The Solid Signal Blog

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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...
Chances are if you’re reading this article, you’re looking at an upgrade to some fairly old DISH equipment. The ViP series of receivers from DISH were made from the mid-2000s until the late 2010s. There’s still stock of the ViP222 out there, because it’s a reliable receiver that just plain works. But, it’s not the latest and greatest device out there in the world of receivers (in other words, non-DVRs.) That title belongs to the Wally, a slick little receiver that takes the great stuff from the 222 series and builds on it. Here’s what you get if you get a Wally: With a Wally, you get the Hopper user interface and the Hopper Voice Remote. That means your internet-connected receiver can use the power of Google to control your TV...
WARNING: This article may cause irritation or agitation of the forehead due to hitting it or rubbing it with your palm. We live in an age of AI. We’re rapidly getting to the point where it will be impossible to believe anything you see, even on video. We’ve been through this before with still images, when Photoshop became common in the 1990s. The world didn’t end then, and at least I hope that the rise in deepfake technology will not cause the world to end now. If we can all believe that things will be ok, it gives us the ability to lean back and laugh at some of the ways the technology is being used. Like, for example, this YouTuber YouTuber “There I Ruined It” has been using AI voice generation and the latest generation of audio...
It seems like a silly question, but it’s a good one. In fact until about five years ago it wasn’t technically legal. It wasn’t technically illegal either but there was enough confusion that some companies felt they couldn’t wait. Good news though, and I’ll put it in big letters: Cellular Signal Boosters are legal for business use. The problem comes back to the rules that were published back in 2014, and that means we have to talk a little history. Back in the old days, cellular signal boosters were sort of the “bad boys” of the cell world. Officially, none of the major carriers supported them and they even told you that the use of cellular signal boosters would void your phone’s warranty and even open you up to criminal charges. The...
Here’s the good news: If you have a DISH Wally, you can connect a hard drive to it and turn it into a DVR. The process is automatic – all you do is connect it via USB and plug it into a power source and it “just works.” Yes, there’s an extra fee for DVR service on your account but when you call us at 888-233-7563 we’ll help you with that quickly. Here’s the bad news: DISH doesn’t sell the hard drives. They’ll tell you the requirements: It has to support USB 2.0, connect via USB-A, and be powered from a wall outlet. (Here’s more information on that.) They also say the capacity has to be under 1 terabyte, but there a plenty of sources to tell you that it’s ok if it’s up to 4TB. So what can you do? I’m happy to say that Solid Signal...
If you’re a DISH customer who’s moved from one place to another, you might have heard the term “Western Arc” and “Eastern Arc.” DISH has two complete satellite fleets and there is quite a bit of overlap in them. Both have all the national channels and there are even local channels that are on both actually as well. This would seem a little wasteful. Let’s take a look at how the two US providers handle their satellite fleets and why you would choose one or the other. First, a little bit about satellite orbits. All communication satellites orbit the earth at about 22,000 miles. above the equator. They use a trick called “geostationary orbit.” I wrote a whole lot about this a while back, but to put it simply, stuff orbits the earth...
Back in 2012, this blog had just relaunched. I didn’t know exactly what kind of content was going to really work. So all year I worked to bring tutorials, support articles, and occasional laughter to my audience. It wasn’t a very big audience back then but you have to start somewhere. The blog had been largely ignored for about two years and people moved on. In December I had the idea to recap the year, something I’ve done at the end of every year. I called the first one, “The Year in Signals.” You can check it out if you want, I’ll wait. Something that’s stayed with us: sports fees The first ever regional sports fee was levied by DIRECTV in 2012, when the company agreed to pick up “The Lakers Channel” (TWC SportsNet, as it was known...
