The Solid Signal Blog

Get the latest on the world of Technology from our friends at SolidSignal.COM
Toggle sidebar

6 of the 10 top networks are available on free, over-the-air TV. Why are you paying for them?

Over the years, it’s been very hard to compare antenna TV, pay TV, and streaming. It’s still really hard to get viewer numbers, but that’s because of the different ways that watching is counted. Live broadcasts over the air and on pay TV count the number of people watching within 3 days of broadcast, although watching up to 7 days out still counts for something. Streaming does it differently. Streaming counts the number of minutes watched for every show, no matter when it came out. So it’s worse than comparing apples to oranges. It’s more like comparing apples to extraplanetary gaseous phenomena. Variety cracks the code Variety, that long-standing publication, has published a set of statistics that at least compare over-the-air...
View full article »

Podcast #582: DIRECTV NFL Sunday Ticket is a great value!

Business customers who want NFL football can’t stream it. There’s a better option – get reliable service from DIRECTV in your business or on your boat! Want to know more? Call the Signal Connect experts 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 below. Amazon iTunes Overcast TuneIn Spreaker Player.fm Spotify Option 3: Download...
View full article »

Choose weBoost products for your home and RV!

Folks, let’s all be honest with ourselves. It’s not 1995. Cell phones aren’t just something “nice to have.” They’re the way we connect to everyone and everything in the world. Yet, believe it or not most people still have slow data and poor voice quality somewhere, at least once a day. As a society we agree that cell phones are important, but building technology hasn’t caught up yet. Energy-efficient construction techniques actively block cell signals, and that can mean problems staying connected. You probably have dead spots at home. You know where they are and you walk away from them when you want to use your phone. When you’re driving, you never know when you’ll find an oversubscribed tower or an area with weak coverage. You need a...
View full article »

How did USB take over the world?

It’s everywhere. It’s on your PC. You’ll find it on your phone (at least, on one side of the cable.) It’s even used as a connector to power things like antenna amplifiers. USB is, quite literally, everywhere. Why? How? So many things about USB seem like an abomination and yet, it’s impossible to avoid. Let’s take a look at the history, and try to figure out how USB took over the world. The world before USB Take a look back, my friends, to the early days of computers. I mean the really early days of the 1970s. Home computers, as they were called back then, were just starting to emerge. And while it was fun to say you had a computer in your home, these weren’t the friendly PCs and tablets you know today. They had two problems. First of...
View full article »

NICE AND EASY: Fix grey screen on Genie Mini Client

Good for you. You decided to add DIRECTV to another room in your house. You ran the cable, you picked up a new Genie Mini Client from Solid Signal, you connected it, plugged it in, and… Solid Grey Screen. Well that’s not what you were shooting for, now was it? Let’s go through the steps you need in order to fix the problem. Step 1: Solid Green Light? The network light on the front of the client should be solid green. Keep in mind it’s sort of a yellowish-green. A green light means strong network connection between the client and other devices on the coax line. If the light is amber, that means a weak connection and red means no connection. If the light is blinking green, it means there is another device but the client can’t...
View full article »

A more technical look at what a cell booster does

Several years ago, I put out a simple article called “What is a cell booster?” I’d seen a lot of diagrams like this one: and they did a pretty good job of showing the process, but I thought it also deserved a bit of an explanation in words. Google still understands words better than pictures, so I thought the article would get out in the world and help more people understand cell boosters. Here it is quite some time later and I thought I’d dip into the same thing but with an eye toward the more technical aspects of the process. The bidirectional nature of cell phone signal boosters Generally speaking, when we talk about cell boosters we say that a cell booster takes weak signal from outside, amplifies it, and pumps it out inside...
View full article »

What channels should you use for testing your DIRECTV system?

DIRECTV satellite TV is extremely reliable. But all of us, at one time, wonder if it’s working perfectly. (Or, it’s just a slow Sunday and there’s nothing you want to watch.) DIRECTV has a lot of tools that will let you see if your system is working right. On most DIRECTV systems, pressing and holding INFO on a DIRECTV-branded remote will run a system test. You can also check your satellite setup and signal levels. Here are a pair of videos showing you how to do that: But that might not help you right away. Remember to run signal strength tests, you need to disrupt satellite TV watching for everyone. Luckily there are two tools you can use to figure out if things are working right. The simplest tool: channel 331 MTV When customers...
View full article »

