The Solid Signal Blog

Here’s a suggestion that doesn’t seem like it would make sense. DIRECTV does have an app for smartphones, as well as Roku, Fire OS, and Apple TV boxes. I’m telling you that you’re going to want to load it if you can, and you’ll thank me later. Hey shouldn’t this blog be all about satellite TV? Yes, it’s true. Solid Signal is one of the nation’s largest satellite TV dealers. And I stand by my feeling that satellite TV isn’t going anywhere. There are still close to 20 million households, and that means about 40-50 million people, who use satellite TV every day. That’s a pretty big number for people to say “oh it’s going away.” But yes, there’s the internet and it competes for your attention. That’s why DISH and DIRECTV both offer...

It may be painful, friends, but think back to those days of 2020. The world turned upside down pretty quickly, and a lot of companies struggled to adapt quickly enough. (Anyone remember trying to get toilet paper?) One of the big successes of the time was gotW3. They were a “right place, right time” company offering cellular routers with true unlimited data plans exactly when we needed them. Most of us really didn’t realize how much our home internet lacked until we needed it to support two working adults and a spate of children all trying to use it for video at the same time. The solutions from gotW3, well, got us through it. Those unlimited plans seemed too good to be true, and they were. It wasn’t long before the company shifted to...

The date was May 11, 2018. The world was a different place. In some ways better, in some ways worse, but definitely different. I was listening to music while looking for a subject for this blog. This song happened to pop up: The song was about three years old at that time and still in fairly heavy rotation on a lot of stations. That’s right boys and girls, I was listening to something called “the radio.” Even back then I listened mostly to streaming but on that day I was feeling old-school. By strange coincidence, I happened to see a couple of antennas, one shaped like an X and one like O. And so I wrote an article about it. Unfortunately, neither of the antennas I featured in that article back then are available at Solid Signal...

It’s funny, even though people love to forecast “doom and gloom” for the pay-TV industry in general, there are plenty of folks putting in new service and expanding the service that they already have. I get this question all the time, and although the answer isn’t completely straightforward, it’s pretty easy once you understand a few things. What is DIRECTV Genie? This was the original intro graphic for Genie back in 2011. Genie is DIRECTV’s name for its DVR server and client system. The idea is that all the hard work of decoding and recording signals takes place in one box and then all the other boxes can be small, simple, and quiet. DISH does something similar with their Hopper and Joey system. By doing it this way, the boxes...

Here’s one that comes straight from the support desk at Signal Connect. A customer came to us saying that every time they pull into the marina and put their boat into the slip, they lost satellite signal. They wanted to try to understand the problem. Sometimes it’s the easy answer that’s hard to find When customers call us or use our chat system, we try to go through every possible diagnostic step. We often start with rebooting their systems, because that solves more problems than you think. There are a lot of other steps we can take as well. There are diagnostic steps you can do, there are tests you can run. We’ve even been able to help customers check their wiring using the tools they have available. Sometimes, though, the easiest...

March 25-31, 1989 This week Ken welcomes old friend, new fan, writer (film blog www.film5000.com) and host/producer of The Brattle Film Podcast Ian Brownell. Ken and Ian discuss Siskel and Ebert, podcast heroes, movie freaks, the religion of cinema, growing up outside of New Bedford, Providence RI stations, growing up on a farm, not having cable, Evening Magazine, The Big Dan’s Rape Trial, Big Pinball, The Accused, going to boarding school, Jim Henson, The Storyteller, The Jim Henson Hour, being obsessive, not being able to watch things out of order, how the magic is gone after the creator leaves, voice actors aging, A Muppet Family Christmas, only being moved to tears by television, having two VCRs, anthology shows, film...

Solid Signal sells DISH remote controls. We have all the ones that have been available for the last 15 or so years. Most of them will work with pretty much any DISH box you have, but we have different ones so that you can use a remote that you’re comfortable with. The series 21 remote What you see here is DISH’s series 21 remote. It was the one to get if you had DISH service in the 2000s. It will work with newer devices, but it lacks some of the buttons that newer DVRs need in order to give you the best experience. If you want to use voice control, or go to your Hopper Plus to stream the latest entertainment, this remote isn’t for you. But, if you still have a ViP622 or ViP722 DVR from back in those days, this is what you’re familiar...

