Man... AT&T digital cable is pretty sorry

[deftron]

Was at my friends house the other day.

He has AT&T Broadband.


I have Adelphia, so I wanted to check it out and compare.


Bottom line...AT&T blows.


I think I have about 200 channels with HBO the only addon.

He has HBO and Cinemax and Showtime and has less than 100 channels.
Each premium channel for him only has one station. I have like 10 different HBO's

But the kicker was the TV Guide listings function.

I never appreciated mine so much.

When I use the Guide function, I still get the video screen in a corner minimized
and like a 3 hour span of listings for each channel thats easily scrollable, with details available for
every show.

He only gets listings for that current hour, no details.

Also no minimized video window, instead theres huge advertisement banners !?!?
for crap like George Foreman grills and local Realtor's.

WTF.. paying $50 a month for digital cable and having ads in the Guide window ?


At least his cable internet connection wasn't that bad. Seemed about on par with mine.

 

[Kadarin]

As a current subscriber to AT&T Digital Cable, I am in complete agreement with you. Paying $62/mo (for Starz/Encore/HBO) to have to put up with advertising in the onscreen (next to useless) channel guide.. and neither the picture nor the sound quality is truly "digital". I am going to cancel the service and drop down to typical Expanded Basic, and let my TiVo worry about the program listings.

 

[SirDante]

I AGREE! Back at home it's Verizon and their channel menu is simple with 0 ads.

Plus no Food Channel. WTF?

AT&T in Davis, CA

 

[deftron]

I feel sorry for you guys.


That's just lame (ads)


And whats up with the small choice of digital channels?

I have more analog channels than he has anlalog+digital

 

[GrumpyMan]

I agree with you completely, I hated the ads and the slow as hell channel changing that I told them to take it out and give me analog back. Also I couldn't record a show and watch a different one at the same time without another box which of course they wanted to charge me for on my VCR.

 

[pulse8]

I think if I move, I'm going to switch to a dish.

I have AT&T and they do suck.

Anyone else notice really bad digital artifacts when watching certain shows?

 

[GeekDrew]

I agree. I like DirecTV's TV Guide and channels. Where I'm staying right now, we have AT&T Cable and Internet. So far, none of it has impressed me. My aunt does subscribe to tons channels like HBOs, Stars, Showtime, etc. The cable has been pathetic so far. I've heard that the broadband is normally very good. While I've been here, though, it has been going in and out of service at many very inconvenient and annoying times.

Maybe I'm being too harsh, but I don't think so.

ST

 

[DanJ]

I have Comcast, which was AT&T in my area, and as you said, the whole system just blows. The whole menu system needs to be torn down and reworked; the box is slow in channel chaning..half the time my digital stations only come through when i flip back and forth to them...

it blows.

 

[ThunderGirl]

It depends on the area you are in how many channels are available on the cable. As well as how many of like HBO Starz/ Encore Showtime Cinemax ect.

We get expanded basic w/ our condo and it has like 70 channels and then we pay like $16 a month for the digital which gives us up to like 200 channels and then we have Starz/Encore and Showtime included in that 16 plus something like the love channel the western channel and like 10 more. Starz/Encore is like a total of 8 and Showtime has like 8

I like the menu guide and the info it gives. I don't even notice really the stupid ad boxes on the side I just don't look at them.

Have not had any service outage here since we got hooked up. The broadband internet is great right now too. As it just came to the area so not many people have it so we get download rates same as if we were on a T1. I love it.

 

[mrCide]

dirctivo + 'touch' plus sle > *++

 

[SludgeFactory]

Agree with all the complaints. I had AT&T when I lived in Atlanta, and the digital cable was terrible. Outrageously slow channel changing that was so bad that I rigged up an A/B switch to switch between cable box and TV tuner. I ended up just using the TV tuner most of the time, and flipped the A/B switch only to watch premium channels through the box, because the channel changing delay was so bad (~3 sec). There were MPEG artifacts on the digital channels, and the program guide had a delay whenever the ad in the corner had to "load".

When I terminated service and moved, they owed me money. It took several out of state calls and finally a letter threatening to involve the state attorney general before they finally cut me a check.

 

[Maverick]

The worst part of AT&T digital cable is the extremely outdated technology. They've done nothing more than basic menu updates in the 3 years they've offered it in Colorado. Other areas offer even HDTV over cable. AT&T in my area has yet to offer S-video connections to their boxes! And the audio...*laugh*...the damn box says Dolby Digital on it but there's no stinkin port for it in the back.

I went straight to directv and I'm pretty happy with it...when I ordered my cable modem they asked me if I wanted digital cable and I basically laughed in the guys face and ripped apart every "satellite disadvantage" that he gave me. Even he was like "yeah we're using really dated technology which we plan to change." BS they won't change until the comcast merger is through (anywhere from 1 year to 18 months from now).