DISH launched its satellite service in 1996, close to 30 years ago. That’s long enough that there have been several generations of receivers out there. One of the most popular were the ViP series of receivers and DVRs which were available in the 2000s. Even though most ViP hardware is coming on 20 years old, it’s proven incredibly reliable out there in the field. That means a lot of people are out there still wondering if they should keep their old hardware or upgrade to new hardware. What is the DISH ViP series? The DISH ViP series were receivers and DVRs capable of high-definition reception. The DVRs had something that made them unique in the marketplace: one DVR could feed two TVs. That made them beloved among thrifty satellite...
There’s a neat feature on all DIRECTV DVRs that lets you record a series quickly and easily. You’ve probably heard about it. All you have to do is press the record button twice on a program in the guide, and that’s it. The trick is making sure that the recording is set your way. You need to make sure that everything works the way you want. Luckily, this handy guide will help. If you have a pre-Genie DVR The feature you’re looking for is called “Record Defaults.” Here’s a step by step guide for finding it. Press MENU. Arrow down to Recordings. Press SELECT. Arrow down to Record Defaults. Press SELECT. You’ll see a screen like this. It affects how all new series recordings act. In this case, I’m saying that I only want to record...
May 25-31, 1991 This week Ken welcomes author Jason Brant and his wife and co-host of the EXCELLENT YouTube show, “So Bad It’s Good”, Erin Brant to the show. Ken, Jason and Erin discuss the risk of Erin and Jason wrecking the show forever, loving bad movies, how horrible a person Steven Segal is, vanity project, Neil Breen, how 1991 was the hangover of the 1980s, being barred from watching South Park, growing up in rural Western PA, Hershey, Pittsburgh, cigarettes, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Kevin Costner, Waterworld, T2, Transformers, childhood movie trauma, Space Camp, National Geographic, Boston mobsters, vomit bags, how amazing Steven Webber is, Wings, the wonder of Roy Biggins, America’s Funniest People, Kidney Magazine...
Over 90% of people experience bad cell service at some point in the day. That’s because almost every modern building is constructed to block cell phone signals! That’s right, all the same energy-efficient upgrades that keep heat and cold out also block cell phone signals. Luckily there’s a way to bring great cell service into your home, office, or vehicle. It’s easy to install, has no monthly fee, works with all phones, and is futureproof. It’s called a cell phone signal booster, or cell booster for short. How a cell booster works Courtesy of weBoost Cell boosters use three parts which, when working together, give you great service inside your home, office, or vehicle. There’s an outside antenna which is mounted up as high as...
The other day I was looking through some old stuff on YouTube and I was reminded that it wasn’t that long ago that 256GB of flash memory cost about $500. Today, you can find that same amount of memory on some large shopping sites for about $7. But generally, the stuff you see on sites like Amazon from brands you’ve heard of cost about $20. These are the prices for MicroSD. If you look for CFast cards, which is what our Blackmagic cameras use, they’re about $50 on those other sites and $250 on Amazon. Does it really make a difference? Simple answer: yes CFast cards, MicroSD cards, even solid state drives (SSDs) and flash drives are essentially the same thing. They are a form of computer chip that has two unique qualities. The first is...
It’s summertime and you’ve decided to pile everyone into the family truckster for a road trip. When you were a kid, you got through the long drives by counting Volkswagens or playing “I Spy.” You probably know your kids well enough to know that’s not going to quite do it. You’ll be lucky to get them to look up from their phones when you actually get to Mount Rushmore, never mind getting them to look out the window before that. No, the family’s going to want to be on their phones, that’s just life in 2018. And it’s your job as the parent to make sure that happens, because the last thing you want while you’re on the road are cranky kids. You want this to be the kind of trip that everyone will look on fondly for years to come. Here’s how...
We take a look at the lasting impact of Larry David on culture, and it’s pretty, pretty, pretty big. Want great service? Shop Solid Signal - Signal Solutions including HDTV Antennas, DIRECTV and DISH Network satellite equipment and home entertainment supplies and accessories or 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...
