My Life, My World

While the tech was in replacing my DVR, I ask about the black/gray processing in the Motorola Box.  He mentioned specifically that in the interest of size, Motorola intentionally limited the black and gray processing capability.  This is visible anytime you’re looking at a largely black or gray screen.  The gradations between shades if obvious.

He mentioned in other markets that they are using Cisco boxes and one other manufacturer that I can’t remember.  But so far those haven’t been introduced in the Indiana market.

Its a shame that you put money into a nice television only to have the cable box impose limitations on you.

I called into AT&T to report that my sound was dropping in and out.  I was told that there were new DVR’s out that had a new chip in them that was supposed to resolve the issue.  They dispatched a tech out the next day.

When the tech arrived, his initial fix was to bypass the audio I was sending to my system via HDMI using the red/white RCA cables.  When I explained to him that with the setup I had and my Harmony Remote already programmed that I did not want that done, and that I was told I would get a new DVR, he went out to his truck and brough in a new one.  I now have a Rev C. unit.

The following day, I was pleasantly surprised to see programs being recorded.  When I checked my recording schedule, I noticed that everything was intact and I didn’t have re-do any of it.

Definitely a surprise.

I’ve received a couple of requests for help in configuring the Cisco ASA5505 with U-Verse DSL.  Here’s a summary of how I made it work.  Feel free to contact me for further assistance.  I’ll do what I can to help out:

Setting up the U-Verse residential gateway with my ASA5505 was the most difficult part of my installation.  The tech knew nothing beyond basic networking, nor did the guy on the phone.

Here is what you need to do:

1). Connect only the outside interface of your ASA to your RG (residential gateway), disconnect everything else for now.  You’ll see why in a minute.
2). Log on to the RG, http://192.168.1.254 (I think).  The password is on a sticker on the RG.
3). Go into the firewall options and look for an option called DMZ Plus.  You should see the MAC of your ASA in a selection box.  Once you set that up, the RG will pass its public IP right through to the outside interface of your ASA.
4). Configure the ASA’s outside interface for DHCP.  It should then pickup your public IP.

I’ve then uplinked another switch to the RG for my TV’s to plug into.

Its tricky, but it does work.  I’m not at home right now, so I might have a term or two confused as I’m pulling this out of my head, which is loaded with cold medicine right now.  But that was basically it.

If you don’t pass the public into the outside interface of the ASA, you end up with a double-NAT situation which will screw up most forms of VoIP.  I have a SIP trunk from Junction Networks and an Asterisk box for my home.

Let me know if you need further info.

Haven’t updated in a while.  Here’s some more differences that I’ve noticed:

VOD doesn’t display programs recently viewed in the selection list.  On Comcast, if you watched a few episodes of say The Sopranos, you would see a small check mark next to the ones you’d watched.  The check mark didn’t stay very long, 24-72 hours.  But if you were watching a series over a day or so, it was a nice book mark.

There is evidently an issue with HDMI on the U-Verse boxes that can causing goofy behavior when switching between inputs.  For instance if I switch, via my Harmony Remote, to my PS3, then back, the guide will not display, however the little preview screen in the lower left does.  This can be resolved by switching my TV to another HDMI then back.  Hopefully this is a software issue and not a hardware issue with the VIP-1216.

My Comcast service was disconnected on 1/24/08.  So far I’ve been very happy with U-Verse and continue the learning curve.

I came home and fired everything up. I had no directory on my DVR box. I could get the little preview box in the lower left hand corner, but no directory.

A call into T2 Support let me to the reset where you hold the power in for five seconds. That fixed it.

Until I turned off my DVR to play PS3. When turning things back on again, no directory. Same as before. I had to do another reset.

Been busy with other things and no time to play around and see if it repeats. Lets hope it doesn’t. Had today not been MLK Jr. Day, I would have called ComCast to cancel my service. Maybe this is a sign not to? I hope not.

As I was writing the previous post, my phone rang.  It was a U-Verse rep..  He was reading my survey that I filled out yesterday and was calling to address some of my concerns.

He was concerned about some of the problems I reported and was very sincere about helping me work through them.  He gave me some additional codes that will get me into Tier-2 support through Feb. 10th.

My experience has shown that once you get past their horrible IVR and their Tier-1 people, you can actually get stuff done.

When looking at the DVR, you can’t see how full it is. ComCast always showed you a percentage of available space. This is something I miss.

My wife pointed out that when pausing and or watching a program from the DVR, you don’t get to see the bar across the bottom that shows where you’re at in the recording. I believe that this mostly occurs when doing the seven-second advance, which we use to skip through commericals.

Watched both football games today and outside of a few pauses and very brief scrambling of audio, both went very well. Better than what I’ve seen from ComCast. And based upon what I’ve seen on the forums, CBS has had its issues.

On a side note, I’ve officially unplugged my two ComCast boxes and my cable modem.  I believe that I’m going to call them tomorrow and cancel service, assuming no more major issues with U-Verse.

Here’s some additional information I received from AT&T:

This was happening on and off last night. I was on the phone three times. Here is the email response that I received from AT&T:

This is xxxx (xxxxxx) from ATT U-verse T2 support. I got off the phone with SPOC and they are aware of the problem. What is happing is the provider (FOX 59) is switching out some equipment causing the feed from FOX 59 to U-verse network to be broadcasted sometimes in Spanish. I apologize for the inconvenient and ATT is working hard on this issue. If you have trouble with this issues again, you can call back T2 at 877-293-9986 Code 7830 (until 1/20) or 7841 (until 1/28). We value your business. Thank you for choosing AT&T.

It would appear that my south-of-the-border experience isn’t new:

http://www.uverseusers.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,2/topic,3770.0

http://www.uverseusers.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,2/topic,3782.0

Well, tonight was my first negative experience with my three day old U-Verse install.

I was watching WXIN, Fox 59, on channels 11 and 1011.  All of a sudden the audio stream for the Simpsons and a very small part of the Family Guy was in Spanish.  Nothing was changed on the box.  I even checked another box in our bedroom.  Same problem.

All commercials were in English, but the program was in Spanish.  Then all of a sudden it cured itself.  As I sit here writing this now, I haven’t seen the problem resurface in the past 20 minutes or so.

I tried several other channels and none exhibited the problem.  I even switched over to Comcast to confirm it wasn’t a Fox 59 problem.  It wasn’t.

Calling to support was a total nightmare.  Then after 20+ minutes, probably 12 of which were on hold and giving them my phone number, address and verification information four times, I finally got to a second level tech.  By that time the problem had resolved itself.  The tech did give me the direct number to second level.  The catch is that the code he gave me is only good for seven days.  He did give me the following week’s code.  So at least if this happens again in the next two weeks, I’ll have a faster way into support.

I’m really looking forward to dumping Comcast….  I just hope the problems are minimal with U-Verse.