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Summary of Questions I am Getting About AT&T's Total Home DVR Announcement

I am getting lots of calls and emails about yesterday's announcement from AT&T in regards to Total Home DVR.

Here are some answers:

1.  What do I have to do to upgrade to AT&T's Total Home DVR?

Nothing.  No equipment.  No software.  No magic.  When AT&T is ready to deploy to your market, you will be notified and your upgrade will happen via your phone line.

2.  How much will the upgrade cost?  Are there additional fees for the upgrade after this happens?

Nothing.  Nada. No salesman will call.

3.  When will Whole Home DVR come to my market?

I don't know.  I wish I did.  But I know that AT&T is hoping to get this deployed in all markets by year-end.

4.  What is all this stuff I hear about HomePNA?  Do I have this?

HomePNA is an industry standard that enables your home network.  AT&T has adopted it.  Nothing for you to do.  They basically make sure that the vendors who provide products like your set top box or your residential gateway can do  triple-play home networking solutions for distributing entertainment data over both existing coax cable and phone lines.

5.  How many TV's will this work on?

Currently up to 8 TVs  (why do you have 8 TVs anyway?)

6.  How much storage will my DVR handle?

37 hours of HD content and 133 hours of SD content.

7.   How many HD shows can I watch at the same time?

You can watch up to five HD programs simultaneously throughout the home, including two live HD programs and three recorded HD programs.  Personally, if your family is watching that much TV, trying turning off the TV and spend some family time together.   

Also, get your kids to read more.  Without the TV, the PC or their cell phones.

8.  How many shows can I record at once?

You can record up to four programs at once on a single DVR.

Also, repeat- TV is great.  Reading and quiet time is also good.

AT&T U-verse Total Home DVR Launches; HomePNA Enables Home Networking. What's Next: The G.hn Standard (think gigabit per second rates on coax, powerline and phone wires)

Now into being a 3rd year U-verse customer, I have been hearing all about the potential of true home networking.

That vision is now being put to the test with the launch of AT&T U-verse Total Home DVR, giving U-verse TV customers the freedom to play back Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD) recorded programs on any connected TV in the home.

U-verse Total Home DVR is now being introduced to customers in the Bay Area at no additional charge and is planned for deployment to all U-verse TV customers by the end of 2008.

• There is no equipment to buy, no software to download, no phone calls to make.  You will be advised by AT&T when your upgrade is in place.  They do this automatically, through (what else?) the phone line that connects to your service.
• Total Home DVR works because of the HomePNA standard that AT&T has adopted.
• The real future of home networking will be on the G.hn standard --  the next generation standard for existing-wire home networking (a wired and complementary counterpart to the very popular WiFi wireless home networking standard). G.hn has targeted gigabit per second data rates and operation over all three types of home wires: coax, powerline and phone wires.

Here's what you can do with Total Home DVR:

    -- Watch HD and SD DVR recordings on other connected TVs in the home. In addition to your DVR, you can access, play, pause, rewind and fast forward any recorded SD or HD program on up to seven additional U-verse-connected TVs.  All U-verse DVRs and receivers are HD-capable.

-- Pause a recorded show and pick up where you left off in another room.

-- Play back multiple, independent viewings of the same recorded show on different TVs.

-- Play back up to four recorded shows at once. Up to three can be HD recorded programs.

-- Watch up to five HD programs simultaneously throughout the home, including two live HD programs and three recorded HD programs.

-- Record more of the show you want to see with soft padding, which automatically adds 1 minute to the beginning and 2 minutes to the end of each pre-scheduled recording.

-- Organize recorded content by series. Series recordings will be grouped as a single heading in the recorded TV menu, making it easier for customers to manage and select their recorded programs.

-- Store up to 37 hours of HD content or up to 133 hours of SD content, which is more storage than most cable providers' DVRs.

-- Record up to four programs at once on a single DVR -- another feature  that is exclusive to AT&T U-verse TV.

-- Set the DVR while on the go from your PC or wireless phone. With AT&T Yahoo!® Web and Mobile Remote Access to DVR, you can schedule recordings from any Web-connected PC or compatible mobile phone (wireless service charges apply) by using your AT&T High Speed Internet account.

Photo by Alan Weinkrantz (c) All Rights Reserved.

On My Radar: My World. Delivered. In UltraHD.

Lately, I've been digging and catching up on the subject of  Ultra High Definition - or UltraHD.

