Is Gemini worth it? Email claiming free upgrade.

[cypherstream]

I clicked the link in the email for the free upgrade and on the computer it opens a new tab that closes right away. I copy the link and paste it in a new tab and it takes me to AT&T’s log in which I do and then I’m just at the account center. I tried clicking on the link in my iPhone and it also takes me to my AT&T DirecTV account center where it just shows the bill, equipment and package. I guess the link doesn’t work so that’s a sign to me “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. I’ll just hang on to my HR44 until it’s hard drive dies.

The premise of a voice remote and having Google play store apps all on one device was neat but maybe things will just get better as time goes on and more powerful hardware will be released.

 

[b4pjoe]

I clicked the link in the email for the free upgrade and on the computer it opens a new tab that closes right away. I copy the link and paste it in a new tab and it takes me to AT&T’s log in which I do and then I’m just at the account center. I tried clicking on the link in my iPhone and it also takes me to my AT&T DirecTV account center where it just shows the bill, equipment and package. I guess the link doesn’t work so that’s a sign to me “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. I’ll just hang on to my HR44 until it’s hard drive dies.

The premise of a voice remote and having Google play store apps all on one device was neat but maybe things will just get better as time goes on and more powerful hardware will be released.

The Gemini doesn’t replace a Genie, HR44 in your case, it installs as a client of the Genie.

 

[cypherstream]

The Gemini doesn’t replace a Genie, HR44 in your case, it installs as a client of the Genie.

Right I would have used it in colocation mode with a short ethernet cable from the genie to it, putting the genie on wireless.

 

[b4pjoe]

Right I would have used it in colocation mode with a short ethernet cable from the genie to it, putting the genie on wireless.

In that case...

I clicked the link in the email for the free upgrade and on the computer it opens a new tab that closes right away. I copy the link and paste it in a new tab and it takes me to AT&T’s log in which I do and then I’m just at the account center. I tried clicking on the link in my iPhone and it also takes me to my AT&T DirecTV account center where it just shows the bill, equipment and package. I guess the link doesn’t work so that’s a sign to me “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”.

I don't think there is any way to order a Gemini via your online account. Pretty sure you have to call to get it.

 

[cypherstream]

In that case...

I don't think there is any way to order a Gemini via your online account. Pretty sure you have to call to get it.

Oh there is a a big yellow button in the email "Order Online" but there is also a phone number under the text that says "Don't have an online account? Create one now".

I'll likely leave it be until the HR44 dies.

 

[John2021]

Oh there is a a big yellow button in the email "Order Online" but there is also a phone number under the text that says "Don't have an online account? Create one now".

I'll likely leave it be until the HR44 dies.

The only reason to upgrade is for the 4k last i knew the HR44 could not do 4k!!! were on the genie 2 the gemini is faster for us but maybe that's because they brought us a brand new server that was manufactured this year vs an old POS that's been out in the field for ever. the PQ is better than our old C61K also. makes no sense unless you want 4K

 

[savarese04]

The only reason to upgrade is for the 4k last i knew the HR44 could not do 4k!!! were on the genie 2 the gemini is faster for us but maybe that's because they brought us a brand new server that was manufactured this year vs an old POS that's been out in the field for ever. the PQ is better than our old C61K also. makes no sense unless you want 4K

the HR44 can do 4K. the Gemini is a faster box though, so you're right about that.

 

[Tom Speer]

the HR44 can do 4K. the Gemini is a faster box though, so you're right about that.

I don't think they will develop a faster Genie or any other DVR for home use. They are planning for the end of life of their satellites. The HS17 is faster than your HR44, and it will make the Gemini appear faster also. The speed of the user interface corelates closely with the processing speed of the Genie it is attached to. Most of the user interface is generated on the Genie server.

Calling the number on that promotion will probably work. But they will try to sell you an upgrade to an HS17, and a two year contract.

HR44's are only as good as their aging hard drives.

