Well, Ive had Uverse for a little over a month now, and the install went great…far better than I expected based upon what Id been reading around the net. My initial impressions of the service were really good…things seemed quick, customer service was good, and I had no technical issues to speak of.

Unfortunately, Ive been slowly finding out about the things they didnt tell me about the service, and they seem pretty large-scale if you ask me. If AT&T had told me the following about their service, Id have stuck with cable:

1) You cannot record from the DVR to a DVD Recorder. Ive tried every setting & wiring configuration I can think of, and no matter what I do I keep getting the same message from my recorder: "Cannot record from source-Copyrighted material". It doesnt matter if its a movie, live TV, or Video-On-Demand…I get the same message every time. I even borrowed a friend's DVD Recorder and hooked his up to the system to see if it was a problem with my burner…got the same message. After extensive searching on the net, apparently this is a problem hundreds of others are having. AT&T customer service claims they've never heard of the issue. They might want to try looking at their U-Talk forums sometime.

2) The ability to pause, rewind, & fast forward live TV has proven to be a bigger hassle than I ever expected it to be. Once youre used to doing this, its unnerving not to have it anymore. I didnt find out you couldnt do this on the other STBs until after my install. When they say "Total Home DVR", that should mean all boxes on the system can manipulate live TV. The whole home isnt DVR-capable if only 1 set can do this.

3) No one mentioned that I cant even VIEW or CHANGE scheduled recordings from the other STBs, either. Whats up with that?!?! All you can do is watch a recorded show on the other boxes…you cant even erase it once youre finished.

These things, along with the bandwidth problems Ive run into more than once (recording an HD program, watching something in SD, another person tries to watch HD in another room and is given an error about exceeding bandwidth) has broken the camel's back for me. This is worse than a dish, which I never liked either! Its like the entire system is still in some kind of beta stage and AT&T is passing it off as a refined/finished product.

Ive got an appointment scheduled to have Comcast re-install me next week. And even when their promo-rates end, Im still going to be saving $30 off what Im spending now for comparable programming & internet. (Their basic internet speed is 12-15MB…Im paying up the a** to get the same at U-Verse's Max18 level). 2 DVRs with HD, plus the ability to hook up the rest of my TVs to the analog channels for free. And no bandwidth issues.

In a word (or 2), Uverse blows.

"You cannot record from the DVR to a DVD Recorder. Ive tried every setting & wiring configuration I can think of, and no matter what I do I keep getting the same message from my recorder: “Cannot record from source-Copyrighted material”. It doesnt matter if its a movie, live TV, or Video-On-Demand…I get the same message every time. I even borrowed a friend's DVD Recorder and hooked his up to the system to see if it was a problem with my burner…got the same message. After extensive searching on the net, apparently this is a problem hundreds of others are having. AT&T customer service claims they've never heard of the issue. They might want to try looking at their U-Talk forums sometime."

What wiring configurations have you tried? This message sounds like HDMI compliance related messages……have you tried outputting the signal from your dvr to the dvd recorder via component cables (red blue green), with audio cables as well (red, white)?

yman173 said:

1) You cannot record from the DVR to a DVD Recorder. Ive tried every setting & wiring configuration I can think of, and no matter what I do I keep getting the same message from my recorder: “Cannot record from source-Copyrighted material”. It doesnt matter if its a movie, live TV, or Video-On-Demand…I get the same message every time. I even borrowed a friend's DVD Recorder and hooked his up to the system to see if it was a problem with my burner…got the same message. After extensive searching on the net, apparently this is a problem hundreds of others are having. AT&T customer service claims they've never heard of the issue. They might want to try looking at their U-Talk forums sometime.

2) The ability to pause, rewind, & fast forward live TV has proven to be a bigger hassle than I ever expected it to be. Once youre used to doing this, its unnerving not to have it anymore. I didnt find out you couldnt do this on the other STBs until after my install. When they say “Total Home DVR”, that should mean all boxes on the system can manipulate live TV. The whole home isnt DVR-capable if only 1 set can do this.

3) No one mentioned that I cant even VIEW or CHANGE scheduled recordings from the other STBs, either. Whats up with that?!?! All you can do is watch a recorded show on the other boxes…you cant even erase it once youre finished.

1) –This is caused by the new implementation of HDCP – High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection. HCDP is a form of copy protection that protects digital video and audio content as it travels across either DVI or HDMI interconnect cables. Major movie studios have implemented this. They have obligated ALL PAY-TV Operators to incorporate content protection.

2 & 3)–This is being resolved as we communicate with a new software rollout to the RG. Austin, TX was the first to receive this software download “push”, and reports are that it's working nicely. It will take weeks / months to complete the rollout nationwide.