For over three years: U-Verse Movies on Demand freeze and glitch.

Between the TV and gateway, are you using coax (round black wire) or ethernet (looks like a phone cord)?

After having problems with on demand, I switched to ethernet and those problems went away. The downside is that I had to do it myself in order to avoid a fee from AT&T, but it seems like you already have experience there.

What you could do as a test...swap the ethernet from the TV to the DVR and see if there's any difference.

If you want to switch, there's a new product called DirecTV Stream. There's two ways to go here.

1) Two-year contract which includes a streaming device. This device will run all the apps you're familiar with AND sets up the service with channel numbers.

There was a time when the prices were higher in the second year. This may or may not still be true.

2) No contract. You don't get the streaming device, but you can buy one if you prefer channel numbers over scrolling.

It includes many of the channels you're already getting (including regional sports channels -- a rarity!) and may include additional ones. Example: Reelz is on U-300, but included in all DirecTV Stream packages. Depending on where you live, additional RSNs are possible. Of course these are still limited by where you live.

If you switch from U-Verse for any reason, you cannot switch back.

If you're generally happy with U-Verse, I suggest running ethernet to your U-Verse box.

Hi. Not sure what the two AT&T devices are called. A large, tall, device, with the wifi password and a number of blinking lights telling me status of items, is that referred to as ? Anyway, it has ethernet cables and power to it. Out of it is what appears to be an ethernet cable which goes to the second smaller AT&T device which is the DVR/U-verse box. An HDMI cable leaves this smaller device and goes directly to the TV. 

Let me know if any possible switching can be done. I have fiber coming to my house so the WiFi is quite fast - not sure if that matters.

The ironic part is some stations I can watch for free on an antenna, a different HDMI input to the TV, like MeTV, the Movie Channel (Film Noir), Comet (like SyFy). Not sure how much I would need to upgrade to get say MeTV. Crazy. A lot of stations are in Spanish and why am I paying for those? It is hard to decide why keep U-verse at all since the best part would be to watch fairly new movies but that service is terrible. Indiana Jones keeps freezing. Hmm, Indian Jones and the U-verse of Doom. ;)

And of course, I simply use a laptop, on the WiFi, and have the laptop stream, watch any movie through ANY other service, and I hook up the laptop to the large TV via HDMI cable so I have it on the big screen. What is wrong with this picture?

I don't watch much sports so, upgrades on U-Verse gives me stuff I don't want but I would pay for it.  I know Comcast has movies on demand since a number of relatives all have that with a talk into remote to look up movies. Holy Cow! I like AT&T stock for the dividend - before it went down for a number of reasons - but I think I am on a losing team. 

I think I only switch on the AT&T once a year - U-Verse - to watch the Kentucky Derby. Crazy.

The gateway is the term for what AT&T refers to as their modem. It's sort of the "central hub" for internet/digital phone/U-Verse. This is a bigger box and is either black or white and probably near your DVR or desktop computer.

The WAP (wireless access point) is a smaller box not far from the gateway. It's how your wireless TV receivers connect to the gateway. AT&T tried to combine the two into one box, but things weren't ideal.

The DVR is your main TV box where your saved shows are kept. You only have one of these.

Receivers look sort of like a DVR, but are smaller.

U-Verse also has PPV movies on channel 1. There's many ways to get to that menu, but I think channel 1 is the easiest.

Yes. The first channel on U-Verse lets me see a movie and say pay $6 to see watch it. But, it freezes up big time. An hour later of phone calls and rebooting on my side, AT&T's side, and it might work. Once after this song and dance, I thought, hurray working. Twenty minutes into the movie, it started freezing up again. Ugh!

I actually see a third device mounted on the wall near the floor and it appears a cable - (fiber?) goes into it  (this incoming cable comes from another level in the house another device of sorts - which goes to the fiber coming into the house from the street). Out of this is a cable - nothing is coaxial - which goes into the "gateway". Then gateway to the DVR/U-Verse device which must be turned on --- then this device to TV by HDMI.  I am thinking the Panasonic, not being a smart TV, is the problem. It sounded like I can buy say something that is like a really dumb laptop - it would just get the WiFi and the movie, and boom, into the TV via HDMI or coax. (No ethernet input on this Panasonic.)

Will AT&T have a fit if I drop U-Verse? Years back, it was, oh, it is part of a package. Drop just the U-Verse part and it goes way up. 

Thanks for your patience.

Have you had a technician visit lately? I'm surprised they haven't offered to send one.

Oh, they have in the past offered it but it appeared then that the freezing had stopped but no - it hasn't. What do you think the technician will find? If I call, I will first have to spend over an hour with them playing the reboot game. I guess it is for me to call and offer them a choice of either send a technician or drop U-Verse from my service. I imagine they will either transfer me to various departments and/or decide on what saves them the most money and that is how they will make the decision.

The fact that if I drop U-Verse, I can't get it back, means it is on the way out. I think it is not offered to new people. Do you agree baseballisback?

I have no idea what the tech will find. If they offer a tech visit, I would have taken it on the first offer.

U-Verse hasn't been offered to new people since 2020.

If you're paying for it for essentially 3-4 hours per year for something on broadcast TV...well hey, it's your money.

Well, the tech offer was then removed when after an hour of rebooting, it worked again. It wasn't like, they wanted to send a tech as a follow up to see what is causing such problems. I would think since this technology is being sunset, a tech. would only give a temporary fix. Probably best to end it. 

I imagine the general idea is a person buys a new upgraded TV every so often so they can sunset the older technology - it makes sense.

Thanks for the help and the information.

I wonder if they will want me send back the U-Verse/DVR box. They can have it. It will make space so I can set up again the VCR player - funny but why not? Party On People! I want to go to a movie theater and see the new Ghost Buster movie! Hurray! Old Curmudgeon.  ;)

TVs have zero to do with the service being paid for.

The last time any TV was sunset was 2009 with the transition to digital broadcasts and even then, older TVs still worked. Any new/current TV service would work on a TV purchased in 2005.