The Solid Signal Blog

You had to be there. And I was. It’s kind of hard to imagine today, but back in the 1970s stores like Sears were magical places. They were places that had everything you needed all right in front of you, presented in a friendly way. You could walk into one store and get a hammer, a pair of pants, and even get your picture taken or get a pair of glasses. We have stores like Walmart and Target today, of course, but Sears was different. Sears was full service. It wasn’t just go to a rack and hope they have your size. There were people there, real people who were really there to help. And your feeling was that you needed those real people because honestly, there was so much stuff there that you needed help finding it. If you want to know...

After a week of seeing it at the top of my Netflix home screen, I decided to dig into Atlas. On the face of it, it seemed like a really well-made sci-fi action film. But, having been burned by other direct-to-Netflix films, I went in with more than a little hesitation. Maybe I shouldn’t have. This is a movie that has everything going for it… Start with really top notch stars. Jennifer Lopez is one of the most recognizable faces on the planet, and has a solid film resume. Mark Strong and Sterling K. Brown have more than a few awards between them. Simu Liu headlined a Marvel film, for gosh sakes. The action is peppy, the visuals are flawless, and the basic plot fits in well with a lot of classic sci-fi films. There’s a lot to think...

With all of the interest lately in retro gaming, I thought it was time to revisit the 2015 film Pixels. I did my best to forget any feelings I had for the film when it first came out, and I hoped to take a look at it from the point of view of a retro gamer. Pixels was loosely based on a 2010 short film which had essentially no plot. I will start out by giving you a link to the original film, which has been remastered and put on YouTube. When it first came out, it was extremely well regarded, and it’s easy to see why. As a short, the film seems innovative and fun, with special effects that hit way above its pay grade. And that may be the last nice thing I have to say in this article. Watching the 2015 film For those unfamiliar with...

If you have a boat, you probably know that if you haven’t lost standard definition local channels you probably will soon. It’s not a problem for folks on land because most DIRECTV customers have high-definition-capable satellite dishes. But, if you have a boat –especially a smaller one– you may have a single-satellite system like an Intellian i3 or KVH TracVision TV3. Those systems can only get signals from DIRECTV’s 101 satellite and that satellite doesn’t carry high-definition local channels. Here’s why this is happening Most TV stations turned off their standard-definition feeds in favor of HD all the way back in 2009. It was part of a move to digital television that drove a lot of people to get new TVs. You were probably one of...

Did you know there’s an instant replay button on every DIRECTV box? It’s been there all along, waiting for you to use it. With the press of one button, you can go back about 5 seconds, which is usually enough to answer that question of “what did I just see” for everyone. It’s built into every DIRECTV remote, too. Here’s the proof Older DIRECTV remotes Both the Genie remote and the “white” remote have a button which gives an instant replay. I’ve circled them in pink in the image above. You might have looked at it and not realized what it did. You might have been scared to push it. Go ahead, it won’t bite. You can even press it multiple times to go further in time. Of course, you do need a DVR or Genie system to make it work. If all...

Friends, I know I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. I think the fact that you can track a satellite from a moving boat is nothing short of magic. It’s reasonably amazing that you can track a satellite 20,000 miles away at all with a relatively small antenna. Now add the fact that you’re constantly moving in three dimensions, and there’s still a way to focus precisely on that one tiny spot in space? I’m not going to pretend to understand the level of precision technology required. I’m just glad it works. But, there are always compromises in life. It’s true that you can get satellite TV on your boat, but one of the things you’ll need is some sort of control box separate from the receiver. You don’t need something like that at home...

The world of entertainment has changed a lot in a very short time. For decades now, when it came to entertainment the only thing you needed was satellite TV. There were options for internet, but they didn’t make a lot of sense. In 2023, the world of marine entertainment changed forever. What happened? Streaming took over Most of us have been streaming for about ten years at this point. We love our apps at home and on our phones. But it was never possible to stream video using satellite internet before. Satellite internet systems have been too slow and too limited to use for streaming. That changed last year. Now, there are newer “low earth orbit” satellite systems. They use thousands of tiny satellites instead of one big satellite...

Hey, remember how excited you were when you got your first 3G phone? It might have been an Android, iPhone, or (eek) Blackberry. 3G technology was all the rage in the late 2000s. Back then people were just starting to use data on their phones and 3G promised “blazing fast” internet speeds. Real-world download speeds were an “amazing” 5 megabits per second. Remember when we were all so amazed to get internet on our phones that 5Mbps seemed awesome? Around the time smartphones got popular for the first time, another technology was on the rise: cell phone signal boosters. The booster industry was just starting to grow at that time, and it got turbocharged in 2014 when the FCC issued formal rules for booster use that required carriers to...

