ATT U-verse v DIRECTV

I prefer ATT U-verse, hands down.

We recently switched back to Directv from U-Verse. I was finally fed up after about a year of continuous DVR blow ups! Literally about every 3-4 months our DVR would freeze up and then once it finally restarted we would have lost everything that had been recorded with no way of every getting it back. If this had happened once, maybe twice, I would understand but it happened at least 6 times! Customer service tried to offer us discounts and such but it just got to be too much frustration. My husband is pretty tech savvy and he believes it was because ATT kept using refurbished DVR's instead of giving us a new one but who knows for sure. In addition, once the problem began with the DVR, it would of course be at least 24 hours before we could watch TV again or record anything. This was very frustrating for me during the fall season. We also had a few months where our service was 'stuttering' meaning the show we'd be watching would freeze up for a moment or so and then continue. When this happens continuously during a program, it's almost impossible to watch because the lapses in dialog make it difficult to understand whats going on. After about a month of having indoor and outdoor techs at our home, the problem was finally resolved but who knows what was really happening as it was all very chaotic. We've never had any complaints about Directv other than the fact that you can only record 2 shows at a time :) Good luck with who ever you choose.

We recently switched from DirectTV to UVerse and we can't wait until our contract is up to switch back! We lost many of the features that we loved with DirectTV and have had more trouble with the equipment in the last six months with UVerse than we ever did with years of service with DIrectTV. I've also had trouble with their billing. They didn't put the discounts on the bills so I've had to call EVERY month to have them removed.

One thing to keep in mind is that you can only have ONE DVR with UVerse. Now, every TV in the house can access the recordings on that DVR, but you cannot pause or rewind live TV on ANY other TV except the main one. We asked UVerse about adding other DVR's, but that is not possible at this time, the system won't do that. A couple of other features that you lose are 1. Uverse will not go back to the beginning of a program when you record unless you rewind to the beginning. 2. It does not keep the channel you are on while watching a recording. 3. It doesn't pick up any of the channel you are on when it is off after you turn it back on,. I know these things sound little, and we thought we could live without them, but we REALLY miss them.

One more thing. Call DirectTV about updating your system. A friend of mine did that recently and they LOWERED her bill, added a DVR (they now have 3) and they set up a system much like UVerse where you can access ANY DVR from any TV. She is VERY happy with her new system and her new bill!

Good Luck!

I really like ATT u-verse, you can dvr 4 shows at a time. You can't watch another show while all 4 are recording, so it is more like you can only do four different things at once. I keep hearing that they are trying to up it to 6 shows. The only problem I had with att at first was they told me one price for everything but when it was ordered it came out a different price. I just called and they fixed it. I like the selection of channels they have and the qulity is really good.

We have it now from Comcast, and we love it! We'd never go back....

I liked ATT U-verse from what people say but they don't have it in our area. Just know, anything is better than Direct TV! Direct TV has charged us (me, my mom/dad) for movie channels we didnt approve then we didn't get them anyways so they were charging us just to charge us. We harassed them to refund the money because we weren't getting the channels and we didn't authorize it in the first place. The BBB had to step in to get any of the money back. My mom can be a space cadet and jus paid them every month when they were overcharging and it wasn't until my dad saw it that he was like whoa. We have had constant problems with our channels randomly freezing and a bunch of drama. So I think in the long run, I would go with ATT U-verse but maybe you have good experiences with Direct TV.

We switched from Direct TV to AT&T when our promotions were over and our DTV bill sky rocketed. At first I loved it! The service seemed more consistent (the weather didn't affect the picture) and I loved the feature where I can watch my recordings on any TV in the house. Then Direct TV started advertising that they also offer a DVR service that plays on ever TV, and our picture with AT&T has started freezing up for no reason at all. We've had AT&T come out several times and it still doesn't work the way it should. It may have always been like that, but we didn't watch much TV so we didn't notice (I'm on maternity leave now). We are actually debating going back to Direct TV to take advantage of their new promotions.

The good thing about AT&T is that there is no contract, so you can cancel
without penalties. And they normally offer some gift cards or something to switch over.

hands down ATT uverse. I hated Directv. There is NO contract with ATT uverse so the lady below you can cancel anytime. Unless you didnt go directly with them and you got it from an authorized dealer or something and you had to do a contract with them

DIRECTv there is a 2 year contract if you cancel early they charge you $20 per month to cancel out and they will CHARGE your cc on file. Also when there is bad weather Directv does not work! It freezes etc... Also note anytime you get new equipment they extend your contract another 2 years.

I have had uverse for a year and half no issues. I have 4 tvs hooked up. Yes you can only rewind and etc on the main box but you can rewind and forward on all boxes. Record in all rooms and watch all recordings in all rooms... plus the memory is soooo much larger. i have have last time i looked a 130 something recordings on my box and not near the max on memory.

Also note Directv's BBB rating is an F. With almost 42000 ratings: http://www.la.bbb.org/Business-Report/DirecTV-Inc-81000357

We couldn't switch because we have high definition tv's. The U-Verse person told me that each HD TV uses 2 of the 4 feeds. So if we had 2 TV's on, it used up all the feeds and no one else could watch tv in their room (fyi we have 7 boxes in our house).
~A.

I agree with some of the comments below - I switched from Directv to Uverse and I really miss some of the features that may not seem like a big deal, but once you get used to them, you really miss them!

I don't understand why I can only pause/rewind live TV in my living room, and not in any of the other rooms. When you are used to that, it is SO hard to give it up! I hate to even complain about it, because in the grand scheme of life it's not much of a problem to have, but I miss that and I want it back!!

The only thing I like better about uverse is that you can watch any recording on any TV in the house. That part is pretty cool. Also, switching to Uverse saved us money. So that part is good, too.

Tough choice! =)

Jen
www.morethanmothers.com