AT&T Community Forums

Where's all the HD I was promised

I was with Comcast before I made the switch to u verse and the salesman or who ever it is that goes door to door selling services, told me that I would have all the HD options I have now and not to mention, it would all be in a dazzling 1080, which he assured me Comcast doesn't provide with most the channels they offer. It seems to me I have less half the HD channels I had with Comcast.(I am referring to on demand) I never "did not find the HD show I was looking for with comcast", all my favorites were right there waiting for me in HD, might have been 720 but HD none the less. To be honest 1080 and 720 don't look a whole lot different on my flat screen. Definitely not a difference that would cause me to give up all my favorite shows in 720 for less than half in 1080. All the premium channels are in HD yes, and the networks in primetime section (fox, abc, nbc,). A whole 3 or 4 public networks! Just checked my on demand, it is only 3. And granted, there are a couple more but they're networks like the travel channel and cooking channel, really a bunch of crap 95% of the public don't watch,But all other networks, on demand, are in SD! (Cartoon Network, Comedy Central, all Disney channels, ESPN, FX, history channel, Nickelodeon, syfy, TBS, TNT, truTV, USA, VH1.) as a cable tv provider att should know that on demand is what most viewers watch when they're watching tv. It's a busy world with a lot of busy people and though the option for a DVR makes up for some of the lack of HD options, (because all these networks are available in HD as channels and can be recorded or watched) those who have a family with a number of people recording shows, conflicts in recording happen often. Not to mention the lack of content on these crappy SD channels. EXAMPLE: I navigated to Comedy Central (SD cause there's no HD) I chose tosh.0, as I hit OK a picture pops up as a DVD style cover with tosh and above him it says "Tosh.0 season 4". I again hit ok and all I get is season 3 with a whole 4 episodes to watch, and nothing current. Maybe it's a contract issue with the networks and att, I don't know but I know I didn't have that problem with comcast. If I missed an episode of tosh with comcast it was always available, at the least, the next day. I feel I was lied to. Not lied to because the seller was ignorant or unfamiliar with the service but lied to straight out to get my signature on that contract. I, having had comcast the day the att salesman was sitting on my sofa, ran through the on demand asking if all these channels where available in the 1080 he was promising. All he was saying was yes yes yes. I'm extremely disappointed in the service and offended by the deception. Now I'm stuck in this contract but will do every thing I can to get this contract void.

[Legal discussions are not permitted per the Guidelines]

Responses

mibrnsurg

Expert

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20.4K Messages

9 years ago

There was no claim about On Demand HD made by ATT, but by the D2D (non-ATT emp.) hucksters that say whatever you want to hear.

Comcrap and other cable systems have a stranglehold on VOD and do whatever they can to stop ATT from getting any VOD.

In sports, on Uverse, 720p Networks(FOX, ABC/ESPNs) tend to be better than 1080i Networks (CBS, TNT, TBS, all NBC channels) due to the fact the 1080i Networks need 10-20% more bandwidth to be equivalent to 720p. 😉

Chris

__________________________________________________

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
Need Help? PM ATT Uverse Care (all service problems)
or ATT Customer Care (all other problems)
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

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JefferMC

ACE - Expert

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33.5K Messages

9 years ago

@Libra1076 wrote:
... as a cable tv provider att should know that on demand is what most viewers watch when they're watching tv...

Can you cite the source for this information? Because while this may be true for some demographics, it's not true of others, and I have no research to tell me that it's true overall. Some watch live, some watch programs they record via DVR, others watch VOD and a growing number watch them online.

Different providers have different strengths. Comcast has one of the best VOD offerings. AT&T has one of the best DVR offerings and a large selection of HD channels for live (and therefore DVR). Go with the one that gives you what you value.

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Libra1076

Tutor

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4 Messages

9 years ago

As far as research goes, no I don't have strong evidence showing that the majority of viewers watch on demand other than everyone I know. Yeah it may be speculation, but I'd say its a pretty good one. I have a large family, (brothers, sisters, mother, father) not to mention a number of friends and (in my own experience) all rely on the on demand feature to watch their shows. Some because of their schedules, others simply cause they are watching other shows at the moment and don't wanna fumble through the DVR set up at the time or have conflicting schedules with recordings. On demand is a convenience feature as it stands anyway. And though this may be speculation also, I'd say it was invented and exisist for the sole purpose of the reasons I mentioned in this and the last post. Everyone can find all the premium channels, across all providers, in HD. Those with outside streamers like Apple TV, roku, ect. And might find these programs and networks in HD with att. I have both but haven't tried using them for these networks yet but in the fall I may. I have a feeling I may be disappointed in that as well. In any case,that isn't what att promised me. And if you notice that's what the title of my post is about. It's about what I was promised. Why should I have to move my Apple TV from room to room if I wanna watch Walking Dead. The promise by the salesman was that all the HD I had with comcast would be available with att and more and it just simply is not. It's hard for me to understand why these networks are available in HD to watch but not on demand, being that att is one of the largest cable networks in the U.S. I'm sure they have their reasons and it's not in my realm of understanding, I'm not in the business of television, but when a potential customer ask the direct question of will all the HD available to me now be available with you, I should get a truthful responds. If I was told these networks were not available in HD on demand that would have been a deal breaker for me and they knew it and deceived me.

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skeeterintexas

ACE - Expert

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26.7K Messages

9 years ago

I rarely, RARELY, RARELY watch anything On Demand.