BUSINESS OWNERS AND BOAT OWNERS: It’s time to sign up for NFL Sunday Ticket

With all the hype about streaming lately, it’s easy to forget that the most popular sports package in the country is still available on DIRECTV. NFL Sunday Ticket gives you every out-of-market game, every Sunday (You can watch in-market games on your local CBS or Fox affiliate.) Sunday Ticket moved over to a streaming model for homes, but if you’re a business owner or boat owner, it’s still exclusive to DIRECTV. Every Game, Every Sunday That’s been the motto of DIRECTV NFL Sunday Ticket for decades, and this year doesn’t disappoint. DIRECTV’s marketing materials are careful to point out that you’ll get locally-airing games on local channels, but if you add it up, DIRECTV still gives you every game that airs on Sundays. You’ll just...
View full article »

STREAMING SATURDAY: “Streaming is turning into cable”

As streaming prices continue to increase and apps continue to consolidate, we’re all seeing that headline more and more. I myself have written a lot about how there’s an overall lack of choice, increasing prices, and far less new content than there once was. But, I’ll stop short of saying “Streaming is turning into cable.” Why? Because streaming has gotten much, much worse than that. When I say cable, I mean pay television Cards on the table here, folks. I’m a big fan of pay television, and Solid Signal (the folks who sponsor this blog) are too. We’re DIRECTV and DISH dealers, in fact. So naturally I’ll admit to being a little biased. But even so, I think we have to look at what’s happened in streaming in the last two years and admit...
View full article »

It’s summertime. You’re spending time on your boat. Who cares about watching TV?

Not the sort of article you’d expect to find at a satellite TV blog, right? Well, let’s back up for a moment and see how we got here. For a lot of folks, summertime means leisure time. The kids are out of school, the weather’s good, and no matter what year it is, chances are it’s been a long cold lonely winter. The lure of fresh air is irresistible. It’s even more fun if you’re one of the many folks who have a leisure craft. A small cabin cruiser or a luxury yacht, it doesn’t matter — it’s your gateway to the good life. And what is the good life? Well, we all have our own ideas about that. But there’s something we all agree on: the good life means doing it your way and not having to stress out. If you have a boat, you’re going to want...
View full article »

FUN FRIDAY: What’s on TV in 1997

One of the neat things about YouTube is that it doesn’t just preserve important things. I mean, you would expect someone like the Library of Congress to preserve things like newspapers from September 11, 2001. You would expect the Paley Center to have footage of TV’s first interracial kiss. (It wasn’t, as many believe, that episode of Star Trek.) But what’s neat about YouTube is that it’s pretty easy for regular folks to just upload regular stuff that turns out to have a lot of interesting value later. How they do it Video grabber systems like this one aren’t very expensive. You connect one end to your VHS or DVD player and one end to your computer. While it usually won’t work with copyrighted stuff, it’s an easy way to get all your...
View full article »

Should you be worried about the Prop 65 warnings on almost everything?

OK, there comes a point where even a so-called “coastal elitist” says, enough. The State of California mandates that a warning be placed on any device, any part, and in any location where any potentially cancer-causing material can exist. The warning was approved by voters in 1986 as Proposition 65, and that’s the name people generally use for these sorts of warnings. But has it gone too far? I mean, it seems like this warning is on everything, including walking into most stores. What does Prop 65 actually save you from? There’s a ridiculously long list published by the California government here. It includes lead (used in solder on circuit boards), cadmium (used in some batteries) and lithium (used in the batteries that don’t...
View full article »

Your Base Station Antenna Solution

If you are a first responder, you probably know what a base station antenna is. It’s the device that sits atop your station that sends and receives transmissions to emergency vehicles. These specialized antennas use frequencies between the FM and TV bands, and beneath cellular bands. Your department depends on the messages sent and received by these devices. That’s why having the right base station antenna is crucial to any first responder organization. Even if you already have a base station antenna, the day could come where you need to upgrade it. Why? Because you might not know how long that antenna has been atop the roof of your station. Also, cities and municipalities are growing all the time. New buildings can interrupt the path...
View full article »

What’s the real difference between rechargeable batteries and regular ones?

You can get regular batteries, and you can get rechargeable batteries. But why aren’t all batteries rechargeable? After all, they were chargeable once, right? They don’t just fall from the sky fully charged, right? Has it ever made you wonder about exactly what the difference is? It’s true, all batteries are designed to take a charge. And if you want to know the dirty little secret… almost all batteries could actually be recharged under the right circumstances. So why aren’t they all sold as rechargeable? It’s about intent The real difference between a regular alkaline battery and a rechargeable one is that the rechargeable one is made to be recharged. Recharging a battery puts a lot of stress on it, as the energy flows into the...
View full article »
You must log in or register to post here.

Latest posts

Top
Back