This week Ken welcomes actor (Alias), writer, producer, and co-host of the “Did You Do It?” podcast, Kevin Weisman.
Ken and Kevin discuss L.A. weather, growing up in the Valley, how filthy with Boston people old L.A. was, the insanity of the man named Griffith, shooting apples off of heads and why it is never a good idea, Equity Waiver plays, the “no more on stage than in the audience” rule, stand up, performing for people who don’t want to see a performance, Edinburgh Festival, Kyle Gass, The New Beverly Theater, Jacob’s Ladder, comedians in serious roles, Tim Robbins, The Actors Gang, Buffalo Knights, Dead Man Walking, Mr. Madonna, the wonders of High Hair, rarely going into L.A. proper, Zuma Beach, Valley Girl, playing drums, John...
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Almost every commercial DIRECTV installation needs a trunk amplifier. The right one to choose for today’s needs is the STA-R0-09. No, it doesn’t have a catchy name. But, it’s top-quality and works with all current DIRECTV installs. It’s still possible to get some of the older amplifiers out there but to be really honest I don’t recommend doing it that way. The STA-R0-09 is fairly priced, well-built, and futureproof. It’s also the most powerful amplifier out there, giving a normalized output up to a scorching 0dBm. This should let you easily get 300 feet from amplifier to multiswitch.
The amp itself is dead simple to use. Connect it up and in most cases you will see six green lights indicating that the amp has enough signal to work...
Everyone wants a phone that’s both bigger and smaller. In the last half decade, sadly we’ve seen phones get larger and heavier, after a long period of seeing weights go down even as screen sizes went up. It seems like around 2017 we got to a point where those smaller batteries just couldn’t keep up with those bigger screens. Phone makers have done everything they can to keep thickness and size down. They’ve introduced higher quality batteries with more energy density and integrated frames. It all comes down to saving a millimeter here or there. But, the biggest thing that most manufacturers have done is to take stuff out of phones that they think we won’t miss.
Don’t believe me? Phones used to have headphone jacks. They used to have...
DIRECTV has been working hard to update its new menu system for Genie DVRs and clients. When it launched back in 2017, it wasn’t exactly a hit. After six years, it’s become a comfortable way to work with the DIRECTV DVR system that most people have.
Sorting programs
If you have a long playlist, you’re going to want to sort and filter it. The new menus make it easy to filter, by going to the left side of the playlist. You’ll find built-in filters for movies, TV shows, sports, and kids’ content. But what if you just want a simple list? There used to be several options for that, but now those options have been reduced to two.
Sort by latest (default)
When you pop up the playlist, you’ll see a list of programs with the newest at the...
This list was updated on May 7, 2024
After a delay of several years, DIRECTV is actively removing standard definition local channels from service. They’re doing it to make the most of the capacity they have at their 101 satellite location. With fewer SD channels, this opens up capacity for HD national channels. Since the 101 satellite is more resistant to rain fade, that means more channels that perform more of the time. They’re also doing it so that they can better serve larger accounts like airlines whose systems only work on the 101 satellite.
Is this a problem?
When most people think of standard definition, they think of big boxy tube TVs that they brought to the dump years ago. Since 2009, the US has used a digital standard for...
You probably don’t need me to tell you that Starlink for Marine is here. It’s changing the boating experience. But, it’s not always a 100% replacement for satellite TV. There are a lot of reasons you might want to keep your existing satellite TV service rather than simply replacing it with Starlink. But you probably already made that decision before you found this article through Googling. So let’s get straight to the meat and potatoes, shall we?
Starlink uses the same frequency ranges as DIRECTV Satellite
In the US, all consumer satellite communication takes place within two frequency ranges. The Ku band of 12-18GHz is used most commonly, but the Ka band of 26-40GHz is also getting more common because there’s a lot more unused...
After 15 years, there’s finally a solution that lets you watch real over-the-air television in your RV without tying up your internet connection. Listen to The Solid Signal Podcast to learn more, and then shop for the item you need here. When you want excellent customer service, call us at 888-233-7563.
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...
The world of marine satellite TV is an interesting one. Even though most equipment used on boats is the same as what’s used on land, often times the installations are very different. Marine installations combine the challenges of a large commercial building with the challenges of fitting everything you need into a tiny space. It’s meant that marine installs are often a little behind in technology, and some of the challenges we saw in the 2010s in commercial installs are just coming to the marine world.
How marine installs are different
The biggest difference between a marine satellite TV install and a traditional commercial install is obviously the satellite dish itself. Boats and even oil rigs need satellite antennas that auto-aim...