Over 90% of people experience bad cell service at some point in the day. That’s because almost every modern building is constructed to block cell phone signals! That’s right, all the same energy-efficient upgrades that keep heat and cold out also block cell phone signals. Luckily there’s a way to bring great cell service into your home, office, or vehicle. It’s easy to install, has no monthly fee, works with all phones, and is futureproof. It’s called a cell phone signal booster, or cell booster for short. How a cell booster works Courtesy of weBoost Cell boosters use three parts which, when working together, give you great service inside your home, office, or vehicle. There’s an outside antenna which is mounted up as high as...
This question came to me the other day, and it took me a while to figure out the right way to answer it on this blog. The first thing I needed to do was write a title for this article, and that was one of the hardest parts! Here are some of the other ones I thought of: Why does a bar owner pay more to show baseball than a person at home? Why can’t you stream movies at at bar or restaurant? Why can you watch MLB.TV on your phone in a bar, but they can’t put MLB.TV up on the bar TVs? Why is sports programming treated differently in bars than other kinds of programs? These all might seem like different questions, but they’re not. Why? Because the answer to all of them is really the same. It comes down to some basic parts of the law...
According to several sources, DIRECTV will start offering customers the option to opt out of local channels in their satellite packages. It looks like you could save $12 a month by opting out, and you might have that option as soon as this summer. I don’t know how popular this option will be. I will say that you can get a lot of prime-time programs through Hulu, Peacock, and Paramount+. But not every city has local news and sports available over streaming. I’m a big believer in local media whether it’s TV, local web sites or even newspapers. There’s an old saying that “all politics is local politics” and I think that it’s never been more important to watch what’s going on in your community. But, it’s great that you’ll have a choice...
A customer asked this recently. It’s really not that weird of a question! After all, we’re in the age when it seems like every box in your home theatre is trying to be “the only one you need.” Your TV has streaming apps built in. So does your satellite TV box. Your streaming box has ways to give you live content as if it were a traditional cable box. And, if you have a dedicated gaming console, it probably lets you use the major streaming apps. Before I answer, there’s a surprising history here. DIRECTV Game Lounge As further proof that you can find literally everything on YouTube, here’s a short history of DIRECTV’s Game Lounge: Game Lounge was an interactive service that ran on DIRECTV satellite receivers in the late ’00s and...
Over 90% of people experience bad cell service at some point in the day. That’s because almost every modern building is constructed to block cell phone signals! That’s right, all the same energy-efficient upgrades that keep heat and cold out also block cell phone signals. Luckily there’s a way to bring great cell service into your home, office, or vehicle. It’s easy to install, has no monthly fee, works with all phones, and is futureproof. It’s called a cell phone signal booster, or cell booster for short. How a cell booster works courtesy of weBoost Cell boosters use three parts which, when working together, give you great service inside your home, office, or vehicle. There’s an outside antenna which is mounted up as high as...
Congratulations! You’ve decided to go with an outdoor antenna. You’re serious about cutting the cord, that’s for sure. Outdoor antennas will help you get reception up to 70 miles away, and you’ll pull in the strongest possible signal. They’re the real deal. Almost immediately after you decide though, you’re struck with a question: How do I mount this thing? Good question. Obviously there are a lot of choices out there. Smaller antennas tend to work best with J-mounts, which attach easily to the side of the house or to the roof. If you’re desperate not to drill a single hole, there are non-penetrating mounts, which rely on cinder blocks or other heavy objects to keep them in place. Although they are most often seen on flat roofs...
That’s right folks. It’s taken over a decade of hard work, but the Solid Signal YouTube Channel now sits at 10,000 subscribers! It hit that landmark about two weeks ago with a sudden rush of subscribers in the middle of March. (Chances are that had something to do with DIRECTV’s satellite problems around that time.) But, I wanted to take the time to reflect back on the history of the channel and why I’m so glad to report 10,000 subs when other channels have millions. Our YouTube channel circa 2012, and now I took over our YouTube channel in 2012 when there were a grand total of two videos on it. Specifically, this one and this one. Those videos received a total of about 8,000 views in the four years between the time they were posted...
