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Why are there commercials on channels that you pay for?

So… you’re watching the latest Walking Dead spinoff and your spouse says to you, “How come there are commercials on this channel? We pay to get these channels. Does that sound fair to you?” And you think about it, and it really begins to get you angry. You know your spouse is right and you begin to wonder how this injustice has come about. So, you switch over to your Netflix, Hulu, or Disney+ subscription. Like most people you try to manage your streaming costs. So these apps have commercials too. You’re still paying for them, but they have commercials in addition to that. The injustices continue to mount, and your spouse is only going to get angrier. Trying to make sense of it all In the early days of cable television, most channels...
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TIP: Always, always, turn off the breaker

As DIYers, we all know that we skip steps. We’re usually aware of it but we think it won’t matter. I’ve seen a lot of DIY work (and done a lot of DIY work) that is as good as pro quality work. It would pass any code or any inspection you’d want to do. On the other hand, I’ve seen a lot of work that really should have been done by a professional. Mostly it doesn’t matter, because safety isn’t really involved. However, when you’re talking about electricity, safety is ALWAYS involved. Stating the obvious Always always turn off the circuit breaker when you’re doing anything electrical. Turning off the switch is not enough. Some homes are wired to pass electricity through an outlet even if the switch is off, by passing a second “hot” wire...
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NICE AND EASY: How many tuners does a Genie client (or Gemini) use?

Thanks to Signal Pro Rachel for the idea for this article! Sometimes, you can train people a little too well. For years, I’ve been talking about tuner math. I’ve recently updated this article which talks about the idea. It’s a simple one, and I’ll summarize it here. Tuner math is the idea that it’s not the number of boxes you have, it’s what those boxes do. When you’re planning a larger DIRECTV system, you need to be aware of how many receivers, DVRs, and clients you have. The math is pretty simple: Equipment # of tuners HS17 Genie 2 DVR 11* HR54 Genie 1 DVR 7 HR24 DVR (or earlier DVR) 2 H44 receiver (commercial customers) 1 H24 / H25 (or any other receiver) 1 Gemini Internet-connected client 0 4K Genie client 0 HD...
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What is good signal strength on a cell phone?

For the most part, here in the 2020s, we just take it for granted that we’ll be able to make calls and use the internet on our phones. We tend to ignore the bar measurements and just try to use the phone. And you know what? That turns out to be the right answer. Why? Because you probably can’t get a good answer as to what your signal strength is anyway. It’s not just about the bars. Real techies measure cell phone signals in dBm, and ignore the cell phone bars. Why? Because as I said a few years ago, those bar measurements are pretty much meaningless. There’s a lot more to measure on a phone. You need to decide if you need the more precise RSRP measurement. And if you do, are you going to measure 4G signals or 5G ones? Before I...
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Can you get 5G signals with an over-the-air antenna?

Lately there has been a lot of talk about 5G. This tech was going to be the absolute biggest thing there ever was, and I think that honestly most of that hype fizzled. 5G is better than LTE, except of course when it isn’t. I think most of the time it is faster, especially if you live somewhere with “5G+” service. On the other hand, 5G signals have a tendency to work poorly over larger distances, and that’s where LTE still beats it. One of the things that’s being talked about lately is 5G filtering. Most of our Televes antennas will filter 5G signals and you’re starting to see some companies with standalone 5G filters. But is it worth it? Is this even a problem, or is it just something that the antenna companies cooked up to sell you...
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Can you use a DISH Wally as a DVR?

Here’s something that DISH customers have that DIRECTV customers, at the moment, don’t. Yes, you can take your plain-jane Wally receiver and turn it into a 1-tuner DVR. It’s absurdly easy. Pretty much any external hard drive will let you do it. Here’s the specs you need: Self-powered hard drive (not powered by USB) Minimum 500GB capacity Minimum USB 2.0 compatibility That’s a very low bar and truth is you can find hard drives very inexpensively that will do it. If the drive itself is powered by USB, all you need to do is add a powered USB hub to the mix and you’re set. Solid State Drives tend not to work for DVRs as they do wear out more quickly. Besides, they’re more expensive. The big question: why? There will be folks who want...
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THROWBACK THURSDAY: WarnerMedia

Is it just me, or have the last five years seemed like about fifty years? Looking back at this blog, it was five years ago this month that AT&T rolled out its rebrand of the TimeWarner empire. Henceforth, and I expected it to be for quite some time, the business unit would be called “WarnerMedia.” It was in late 2016 that AT&T announced its purchase of what was then known as TimeWarner. The deal took a long time to work its way through the courts, partially because of investigations by the Justice Department. Now, as I’m fond of saying, this is not a political blog. I won’t go into the reasons and the feelings at the time. But, if you search your memories, you may remember a bit of the political climate of late 2016 and early 2017. No...
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Is the time wrong on your RV’s satellite box?