For whatever reason, I find myself spending a lot of time on reddit. I avoided the site for years because it can be a pretty rude place if you’re guilty of some minor crime like not reading a 500 page wiki from top to bottom or if you post a picture of yourself for any reason. But, you take it for what it is, and if you can stay away from a lot of the really despicable places, it can be pretty entertaining.
One of the things I occasionally find myself looking it is the way other companies treat their customers. I don’t want to get sued so I’m not going to name names. But I will tell you that some of the largest sellers in the world have whole subreddits full of people complaining about the service they got.
You have to be aware that...
Our tech support department recently got a question from a customer who was very worried about the DATBOSS LR MIX antenna they’d bought from us. They asked us,
If you take a look at this photo, you can see what they mean:
If you look closely, you’ll see that the top and bottom braces of this antenna connect straight to the mast. This is fairly unique to the Televes LR series of antennas, and it’s needed because the antenna is simply so big and relatively heavy. But is that a problem?
Quick answer: no. Here’s why
Believe it or not, the only part of that giant antenna that’s attached to the antenna cable is the bit of metal protruding from the orange plastic. Here’s a photo – I colored the actual receiving element blue to make it...
The post Tap into the NEW TV Signal: ATSC 3.0 appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
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I know I have talked about the skin effect several times on this blog and yet I never did a whole article about it. It’s time to fix that. But before I even start, I have to cut through some confusion. There are two uses of the term “skin effect” and I’m only going to talk about one of them.
The skin effect and AC cables
The term “skin effect” is used when wiring homes for alternating current. It describes AC’s tendency to move away from the core of the wire toward the outside. This increases the effective resistance of the wire, and can lead to problems if you don’t account for it in your wiring. However, that’s not what we’re talking about here. The very same term, “skin effect,” is used in the world of RF wiring and it has a...
The biggest change in DISH’s technology happened with the rollout of the Hopper 3 several years ago. DISH rolled out a new LNB series called “Hybrid” to make it easy for the 16-tuner Hopper 3 to get what it needs. Traditionally DISH technology used one wire per recording tuner, and that tech was flexible enough to handle the 5 tuners required by the older Hopper DVRs. However, the need for 16 tuners in 1 box changed everything. Hybrid LNBs take care of the problem and also make it easier for Hopper to distribute programming to the Joeys. Hybrid LNBs are a little different in the way they work, but different isn’t necessarily bad.
Making this simple
The only DISH product that flat out completely needs the Hybrid system is the Hopper 3...
You might have heard of “hardlines.” If you have it’s very likely to be from an action movie, believe it or not. You’ll see a sequence like this:
and you’ll think to yourself, “Hardlines? What’s that?”
Even if you’re a hardcore home theater geek you could be forgiven for not having heard of hardline cable. In fact, it’s something that mostly exists in action movies. It’s sort of like how every time you see someone get off their cell phone in a movie, you hear a touch-tone as they hang up. Phones don’t do that anymore except in the movies.
And that’s the point. Hardlines don’t exist anymore, except in the movies and a few other places.
When copper was king
Until the 1990s most signals were transferred from place to place using...
There’s been a lot of interest lately in retro gaming. I don’t know if it’s just because people are getting older and gaming was part of their youth. Hard to know why, but it seems like you’re hearing about retro gaming from a lot of different places. Several legitimate manufacturers are putting out licensed consoles that play old games. Some, like the recently released “Atari 2600+,” look like the old consoles they emulate. The difference is that they have modern connections and work with today’s TVs.
There are also quite a few consoles and handhelds available from online stores that fall into a different category. These devices boast 10,000 games or more from a dozen or so different systems, and can generally be found for under $100...
Friends, I had this space reserved for my review of Rebel Moon Part 2. But, for the life of me, I can’t bring myself to watch it. The reviews have been scathing, although they imply that part 2 is still better than part 1. I’ll say that’s a pretty low bar since part 1 really seemed like a Star Wars fan film with a huge budget. If you haven’t seen it, I’d say you shouldn’t. I have honestly been kinder to part 1 than most critics. I mostly say I was bored by it, while others actively disliked it.
The role of the film critic
In generations past, critics themselves were stars. Whether you preferred the erudite Pauline Kael or the populist Roger Ebert, film critics were the late-70s version of influencers. Treated to early screenings, they...
The medical sector is growing faster than practically any other industry, and it’s not expected to stop. There are more seniors now than at any time in history, and that puts a lot of strain on understaffed doctors’ offices. And of course, we all remember how quickly some sort of new “bug” can come out of the blue. There’s no question that the demand for quality medical treatment is growing faster than the industry can keep up.