Our customers tell us all the time how much they like the Gemini Air. There’s just something about having a remote with real buttons. People understand what they need to do, and it’s a real source of comfort for people who are moving over from cable. Plus, it’s not just about great DIRECTV programming. The Gemini Air is a full-featured 4K streaming device powered by the Google Play Store. There are a few people who have said that they’ve experienced audio drops. It’s hard to know where these audio problems come from, but there’s an easy way to fix them. The issue is Dolby Audio When you get your Gemini Air, it’s set to use Dolby Surround as the default. This means that your content will sound great when put through a surround system...
Netflix’s supposed blockbuster 3 Body Problem has come and gone, and I think it’s fair to say that it didn’t have the impact that we all thought it would. For months, we’ve been primed to think that this was going to be the next Game of Thrones. The problem is that while it’s stylish, it’s not thought provoking or really even unique. Season one ends without any real resolution (no surprise there) and there were scant few really interesting things about the show along the way. So what went wrong? (Vague spoilers ahead, you’ve been warned) Problem 1: Netflix dumped it all at once The entire season was available on day one. In most cases that’s fine. I actually like when streamers do this, because it lets me take things on my schedule...
Your car is smarter than you think. It knows how you drive, in many cases it even knows where you drive. Today’s cars are really miracles of modern technology, full of computers and diagnostic tools. Of course it wasn’t always like this. There was a time that a qualified mechanic needed a collection of arcane tools and a keen intuition in order to understand what was going on with a car. Those days are gone, and today’s mechanics rely on computer diagnostics more than their eyes and ears. You may think that’s a move in the wrong direction, but sometimes progress doesn’t work the way you want. In order to make it easier for computers to interface with cars, you need to have a standard interface. Otherwise, a repair shop would need a...
Ask anyone of a certain age what their favorite adventure film is, and there’s a good chance you’ll say Raiders of the Lost Ark. Forget for a minute that, apparently, Indiana Jones is completely irrelevant to the events of the film. Forget also, that the film itself is an homage to films from 40 years earlier, hardly original, and a little hard to follow the first 6 or 7 times you see it. None of that really matters. What matters is that somehow, that recycled plot, those hack actors, and that irrelevant main character somehow add up to great fun, something that was as short in supply in 1981 as it is today in 2024. It’s no wonder that the film still has its ardent fans. How else could you explain… YouTuber “Gluecement” has put...
This article has been updated and contains very different information than it did in 2018 when it was first posted. It’s here so that Google doesn’t pick up older or dated information. DIRECTV has hundreds of international channels. If you’ve moved here from another country you can get a real taste of home right on your TV. These aren’t just foreign-language channels based in the US, these are rebroadcasts of actual channels from all over the country. Take a look at a partial list, as of April, 2024: MediaSet Italia Rai Italia Rai News 24 Rai World Premium VGN TV Tviet Viet Face S Channel Vien Thao Vietv Film 24H Honvietv NHK World News Phoenix TV Phoenix Info News CCTV4 CGTN Charming China CTI TV CBO TFC – The Filipino Channel GMA...
The 2024 boating season is in full swing now in much of the country. If you haven’t gotten your boat out of drydock for the spring, you’re probably thinking about doing it soon. And, you’re probably thinking about the upgrades you’ll want for this year. Boating isn’t the cheapest hobby, and it seems like there’s always something you want to spend money on. This year, it’s all about internet upgrades. Let’s talk about Starlink for a second You’ve already heard of Starlink, I’m sure. It’s the satellite internet system created by SpaceX (Elon Musk’s company.) It uses a fleet of thousands of small satellites to deliver a high-speed experience that’s as close to traditional fiber as possible. In 2023, Starlink officially started supporting...
