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I recently found out that AT&T has run fiber in my neighborhood, so they are now able to offer internet speeds comparable to Comcast. The gentleman I spoke to quoted me a very good price for 75mb internet bundled with DirecTV's Ultimate package. Considering I'm now paying Dish and Comcast separately, my savings would be considerable. I could try to call and negotiate a better rate, but since I'm not going to bundle, I doubt they'd be able to match the deal I was offered, which is over $100 a month less than I'm paying right now.
But I have concerns. I have the Top 250 pack with HBO on a Hopper 3 with 5 Joeys for a total of 6 TVs. We record a lot of stuff, so having 16 tuners and a 2 TB hard drive is awfully nice. In addition, I have the OTA module, and where I live I can get OTA broadcasts from several different cities with my amplified rooftop antenna. My understanding is that with the Genie, the OTA module is no longer in production, and if you can find one, it's expensive and no longer supported. This isn't a deal-breaker for me, but it's a big deal.
On the other hand, I do crave better picture quality. I've grown more and more frustrated with Dish in this area, especially when watching on my 100" projector. I'd also love to be able to get NFL Sunday ticket.
So, tl;dr, what is the deal with OTA on a Genie in August of 2017? Is there as big a difference in picture quality as I've heard? Also, if I can get OTA working, does that give me an extra tuner like it does on Dish boxes? If so, that would help me get over losing all those tuners on the Hopper.
But I have concerns. I have the Top 250 pack with HBO on a Hopper 3 with 5 Joeys for a total of 6 TVs. We record a lot of stuff, so having 16 tuners and a 2 TB hard drive is awfully nice. In addition, I have the OTA module, and where I live I can get OTA broadcasts from several different cities with my amplified rooftop antenna. My understanding is that with the Genie, the OTA module is no longer in production, and if you can find one, it's expensive and no longer supported. This isn't a deal-breaker for me, but it's a big deal.
On the other hand, I do crave better picture quality. I've grown more and more frustrated with Dish in this area, especially when watching on my 100" projector. I'd also love to be able to get NFL Sunday ticket.
So, tl;dr, what is the deal with OTA on a Genie in August of 2017? Is there as big a difference in picture quality as I've heard? Also, if I can get OTA working, does that give me an extra tuner like it does on Dish boxes? If so, that would help me get over losing all those tuners on the Hopper.
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4501 views
Sure. Disclaimer here: I am no expert on the inner workings of DirecTV's DVR software. I have just read a lot on the internet, so please do not take my word as gospel. This may be a total misunderstanding on my part, but I have seem multiple people claim this is how it works with few if any arguing against it. If I am wrong about any of this, please let me know.
Most DVRs, including Tivos and maybe Dish's, handle the padding or buffer that is added to the beginning or ending of recordings which take place on the same channel in adjacent time-slots by recording the same channel on another tuner for the duration of the overlap. For those few minutes, the DVR is using 2 tuners to record the same channel, thereby tying up those tuners for a short, but significant amount of time which may cause conflicts if you want to record more things at that time than there are tuners available to handle the demand, even though the total number of recordings you want to start or end at a given hour is less than the total number of tuners available.
DirecTV DVRs handle the padding by recording both shows on the same tuner, and somehow making sure the overlap ends up on both recordings. BEHOLD my seriously simplified diagram to try to illustrate the point:
FWIW: Dish's PTAT recording works kind of like DirecTV's from what I could tell when I had it, although with recording 4 streams at once, it is probably more complicated than that. Also, I think Dish will just truncate the recordings at the hour if you use the standard padding values. This can create situations where you go to watch a show you recorded months earlier and the beginning or ending are missing unexpectedly, and the adjacent show which caused this to happen is no longer on your DVR. Of course, with 16 tuners on the Hopper3, this should be less of an issue in theory.
Also of note is DirecTV now offering the HS17 with 7 tuners, and you could also add HR24s to the HR54 Genie to get more tuners that way. I hope that helped more than confused.
Pub Member / Supporter
Now that I'm retired, obviously I have different health care insurance. I take 2 prescriptions. With my old insurance I didn't have to pay for either of them, now I do. It's not a huge amount but it led me to dig a little into the cost of prescription medications. I have been using Walgreens for the longest time. But what I found was that Walgreens price is 4.8 times more for one of my prescriptions and the other is 2.3 percent more compared to the lowest price pharmacy. If you pay for prescription medications you might want to have a look at trumprx and see if you can get a lower price.