I run into the same issue all the time when talking to folks with RVs. Satellite equipment from DIRECTV or DISH just doesn’t know where it is and it doesn’t expect to move. That’s why often times your satellite receiver will show the wrong time zone. It expects you to be in one place, and you’re not. It’s actually more impressive to me when your satellite equipment does know where it is and does set the time zone properly. For the most part it just sort of happens. For both DIRECTV and DISH, the time zone is set by the service address, in other words the address where they think you are. In most cases this is your home, or where your bill comes to. The exact time is set using signals from the satellite dish, but the choice of Daylight...
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OFFICIAL: DIRECTV will have Red Zone Channel this fall

Yesterday, DIRECTV and NFL announced that their satellite and internet platforms will have both NFL Network and NFL’s own Red Zone Channel. This press release from the NFL confirms it. In addition, U-Verse subscribers (of which, apparently, there are still some) will now have access to those channels if they have the U200 package. Rounding out the great news, DIRECTV for Internet and DIRECTV Stream customers will also have the option for a Sports Pack for the first time. Shoutout to the folks at SatelliteGuys who managed to get this news posted before I did. Why you care Well, the first reason you’d care is if you owned a bar. It took quite a while for DIRECTV and the NFL to announce that NFL Sunday Ticket would be available for...
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UPDATED FOR ’23 AND BEYOND: Enjoy Satellite Service in your RV!

Why stay home when you can roam? That’s the motto of RV’ers everywhere and while you’re roaming, why not take your satellite service with you? Our new white paper shows you all the options in an easy-to-use interactive PDF. The text is listed below, but you’ll want to download this one and click away for a customized guide showing exactly what you’ll need! Click here to download our interactive PDF! Enjoy TV while traveling Whether it’s a big, loud tailgate party or a quiet evening spent watching TV while it’s rainy out, there’s nothing like bringing your home entertainment experience withyou. It’s easy if you put up an antenna, but an antenna isn’t going to take you all the way, right? You want DVR service, recorded programs...
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Ken Reid and Heather Thomas

In this BONUS episode Ken welcomes actor, writer, producer, Battle of the Network Stars Champion, Chicken Mom and all around good human being Heather Thomas to the show. Ken and Heather discuss social media, the difference in celebrity between now and the 1980s, Mercury in Retrograde, being outraged, fat penguins, always learning, not engaging, not getting purged (go to https://dontgetpurged.org/), voting, growing up in Santa Monica, Gidget, Malibu, getting yelled at by Leonard Nimoy, James Coburn, Ford, shooting in Canada, Three Men and a Baby parties, interviewing celebrities as a teenager on the NBC show Talking with a Giant, censorship, Patty Duke, almost drowning at the beach because your mom is talking to Tab Hunter, Rock...
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Podcast #534: Will AI kill us all? There’s a pretty good chance of it

Listen to this off-the-chain, unhinged podcast and then shop for the tech you’ll need at SolidSignal.com. Call us for more details: 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 Google Podcasts Overcast TuneIn Spreaker Stitcher Player.fm Spotify Option 3: Download the podcast in MP3 format. Option 4: Paste the...
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Do you need to get a different RV satellite dish if you change providers?

Let me say this part up front. Solid Signal, the company that underwrites this blog, is a DIRECTV National Accounts dealer and a DISH Premier Local Retailer. Those distinctions might not mean a lot to regular folks, I get it. But it means Solid Signal is in the top, top tier in both organizations. And so, when people ask me which satellite service I like better, I tell them it’s like trying to answer which of your children you like better. Both services have evolved to the point where they’re excellent and it’s just a matter of the details. One service will have something you really want; the other won’t. And that’s how you choose. The best satellite service for your RV Choosing a satellite service for your RV really depends on a lot...
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How much rain fade is acceptable?

Satellite service has occasional rain fade. It would be great if it didn’t. But, it’s a fact that satellite signals sometimes have to travel through some very heavy clouds and that means that the satellite dishes themselves just can’t pull in enough signal all the time. But how reliable is satellite, and how much rain fade should you expect? Both DIRECTV and DISH have said that their service is over 99% reliable. Let’s do the math. A year is 525,600 minutes (as fans of musical theater know), so 1% of that is 87.6 hours. That sounds like a lot of time spent down! Except, when you realize two things. Taking a closer look at those numbers First of all, that’s on the high side. DIRECTV and DISH have to be very conservative with their...
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BREAKING: ATSC 3.0 gets a lifeline from the FCC

Faced with a deadline of July 17, 2023 for the end of ATSC 3.0 test broadcasts, the FCC has taken a step which essentially saves the new technology from extinction, while leaving a lot of other questions open for the future. Like the FCC of 2017, today’s FCC is counting on tomorrow’s FCC to solve those problems, but at the very least they haven’t allowed ATSC 3.0 to die from inaction. What I’m really talking about In a long public statement, the FCC has come to the rescue of ATSC 3.0, but done little else. The deadline for the end of testing for ATSC 3.0 has been pushed to July 17, 2027. The FCC has also put a little reminder in their calendars to look at things in 2026 to see if this deadline needs to be pushed again. Honestly...
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