One of my favorite articles on this blog is called, “I hate Bluetooth, because it hates me back.” A few months ago I revisited my old enemy with a new article on the subject. So why am I revisiting the topic yet again? Is it just a slow blog day or is there really something to say on the subject? Let’s find out together. What brought this all on I’ll admit that I still read engadget. It’s certainly not the must-read blog it was 15 years ago, but I do peruse it every other day or so. This morning I noticed an article I hadn’t seen when it posted a few weeks ago. It’s an article with the guy who is arguably the lord and master over Bluetooth. (Worth a quick scan, if you’re interested.) Reading through this long article, I came to a...
I was recently asked this question and I thought all our readers deserved a chance to chime in. Our 8-bay Xtreme Signal HDB8X antenna is a real superstar, picking up channels from up to 70 miles away. It’s one a very small number of antennas that can pivot in the middle, and that means the two sections can move enough to cover an area almost 180 degrees. If you took two of them, could you have a giant, monstrous omnidirectional antenna? Let’s talk it out. The difference between omni and directional An omnidirectional antenna, or omni for short, uses a wide flat element to pick up signals from all directions at the same time. This technique isn’t really very efficient which is why this KING antenna can only claim 35 mile range even...
This week for Throwback Thursday we’ll take a break from making fun of the bad decisions of the past and actually point out something that we got right. The year was 2011 and the country was deep in recession. Everyone still wore those really skinny glasses and thought the iPhone 4 was cool. The word was a different place. In May, 2011 we published an article about installing a preamp. You can read it here on our blog or see it in its original form at the Internet Archive. Either way, it’s a surprisingly good article. (I didn’t write it, by the way.) You can see that there is a simple way to install a preamp and you get a very simple diagram. Sure, it doesn’t go into much more detail than that, but if you need to learn more you...
I’ve recently been told that DIRECTV’s Gemini is now officially among the hottest selling products on SolidSignal.com. Whether you choose the Gemini for Satellite or the Gemini Air for streaming customers, getting one from Solid Signal means you’re one of the many folks who really appreciate the latest and greatest technology. With Gemini, you get live TV as well as thousands of apps from the Google Play Store. But, it turns out, you don’t get all the apps. There are a very small number that you can’t get. The apps you can’t get with Gemini This list is a lot shorter than it used to be. At launch, I was blocked from loading more or less any app that offered live TV channels to compete with DIRECTV. However, on my Gemini for Satellite...
You hear the term “broadband” a lot and it’s getting harder and harder to really define it. It doesn’t hurt that people use it as a throwaway term meaning “High Speed Internet.” The two things are not the same. It can be confusing so let’s jump in and try to figure it out. First of all, here’s what broadband definitely isn’t. We can say for sure what the opposite of broadband is: it’s narrowband. Narrowband is a term that refers to very targeted frequencies over the air or through a wire. AM and FM radio are excellent examples of narrowband. Each radio station uses a very small amount of the total frequency range and you get a lot of different stations in the same area. That’s the purpose of narrowband broadcasting, to fit a lot of...
Recently, our techs were asked a fairly interesting question. It’s an interesting question so I thought it would be good to dive into the answer. It is a little complex getting started and I want to add a little background for those folks who aren’t up to speed on the current technology. What is the DIRECTV SWM-30? The SWM-30 multiswitch is the latest in AT&T’s arsenal for large installations. DIRECTV has used multiswitch technology for over 20 years to allow for larger installations. The original DIRECTV dish only allowed for two receivers at most, and a multiswitch solves that. The difference with the SWM-30 is that, like the SWM-32 before it, it’s not really designed for in-home use. About 99% of DIRECTV residential customers...
This Reverse Band 5 Legacy LNB for DIRECTV is the best, baddest LNB ever made for DIRECTV service. It’s also the biggest. Blame all the many different electronics inside it. This one device is capable of picking up three different frequency ranges from five different locations, in two polarities. That’s a lot for it to do. Most folks don’t need something that big and fancy. Even if you see 4K in your future you probably only need a Reverse Band 3 LNB which is smaller and much easier to wire. Commercial installations use this LNB to get virtually unlimited receivers from one dish, but the Reverse Band 3 will reliably handle up to 13 tuners – which translates out to an HR54 Genie, two HR24 DVRs, two receivers, and three clients. Or, you...