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23 views
Lon.TV
Time for another AWESOME video from Lon Seidman of LON.TV!
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhwivKnNZrw
Direct YouTube Link - Lithium UPS Battery Backup Review - Oupes UPS 1200 Review
The Official LON.TV Website
Lon on Facebook
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhwivKnNZrw
Direct YouTube Link - Lithium UPS Battery Backup Review - Oupes UPS 1200 Review
The Official LON.TV Website
Lon on Facebook
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5 views
My OTA is not working anymore. This started after the latest update. I have the OTA dongle with a OTA antenna that I've been using for years. My hopper does not recognize the dongle anymore and when I go to the OTA setting, it has a screen that says to plug a dongle into the USB. I tried unplugging and plugging back, in the same usb port and other ports. The Hopper does not recognize it. Anyone have same issue?
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5259 views
Hi all. If you were using a single tuner USB OTA adapter that is no longer working, please PM me. Thanks. 
Staff member
HERE TO HELP YOU!
9 Replies
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80 views
TWiT Tech Podcast Network
Time for another AWESOME video from the TWIT Network!
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xnM_6NlEjsU
Direct YouTube Link - iPhone Duo Preorder Experience With Christina Warren
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xnM_6NlEjsU
Direct YouTube Link - iPhone Duo Preorder Experience With Christina Warren
TWIT's Website
TWIT Live Feed
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5 views
For some reason, the satelliteguys.us site is loading a lot slower than usual on both Chrome on my Asus laptop and Safari on my iPhone.
I'm also seeing longer appearances of the blue bar at the top and the "3 blue bars" loading symbol.
Is anyone else also having the same problem? Thanks in advance.
I'm also seeing longer appearances of the blue bar at the top and the "3 blue bars" loading symbol.
Is anyone else also having the same problem? Thanks in advance.
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19060 views
More specifically, these:
A more scholarly story is here:
www.bleepingcomputer.com
A more scholarly story is here:
PHP warns admins of two critical flaws, emergency patches coming tomorrow
The PHP security team is warning administrators to prepare for emergency security updates tomorrow to address two critical vulnerabilities, as information about the flaws has reportedly leaked ahead of their scheduled disclosure.
When I heard about this exploit I was wondering how quick you would be on it.
12 minutes after the patch was release I had it patched.When I heard about this exploit I was wondering how quick you would be on it.
Staff member
HERE TO HELP YOU!
Cutting Edge
Sometimes a thread gets so many posts in it that is can cause issues for the server so that why today we introduce The Song Name Game Part 3!
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
So let the game continue!
The last song was added by Bobby who posted...
One Meat Ball - Andrews Sisters
CONTINUE ON AND HAVE FUN! WELCOME HOME TO SATELLITEGUYS.US!
Here are the original rules for the game as posted by WebbyDude back in 2006. http://www.satelliteguys.us/threads/68645-Song-Name-Game
Just name a song title and the band who performed it. The next person does the same thing, but needs to list a song title or band name which includes a word from the previous entry. Pick songs from any genre.
Example:
Long Live Rock and Roll -- Rainbow
Rainbow in the Dark -- Dio
Another example:
Ride the Lightning -- Metallica
Lightning Strikes -- Ozzy Osbourne
Get it?
An additional note: we all know that song titles, sometimes, use profane words. Because this is a family friendly website it is advised that you clean up that title up a bit. This is accomplished by using something like sh!t instead of the real word. Thanks....
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2675898 views
Supporting Founder
Lifetime Supporter
I was reading this article
thehill.com
That said this-
Last summer, for the first time, streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime claimed the largest share of the television viewing audience, surpassing both cable and broadcast TV. Streaming captured 34.8 percent of July viewers, according to Nielsen data, compared to 34.4 percent for cable and 21.6 percent for broadcast.
And then, sometime in the second half of 2022, cord-cutters became the majority. The share of cable and satellite television subscribers dipped to 48 percent, according to a report from Samba TV, a television technology company.
Now I do not consider those with YTTV and the likes, Cord Cutters, but they still do not have Traditional Cable/Satellite delivered Live TV, so I decided to do the math.