You might have heard about ATSC 3.0, also known as NextGen TV. It’s a possible broadcast standard that’s being tested out all over the country. Starting in 2017, broadcasters have been allowed to test this new tech alongside current channels. It took a while to get off the ground, but over 75% of people have access to at least one ATSC 3.0 channel now. Keep in mind that this is the same content you’ll get from regular TV stations, but the technology has changed. With ATSC 3.0, you’ll be able to watch TV in a moving vehicle, although you’ll still need internet access in some cases. Overall picture quality, even on HD channels, can be a little better as well. In the future, ATSC 3.0 promises to bring on-demand programming and 4K, but...

Funny how an article from just a few years ago can look so dated. In this article from late 2013, I talked about “cord-nevers,” those folks who would never actually have a cable bill in their lives, They grew up on cable and satellite, that’s true, but by the time they got old enough to sign up for themselves, they skipped the cord altogether and went straight to streaming. But who are these cord-nevers? I call them “the generation born after 1980,” I call them “folks 18-34” but interestingly enough I never use the word “millennial.” A decade ago that term was still so new that you had to explain it to someone. The millennial generation were just really beginning to exert themselves in 2010, and we didn’t know enough about them to...

DIRECTV Satellite was originally designed for home use. It’s pretty amazing that in the company’s 30 years, DIRECTV hardware has taken to the open road and the open seas. Pioneering companies like Winegard, KVH, KING, and Intellian have found ways to support DIRECTV programming in ways that were never part of the original plan. It’s now possible to get satellite TV 50 miles off shore in a moving boat, or in the middle of the woods using solar power. DIRECTV’s receivers have proven to be incredibly reliable, with some lasting decades so far. In fact, some receivers have lasted so long that the setup process for them has changed. Let’s dig in. What makes RV and marine equipment so different? There are several things which distinguish RV...

Going off-grid for a few days or weeks is a great way to hit the mental “reset” button and reconnect with nature. You don’t have to worry about keeping up with social media when kayaking down rapids and will be able to unwind in a hot spring while your peers are answering emails and taking calls. However, getting away from it all doesn’t mean you should leave all your electronics behind. Nowadays, you can power your gadgets and devices using sources like kinetic energy, mobile generators, and solar power. This is crucial, as some electronics, like two-way radios, may save your life if you get into an emergency. Some tech, like TV dishes and aerials, can help you bring modern comforts with you, too. This is crucial if you consider...

5G has been with us for several years now. It rolled out to much of the country at a time when fewer people were using their phones outside of their homes, but as the world has returned to normal, many people have traded up to 5G-capable phones and have started using 5G while out and about. Today, you have a choice. You can have virtually unlimited high-speed internet at home. That service comes over fiber and goes into your wireless router. Or, you can have slower internet, often with data caps, on your cell phone. No wire is needed so you can get this service pretty much anywhere. The biggest problem with this is that you’re paying twice. You’re paying once for home internet, something you probably don’t use during the day, and once...

Folks, it seems like prices on everything are going up. Traditional pay-TV companies generally have price increases in the first quarter of the year and this year they’ve been pretty mild. Still, it may have convinced you to opt out of local channels on pay TV and go to using an antenna instead. With a lot of broadcast content available on streaming apps the next day, it’s a smart way to know you’ll get the live TV you want. However, not everyone looks forward to climbing up on a roof to mount an outdoor antenna. Not everyone lives where that’s an option. That’s why one of the most common questions we get is, “can I use a small indoor antenna and still get my stations?” It’s such a common question that I thought it would be a good...

Feb 19, 2007 This week Ken welcomes comedian Ahmed Al-Kadri to the show. Ken and Ahmed discuss TV viewing habits and the TV Guide from February 19th to 25th, 2007, favorite TV shows, watching TV as a family, and the impact of superhero TV shows, the post-9/11 TV landscape and the rise of ethnic diversity in stand-up comedy,shifting trends and cultural influences on television during this time, the structure of comedy, Tom Arnold and Orny Adams, the post-apocalyptic TV show Jericho, the fragility of technology, the impact of nuclear bombs, canceled and revived TV shows like Arrested Development and Futurama, as well as the success of Two and a Half Men, fame and infamy of stand-up comedians, the influence of political correctness...