 

[CSM]

I don't think they will develop a faster Genie or any other DVR for home use. They are planning for the end of life of their satellites. The HS17 is faster than your HR44, and it will make the Gemini appear faster also. The speed of the user interface corelates closely with the processing speed of the Genie it is attached to. Most of the user interface is generated on the Genie server.

Calling the number on that promotion will probably work. But they will try to sell you an upgrade to an HS17, and a two year contract.

HR44's are only as good as their aging hard drives.

Too bad they couldn't do at least one more with Google TV and output to 4k over HDMI before the satellites run out of fuel.

 

[cypherstream]

I don't think they will develop a faster Genie or any other DVR for home use. They are planning for the end of life of their satellites. The HS17 is faster than your HR44, and it will make the Gemini appear faster also. The speed of the user interface corelates closely with the processing speed of the Genie it is attached to. Most of the user interface is generated on the Genie server.

Calling the number on that promotion will probably work. But they will try to sell you an upgrade to an HS17, and a two year contract.

HR44's are only as good as their aging hard drives.

When the hard drive in the HR44 dies, I will use that as an opportunity to make changes. Its only inevitable. I raid my data drive on my PC but obv cant do that on a DVR.

Theres just a lot of content and settings that we'll hang on to until its deathbed.

In incognito mode, the link works, but it asks for a mac address of a client to replace. It says if you don't have one here is a number to call. Its a special number, not the main number ending in -5000.

 

[John2021]

the HR44 can do 4K. the Gemini is a faster box though, so you're right about that.

good to know i heard the HR44 struggled with 4k though!!! the gemini is a great box!!! the 4K upconvert is great as well the picture pops!!!

 

[John2021]

I don't think they will develop a faster Genie or any other DVR for home use. They are planning for the end of life of their satellites. The HS17 is faster than your HR44, and it will make the Gemini appear faster also. The speed of the user interface corelates closely with the processing speed of the Genie it is attached to. Most of the user interface is generated on the Genie server.

Calling the number on that promotion will probably work. But they will try to sell you an upgrade to an HS17, and a two year contract.

HR44's are only as good as their aging hard drives.

now that they own dish i wonder what there going to do with the sat that dish was building or going to build?

 

[b4pjoe]

now that they own dish i wonder what there going to do with the sat that dish was building or going to build?

They are long way from “owning” Dish.

 

[Volunteer]

There is one way you can benefit from that free Gemini. Order it as a co-located configuration. That would give you a 4K output for the TV currently connected to the HR44. The Gemini connects to the HR44 with an ethernet cable, and they disable the video streams from the HDMI port on the HR44. This doesn't add an extra $7 receiver fee. The HR44 would have to connect to the Internet via your home wireless network, rather than the Ethernet jack. DIRECTV wants to assure that the Genie client-server IP traffic doesn't travel on the same medium as other IP traffic. (There is an unauthorized solution that can accomplish that.).

I have a HR54 + 4Kmini located together at my Sony Bravia 4K TV with the 4Kmini only for viewing 4K sports on 105-107. I have removed all other DTV equipment in favor of using the DirecTV app for occasional viewing on smart TV's in other rooms.

I am considering replacing the 4Kmini with a GEMINI that would be co-located with the HR54 just to eliminate the extra $7 receiver fee.

Are there any HR54 to GEMINI co-location connections that work, other than direct ethernet connection between the HR54 and GEMINI, such as wiring both the HR54 and GEMINI to an ethernet switch?

How does the GEMINI handle SDR and HDR output? Is it always native or never HDR or always HDR? Is the GEMINI HDR and SDR picture quality similar to the 4Kmini?

Any other considerations in making this potential swap? I have no interest in the GEMINI apps, I'll continue to use my smart TV for those. The only reason for the swap is to eliminate the $7/mo receiver fee that I'm getting no value from.

Thanks

 

[AZ.]

I have a HR54 + 4Kmini located together at my Sony Bravia 4K TV with the 4Kmini only for viewing 4K sports on 105-107. I have removed all other DTV equipment in favor of using the DirecTV app for occasional viewing on smart TV's in other rooms.