What does that mean to the average person? Unfortunately it means longer waits in the waiting room, for one. It means longer waits throughout the process. And let’s be honest here… it means unhappy patients. No one wants to be in a doctor’s office, and when we go to one it’s generally because we’re already...
Do you remember the first time you heard the word “meme?” The word itself comes from some serious research in the 1970s. In the book The Selfish Gene, author Richard Dawkins used the term to describe a fundamental building block of philosophy and culture that transferred from person to person.
The idea of a meme became a meme in and of itself in the 1990s when the science of “memetics” was proposed to explain how ideas transferred from person to person. Why did some ideas take root? Were some ideas inherently more interesting? How was society affected by them? These were serious questions.
And then came Hampsterdance.
Wikipedia says the Hampster Dance web site was created in 1998 and started to take off in 1999. It was nothing but a...
Controlling the TV volume is something basic that every remote should be able to do. The folks at DIRECTV agree, and that’s why their remotes have always had that capability. It’s something that is generally set up when you get the receiver, but if you have a new remote or a new TV, you might need to do it again. It’s easy, and this tutorial is going to take you through the steps.
All DIRECTV boxes will prompt you on screen to program the remote if the volume control isn’t programmed. If that happens, just follow the instructions you see on screen.
Note: You might have to reset the remote first
If you are changing TVs or sound equipment, you might need to unpair or reset the remote before programming it. It’s best to try programming...
Ah, the model year tango. We’re used to it with cars. We’ve seen it with TVs and other appliances. Cell phones — seems like we’re permanently wedded to it. What am I talking about? Every year it seems like there is some awesome new feature, something that’s going to make the thing you have seem like complete rubbish. You just can’t wait to get the new thing, and if you bought the old thing at the wrong time, you’re stuck with it. In the meantime you’re looking jealously at everyone else. This happens all the time.
Next year’s antennas?
Should you worry that the 2025 antennas will wipe the floor with the 2024 models? New antennas come out all the time. It could happen. But I’m here to tell you, it probably won’t. There will be some new...
By now, if you’re a DIRECTV fan, you’ve heard the term “SWM.” Most people pronounce it “swim” and have since its release in 2009. It’s a technology that DIRECTV uses to allow for one wire to carry all DIRECTV information. This makes installations a lot easier. But the last couple of years you might have also heard the term “DSWM” pronounced “d-swim.” Is this the same thing as “DIRECTV SWM?” Well yes and no, and in order to understand the difference, you have to get some backstory.
Disclaimer: DIRECTV’s SWM technology is so proprietary that there isn’t a lot of good information on how it actually works. I got a lot of this from my training as a D2 certified technician, but there could still be errors based on the way the information was...
If you’re planning to expand your commercial satellite TV setup, you’re going to need more TVs. It’s pretty tempting to go to your local big-box or department store and pick them up at a discount. But will you end up regretting it? There’s a really good chance that you will, especially if you don’t think about what that TV is capable of.
A little bit about MPEG
All televisions made today are designed to take digital, over-the-air signals. That means they have a technology called MPEG-2 built into them. What’s MPEG-2? Back in the 1980s, software engineers realized that if people were going to get into digital video in a big way, there would have to be some sort of standard way to compress that video down to a manageable size. Even the...
Sustainability is a noble, praiseworthy goal for modern business. Achieving more sustainable operations will resonate well with consumers. One in four consumers are willing to pay more for eco-friendly products, and 11% say they make purchases based on carbon data availability.
However, achieving sustainability in the workplace can be tricky if you do not already track your emissions. It may even feel like an impossible task to go green when you’re producing paper waste and high emissions every day as part of your day-to-day operations.
Eco-friendly gadgets like IoT tech can streamline the sustainability process and help you achieve your ESG goals sooner. This is crucial if you want to start branding yourself as eco-friendly, as...
When you have a piece of tech from five years ago that’s still a top seller, you know you have something special. It’s pretty rare if you think about it. Would you be happy with an iPhone 11 or Galaxy S8 even if you bought it new today? Would a five-year-old laptop suit your needs, even if it’s new in box? Chances are you wouldn’t be pretty happy if you were stuck at 2019 levels of tech on most of the things you use.
weBoost Drive Reach
That’s why it’s so amazing that weBoost’s Drive Reach is still the king of the hill for mobile cell boosters. You can read the original announcement from 2019 here. A couple of months later I got my hands on one. I did an unboxing video as well as a full instrumented review. In the last five years...