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JefferMC

ACE - Expert

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33.5K Messages

9 years ago

If you look here:

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/34-hdtv-programming/1462894-official-avs-national-hd-channel-lineups-cable-dbs-fiber-iptv-updated-6-14-14-a.html

you will find that AT&T U-verse has more HD Channels than Comcast (196 vs 140, and that 140 isn't available in most Comcast areas, while the 196 is available nearly everywhere U-verse serves).

A few minutes learning to set up Series recordings would take you far in terms of ensuring your shows are sitting in your house, on the DVR when you want them. If that's too much trouble for you, and you insist on VOD, then that's not a problem that the salesman lied, it's an issue of what works for the way you want to watch TV, which is surely your choice to make.

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browndk26

ACE - Professor

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5.5K Messages

9 years ago

Never believe a door to door salesman. With all the info available on the internet, you could have confirmed or denied what the salesman told you. Always research first.

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Libra1076

Tutor

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4 Messages

9 years ago

Well Chris I'm glad you could settle this for me, being that you must have been sitting on my couch with me and the Att salesmen. I must have misheard the man when he made the claim that all the on demand I have in HD would be available to me. The reason i even left comcast for att was the crappy customer service comcast offers and the fact that I would save roughly $60 a month making the switch. I had DSL with att a few years ago and was happy with the customer service department att has. They always made good on issues I had, even though they over charged me for almost two years. But when I found out about this I called and they made it right. But I don't see this being an issue they can resolve. Let's face it all these corporate company's don't care about promises or customers,they're in it for the money plain and simple. They get you locked in and get what they can as long as they can. Two different times with DSL they over charged me for many months, and though they did, as I said before, make it right in the end, the fact that if gone unnoticed I would have over paid till the end of my service. Which seemed to me, once might have been a mistake, but twice? I'm sure that some people ,not the majority, but I'm sure a large enough group across the whole country, especially those who are more well to do than others, just pay they're bills when they come and don't pay much attention to the details. I did and I'm not even close to well to do, just busy. We got on during a $14.99 a month special for 12 months and the whole time was paying the premium price. I'm sure there are people out there paying more than they should at this moment and I hope this post might find its way to them. But I'm rambling now, the fact that advertisements may not state the HD issues I'm having the sales rep did. A human being, which to me, should be more reliable than any advertisement.

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dhascall

Master

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9.8K Messages

9 years ago

@Libra1076 - If you feel that you were lied to, by all means send a private message to the escalation team at AT&T Customer Care, and someone will get in touch with you. U-Verse does have a 30 day money back gaurantee.

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Libra1076

Tutor

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4 Messages

9 years ago

It's not the HD channels available that caused me to write this post it's the on demand HD that's unavailable. I know that att has more HD channels than most. And let's not forgett that 20 or so of those 196 channels are in a foreign language and the others as I stated before are cooking and travel channels and such. Which I know some of those channels are important to some people but none have shows that they majority watch. And I respect att for the availability of the Latino programs for those who can not or have trouble speaking the English language. But shows like duck dynasty, walking dead, falling skies, etc, are the shows that most people watch. And a few of these I mentioned I don't watch myself but respect the fact that the majority do. That's why they're the number one shows in America. Though I may be wrong on this, I don't recall these other networks like cooking and travel having hit shows. And some might state that they never use on demand, but I do. As a comcast customer, I rarely ever watched live or recorded tv, cause let's face it, who would when every show you want to watch is there without the need to take the time to setup a recording. And yes with recording these shows we have the option to avoid the commercials by fast forwarding, which on demand sometimes doesn't offer due to contracts with companies selling these products, in which case I do record some of these programs with my DVR. And I think everyone who watches there favorite programs have at ,one time or another, forgotten or don't know the air dates on these programs. But myself, I can give up that availability for the conveniences of not having to remember the air dates and times these shows air. And as I mentioned before, sometimes recording conflicts occur. There is 3 or 4 show I watch that come on around the 10:00 pm time slot, and I have to give up one to accommodated for another. And anyone who owns a HD TV can tell you that watching SD TV on an HD TV is worse than watching SD on an old tube style tv. It's much more grainy and seems to leave a tracer trail when the actors or characters move about. The post I seem to see ,in debate with my post, are all about the HD channel options not the ON DEMAND HD options. And yes in hind sight I should have researched this before committing, but the fact that I can't trust the word of a human representative of the company that's selling the product is beyond disappointing.

Further more can anyone at all explain to me why channels like syfy, TNT, history, tbs, etc, are not available in HD on demand when att is one of the largest cable providers in the country? I may not like the answers, and it may not make me feel better about this problem I'm having but at least I'll have some understanding as why. Maybe their hands are tied with this, maybe they have something in the works to resolve this. Some information would be better than none.

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baseballisback

ACE - Professor

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7.4K Messages

9 years ago

Easy.

AT&T does not have "such and such channel in HD/OnDemand/online/whatever" because AT&T has not agreed with the channel owner/operator to distribute the channel via that method.

Tell me this: If you were going to move to another city, would you do your research into what neighborhood to live in before you moved? Likewise...if I were to switch to Comcast, wouldn't I try Comcast at a friend's house and look at their offerings via a website before I switched?

Honestly, I struggle to understand why people apparently fail to look at AT&T's offerings on their own before they switch based off a salesperson's advice. It would be akin to me buying the first new car I saw just because the salesman said "oh, this car is awesome."

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Libra1076

Where's all the HD I was promised

mibrnsurg

JefferMC

Libra1076

skeeterintexas

JefferMC

browndk26

Libra1076

dhascall

Libra1076

baseballisback

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