AT&T Uverse Integration

Add wifi control of AT&T Uverse DVR and channels with channel guide.

We did actually look quite deeply into this in January. As it turns out, AT&T wants vendors to sign a contract stating that they have approval over all code changes and they will explicitly approve every version of software you ever release, and that you cannot market the fact you've integrated support for U-Verse.

So, if you can't talk about it, and you can't release it, that basically took us back to square one requiring a full reverse engineering.

At the moment, the next release of Roomie, 1.5, will expand significantly on our DirecTV support. We believe we can then bring Dish up to that level as well in a future release. Once we reach that point with those major providers, we'll take another look to see if AT&T has rectified the situation. Sorry we couldn't report better news on them. We'd sure like to.

I know you guys have a lot on your plates, but I wanted to give you an update about the AT&T U-verse Enabled Developer API Guidelines. They were updated May 7 and now have changed (eliminated) the marketing restrictions.

While you still have to do their app approval process, they now encourage (require) marketing your app as "U-verse enabled." They actually will provide PR assistance and marketing via their channels.

I don't know whether that changes the calculation for you, but it seems like it would make a bit more sense to include native support now.

Thanks for all your great work!

When you incorporate this feature, make sure that you allow the IP of the uVerse box to be entered manually in addition to being automatically detected. There seems to be no other app out there that provides IP control of the U-verse box except when the box is automatically detected. However, there are many U-verse users who for one reason or another are forced to run their LAN on a subnet separate from the subnet of the boxes. The reasons, though varied, stem from many networking limitations AT&T places on their modems, aka residential gateways.

 

Allowing users to manually enter the IP of their uVerse boxes will put Roomie in a class by itself of all the currently available apps that provide IP control to U-verse boxes.

Looking to buy Roomie remote system (Have a sony tv/yamaha receiver/sony blue ray all with IP) Just wanted to be clear on something. I have Uverse Motorola cable box. I understand that i need to buy an additional Itach Ethernet to IR device, and i can not use the IP, but once i hook up the IR will i get the full functionality of the cable box remote on the roomie?

You will certainly have all the functionality that would be available from your remote, yes.

I saw that this has been requested previously. I just purchased the app and the home theater add on. I love it so far, and the only thing missing for me is integrating with the Uverse APIs. I know that you had looked at this in the past and I also know that their terms have changed. Is this something you are interested in developing? I know that I can shell out to their app but would love integration with your guide. Is this available with IR? What about if I develop a custom device?

 

thanks!

This was blocked by horrible licensing terms the last time we looked at it. That was however quite a while ago now. At this point it's just a matter of fitting it into the schedule again to evaluate whether it is now viable. We'll likely do that. Whether that will result in production features is not clear. However, continuing to signal user interest in this by a quantity of users clicking the like buttons in this thread can encourage that.

Thank you.

Adding another vote for this. I currently use Infrared control, but it would be ideal if the U-Verse box could be controlled directly over the network.

Just a question while I would also like this, is their an original remote option for u-verse or do you have to use a virtual?

I have eight Motorola U-Verse boxes in my home (Media, Game, Patio, Bedrooms, Living). Roomie, no pun intended, with U-Verse integration would really be nice.

With my AT&T U-Verse service I have the Motorola VIP 1216. I don't see it in the IR Compatibility page. Does this mean I have to use the "learn" command for all the remote commands?

The U-Verse boxes are definitely compatible via Infrared. Just type Motorola or VIP and they come up on the compatibility page:

roomieremote.com/ir-compatibility/

Thank you.

Use the misnomered "Motorola VIP Series Cable". Took me forever to figure out that, even though U-Verse is IPTV, you pretend that it's cable :slight_smile:

Dont want to bump this thread, here in canada i use telus optik tv, i believe it uses the exact same hardware as uverse, would uverse support also basically mean that telus support would also be included or possible?

 

Besides a few other products to support, i think tv and cable native support in roomie for more providers would be huge.

The Uverse support that exists from AT&T does not allow for the possibility of any other provider. It would definitely be for Uverse only even if the underlying hardware (from Motorola) is used by others.

Note that AT&T's licensing terms have still not changed which is why there are still no third party apps for Uverse. We do keep pinging them in hopes they'll correct this as it's all done on our side. They just need to fix one line in a license agreement. But that has been the case for now over a year so who knows.

Thank you.

Any chance for some canadian tv providers like telus getting native support?

Or is canada not a big priority, cant really blame you guys if not :slight_smile:

Were usually not up north but i checked out your dish network support and it was great. Just disappointing it maybe a pipe dream to get that level support for a Canadian provider.

Their really is only 3 or 4 big providers here.

We don't think things like "Canada is not a big priority". We think "which providers in the world have worthwhile IP interfaces that will benefit our users".

That's really number 1, 2, and 3 on our list. DISH was first on that list of major providers. Kaleidescape is on that list even with a fraction of the user count of DISH because Kaleidescape had such an awesome movie server interface that allowed us to do things not possible with anything else. We have several more in development at various stages and then a couple of dormant ones like Uverse waiting for inane license agreement issues to be fixed.

If we became aware of a large Canadian provider that was exposing an IP interface, we would likely jump on that.

Thank you.

We recently got AT&T U-Verse. The current box is a Pace IPH8010. It has pretty impressive features. I did not check to see that Uverse did not support IP control, so it's definitely a bummer to our whole flow. Really hope there's a way to add IP support. AT&T has made major changes in the last two years in how they do business; hopefully they'll realize the value of allowing 3rd party support without oversight. Hopefully you guys are checking in with AT&T every month or so to see if anything has changed. Thanks!

Probably not every month, but in theory they will let us know when/if they fix their licensing. Our last message from them confirming the license is still broken was 10/20/14. They did sound hopeful that it can be fixed, but that's been the case for some years now.

Thank you.