherever else is nice too. 

[Guest]

I have it. I don’t watch a lot of TV but that'll change in the fall. I find it clunky (I had to get boxes which added to cost) but significantly cheaper than U-verse. I want to say my bill that combined cable and internet has decreased from $225 to $130, with the same effective channels. My wife watches a lot more TV and hasn’t complained. I’ve toyed with the idea of YouTube TV over DTV Stream. 

[Beau Vine 54432]

18 hours ago, GottaB said:

AT&T isn’t perfect

 

[Js1 85579]

Did you get the boxes because you don't have a smart TV? 

Isn't it cheaper, if you have at least one HDMI port, to get a cheap Firestick and use that? 

[Jerry Callo 8728]

We had Uverse for well over a decade since it was originally introduced to our neighborhood.  A couple months ago, AT&T finished running fiber.  We switched to fiber and decided to go streaming.  DirectTV was an option, but YouTube TV was cheaper and gave us almost everything we needed.  After a bit of a learning curve with YTTV, we are used to it.  It is nice to be able to stream anywhere and have the cloud DVR.  We use the Smart TV apps on one TV and a firestick on the other TV.  I also have a firestick we take when traveling.  It's nice to plug in the hotel TV and have everything without the need to enter passwords, etc.

[Macanudo 13014]

Do.  Not.  Sign. Up. With. Suddenlink.

 

They are the worst provider I have EVER had.  And that includes 3 year years living in bumfuck Alaska.  

[GottaB 595]

Thanks for the responses. It sounds like there aren’t any big cons that would prevent us from moving away from U-verse. I was concerned that if we moved and didn’t like it, we couldn’t get back to UVerse since they aren’t taking new customers.

The big plus I am really looking forward to is the ability to stream it on the smart TVs in the garage (my gym) and the back porch next to the pool.

Thanks all. I think we are going to make the move. Gotta call AT&T and cancel the UVerse. This oughta be fun.

[TexPx 2324]

Had Uverse forever and went to Dstream when they introduced it. Liked the YouTube interface better at the time but liked the Dstream channel lineup better. It’s gotten a lot better and no complaints about Dstream now. DVR is OK now but I don’t use it a lot.

[Augustus 3061]

Uh oh.  I hope this isn't going to eventually screw up my buddy's login that I use to access SEC network on WatchESPN

[kevwun 15905]

Signed up yesterday.  My contract with Dish expired and the bill went up $60 and I didn't want to be locked in on another 2 or 3 year deal.  I like the interface so far, it's pretty quick and was the only streaming service that has all of the channels I wanted.

[TexPx 2324]

They added 3 dedicated 4K channels a month or so ago. One shows specific 4K programming from different channels and the other two show different live sports. First two Longhorns games were broadcast in 4K.

[BigDHornfan 6550]

Signed up yesterday after years of uverse.  But the constant freezing and dropping of the uverse signal got to be too much, not to mention how compressed the picture has gotten.  Really noticeable watching football on NBC on sunday nights and then switching over to the peacock app and seeing the diffrence in picture quality.  
Just waiting for the gemini air devices to get shipped since I have all LG tv's and there's not a directv app available.

[kevwun 15905]

I am using it through Roku.  I think the picture quality is noticeably better than Fubo.  A friend has DirecTV through AppleTV and I hate that remote with a passion.  Fast forwarding is damn near impossible.

[gyroprotagonist 2595]

so does the streaming 'come with' the satellite service?  I keep a DTV sat dish sub so my folks can have it in their RV and also get Dallas stations in their hometown (that does not get them) but also use Uverse at our house.  So it would be ideal if i could just drop Uverse and go with DTV streaming but still keep the sat thing going as well.

[kevwun 15905]

It's a separate deal from their dish service.  DirecTV is a little confusing about this.  They have a streaming service where they provide you Genies and they have a streaming only service where you do it yourself with Roku, Firestick, etc.  For the streaming only option, you have to go to https://stream.directv.com.  For the genie version, you can just go to directv.com

[Hagbard Celine 10923]

https://www.thelayoff.com/t/1qABA9Hc

bastards started shutting off uverse with no notice forcing (extorting) an appointment to move to fiber to restore ALL @@ service including internet - no zooms for you motherfucker!

welp they fucked themselves and uverse is now toast nationwide, all customers, not just the targeted fiber neighborhoods

bastards

[Red Five 40895]

Yup. My Uverse went out yesterday at about 7:00. Still down. 

Cancelled my service a few weeks ago but I'm paid up until sometime next week. Guess I'll get a head start on Youtube TV.