I debated this for a while and I figured I would give a little info back to this site. I did a lot of research including here on TD. I have been Cox customer for 5 years. I installed U-Verse a week ago and for the past week, I’ve had AT&T U-verse connected to HDMI 1 and Cox to HDMI 2. I have been comparing the two pretty closely.

First off, I’d like to disclose my AT&T U-verse “install”. It involved running new CAT5 in the house, line to the box, and rewiring at main hub. They had to call in a (IR?) specialist for this and took over 2 days to get me up and running. I am 1000’ from a “main hub”. Essentially, I couldn’t get any better signal on AT&T.

AT&T U-verse – U-200 on two TV’s (one wireless) + 24mbps internet

Pros = Actual download speed during both TV’s running is excellent. Even during peak times I get 23-24mbps down. The up is considerably slower than Cox. The channel availability is great and the menu is better than Cox with little things that make a big difference. The remote is very well setup. Overall, the AT&T setup is much more up to date than what Cox can offer. The wireless works incredibly well. Probably the biggest difference between U-Verse and Cox is the DVR function and ability for U-verse to record more at a time and hold more.

Cons = U-verse picture quality does not match Cox and it’s unfortunately not really close across the board. Watching U-verse reminds me of streaming video that has just a tick off the quality… like watching 720p upscaled with artifacts and pixilation clearly visible. Some channels are worse than others with local HD being the worse. Next with poor picture quality, frustratingly, is ESPN family. I’m not sure if this is related to encoding or what. I’ve also noticed picture quality varies throughout the day (but internet speed/quality doesn’t). The other big ding against U-Verse is sound quality. This is strange and I’ve tried to reset and adjust with equalizer but the mid tones just disappear with U-Verse. There is quite a big difference between the two.

Cox Advanced TV + High Speed Internet Preferred

Pros = Picture quality. Sound quality. Both across the board are excellent. The channel lineup is much more clear than U-Verse (i.e. channel up one time from ESPN gets you to ESPN2). Confidence in stable internet connection.

Cons = Cost. Internet speed (I get 17mbps). Terrible Cox hardware. Bad customer service which I can not compare to U-verse yet but given my install experience I think U-verse will be much better. Lack of cool techie apps and etc. Sometimes, my Cox login wouldn’t work for WatchESPN.

Conclusion

Success with AT&T U-verse is 100% dependent on your micro-location in relation to key equipment/hubs/boxes. Even when you get great reception with U-Verse, it will not match Cox picture or sound quality. However, bang for buck, U-Verse is a clear winner for me… for now.