DirecTV Genie Redesigned Menus
- Thread starter Tom Speer
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 103
- Views 9K
The only things that I see on the new Sports Central on my Gemini are things that are available directly from DIRECTV. There are no links to any programming available from third party apps. The categories vary with the season and available programs. It may vary with your package, but it includes pointers to things that I am not authorized for. I have the Entertainment package plus Sports Pack. That does not give me access to most NFL, NBA, MLB and other live pro sports (That is fine with me). Under Sports Central (scrolling vertically) right now are these categories: Live Sports, Football, Baseball, Baseball Movies, Football Movies, Sports Movies, and Recorded Sports. They don't ssem to have a category for Cricket, not that I want to watch. I expect that It will point me to available college football and basketball games when those seasons start, and some Buffalo Bills games carried by local channels.
I think I did see Women's College Basketball on Sports Central at the end of the college season. (We've been testing these new menus in the CE program for months).
I took a look at the Reddit posts, and remembered why I don't spend much time on Reddit. The lack of accurate information there is overwhelming. I have a similar complaint about Reddit when my search for Python programming help has taken me there. One point: They totally confuse the Genie with the Genie mini (or client). The Genie is the server in the client-server model. The HR44, HR54 and HS17 are all Genies, also known as Genie servers within the CE forum. The C31, C41, and C41K, etc are all Genie minis, a.k.a. Genie clients. The Gemini is a client based on AndroidTV/GoogleTV. The client software on the Gemini is an app that the Gemini runs at startup. All the comments that the Genie minis and Gemini are too slow to run the GUI interface overlook the fact the the Guide, Menu, and recordings list are actually being created on the Genie server, along with any A/V streams sent to the clients for display.
Last edited:
I took time today to compare the Sports Central menu on my Gemini, compared to the Sports Central on the DirecTV App on my Roku TV. They are organized in a similar manner, but the DIRECT app version has more categories and more sporting events listed. For instance, the app version has Basketball, Soccer, Golf , Teenis, and Sports League lines that do not appear on the Satellite menus.
Too bad DTV couldn't do one more server with Google TV built into it before the last satellites run out of fuel. Maybe they feel it would be a waste of money because of that?
D10 and D11 are the oldest sats still in use. D10's transponders can be totally replaced by D12. D11 carries spot beam transponders for a large number of local markets, and there are no spare sats with spot beam transponders to replace it. D11 is currently licensed until December 31, 2028. Prior to that they will have to re-evaluate the remaining fuel, and might squeak out another year, if they can and they still want to. My current estimate is that 2028 or 2029 will be the last year they will be able to provide LIL service for a majority of the US.
The Gemini client is providing satellite customers a bridge to the world of streaming, and they are marketing DIRECTV STREAM and via Internet actively. I have got my monthly cost for satellite below what I would pay for streaming for what is important to me, And figuring out the satellite technical stuff is one of my retirement hobbies. I will probably stay with satellite until the end.
When I lose satellite service, if I still live in the Adirondacks in the summer, I will have to subscribe to a streaming service to get my local DMA channels (The transmitters are 100 miles away, behind mountains).
I will definitely raise that issue when there are actual WNBA or women's college basketball games being broadcast (not reruns). They read this thread, too.
The one category that is in Sports Central on the app, but not in the redesigned Genie menus that has a huge following is Motorsports. Maybe it was in my app because it still thought I was in North Carolina.
I’ve looked in the delivery methods and although my Internet is 100% rock solid stable at 600mbps down, the price to go to Internet deliver costs more actually. With Sattelite I can call every year and get on a deal. Plus we still have the $25 off and free HBO Max with my wife’s AT&T cell phone plan. I’m on a plan that doesn’t have much sports but with HBO and Showtime and just the one HR44, it’s just around $80 and change a month. Yeah you might be able to beat that with YouTube TV but at least we have channel number buttons. For the other rooms on the apps I just deal with all of the scrolling.
With the discount I get each year when I call, I also beat the cost of DIRECTV Stream, or any other streaming solution.
UPDATE: The "Get Ready...' promo screen is being rolled out to to everyone with Genies (HR44,HR54,and HS17) in all markets. My previous statement about DirecTV having to enable the redesigned menus after the software is upgraded is incorrect. By tomorrow afternoon, anyone with a software version greater than 0x1B10 will get the new menu. 0X1B14 will start rolling out slowly tomorrow to limited markets. Assuming that their CSRs are not overwhelmed by problems, they will gradually increase the speed of the rollout during August. They tend to do the rollouts from west to east. I
