Back in 2013, I wrote a story about Atari filing for bankruptcy. It wasn’t really the “original” Atari. That company dissolved back in the 1980s, and was bought by a series of holding companies. But the intellectual property rights kept following and eventually Atari, the bankrupt one, was a French holding company with several subsidiaries including three named Atari.
Atari came out of bankruptcy and has been experiencing a bit of a renaissance in the last few years thanks to the interest in retro gaming. They’ve licensed their name to several companies, and those companies have created updated versions of several products. You can now find reproduction Atari 2600s and Atari 400s as well as a USB version of their iconic joystick. There...
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When we hear from our customers, the most common thing they say, right at the start, is “This thing almost never gives me troubles, but…” It’s true. Satellite TV systems for boats are incredibly reliable. When you consider the combination of sensitive electronics and sea air, add in the huge number of motors and gears and whatnot to keep the thing working while the boat is moving, it’s pretty amazing how well they work. Year after year, satellite TV systems keep doing what they should do. It’s just that one rare time they don’t, and you’re stuck looking for someone to talk to.
Before you call…
A lot of common satellite TV issues can be fixed quickly without any technical knowledge or even a phone call. Here are three things you can...
Anglophiles will tell you that the BBC has a history of being, well, a bit stuffy. But occasionally, they’ll laugh at themselves. When they do, it’s usually hilarious to the rest of us. A perfect example, and probably a subject of a future Fun Friday, is “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” a sketch comedy show that was so far ahead of its time in the early 1970s that it’s still hilarious today.
The BBC Archive
The BBC has their own YouTube channel. They probably have several of them, but I came across this one while I was looking for something else. It’s called The BBC Archive, but it’s not really a great representation of the work the BBC have done in the last almost 100 years. It’s more a place where you can watch videos that started...
The internet has a lot of information but I was surprised that the answer to this isn’t already online. The best search result I found was a scanned PDF from about 25 years ago. So let’s dive in. First, the basics.
What is a headend?
“Headend” describes a television system that’s like a small cable TV system in a commercial building. There are a bunch of antenna tuners, cable boxes, or satellite receivers all in one place. Each one of them is tuned to a different channel. The signals from each box go into modulators, which are specialized pieces of equipment designed to put each signal on its own TV channel. (Maybe you had a modulator for your 90s-era video game system that put its output on channel 3. Does that sound familiar?
When...
Summer’s fast approaching and that means road trips! It’s time to get out there and see the sights. If you’re like millions of other Americans, you got into the RV craze a few years ago. You realized that it’s a lot nicer to be on the road without worrying about overpriced hotels and weird food choices. Sure, exploring the local culture is a big part of travel, but there are some parts of local culture that are definitely worth skipping.
You’ve probably also realized that RV parks are a destination by themselves. When you’re driving, there are a lot of ways you can spend the night but RV parks offer a safe alternative. They give you the ability to fill up and empty out those tanks in your RV, and meet other people like yourself who...
See if this sounds familiar. You have a bunch of satellite or cable receivers in one location. Whenever you need to change the channel, you have to cover all the receiver but one with aluminum foil or unplug them. If you want to show the same content on multiple TVs, you end up changing a bunch of receivers or pulling wires around. Does that sound like the story at your business? If so, you should consider a matrix switch.
What is a matrix switch?
A matrix switch (also called a matrix switcher) is a device that lets you intelligently control what input goes to what output. You could have 16 receivers and 16 TVs, for example. A matrix switch will let you send the output from any receiver to any TV. Many matrix switches also give you...
You wouldn’t think walkie talkies would cause such controversy. But, back in 2019 they sure did. One of our biggest selling daily deals at that time was a handheld radio that promised to work for FRS and GMRS broadcasting. These two forms of broadcasting are very similar except for the amount of broadcast power they use. Both use a similar range of frequencies, so it’s very easy to make radios that work with both. Except that here in 2024, it’s illegal to have radios that do both. Here’s why.
It helps to have friends in the business
Resident guru Phil Karras informed us of an FCC rule change which I went into in detail in this 2019 article. The real issue is that GMRS use requires a license, while FRS didn’t. If you bought one of...
