2 Genies... ?
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So, if I purchase a 2nd one and call in to activate it, will they allow it on my account as a second useable Genie?
Particularly if the 2nd one isn't in the same system.
For example, 1 at home, 1 in the motor home/ campground.
I'm trying to imagine the thinking behind this policy. Could it be that Directv will be using a single Genie to bring multiple tuners beyond the number of it's very own 5 to their future systems? If this were the case, it would be unwise to have two Genies in a person's home and active. Here is why. If they plan to allow a single Genie to say have 15 tuners somehow attached, the person that would have two tuners would now have a total of 30 Tuners in their home potentially. That just wouldn't make good sense to allow on Directv's part. Shrugs. I don't know, if that is even close to their reasoning, but, I was trying to figure out why they'd not allow for the two Genies, and that is all I could come up with. I know, as things stand right now, I could certainly use those other 5 tuners at my house. Currently, they would really help.
There are lots of theories about this, and I am not sure any of them are relevant. There is one fact we do know, and that is that running multiple genies has issues with managing clients, as those DirecTV testers with multiple genies have discovered, and DirecTV does not seem to feel it's worth investing the time to fix these.
The iissues can be managed by someone who knows what he is doing, but certainly should not be exposed to the general user.
The iissues can be managed by someone who knows what he is doing, but certainly should not be exposed to the general user.
My guess is strictly $'s. Right now the Genie's don't know how many clients are actually being used on the account. With one Genie you till it that three clients, for example, are in the account and it lets you add three clients. Add a second Genie and it doesn't know how many clients are paired to the first Genie, so you can add three more clients on that second Genie with out paying the extra $21 dollar client charge.
It would seem that if you want a second genie then you just don't get any clients. You stick to 2 genies and separate H25's or HR24's and that then avoids the client/genie confusion issue. Yes there might be additional equipment/installation costs but if the customer is willing then so be it.
Will Directv allow the average customer to go with two Genies? I thought that was something that they didn't allow.
What if when they come out with the next system then they will let you have two since its rumored the next one might be headless? Maybe the next guide will do both SatelliteTV and IPTV and then the new system could connect to old one?
In my opinion, while you're headed down the right path, I don't believe that AT&T is going to require anyone to have any more than one Genie DVR on their account at any given time. Why is this? Because of OTT (Over the Top) streaming. Such streaming plans (as they'll eventually arrive later this year and going into next) do not require the same physical architecture and topology as what's required for a Genie. With streaming, the only practical limits include the end-point devices as well as any legal content restrictions there would be on programming.
In such a scenario, the Genie DVR would remain as the main physical box for local storage (I'm going to assume that AT&T won't need to provide cloud storage, given that an account with full programming access would already have a DVR) as well as the main viewing device when not on a mobile device. This would make the most practical sense and cause the least disruption in getting folks from one type of viewing to the next (my pre-teen kids already consume 75% of their video over mobile devices of one form or another).
Granted, I could be full of hot air, as I have no special access to any plans, just a background in tech. Besides, the above would leave AT&T with no more sunk cost investment than they already have (except for whatever would be required to stream) and would be the least disruptive to consumers, and such a transition to the devices consumers already have also makes sense (see also: iOS AT&T app streams video without impacting AT&T wireless data caps).
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