What you see above you is our DECA Broadband, also called Broadband DECA. The two terms have been competing for years. It doesn’t really matter what you call it. (At one time it was called a Cinema Connection Kit, but that term has gone by the wayside.) It’s a device that connects your entire DIRECTV system to the internet. Once connected, you have access to on demand programming, enhanced search, and interactive TV features.
It’s a pretty good deal, although it’s also getting rarer and rarer? Why? Because all modern Genie DVRs have the capability built in. You can connect your Genie over wired or Wi-Fi and get the same features as if you’d used this DECA Broadband. So why would you still use one? Let’s talk.
One reason: maybe your...
Are you reading this article while your boat’s in the marina? Are you reading it because you turned on your satellite TV and got the dreaded “loss of signal” message? I’m here to help. There are a lot of reasons this could be happening and most of them can be solved without needing to make a phone call or send an email. There’s one super easy step you can take that will help you understand signal loss issues quickly.
Step 1 (and this is the only step)
Here’s all you have to do. Go out on deck and look around you at the other boats in the marina. Is it possible they’re blocking the southern or western sky? Chances are that’s the cause of your signal loss. Marine satellite systems expect to get a clear view of the sky and if you have...
This week Ken welcomes writer, director, producer Rolfe Kanefsky (There’s Nothing Out There, Nightmare Man, Pool Boy Nightmare) to the show.
Ken and Rolfe discuss Fangoria, Gorezone, the Catch 22 of trying to get a distributer without press and press without distribution, Brett Piper, going to film school, Hampshire College, watching horror on TV, Abbot and Costello meet Frankenstein, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, making a Russian movie into an American movie, My Family Treasure, Dee Wallace, moving to LA and staring over, directing soft core films, parodies, Playboy’s Inside Out, USA Network, The Hitchhiker, Playboy TV, Tomorrow by Midnight, the lost film, Clerks, Mad TV, Seizure, starting in B movies, making movies for Life Time...
The Solid Signal Blog is your resource for thousands of articles and reviews, with new content coming every day. 2023 marks our seventeeth year since our humble beginnings, and today over 250,000 people read the blog every month. Every month, the staff gets together and gathers articles that really seem like they have long-term appeal. Here’s the list for November, 2023:
Your phone is more powerful than the PC you had in 2018. So why can’t you use it as a PC?
NICE AND EASY: What is an “STB?”
Can you take your Gemini Air with you when you travel?
What are your options if you have no cell signal at all?
What do the different color lights on a Gemini Air mean?
OPINION: The importance of broadcasting
How to fix Wi-Fi problems with your...
There’s an old song that goes, “I don’t care how you get here, just get here if you can.” I’m tempted to say the same applies to grounding. Grounding is so important and people will use almost any excuse not to ground their equipment. They will say it’s hard, they will say it’s expensive, and they’ll say it doesn’t make a difference. More often than anything else, they’ll say that they don’t have the right supplies.
Let’s get this out of the way now
If your excuse is that you can’t find the proper supplies… let me introduce you to the great selection of grounding supplies at Solid Signal. You’ll find everything from ground blocks to straps and rods, to all the ground wire you need. But let’s say you urgently need to ground something...
Friends, I get a lot of my best article ideas from people who call Solid Signal with questions. If you haven’t tried our help line at 888-233-7563, you really should. Our US-based team has tons of knowledge about the products and services we sell. And, whenever I hear about a question that I haven’t covered on this blog, I try to write about it. I’ve actually talked about this topic here and there but I haven’t ever done a whole article about it. So, here goes.
A little about the technology of broadcasting
Radio and television broadcasting is obviously one of those things that exists in the real world and so it follows certain laws of physics. Why do I even mention that? Because one of those laws has to do with the way energy...
Here on this blog we’ve been talking about the next generation of television broadcasting for a decade now. In most of that time, there’s been very little movement. Even recently, it’s seemed like a faraway dream that may never happen. But, here’s the good news– there are a lot of test ATSC 3.0 broadcasts and there’s finally a way for you to check them out for yourself.
This is the ADTH converter box. Chances are, if you’ve been looking for something like this, you’ve heard about it because it’s also offered at a large major retailer. Now it’s available at Solid Signal for the best price online, and it’s one of the lowest priced converter boxes we’ve ever sold.
If you’re not familiar with it…
This is a small device about the size...
This article originally ran in 2018. It’s been revised with links to current products.