If you’re familar at all with the term “IPTV” it’s in the context of connecting to, ahem, out-of-the-way streaming video sources. Most people who use IPTV devices at all do so in order to stream content that you wouldn’t find on your average streaming stick. That doesn’t automatically mean pirated video or stuff of “questionable moral value.” It sometimes means foreign language programs or private feeds designed for within companies. But yeah, sometimes it does mean that other thing.
IPTV in the corporate world
Not all IPTV is bad. IPTV simply stands for internet protocol television, and it means video streamed using network cables instead of coax cables. There are legitimate reasons to use IPTV solutions out there, and they outnumber...
The item above is (or was) Sonora Design’s SWM-D3 diplexer. This type of diplexer was created in the early 2010s for commercial installations in apartment buildings. However, hobbyists sometimes used it to combine over-the-air antenna signals and satellite signals so they didn’t have to drill so many holes into the house.
The SWM-D3 is discontinued and Holland, the owner of Sonora Design, doesn’t offer a direct replacement. Why would such an important part no longer be available? It’s simple: Diplexers don’t work with DIRECTV systems and haven’t worked with DIRECTV systems in over 15 years. There are a few exceptions, but they only apply to apartment complexes and commercial installations.
Let’s unpack that: diplexing doesn’t work...
A lot of folks are tired of spending too much for cable. The average cable bill is now well over $100 per month, and that’s too much for some people. Hey, if you’re the sort of person who gets a lot of value out of TV, if you watch a lot of sports or premium programs, that’s great. I’m that kind of person too. You’re going to pay a lot for that kind of TV if you want it.
I’m that kind of person, but I also appreciate a good value. I see people cutting their bills in half. I see some of them cutting even further. If you wanted to, you could cut your bill down to zero and still get a lot of content. Is that the right choice for you?
What’s the best value for your money?
Often times the best value for you is going to be a live streaming...
I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to updating software and hardware. I admit it. I don’t always update my gear the very day that new software comes out, but I do that most of the time. To me, there’s something very satisfying about making sure everything has the latest and greatest software.
I have a feeling that some of my readers out there are that way too, because people ask me if it’s possible to manually update the apps on a Gemini, or even update the Gemini itself. After all, we see updates to streaming apps on our phones, and we’re even aware when Android itself gets major updates. For those of you who feel the itch to update…I have some news for you.
Most of your Gemini can’t be manually updated.
The DIRECTV part of the...
This week Ken welcomes the incredible co-hosts of the amazing How NOT to Make a Movie podcast, writer-producers A.L. Katz and Gil Adler.
Ken, Alan and Gil discuss good rooms, Bordello of Blood, when Alan and Gil first met, moving from New York to LA, 1985, Rhonda Shear, The Groundlings, Basic Training, how a good producer sacrifices to get nudity on screen, Freddy’s Nightmares, Rubik’s Cubes of writing problems, anthology horror TV, non-Union shows, Ken’s love of Steven King’s Dance Macabre, the connection of comedy and horror, it’s not TV it’s HBO, Tales from the Crypt, why season 3 was supposed to be the end of Tales from the Crypt, Tobe Hooper, problem solving, worms, working with Brian DePalma, Dylan Dog, cutting on 35mm film, EC...
There’s a weird trend out there which I’ve recently become aware of. There are companies out there making miniature versions of old computers that actually run the old computer software. They do it with emulation, I guess, and supposedly it’s a pretty popular thing. If you ever had an Atari 2600 in your youth (and if you’re over 50, who didn’t) then you can find a replica that works the same but it’s smaller. It’s a weird thing considering how primitive the software for these things was and how far we’ve come. But hey, nostalgia is a funny thing.
Party like it’s 1994
2024 is the 30th anniversary of the launch of DIRECTV. I’m not aware of the company doing anything special, though. The 25th anniversary, back in 2019, was during the...
If you’ve recently lost access to standard definition local channels on DIRECTV, you’re probably not too happy. Listen to this week’s podcast and you might understand the process a little bit. Plus, call Signal Connect at 888-233-7563 to find out innovative ways to keep local channels on satellite.
Listen to the podcast your way!
Just choose one of the following:
Option 1: Click on the image above to stream the podcast in your browser. If you use the YouTube player above, be sure to subscribe to get future videos delivered to you!