There are, now, 129 Million Households in the United States.
In 2015, there were 100 Million Cable/Sat Subscribers , no streaming Live TV Service.
Today, there are 66 Million Live TV subscribers, including Cable, Satellite and Streaming.
Roughly, Streaming Live TV has 14 Million subs including all of them.
So that means, Cable/Satellite now has, roughly, 51 Million Households
So in just 8 years, lost 49% of their subscribers and by the end of this year, expected sub count to be, roughly, 45 million households.
That means a total loss of 55% since 2015 at the end of 2023.
But out of 129 Million households, 45 million will mean only 35% will get Cable/Satellite Delivered Live TV by the end of 2023.
Imagine what 2024 will be like.
Cable TV ‘cord-cutters’ became the majority in 2022
The steady decline of cable and broadcast television, and the rise of streaming services, reached a sort of inflection point over the past year. Last summer, for the first time, streaming ser…
thehill.com
That said this-
Last summer, for the first time, streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime claimed the largest share of the television viewing audience, surpassing both cable and broadcast TV. Streaming captured 34.8 percent of July viewers, according to Nielsen data, compared to 34.4 percent for cable and 21.6 percent for broadcast.
And then, sometime in the second half of 2022, cord-cutters became the majority. The share of cable and satellite television subscribers dipped to 48 percent, according to a report from Samba TV, a television technology company.
Now I do not consider those with YTTV and the likes, Cord Cutters, but they still do not have Traditional Cable/Satellite delivered Live TV, so I decided to do the math.
There are, now, 129 Million Households in the United States.
In 2015, there were 100 Million Cable/Sat Subscribers , no streaming Live TV Service.
Today, there are 66 Million Live TV subscribers, including Cable, Satellite and Streaming.
Roughly, Streaming Live TV has 14 Million subs including all of them.
So that means, Cable/Satellite now has, roughly, 51 Million Households
So in just 8 years, lost 49% of their subscribers and by the end of this year, expected sub count to be, roughly, 45 million households.
That means a total loss of 55% since 2015 at the end of 2023.
But out of 129 Million households, 45 million will mean only 35% will get Cable/Satellite Delivered Live TV by the end of 2023.
Imagine what 2024 will be like.
878 Replies
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71363 views
Sony is discontinuing it's last 4K disc player, Panasonic has been rumored to be doing the same, the end of physical media is unfortunately, about to happen.
cordcuttersnews.com
Bad News For Blu-ray Fans: Sony Has Stopped Making a Popular Player | Cord Cutters News
Sony has discontinued its final standalone UHD Blu-ray player, the UBP-X700/K, ending shipments of the device with no successor model announced. The move, first spotted by Japanese website Kunkoku.jp and confirmed through the status of the product on Sony’s own website, marks the company’s...
cordcuttersnews.com
I am so done with Sony on so many levels. This is just one small piece of it.Sony is discontinuing it's last 4K disc player, Panasonic has been rumored to be doing the same, the end of physical media is unfortunately, about to happen.
Bad News For Blu-ray Fans: Sony Has Stopped Making a Popular Player | Cord Cutters News
Sony has discontinued its final standalone UHD Blu-ray player, the UBP-X700/K, ending shipments of the device with no successor model announced. The move, first spotted by Japanese website Kunkoku.jp and confirmed through the status of the product on Sony’s own website, marks the company’s...
Interesting article about the work being done to develope an ATSC 3 converter box. Yes it does mention affordable.
www.tvtechnology.com
Pearl TV Issues Progress Report on Low-Cost 3.0 Converters in Advance of NAB Show New York
Group has secured lower pricing from key tech players to make less costly boxes available
www.tvtechnology.com
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297 views
It's dead, they just don't know it yet. They killed it by forcing DRM on it, and that TOTALLY botched implementing it.
There is absolutely NO compelling reason for anybody to switch to ATSC3.0. They only want it as a total and complete money grab.
Who says dinner or lunch has to be the only good meals of the day?
Honey butter grits with scrambled eggs and grilled boneless pork ribs on flakey biscuits washed down with cranberry juice.
Honey butter grits with scrambled eggs and grilled boneless pork ribs on flakey biscuits washed down with cranberry juice.
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379746 views