If you read this blog a lot you’ll probably notice that I talk about solid copper center conductor RG6 cable a lot. I even link to it at SolidSignal.com, a great place to get custom lengths of cable that work well in a variety of professional situations. Have you ever wondered why?
The magic of copper
Copper is a great conductor of electricity. It’s almost as good as gold, and even though it’s expensive, it’s not as expensive as gold. It’s very flexible, easy to form, and it’s readily available. Copper is, in many ways the perfect choice for sending signal from one place to another.
However, copper is generally a lot more expensive than steel or...
This week, our podcaster really begins to feel the impact of the strikes last year. Are you feeling them too? Listen to find out what you can do. As always, shop at Solid Signal - Signal Solutions including HDTV Antennas, DIRECTV and DISH Network satellite equipment and home entertainment supplies and accessories for everything you need to live your best digital life and call Signal Connect at 888-233-7563 for the kind of customer service you never thought you could get again.
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...
The post The BEST Charging Cable – 50% OFF appeared first on The Solid Signal Blog.
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Solid Signal loves to cater to enthusiasts. There are plenty of places for “mainstream” people to find parts for their “mainstream” hobbies. The fun of working with Solid Signal is that I get to interact with people who love really esoteric things.
Take, for example, FM lovers.
Most of us listen to FM radio in our cars, maybe. More and more people are streaming in their cars and I could go on a whole rant about why that is. (Not the point here.) There are some folks though, who really dig FM radio. They want FM radios in every room, and they put up roof-mounted antennas to help them get the best reception.
And I completely support them! You should absolutely find a hobby that really makes you happy and then dive into it. If you’re an...
For a moment, let’s be honest. Have you ever thought about how to create one of those square barcode things that everyone seems to be using in shopping, navigating and so on? You know, the ones where you can scan them with your phone to quickly get contact details, websites, and a tonne of other goodies?
Yes, the thing is a QR Code.
Well, get ready to have your mind blown, because it’s much simpler than you may think to create your QR code.
So, let’s get started and see how useful QR codes may be for your personal and professional needs!
What is a QR Code?
A QR code (quick response code) is a form of barcode, but more advanced than the ones we see on product labels in stores. Instead of just a few numbers, a QR code can hold a...
The other day I talked to a boat owner who was just getting everything ready for the summer. That’s pretty common this time of year, of course. As the snow melts, folks take the boat out of drydock and get ready for another year of marine fun. Except in this case, it didn’t seem like things were going smoothly for the boat’s on-board satellite TV system.
Wait, satellite TV? Boats still have those things?
It’s pretty popular to say that satellite TV is on its way out, and with recent changes in satellite internet, you might be thinking that satellite TV is a thing of the past. The funny thing is, though, reality isn’t like that. Satellite internet is great for the things you do most of the time with internet, like emails, social media...
If you read this blog or watch our YouTube videos, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of Blackmagic Design cameras. Blackmagic cameras aren’t the least expensive option out there, but they bring real studio-level quality and control down to a level where regular folks can afford it. This is digital camera tech that would have cost over $100,000 just a generation ago and today it’s within everyone’s reach. Blackmagic cameras come in a lot of different shapes and sizes, and they continue to evolve to get better and less expensive.
I personally use a Blackmagic Design Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro. It’s perfect for my needs, if a bit of overkill for the kind of video that I produce. With it, I get ultimate control over what I want to shoot and...
It’s April, friends. To me that means one thing: baseball. It’s my favorite major league sport and I get excited every year when it comes up. Last year the world of baseball changed drastically with the coming of the pitch clock. I’m one of the few people who didn’t like this “innovation” because I think it ruins the leisurely pace of the game. It also means more commercials per hour, which takes me out of the flow.
With so many commercials, I decided to try streaming. I figured that some of the “gameday” feeds would just show the field while the commercials were going on. And you know what, I didn’t care for the streaming experience.
What’s with the video quality?
A decade ago, I was impressed that MLB.TV could give you an HD feed...
When it comes to DIRECTV upgrades, you have a choice. You can choose the sleek DIRECTV HR54 Genie or the monolith-looking HS17 Genie 2. These two options are both great, but you’ll have to decide which one to get when you upgrade. Unfortunately you can’t have both.
Before even starting: do you have a second location?
There are certain cases where you are allowed to have a second location on your DIRECTV account. This can be a boat, RV, or seasonal home. The key is that you can’t use DIRECTV service at both locations at the same time.
If you have a second location, you must choose the HR54. If you have a Genie 2, you won’t be able to add receivers to your account, only client boxes. The client boxes will only work with the Genie, so...
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...
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...