Option 2: The Solid Signal Podcast is available on several podcast aggregators. Search for us, or tap on the links below on your mobile device. If you want us to add another aggregator leave a comment below...
Believe it or not, The Solid Signal Blog has been educating people about technology for 17 years. Our Solid Signal YouTube Channel is in its 13th year. In that time, well over ten million people have learned more about the world around them thanks to Solid Signal. We believe that education is important, and we hope you do too. We also hope that if you get introduced to us as tech experts, you might buy something. Yeah, it’s true, that’s why we do it.
We’re taking a new leap today with the introduction of “The Signal Series.” In The Signal Series, members of our Signal Connect team give you long-form tutorials on the topics they know best. You’ll get to know Signal Connect, where our top minds are available to help you with custom...
What you see above you is DIRECTV’s PI-29Z power inserter. It’s used to power DIRECTV dishes. The idea is that you put it inline between your dish and your receivers and it sends the necessary power up to the line to the dish. DIRECTV’s dishes need a minimum 21 volts of power minimum to run, and most DIRECTV boxes can’t provide it. (The HR54 and Genie 2 are an exception.) Did you ever wonder how one cable can carry a fairly decent amount of voltage and also carry a satellite TV signal? I mean, especially since the power goes one way and most of the signals go the other way. Let’s dive in.
A little side note before I begin
DIRECTV uses the term “power inserter.” A lot of other manufacturers, like Winegard and Televes, use the term...
Hopefully, this has never happened to you. You want to upgrade your home entertainment system. Maybe you want a satellite dish. Maybe you want an antenna and you’re pretty far from the city center. Either way, you have to put something on the roof. As you make your plans, your landlord or HOA says, “Not so fast, bud.”
Maybe your landlord says you can’t drill holes in the moldings. Maybe the HOA says antennas are ugly. You agreed to certain things when you moved in, and you have to abide by those rules. I agree, you do. Except when there’s a federal rule that supersedes it.
The OTARD rule
The OTARD rule is a nickname for edition 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations, section 1.4000, concerning over-the-air reception devices. That rule...
Last year, DIRECTV released the H26K Commercial Receiver. It’s not only the first receiver specifically designed for commercial use, it’s also the company’s first new receiver of any kind in a decade. It’s stuffed with the features business customers want, like real buttons on the front panel, maximum energy efficiency, and of course it does the fancy stuff like 4K and Dolby Audio. Because it’s designed from the ground up for commercial use, it’s easier to network and it’s easier to control things like the screen saver and power saver modes. Those two have been a problem in the past for users of the H24 and H25 series.
However, some installers are finding that when they put in an H26K to replace an existing H25, the receiver will work...
This week Ken welcomes artist, writer and comic book legend Evan Dorkin to the show.
Ken and Evan discuss living the dream, low bars, being disgusted by your own personal failings, Spring Break, hating Florida, how nobody actually grows up in Staten Island, being an artist, 80s punk, never leaving your home, being Jewish in an Italian neighborhood, Ska, Bim Skala Bim, accents, being too hung over to see your name in the credits of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, kids getting their shoes stolen at punk gigs, Kevin Shields ordering food, The Cars, Suicide, Milk and Cheese, Space Ghost, music on TV, pre-MTV days, Rockworld, the legend of Steranko, meeting girls, the introduction of surrealism to America, big egos, John Romita, Jack Kirby...
Yep, I looked it up. The last time I ranted about passwords was this article back in 2023. In the meantime there have been some pretty high profile data breaches, including some that may have affected readers of this blog. Yet here we are and there’s still no really good answer to dealing with the problem we have with passwords.
The best answer so far still isn’t that good
It’s become pretty common now for big tech companies to give you the option to automatically create strong passwords and then save them for you. Then you can use biometrics like Apple’s Face ID to store them all behind a wall. This doesn’t help much if the password manager itself is hacked, and that did happen not long ago. But at least it makes it easy for you to...