Don't get me wrong.  I love my Sony big screen HD, but now that it's approaching three years in use, I am starting to think about maybe replacing it, putting in another room, and shifting to UltraHD, once these sets do come available to consumers.

But there's more to UltraHD than just a pretty picture....

While the potential to have an ever better and crisper resolution in my home is compelling, I think there is another issue that service providers need to consider. 

By the time UltraHD gets here, AT&T will have already deployed its Whole Home DVR in my home.  And with the increasing trend towards home networks and the need for increased bandwidth, my take is that  G.hn - is going to be the "next generation" home network technology standard for the Weinkrantz family (and millions of others around the world.) 

Coax, Phone Wire or Powerline.  G.hn good to go.

My house in San Antonio, Texas, USA, may not be like your house in Lisbon, Portugal, where you might use Powerline.  In G.hn, ITU-T members are creating a single standard for home networking over existing wires – coax, phone wires and powerline – with the speed and features needed by tomorrow’s high-performance applications.

G.hn likes all flavors of  existing-wire home networking.  And WiFi is pretty universal.  Good news:  at my house and yours, we'll get the best of both worlds.

There is some chatter in the blogosphere and on individual sites like here, here and here where I have commented on this issue.

Is UltraHD on your radar?  Drop me a line--  alan at weinkrantz dot com

U-verse Voice Apty Named, U-verse Voice. Sort of Like Having A Residential PBX That You Manage and Control With Your TV Remote Control or Your Computer

Today, I had a demo of U-verse Voice, AT&T's consumer VoIP phone service.

Where AT&T's U-verse Voice stands out is in its integration under the U-verse brand name and its robust services. 

You have to re-think the way you use your phone because your new world being delivered is through your big screen and / or on your computer-  and not your phone.

The functionality of the phone (making and receiving calls) stays in place, just like it has since the day that Alexander Graham Bell told his assistant to come into the room.

I think the service is important for several reasons:

1. It gives AT&T a compelling reason for consumers keep their residential land lines even though trends show that while AT&T's wireless business continues to grow, the residential land line business is slowly declining.

2. If you have a home based business and need a land line phone, then this type of service lets you combine the best of both worlds with having a central portal in which to manage your calls both at home and away from your home office.

3. It further differentiates itself away from cable and satellite. 

TV is the center of millions of American's digital lives. Now with voice  being integrated as part of your TV service's user-interface, the nature of, and the way you think of and mange "voice" totally changes. 

Yes, a phone is a phone is a phone.  But now the phone itself become secondary to the real value of managing and  controlling your family's voice services.

4. It becomes a precursor to having what will one day be some similar to a small-scale enterprise network in your home.  (Think HomePNA and ultimately G.hn)

No matter where you work, chances are your company is on some type of enterprise network. The bigger the company, the more complex and carrier grade your network might be.  Something similar is evolving in the home:  you now have voice, data and video over one phone line that is being trafficked and managed by the phone company.

Coming soon: my own real world review.

I've decided to order my service and once its up and going, look for a future post (hopefully next week) once I have had a chance to play with it.

EngadgetHD Reports St. Louis Now Has 2HD Stream Capability

This one I missed.....

EngadgetHD is reporting that St. Lewis now offers U-verse with 2 HD Streams.

In other words, you can have 2 HD TVs in your house and have 2 streams coming in at the same time.

That's a big deal!

Intel and TI Agree: G.hn Will Be the Next Standard for Home Networking

With all the new services that AT&T is delivering to my home--- my home is taking on the characteristics of a small enterprise network.  And with that network comes some very special needs for my home network.

Now, it’s great that Intel and TI have agreed that G.hn will be the next standard for home networking.

Yet, I’ve seen the coverage of HomeGrid and I believe the real story is lost in the noise – i.e. the fast pace and great progress of the G.hn standard in the ITU.

The ITU group creating this standard, which includes major telcos like AT&T and Verizon, manufacturers like Motorola and 2Wire, and home networking technology companies like client,  CopperGate and Intellon (not a client), has been meeting face to face monthly for many months and is on schedule to complete the draft by December 08.

Also, there is a bit of confusion about who is leading the charge. ITU is developing the G.hn standard, not HomeGrid. HomeGrid is a special interest group (SIG) and only one of several SIGs in this space.  The jury is certainly still out on whether HomeGrid is the right companion SIG with the right rules and approach for G.hn. 

The good news is no matter what, everyone agrees that G.hn will soon deliver a universal home networking standard that supports all three wire types: coax, phone lines and power lines.

More on this can be found on http://homepnablog.typepad.com/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.hn