Hey, I’m just like you. A couple times a day I get a call from a number I don’t recognize. Thanks to some hard work by cell carriers, a lot of them show up as “Spam Risk.” I don’t even bother looking any further, and I bet you don’t either. Recently, though, you might have gotten a call from the 248 area code and wondered who this was and why these people are calling, I can clear it up for you. It’s not spam. You might even want to answer the phone when you see that call coming in. 248 is Solid Signal’s area code. Solid Signal’s corporate offices are in Novi, Michigan. That’s in the metro Detroit area. We’re proud to be a US-based company, and we have been since 2002 when we were founded. The 248 and 947 area codes serve our region...

They sure don’t make it easy. Luckily you have experts like Signal Connect on your side. 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 below. Amazon iTunes Google Podcasts Overcast TuneIn Spreaker Stitcher Player.fm Spotify Option 3: Download the podcast in MP3 format. Option 4: Paste the following link into your favorite...

Satellite TV in your RV is a great value. A lot of used RVs have satellite dishes built in that will still work with today’s service. New RVs can add satellite TV for a lot less than it costs to add low earth orbit satellite internet (like Starlink.) The monthly cost is really low, especially if you can just extend your home satellite service to cover your RV. (Want to find out how? Call us at 888-233-7563.) DVR service for your RV is a no-brainer Here are the facts. RVs tend to be parked at night. A lot of RV satellite systems only work when you’re parked. TV antennas only work when you’re parked. Streaming can be unreliable if you’re driving in the middle of nowhere. So let’s put those things together and understand what you...

One of my favorite older articles says, “The problem with everything — yes everything — is the battery.” It was true then, it was true a decade ago, and it’s true now. If battery tech had improved at the same rate and in the same way as computer tech, we’d all have batteries the size of a pinhead that lasted for a month. But we don’t have that, and that’s the problem. Look at any of the incredibly detailed teardowns over at iFixit and you’ll realize that most mobile devices are about 50% battery. Not only that, you don’t need me to tell you that it takes way too long to charge something. The fastest chargers for electric cars still take about 20 minutes to get you to 90% charge. The fastest cell phone chargers take about the same...

My hatred for Bluetooth is well documented, friends. Take a look at this article, and this one, and this one. The mid-2010s were not a good time for my relationship with this technology. Bluetooth itself was still a rapidly evolving thing and unfortunately that meant a lot of problems as it matured. Things got a little better for me in the years after I wrote those articles, I got a new car, a new computer, a new phone, and threw out responsibly recycled all my old Bluetooth stuff. Of course that was six years ago and now everything’s getting old again. Sadly, the same problems are starting to pop up. The one nice thing I’ll say I have to say, Bluetooth LE has been a win for me. It’s integrated into a few things I have now, including...

Wireless charging isn’t new… despite what Apple wants to tell you. If you’re an Android user you probably already have a phone that does it. If you’ve been to Starbucks, you may have already used it since many of their stores have wireless chargers built into the tables. In fact, wireless charging hit the streets back in 2010 (and take a look at the slightly embarrassing video we did back then!) but it took several years before it was actually built into the phones themselves. Now that it’s here… should you use it? No matter what, wireless charging is slow. Apple’s phones will charge really slowly because they use an older version of the Qi standard that passes only 7.5 watts to the phone. Samsung and others use the new standard that...

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Everyone’s talking about Starlink these days. I get it. It’s cool and exciting. Why wouldn’t you want to be able to stream at high speed from anywhere? But there’s some stuff they won’t tell you. I’ll tell you though, although I don’t think you’ll like it. Starlink is more expensive than you think Starlink advertises itself as costing about $150 a month. Now, that’s probably more than you’re paying for home internet already. (By the way, if you’re paying more than $50 a month for high-speed internet, you need to check this out.) If you’re in a really rural area, though, you might consider that to be a bargain since you probably can’t get high speed at any price. They don’t tell you that the $150 plan probably won’t keep you happy for...