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The picture above is a typical cell tower. It’s very wide at the base. Sometimes they are a bit narrower but still very thick, similar to this one:
That’s still pretty thick compared to some broadcast towers which are extremely thin. Here’s a typical example of a broadcast tower:
That tower is so thin it needs to be held up by guy wires. Sometimes you’ll see cellular equipment on a tower like that, but it’s rare. Most often cell towers are fairly thick affairs.
So why?
It’s actually a pretty simple answer. Cell towers have more stuff on them. A typical cell tower will have transmitting and receiving equipment for more than one carrier, and in order to make the most of their investment, a tower owner will put multiple antennas up...
It’s travel time, friends, and for a lot of us, that means time spent in RV parks. The RV life has never been more popular than it is today. RVs are a great way to travel the country and save money on hotels and plane tickets. With an RV you get all the comforts of home wherever you go. All the comforts, that is, except…
Do you have an internet problem in your RV?
Sometimes it’s hard to get internet within your RV. The way RVs are built– fiberglass shells over metal cages, with hardwoods and tons of wiring inside– does a great job of blocking all sorts of signals. Cell signals can get cut to almost nothing, and if you’re in an RV park with Wi-Fi, you might not be able to get it inside the RV.
But then, you know all that. You’ve come...
Just a couple of days ago I was talking to a friend who told me a little about what was going on at home. They said their spouse did a lot of streaming but could never remember what app anything was on. It’s been a while since I wrote about this problem, and I thought it was time to bring it up again.
Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago?
Four years ago there were more streaming apps than there are now. Some have gone away. Some have merged with other apps. But the world of streaming is shrinking, and that should make it easy to remember where things are. Yet, it doesn’t.
Luckily things are a little bit better. If you have an Apple TV it aggregates most of your apps into one list so you can see what you were watching...
To say that software development is fast-paced has become a bit cliche at this point, but sometimes expressions become cliche because they’re true. Software developers rely on efficiency to beat their competitors to market with similar ideas, and many others depend on it to appease an ever-changing consumer base. Either way, getting the most out of a development team is a main component of a software developer’s success.
Assuming that all the important factors are even between two competing software companies–skill set, versatility, expediency, and accuracy–the edge may occur elsewhere. Here we present the part of software development that often goes undervalued; that is, the environment in which your engineers operate. To that end...
Here’s another question that comes from our support lines. You see, of all the cables we have at Solid Signal, most are not rated for burial. In fact only a few are. So what if you want a cable for burial, and we have that type of cable but not in a burial rated version?
What is burial rated cable anyway?
Well, it’s cable that is supposed to perform well when you bury it. But there’s a little more than that. Typically, burial rated cable will have three characteristics that non-burial-rated cable might not have.
Visibility
It’s not always true, but often times you will find burial rated cable in a bright color that stands out. You’ll see burial rated cables in yellow, orange, blue, and other colors like that. The reason is obvious...
There’s nothing better than coming home from a long day’s work, turning the car off, and going inside. The little things during the day actually get us through the storm. Sometimes, closing your garage door without any trouble is just that.
Think about it: who wants to waste another ten minutes struggling with their garage door? That’s the reality for people who still need to move on to newer methods and technologies. Manual labor days and traditional garage doors are a thing of the past.
This article focuses on smart garage door openers, exploring the science behind them and shining light on the benefits they bring. In addition, we will cover the importance of working with professionals and the value that they bring.
What’s Behind...
That’s right, longtime readers, I’m back to writing about Star Trek. Maybe it’s been on my mind since the long-awaited last season of Discovery finally made it to screens. Or maybe the idea of Trek never left.
This time around, I want to point to to The Roddenberry Archive. For the last year or so, this web site has been showing you virtual reality visions of pretty much every Star Trek location they can. These are really well-done 3D models. The Archive was originally only available to those with VR headsets, but it’s been rendered so that anyone with a screen can use it. There’s also an incredibly well-rendered series of videos which show you little snippets of stories using 3D renders of original actors. No word if the families of...
If you look at Solid Signal, you will see hundreds of parts designed for waveguides. You can shape a waveguide, connect a waveguide, cut a waveguide… all of this sounds great unless you’re asking yourself:
What is a waveguide, anyway?
You can think of a waveguide as a hose for radio signals. Signals that come in are kept inside and directed, in an orderly way, down the waveguide to somewhere else where they can be received and put on a cable.