This week Ken welcomes director Michael Pressman (The Great Texas Dynamite Chase, Some Kind of Hero, Doctor Detroit, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II The Secret of the Ooze) to the show. Ken and Michael discus COVID binging, The Bear, Slow Horses, The Crown, Call My Agent, having a comedy background but gravitating towards drama, having difficulty knowing when TV Comedy is working, Bad News Bears, working for Roger Corman, Picket Fences, how executives don’t understand funny, indie cinema, directing Vanilla Ice, special FX, non-Union shoots, Golden Harvest, Michael’s father being blacklisted, David Pressman’s directing career, The Actor’s Studio, visiting Hollywood sets after the blacklist was lifted in the 60s, the early days of...
The Solid Signal Podcast features Scott Dreaver from our Signal Connect team! Learn all about Scott, and call 866-726-4182 to get personalized 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 mobile device. If you want us to add another aggregator leave a comment below. Amazon iTunes Overcast TuneIn Spreaker Player.fm Spotify Option 3: Download the podcast in MP3 format. Option 4: Paste the following link into...
This question came from one of our customers. They really like the Gemini remote… and why wouldn’t they? It’s easy to old and has all the physical buttons that manufacturers have been removing for years. If you’re tired of a tiny remote with 4 buttons, the Gemini remote seems like a breath of fresh air. Why wouldn’t you want to use it on a Fire stick, Apple TV, Roku, or some other device with a Bluetooth connection? All Bluetooth is Bluetooth, right? I mean, think about it. You have Bluetooth in everything from your car to your computer. So, if that’s true, you should be able to pair a Bluetooth remote to virtually anything else. There are several different classifications of Bluetooth devices. For example there are keyboards, mice...
As time passes, we see the days of carrying and paying with cash go by the wayside. Instead, we’re gaining more ways to pay online and complete most of our budgeting and banking on a computer or smartphone. Luckily, tech has kept up with the times, and there are many different apps, programs, and websites you can use to manage your money, buy goods and services, and help with your investment strategies. There’s a lot out there, so here are some tips for learning and catering to your money personality by finding the best tech for your needs. Use Tech That Applies To Your Personality While many of the available financial management apps will have their benefits, it may be wise to learn about the tech that will help you specifically...
Streaming video has been with us for a decade, but for a lot of people it is still a fairly new technology. It’s probably not on the radar for a lot of seniors. In fact, most seniors I’ve talked to don’t really understand why they would want it. A streaming TV device doesn’t show them what they want, they don’t understand the on-demand nature of streaming, and one senior told me it “just doesn’t seem like TV.” Yet, seniors are becoming increasingly smarter about how to spend their fixed incomes. With cable subscriptions far over $100 a month once the “teaser” period is over, it’s hard to justify. Yet, seniors remain wedded to live TV far more than any other group, and they’re looking for options. Back to basics: the antenna More and...
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 October, 2023: DIRECTV Technical Support: Five Easy Fixes Cell Phone Bars, Signal Strength, and the Truth Who Remembers C-Band Satellite Dishes? MODERN PROBLEMS: “My H24 is giving me error 775 when I connect to my portable dish” It’s time to scan for channels again if you have an antenna Boat docked for the winter? Get a satellite upgrade! Can you still use a SATLOOK LITE satellite...
You don’t own the DVR in your living room. It’s as simple as that. Both DIRECTV and DISH use a leasing model. It keeps costs down, has big tax advantages, and most customers don’t want to keep an old device anyway. Most of us love the idea of upgrading to the latest every other year. If you don’t believe me, how old is your cell phone? Leasing vs. owning You lease the equipment, but it’s a little different from the way you lease a car or an apartment. First of all, you make a single payment at the beginning of the lease. The term is open-ended; you don’t have to make another lease payment no matter how long you have the equipment. Unlike a car, you’re strictly not allowed to make any physical changes to the device. In a lot of ways...
