**Updates in bold below**

As mentioned earlier, AT&T’s Total Home DVR service gets turned on today in Orange County.  U-Verse TV customers will be able to watch recorded shows from their DVR on up to three other TVs in the house.

Software upgrades are being sent to all boxes today so U-Verse users who have a DVR and a regular settop box receiver need to do just one thing: Hit the “Recorded TV” button on their remote to pull up the menu of recorded shows.

Since there are four TV tuners in the DVR, four shows can be recorded at the same time.  You can also watch two live HD shows and  watch three recorded HD shows at the same time. Or four people can watch the same recorded show at different intervals in different rooms. Obviously, there are a lot of possibilities with this new Total Home DVR. 

The most useful feature may be people who start watching a movie in the living room can pause the movie, go upstairs and resume watching in the bedroom before they zonk out. 

AT&T isn’t the only one to offer the technology. Verizon’s FiOS TV also has the multi-room DVR. TiVo users also have had a version of this for a while.  Cox Communications had thought about it but hasn’t implemented it in Orange County — it’s coming next year, a spokesperson just confirmed to me. Time Warner does offer multi-room DVR in some locations but not, unfortunately, in O.C. That is coming “right around the corner” in 2009, a Time Warner spokesperson just confirmed with me. 

For the few residents who can get AT&T U-Verse here, the expanded DVR service is free if you already have a DVR and settop box receiver. While the multi-room aspect is free, additional receivers are $5. Prices for U-Verse plans and more information is here.

Related posts:

• Photos! AT&T’s new Internet tablet September 22nd, 2008
• AT&T’s TV service adds sharable DVR  September 9th, 2008
• Ready for full HDTV broadcasts? DISH launches 1080p  July 31st, 2008
• How to cram more shows on your TV recorder May 15th, 2008
• Ask iGirl: Dampen volume on TV commercials February 5th, 2008
• Reader review: Verizon’s FiOS TV service September 21st, 2007
• Stump the Gadgetress: Recording TV without a TiVo August 7th, 2007
• D-Link bridges Wi-Fi gap May 15th, 2007
• AT&T launches TV in OC April 30th, 2007
• New TV tricks from your cable company March 27, 2007