The shape of the waveguide makes this possible. Depending on what sort of signals you are trying to receive, the waveguide could be shaped like a hot dog or a box or a mostly round tube. Different frequencies respond to different shapes of waveguides.
Waveguide theory goes back to the very end...
Here at the Solid Signal Blog we have staff members who remember 1984 like it was yesterday, and others who hadn’t even been born yet. It helps us keep a fresh perspective. So, the other day, we were spitballing about the way things were thirty years ago. Everyone agrees that 100 years ago the world was a very different place, but even the oldsters among us were surprised by how much things had changed since 1984. Sure, computers were coming and some old tech was on its way out, but just walking around homes or offices back then would reveal a different world. Here are 20 ways that things were done back then:
If you needed to know some obscure fact, you went the library for about an hour.
If you needed to make a phone call while you...
First of all, dear reader, thanks for coming to The Solid Signal Blog. I know you could get a lot of information from a site like Wikipedia. I like to think that people find this site because we offer not only information, but context. And when it comes to GMRS, context is really everything.
A quick definition of GMRS
GMRS is the General Mobile Radio Service, a set of frequencies in the 460MHz range which are designated for point-to-point mobile use. The FCC’s web site tells you a bit more about that, if you’re curious. It’s not the only service designed for this kind of use. There are several others, including FRS (the Family Radio Service) which operates on the same frequencies. The difference between FRS and GMRS is that you need a...
A while back I was talking to our Signal Pro Rob Young about the way that digital broadcasting works. Rob’s a smart guy and I’ve learned a lot from him. We were talking about some of the common terms that people use to describe the way that this kind of signal drops off at a certain point. I even wrote an article about this, and I called it “the shelf effect.” But Rob calls it “the cliff effect,” and so does Wikipedia. So it’s time to revisit that whole idea, talk some more about it, and you can call it whatever makes the most sense to you.
Before I start…
I guarantee there is some retired engineer out there who will point out that there is no such thing as “digital broadcasting” or a “digital signal.” I will say to a degree that is...
I was recently contacted by a customer with an interesting question. He showed me a picture of his Slimline dish and said it had only two lines coming from it. He wanted to hook up more equipment, but didn’t know the best way to do it.
In order to answer him (and you) I need to explain a little bit.
How a Slimline dish used to work
DIRECTV’s HD dishes have been around since about 2003. They were redesigned in about 2008 into the Slimline version we know today. Before that there were a variety of different designs. One thing they all had in common was a set of four outputs. You can see them at the bottom of the picture above. This is the way that a lot of satellite dish LNBs looked for a long time.
There’s a good reason to have four...
If you’re updating your DIRECTV system, you might need an external multiswitch. Today’s DIRECTV dishes can support up to 13 tuners (meaning 13 receivers, a Genie and 6 receivers, or some other mix) but that may not be enough for you. For commercial customers or home theater fans, you may need more.
It’s easy to upgrade to a more powerful system if you know how to hook it up, but DIRECTV systems are designed for installers who already know what they’re doing. Luckily we’re here to help.
Traditional “Legacy” dishes
You’ll know that you have a legacy LNB if you look at it and it has four connections at the bottom. The more common “SWM” version only has one line but it’s not upgradeable. These four-line versions are in short supply...
If you’re thinking of cutting the cord, you’re probably thinking about an antenna. If you aren’t, you really should be. All of the top rated programs are available live, for free, using an antenna. 90% of Americans can get free television signals in their homes, and chances are right now you could be looking at a couple of dozen free channels that come in without affecting your data caps and without straining your home’s bandwidth. If you’re coming from satellite though, you’re probably worrying about aiming. Don’t be.
Aiming a satellite is hard
When you’re talking about satellite TV, you’re talking about getting a signal from 22,000 miles away. If your dish is off by as little as 1/32″, you’re pointing at an area 30 miles off course...
Quick. Think of your most prized possession. Is it your wedding ring? Your kid’s first blanket? A letter from a departed relative? You probably think it is. I’m here to tell you you’re wrong.
It’s your phone.
