This is the Last straw DIRECT TV......

[JuniorDan]

2. 4 streams max. Period. Can be 4 HD, 4 SD, this doesn't matter, just a max of 4 channels going at the same time. Anything recording counts toward this, watching recorded TV does not. You can pause live TV on any box. You can be limited to less if your wire distance to the VRAD is too long and you can't train at the highest profile.

I just called ATT to cancel my installation and they put the tech manager on the phone who insist its 8 stream total.
With my 5 tv streaming I can only record 3 shows while viewing TV but a max of 4 can be recorded.
This will work.
I would just hate for the tech to install then have to pull it out because its not so.

That tech manager was very mistaken.

I should clarify. The max number of unique live TV channels is 4 channels. It doesn't matter, assuming you're on the highest profile, HD vs SD. On lower profiles, you get less HD channels, but you're still limited to 4 "live TV" channels.

For example, say you want to watch/record NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX at the same time.

1. You can watch NBC on one TV, ABC on one TV, CBS on one TV and FOX on one TV. On the 5th TV, you would have to watch recorded TV or the same channel as one of the other TVs.

2. You are recording NBC and ABC on the DVR. You can watch CBS on one TV and FOX on one TV. On the other 3 TVs, you would have to watch recorded TV or the same channel as one of the other TVs.

3. You are recording NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX on the DVR. On all 5 TVs, you have to watch recorded TV or the same channel as is being recorded.

For all of these, if someone wanted to watch Cartoon Network, they wouldn't be able to without someone changing from NBC, ABC, CBS or FOX to Cartoon Network.

Here is AT&T's official explaination:
http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=KB401042&title=Understanding+U-verse+TV+streams#fbid=mdidjeQRxJX

Thank you for that information. I canceled my install and only then did the person on the other end agread that I would no be a good fit for their service. They claim they are working on it and she also reported everyone else that I talked to for retraining.
I was her 3rd call for the day with the same issue.

[Autistic Angel]

For what it's worth, the blackout is over.

Cable programming giant Viacom and satellite broadcaster DirecTV reached a deal early Friday morning, ending a nine-day battle that left about 20 million homes without more than a dozen popular channels including MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and VH1.

(...)

The short fight seemed to hurt Viacom more than DirecTV. Ratings for many of its cable networks saw declines of more than 20% during the blackout. Nickelodeon in particular took a beating as Disney Channel and other rival networks gobbled up viewers.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but both companies said it covers all of Viacom's networks. Not part of the deal is Epix, a pay movie channel that DirecTV claimed Viacom was trying to force it to carry.

-Autistic Angel

[gellar]

Hooray.  Now I can continue to watch the one show on all of Viacom's 26 channels that I actually care about.

I hate the way TV works.

[gellar]

Also I am quite glad it hurt Viacom more than it hurt DirecTV, if that is indeed the case.

[Jag]

I'm very pissed that DTV didn't do something financial for their customers for not being able to deliver the content we paid for. I pay a shitload of money for Directv, I expect to get what I paid for or get some form of refund if I don't.

[Isgrimnur]

Call and complain.  Just be prepared for it to be prorated.

When I worked for Cingular, we'd have people call and complain about an outage that lasted, say, two days in their area.  They'd want compensation.

"Certainly.  I see here that your price plan is $39.99/month.  That works out to $1.33 a day.  I've applied a credit of $2.67 to your account, which, after taxes, will result in a credit of $3.20."

The fights that this caused were usually fairly entertaining. 

[gellar]

Yeah I am 99% certain if you called you'd get some nominal amount back.

That nominal amount is not enough to make it worth me calling.

Though I do remember that when they had their spat with Versus a few years back, they actually gave away a few months of the NHL Center Ice package away to people who called and complained for free, which was pretty nice.