U-verseusers.com says that AT&T is rolling out their HDTV IPTV system in San Antonio, Texas, the first city to get the standard definition Uverse service from AT&T
Only the limited number of test users that have received the Motorola set-top-box upgrade can watch the HD channels, but the city-wide rollout of the boxes should begin very shortly. As of press time not all of the listed HD channels are active.
The test users we talked to report only currently being able to tune in to HDNet, TNTHD, ESPNHD, ESPN2HD, and NFLHD. Although households are currently restricted to watching only one HD channel at a time, picture quality appears to be tremendous, and future upgrades should enable AT&T to offer a second HD stream.
AT&T will offer NBC Universal’s HD and on-demand programming as part of its U-verse TV channel selections. Under the agreement, AT&T will distribute to U-verse customers the analog and digital signals of the NBCU-owned and -operated broadcast stations, as well as NBCU’s cable properties, including CNBC, CNBC World, MSNBC, Telemundo, mun2, Telemundo Puerto Rico, Bravo, the SCI FI Channel, Sleuth, ShopNBC, USA Network, and Universal HD.
The deal also includes video-on-demand rights for Universal Pictures’ movies. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
AT&T will replace current boxes with new Motorola HD boxes that include a 160GB hard drive, and will record standard and high definition programming.
Motorola’s advanced VIP1900 series (right), is the first line of their IPTV boxes to fully support the Verimatrix Video Content Authority System (VCAS). Motorola’s VIP1900 series works with High Definition (HD) and Standard Definition in MPEG-2 and H.264 (MPEG-4), and has Digital Video Recorder (DVR) support.
Some 30 HDTV channels are being offered. AT&T’s U-Verse service comes in three different packages at $74, $94 and $119/month which includes Yahoo high speed internet access. HD is another $10/month.
Meanwhile, Xbox Live (right) has experienced glitches in the newly announced HD video download service, including slow downloads or not receiving the content they purchased on the newly opened Video Marketplace.
The Xbox 360 wireless network adapter supports both 802.11a, 802.11b and 802.11g networks. Microsoft says their Network Adapter should work with practically every wireless network set-up.
By the end of the year, Microsoft is expected to have over 17 million Xbox 360s in the market and many, if not most, will be hooked up to high definition displays thanks largely to the drop in price of HD sets.
The one-two combination of game titles and HD videos could make Microsoft’s X Box 360 a big winner this holiday season. However, in a recent ZDNet poll, readers said they would prefer getting a Nintendo Wii for Christmas over either a PS3 or XBox360 by a huge margin.
The online video boom is starting to eat into TV viewing time, an ICM survey of 2,070 people for the BBC suggests.
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