Now, maybe you’re not so attached to “this” particular phone. But the “idea” of your phone is critical to you. Think about how you felt the last time you left it at home. Think about what would happen if someone stole it. Now, try to imagine any other thing so valuable that you protect it with a password, your fingerprint, and your face. Your phone is the way you connect to nearly everything in your consciousness.
And it doesn’t actually work that well.
If you’re like most people you have bad cell service at least part of every...
March 9, 2024
Ken moderates a reunion of Growing Pains cast members Tracey Gold, Jeremy Miller and Julie McCullough at the Spring NorthEast Comic Con in Boxboro, MA.
I’m Ken Reid, a stand up comedian from Boston, MA and a life long television fan. I’ve been twice nominated as the Best Stand up in Boston and I have been featured on Comedy Central, NPR, Nerdist, and MSN. I own every issue of TV Guide. Each week a guest chooses an issue at random, picks their viewing choices from that week and the show is our discussion of the tough viewing choices of our past. We get into stories about growing up, people’s relationship with television, some cultural/media studies dissection and I spit out a lot of trivia.
Note: The Ken Reid TV...
Look at a luxury yacht and you’ll find one or two large white gumdrop shapes on the top. Those are satellite domes, and they’re a status symbol for a lot of people. “Look at me,” they say. “I have satellite TV on my boat.” I think that’s cool so I can understand why people brag.
These domes look like they’re pretty large and you would think with modern technology they could be smaller. Let’s dive in.
Are they really that big?
Your average home satellite dish is 39 inches wide. That’s no coincidence… there’s an FCC rule that says dishes smaller than one meter (39.37″) in any direction are ok on homes. Larger dishes could be excluded by an HOA.
Because we’re talking about marine satellite, let’s talk in metric. That dish is actually...
It’s pretty much universal. Love the service, hate the service provider. But does it have to be that way? Listen to this week’s podcast to find out more. Then shop at Solid Signal - Signal Solutions including HDTV Antennas, DIRECTV and DISH Network satellite equipment and home entertainment supplies and accessories and call 888-233-7563 for the best in customer service!
Listen to the podcast your way!
Just choose one of the following:
Option 1: Click on the image above to stream the podcast in your browser. If you use the YouTube player above, be sure to subscribe to get future videos delivered to you!
Option 2: The Solid Signal Podcast is available on several podcast aggregators. Search for us, or tap on the links below on your...
The other day I was mindlessly scrolling through reels and TikToks, as one does in 2024, and I came across a couple of them that seemed both interesting and a little weird. I won’t link them here because honestly I don’t want to give them the exposure. But if you are interested in antennas you have probably seen them too.
The videos are basically the same. Someone solders a SIM card to a USB cord or to an RG6 cable and bingo, they get fantastic results. Sometimes it’s not a SIM card. Sometimes, it’s just the charge cord itself or some other random piece of gear. No matter what, the end result of these videos is amazing reception of hundreds of channels, just by doing this:
There’s only one problem.
It doesn’t really work.
Or, I...
Power banks. They solve a problem that we never used to have. A generation ago, cell phones weren’t that important. A decade ago, a charger that was less than one inch on each side was all we need to keep going. Today it seems like a power bank is a must-have if you’re traveling. I know people who keep them in the car for emergencies. They fill an important need today: more power. If your phone is your best connection to the rest of the world, and it doesn’t even last a day on a charge, you need something to help you keep it charged easily.
Why have a power bank?
Truth is, you know the answer to this question. We love our phones. We love being connected. Try to go a day without touching yours, I bet you can’t. We panic when we leave...
Sometimes, something changes and you don’t even realize it. I’ll admit that this is one of those times.
Here’s the quick answer: If you get an HS17 Genie 2 from Solid Signal, you will probably not be able to connect an external hard drive. There was an inline change to the manufacture of the Genie 2 and in the process, they removed the eSATA port. Let’s dig a little deeper.
eSATA and external hard drives for DIRECTV
DIRECTV’s first HD DVR, the HR20, had a 500GB hard drive. That was enough for about 100 hours of HD depending on whether it was recorded from the satellite or over the air. That’s a lot of capacity, but it’s not unlimited. Keep in mind this was 2006, and USB hard drives were not very fast. Instead of using USB for...
