Gail: Hmmm -- the discussion mechanism is acting very funny. A minute ago, my screen went entirely white and I had to start over. I hope this isn't a sign of trouble to come. Already today, I drove through a deluge to get here, and then there was a fire truck parked in front of the building. Water and fire -- are those signs of the apocalypse? I don't know, but in any case, there was no fire, and now I'm all set to chat, so let's get started.

Iron Mike Ditka: Hi Gail,

I ran into Donna Savarese today at Starbucks. She mentioned there was a "Judging Amy" / "Cane" crossover made-for-TV movie coming out. I tried to find it in the TV listings in my paper, but these seemed to have disappeared.

Can you offer any assistance?

Gail: Did Donna tell you she's landed the lead in the "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" remake, opposite Dr. Joe Petrovich? But seriously, folks -- Iron Mike is just having fun with you.

Chris C: Hey Gail... Is it just me or are the last two chats cut off in the middle? Or did you just end them without a goodbye? That doesn't seem like you. Help the rest of us out that don't get to read in real time and let us know.

Gracias.

Gail: Well, you never know how the software is going to behave, and I can't see what's happening from your side. But if I've answered all the questions before the end of the hour, what I've been doing is just waiting till 2 o'clock to sign off. So that may give you a long gap. Should I just sign off when I finish no matter what time it is? I'm here to please. Chris ... are you out there? Chris?

majigail: You talked a little about Uverse last week, we have it and we love it. First of all, the picture quality on my little old tv is much better, on my husband's tricked out HDTV, it's super. They have a lot of HD channels in their HD package, enough were I don't feel gipped paying an extra $10 per month for HD. I'm really happy with the channel selection, I'm getting BBC America for the first time and LOVE it. We got the second tier programming & internet, which was actually cheaper at the time than first tier and internet, go figure. We had Dish before and I like being able to still watch live programming when there's a weather, our dish seemed to go out a lot during weather. We've had it for a good 3 months now and I don't think we've had any off air time at all.
The cons: When the power goes out it takes about two minutes to get it all back up and running again and I'm not in love with the DVR (which you only pay once for) that came with it like I was in love with my Dish DVR. The one I have glitches a lot, like I hit the forward button and it goes back to the beginning of the show, that could just be my machine.
I hope that helps anyone thinking about switching!

Gail: Thanks for that info. I'm sure it will help people who are considering options.
You have to be hooked up to a phone line, right? That could be an obstacle in some settings.
Now I want to hear from people who switched from cable about the difference in picture quality.
And I wonder how the prices will compare once the introductory period is over.

rbaker23: I am an AT&T U-Verse subscriber. I hear they are going to be rolling out whole house DVR soon. Any idea when? Are you familiar with the service?

Gail: I assume that's a DVR that lets you watch recorded stuff on any TV? I have something similar with the "Moxi mate" from Charter. But I find that I prefer to record different stuff on two TVs, so I have two DVRs. As you just read, though, I'm completely unfamiliar with U-Verse. AT&T hasn't done any promotion on the launch of the service, which might still be considered a "soft launch." That's why I've been asking you guys to tell me about it.