The Solid Signal Blog

A good RV can cost as much as a small house. That’s why I understand why some folks wouldn’t want to go crazy with a drill when mounting electronics. On the other hand, RV mechanics and installers aren’t cheap either. That’s why you might think about doing it all yourself. What if there were a way to do everything you wanted but without having to drill holes? Cell boosters and satellite TV just make sense for RVs It’s great to have an RV because you get all the comforts of home. You don’t have to worry about someone else’s kitchen, someone else’s bed, or even someone else’s bathroom. But, there’s one thing missing: entertainment. If you think that the kids are going to be content playing slug bug on those long trips, it’s time to...

Somewhere in your DIRECTV setup is a device that connects to the internet. If you have a Genie DVR, you might connect straight to that using a cable or using Wi-Fi. However, for many people, the internet connection comes from a separate box. That box is called a DECA. What does a DECA do? A DECA, or DIRECTV Ethernet Coaxial Adapter, is a simple device that lets your ethernet connection go to your coaxial cable. Once you have a network connection going over that coax, you can share internet connection with all your receivers, DVRs and clients. This makes searches faster and enables interactive features. If you’ve had your DIRECTV system for a while you probably never thought about the DECA, because it just worked. But if you’ve found...

The Solid Signal Blog is my pride and joy. It’s been going strong since 2007 and for over half that time I’ve personally been shepherding it. A quick check tells me that we just ticked over serving twelve million pageviews to over 9 million unique people. That’s something I’m incredibly humbled to say and I think it is really amazing for something that’s a niche interest. I am sure that certain celebrity-oriented or general-interest sites do that every day. If you think about it though that means that about 20% of the people who have satellite television — one in five — have come here looking for answers. It means that if I stand in a room with any random 200 people, I can probably find someone who’s read this blog (who isn’t me.)...

A few weeks ago, a blog reader reached out to me to ask if there was a grounded power supply for the DECAs that we sell. A DECA, in case you’re not familiar, is a device that bridges the coaxial cable network used by DIRECTV and others with an Ethernet network. It’s a common part of practically every pay-TV system in one way or another. DIRECTV DECAs get power from the EPS10 power supply. This is DIRECTV’s “go-to” power supply for practically every one of its products. It’s simple and reliable. But, it’s a two-prong power supply. It has no ground lug to it. What if you wanted a grounded power supply? The answer I gave the reader is simple. DIRECTV doesn’t make a grounded power supply for the DECA but you could absolutely find a...

I got to thinking the other day about the idea of video games that turn into movies and TV shows. It’s no surprise, since I’m finally getting around to watching the Fallout series on Prime Video. But this isn’t really an article about that. That sort of article would be more appropriate for my Streaming Saturday series. I was just thinking about how we got here and how surprising it is — or isn’t — that video games are now fodder for dramatic fare. Pong: the movie? Video games in the 20th century were relatively plotless affairs. And honestly, that’s how we liked it. Home video games evolved in tandem with arcade games back then, and it was impossible to get a lot of character development if you had to feed in a quarter every few...

OK, so much for the clickbait headline. You have to do something in order to get Google to notice you sometimes. As they say, don’t blame the player, blame the game. If you have a satellite television system on your boat, chances are it’s over 5 years old. In some cases it could be much older than that. Satellite TV for marine was incredibly popular in the 2000s and 2010s when there was simply no other entertainment option out there. Today you have internet and cellular options, and of course satellite TV is still in the mix. But, even though your satellite system may have been giving you great service for years, there could still be a silent killer lurking that threatens to take the whole system down just when you can’t deal with it...

Do you have great cell signal at work? Do you have to go outside to take a call? Do your friends or kids tell you they tried to text you and it didn’t go through? Up to 90% of people experience bad cell service every day. Are you one of them? Cell boosters for business: It’s the next wave I’ve been talking for years about cellular signal boosters for home. Installing a cell booster at home is one of the easiest and most rewarding projects you can take on. However, putting in a cell booster for business can be a little harder. Why? Businesses are a lot bigger. There are a lot more people. It takes special equipment to handle them. If you have a very small business you could just put in a consumer cell booster like the weBoost Office...

Parabolic antennas are everywhere. From the tiniest little “ray gun” toy to the massive dishes in the desert, they’re a part of our lives and something we almost couldn’t live without. Yet just like most of our modern world, they didn’t exist 150 years ago. What is a parabolic antenna? A parabolic antenna is an antenna where a curved “dish” focuses signal on one point. The drawing above is from the original patent application filed by Heinrich Hertz in 1888. He was just trying to figure out how to get better radio reception in the days when radio was a brand new thing. Of course we know now that you don’t really need this kind of antenna for most radio applications but it sure does come in handy with satellite dishes. A parabolic...

Rain fade is the term for interruption in your satellite service due to bad weather, whether it’s raining, snowing, or doing something else. The weather in front of your dish is so intense that it just can’t let in the signals. Is rain fade a real problem? Obviously if you’re experiencing it, it is. But realistically both DIRECTV and DISH have over 99% uptime in the markets they serve, and it’s’rare to see more than a minute or two of rain fade even in the worst weather. If you see consistent rain fade, especially when it’s not raining that hard, something else may be at fault – possibly the dish is out of alignment or there is some corrosion in the cable or its ends. What can you do about rain fade? Getting rid of rain fade usually...

Are you having problems with the DIRECTV Guide? Is the receiver acting fishy? Are you getting strange error messages like “721?” Refreshing your receiver can fix a lot of problems. The best part is that you can do it by yourself, day or night, right from the web. Here’s how you do it First, go to DIRECTV’s “My Equipment” page. (you must be logged into your directv.com account.) Click “Refresh Receiver” next to the image of the receiver you want to refresh. If you don’t know which one to choose, you can do all of them but DIRECTV’s system may make you wait a few minutes between each. Try this up to 3 times for each receiver and give it 5 minutes between each to make sure it works. If that does not work, confirm that the access card...

Back in early 2013, I published an article saying that Nielsen ratings were going to include streaming. I’m sure they do by now, but I don’t think I wrote a followup article. Here’s why: People stopped paying attention to Nielsen ratings. Not all people, just regular people. The Nielsen monopoly The company originally named for its founder. Arthur C. Nielsen, was founded in 1923 and by the 1970s was one of the most powerful media companies on the planet. They exist for a sole purpose: to know what people are watching. The business model was simple: get regular folks to record their viewing habits in paper journals. Then, gather all that information together. Once a quarter, sell it to TV stations who would then know how much to charge...

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...

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...