As home theater fans, we’re pretty much conditioned to want the best quality. But, as installers, we have to realize what’s possible and what’s not possible. Here’s a case that I dealt with a few weeks ago:
One of our installer partners was upgrading the satellite system on a boat. Pretty much everything went well except there were a few TVs that gave this message:
On other TVs, the screen would look fine for a few seconds and then go black. They called us at Signal Connect and we had the answer for them: this is generally caused by inferior quality HDMI cables or by older TVs that don’t support the latest content protection. You see, all HD programs on DIRECTV have some sort of copy protection on them so that you can’t just make...
What you see above is a top view of DIRECTV’s AIM meter. It’s a great tool for working with DIRECTV dishes, and in fact it’s the only tool I recommend. Why? Because it’s the only meter that reads every kind of DIRECTV signal. It also has a guided mode which can help even the greenest novice get the dish perfectly aimed.
However, there have been some folks over the years who say that they can’t get any results from their meters. Generally this boils down to two issues: either the meter isn’t set for the correct dish type, or you’re connecting to the wrong port. I’ll go through both issues in this article, which should let you get moving quickly.
IRD or ODU?
The simple answer is that, the line to the dish should always connect to...
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If you have kids in the house, try telling them this horror story.
At that point your kids will just roll their eyes at you, but that’s how we all grew up, right? Caller ID didn’t even hit our lives until the 2000s. Before that you just had to take your chances.
Could we be heading back to that point? It seems ridiculous.
The case for landline phones
A landline phone isn’t a terribly useful thing by today’s standards. You can’t go online with it, and you can’t even take it outside the house, except maybe a few feet if it’s cordless. But we don’t talk too much about the benefits of landline phones, and there still are some.
A landline phone is usually more reliable
Cell towers have batteries in them that can keep them going for...
Believe it or not — and you probably believe it — I get questions like this all the time. In real life people actually walk up to me and just ask them. Sure, they’re people I already know. I know I’m not some sort of real-life celebrity.
So let’s get down to business.
Carrier-to-noise ratio
Carrier-to-noise ratio, or CNR, is the proportion of how much “raw signal” you have vs. how much noise. This measurement is very easy to get, all you have to do is find a carrier wave and then measure its strength. You can also measure the strength of adjacent frequencies to get the noise level without the carrier wave, although modern meters can measure both on the same frequency.
CNR is important because it gives you a raw measurement of how...
In a recent article at Inside the Magic, Disney’s Bob Iger was quoted speaking candidly about Disney+. In a CNBC interview, Iger said,
Disney in general has had a fairly rough half decade. The company obviously lost a lot on its theme park business in the beginning of the ’20s and while that’s bounced back, other segments of the business clearly haven’t. ABC has very few bona fide hits on its broadcast schedule. ESPN seems increasingly marginalized due to competition from dedicated sports apps and regional sports networks. Disney’s movie divisions seem incapable of creating a hit. And then, there’s Disney+.
Now, this is far from the first time I’ve complained about Disney+. The first was when it was announced back in 2017. I was...
This winter, DIRECTV’s Signal Saver has really come in handy. But it’s not for everyone. SignalSaver is a technology that automatically switches to streaming when there’s a problem with the satellite signal. This doesn’t happen very often, but in the case of severe rain or snow, it can happen. Most signal problems fix themselves quickly, but in the case of an outage lasting more than a minute, it’s nice to have the option to keep watching without switching to another device.
How SignalSaver works
In the case of a signal outage, you’ll see one of two screens. If you have a standard receiver you’ll see a message on screen that looks like this:
Genie clients and Geminis that are totally disconnected will see the same message...
See if this sounds familiar. You’ve left your boat alone all winter, and you’re getting ready to go out on your first big trip. You turn on your satellite TV system, and you get this message:
If you have a KVH HD7 (not the newer UHD7) there’s good news and bad news. The bad news is that basic steps like rebooting everything isn’t going to fix the problem. The good news is that there is a fix, and you don’t have to completely upgrade your system even though you have an older satellite system. All you need to do is follow these steps.
Step 1: If you have Starlink, turn the Starlink system off, turn the HD7 off and on again, and test to see if the problem is still there.
Starlink signals can interfere with satellite TV reception...