There comes a point in every geek’s life when he or she looks at the garage and realizes there’s a problem. Let’s just say you’re like me — for the last thirty-odd years you’ve been collecting little odds and ends, knowing you’ll use it “someday.” Along the way you’ve accumulated a staggering number of splitters, RCA cables, USB cords, and things like that. You probably have the plug from every device you’ve ever owned, because you know that sooner or later you’ll need it and let’s face facts those things are expensive. Kippleization An old short story by the prophetic Philip K. Dick coined the term “kipple.” In context, it meant the kind of trash that just seems to pile up by itself. Old wrappers, newspapers, that sort of thing. When...
“Hey, kids, let’s go on a road trip!” Seemed like a good idea at the time. Pile the fam in the car and let’s go see the world. Only one problem: bored kids locked in the back seat are going to misbehave. It’s a tale as old as time, I’m telling you. One option for keeping the kids occupied is live TV. It’s a great option and it’s worked very well in the past, but it’s gotten harder in the last decade. Finally, there’s an option that makes sense. Live TV and kids? Do kids even know what live TV is anymore? Yes, I can hear you thinking it. Truth is, kids like to be entertained. We tend to think of kids using screens today but they can be just as entertained by TV. Depending on your age, your folks had DVD screens in the headrests and...
QAM. Most likely you think it’s either an unpronounceable random set of letters or an Australian airline. In both cases you would be wrong. It stands for Quadrature Amplitude Modulation. That’s a fancy way of saying that unlike AM or FM which have one waveform, QAM has two and that makes it much more efficient. It means that HD channels can fit into much smaller spaces. Why should I care about QAM? QAM is used by cablesystems and also by DIRECTV in their COM3000 system. It’s also used in standalone headend systems such as those used in hotels and restaurants. Using QAM technology allows for systems like these to carry well over 100 channels in high definition, in a set of frequencies that should really only hold about 50 channels...
Every so often, I poke through random pages at SolidSignal.com to try to find things that even I didn’t realize we carry. That’s when I came across this page. There are a lot more power inverters than I realized, and at quite a price difference. I have an inverter in one of my vehicles, I’m glad I do, and I have a feeling that if you had one you’d be glad you did too. So let’s take a dive into the world of inverters. I bet by the time this article’s over you’ll wonder why every car, truck, and SUV doesn’t have one. What is an inverter? In order to understand what an inverter is, you need to understand the difference between direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC). There are plenty of articles that will give you a “deep dive”...
In the coming months, you’ll be able to stream part two of the defining sci-fi blockbusters of the last two years. Chances are you’re excited about Dune: Part Two, and you’re cringing at the very idea of accidentally starting to watch Rebel Moon: Part Two — the Scargiver. I’m right there with you. But does one film really deserve the praise while the other deserves the scorn? Here’s my opinion. Keep in mind that I’ve only seen part one of both films, so my opinion is based on that. Let’s start with direction A director and producer can really shape a film. The director traditionally concerns themselves with what you see on the screen, in other words the performances from the actors. The producer concerns themselves with trying to...
Reprinted with permission from the weBoost Blog. In today’s digital age, reliable cell signal is crucial for staying connected, whether it’s for work, remote communication, or home entertainment. But with the increasing demand for connectivity, many people find themselves struggling with weak or unreliable signals, especially in remote or rural areas. This begs the question: Does weBoost really work? Do cell signal boosters work in general? Let’s delve into the effectiveness of cell signal boosters to find out. How do cell signal boosters work? Cell signal boosters (like those offered by weBoost) work by capturing existing weak signals from outside the building or vehicle, amplifying them, and rebroadcasting them inside. This...