[snowcat]

My 6 month promotion with Uverse was up, and they were unwilling to give more than a token discount to keep me for more (unlike what the Uverse "recruiter" promised), so I am back to DirecTv.

I was able to get pretty much the same promotion as a new customer (HR34 for $99, all other HD equipment free, same one year discounts) except for the 2nd year discount.

I wanted to give some comparisons between the two services.

HD channels - Uverse has more. The main ones I noticed were TruTvHD, HubHD, CartoonNetwork West HD, the Encore movie channels, and my local MyTv30 station.

Whole Home DVR - Uverse's is a bit more functional, since I can pause, rewind, and fast foward live TV from any box in the home. But at least there are workarounds for DirecTv (set the program to record, and then all that functionality is there).

Picture quality - DirecTv does have better HD quality with sports. I didn't notice much difference with movies. However, since almost every station with Uverse is in HD, I am not limited with SD as much with them.

Now DirecTv certainly has some advantages as well. The program guide is much better, since it combines SD and HD channels together. Uverse users 1-999 for SD and 1000 and up for HD. There are channels like Nicktoons and Boomerang that I would never see since I would be mostly looking at the HD channels.

DoublePlay is a feature I missed with DirecTv. With Uverse, you would have to manually record multiple programs at the same time to recreate the buffer effect of DoublePlay.

Uverse has a 4 tuner limit. That wasn't a problem for my house, but there are many people out there that want to watch/record more than 4 shows at a time in a household.

DirecTv also has more sports available. I had all my RSNs in HD with Uverse, but there is a dispute with the Braves and the Peachtree games, so those games are not shown at all.

Overall, I was glad to experience Uverse and think it is better than what I had heard in message boards. But DirecTv fills my needs better for a reasonable price, and I am glad to be back as a customer.

 

[mgtr]

Great info for the rest of to have. I have wondered what the comparison was, and am happy to see this analysis. Guess I will continue to stick with Directv - I have no problems with them.

My 6 month promotion with Uverse was up, and they were unwilling to give more than a token discount to keep me for more (unlike what the Uverse "recruiter" promised), so I am back to DirecTv.

I was able to get pretty much the same promotion as a new customer (HR34 for $99, all other HD equipment free, same one year discounts) except for the 2nd year discount.

I wanted to give some comparisons between the two services.

HD channels - Uverse has more. The main ones I noticed were TruTvHD, HubHD, CartoonNetwork West HD, the Encore movie channels, and my local MyTv30 station.

Whole Home DVR - Uverse's is a bit more functional, since I can pause, rewind, and fast foward live TV from any box in the home. But at least there are workarounds for DirecTv (set the program to record, and then all that functionality is there).

Picture quality - DirecTv does have better HD quality with sports. I didn't notice much difference with movies. However, since almost every station with Uverse is in HD, I am not limited with SD as much with them.

Now DirecTv certainly has some advantages as well. The program guide is much better, since it combines SD and HD channels together. Uverse users 1-999 for SD and 1000 and up for HD. There are channels like Nicktoons and Boomerang that I would never see since I would be mostly looking at the HD channels.

DoublePlay is a feature I missed with DirecTv. With Uverse, you would have to manually record multiple programs at the same time to recreate the buffer effect of DoublePlay.

Uverse has a 4 tuner limit. That wasn't a problem for my house, but there are many people out there that want to watch/record more than 4 shows at a time in a household.

DirecTv also has more sports available. I had all my RSNs in HD with Uverse, but there is a dispute with the Braves and the Peachtree games, so those games are not shown at all.

Overall, I was glad to experience Uverse and think it is better than what I had heard in message boards. But DirecTv fills my needs better for a reasonable price, and I am glad to be back as a customer.

 

[PCampbell]

I have uverse voice and internet, droped the TV as I like Directv better and can have 6 HD channels at a time. Your comparison is a good one. Did you keep or have the internet? it is great.

 

[snowcat]

I still have the internet for now (18 mb service). I do like the service, though I could save money in the short term by going back to Comcast.

 

[TigersFanJJ]

Great comparison. I'd like to add a couple of things I noticed from my brief time with Uverse.

As you said, HD sports looks much better on Directv. I would notice a lot of macroblocking while watching games. I'd also see it a ton while watching HD concerts (crowd shots). Made it very annoying and hard to watch the concerts.

SD PQ - Looked MUCH better on uverse. Never realized how much Directv compressed their SD picture until I saw Uverse on my wife's HDTV (I watch HD only on my tv).

Buffering/stuttering - Really annoying. Uverse would occasionally stop and stutter for a few seconds. Didn't happen all the time, but it did cause me to miss an important part of the show or game on more than one occasion.

My last thing I'd like to add. I may be wrong but it was explained that Uverse was limited to 4 streams into the home. Meaning watching the same live show on two different tvs only counted as one stream.

 

[jkbs4208]

The deal breaker for me with uverse was the inability to add a larger hard drive. I never left DTV, I had both during the one month trial. Cancelled the tv and still have the Internet and phone