I am considering replacing the 4Kmini with a GEMINI that would be co-located with the HR54 just to eliminate the extra $7 receiver fee.

Are there any HR54 to GEMINI co-location connections that work, other than direct ethernet connection between the HR54 and GEMINI, such as wiring both the HR54 and GEMINI to an ethernet switch?

How does the GEMINI handle SDR and HDR output? Is it always native or never HDR or always HDR? Is the GEMINI HDR and SDR picture quality similar to the 4Kmini?

Any other considerations in making this potential swap? I have no interest in the GEMINI apps, I'll continue to use my smart TV for those. The only reason for the swap is to eliminate the $7/mo receiver fee that I'm getting no value from.

Thanks

I belive you get it for free( add another year on your contract) but still get charged the $7 I think. Read the fine print, that was my offer and I passed.

 

[b4pjoe]

Are there any HR54 to GEMINI co-location connections that work, other than direct ethernet connection between the HR54 and GEMINI, such as wiring both the HR54 and GEMINI to an ethernet switch?

They can both be on the network via ethernet and it will work but then there will not be any co-location so you will still have the $7.00 fee for both of them...same as you have now. When they are co-located the video programming from the HR54 is disabled which is why you are no longer charged the $7.00 fee for it.

How does the GEMINI handle SDR and HDR output? Is it always native or never HDR or always HDR? Is the GEMINI HDR and SDR picture quality similar to the 4Kmini?

HDR is always on. My Gemini picture quality is better than my C61K (4K mini).

Any other considerations in making this potential swap? I have no interest in the GEMINI apps, I'll continue to use my smart TV for those.

TV streaming apps are basically garbage. You would be better off using the apps on the Gemini.

 

[John2021]

I belive you get it for free( add another year on your contract) but still get charged the $7 I think. Read the fine print, that was my offer and I passed.

it's a one year contract for the gemini if you do a self install and a two year if a tech has to come out and do it for you. we replaced our main clients with the gemini so no 7.00 a month extra fee for us unless we wanted to add another room

 

[Tom Speer]

The co-location is a "service" that is added to your HR44 or HR54 that disables watching any programming on the HR54, and saves the $7/month fee for the HR54. The HR54 can still display settings menus and the like.

Connecting both the HR54 and the Gemini to an ethernet switch is not approved by DIRECTV, but with a good layer 2 ethernet switch, it will learn which devices ae on each of its ports and isolate the DIRECTV traffic from the rest of your network, except for the Internet traffic going to the HR54. I believe he communication between the Gemini (or any other client) and the server is NOT IP protocol, just layer 2 non routable ethernet traffic witthout error checking. IP traffic on that path could cause dropped A/V packets causing pixelation. That said, I operated my Gemini all summer in such a configuration with a 4 port Gigabit switch directly under the HR54, Gemini, and TV. I never got around to trying the co-location "service", because I didn't look forward to switching it back in the fall, when we returned to our winter home.

 

[Volunteer]

The co-location is a "service" that is added to your HR44 or HR54 that disables watching any programming on the HR54, and saves the $7/month fee for the HR54. The HR54 can still display settings menus and the like.

Connecting both the HR54 and the Gemini to an ethernet switch is not approved by DIRECTV, but with a good layer 2 ethernet switch, it will learn which devices ae on each of its ports and isolate the DIRECTV traffic from the rest of your network, except for the Internet traffic going to the HR54. I believe he communication between the Gemini (or any other client) and the server is NOT IP protocol, just layer 2 non routable ethernet traffic witthout error checking. IP traffic on that path could cause dropped A/V packets causing pixelation. That said, I operated my Gemini all summer in such a configuration with a 4 port Gigabit switch directly under the HR54, Gemini, and TV. I never got around to trying the co-location "service", because I didn't look forward to switching it back in the fall, when we returned to our winter home.

Thanks for the feedback.

What I'm looking to accomplish when the colocation service is activated for the HR54/GEMINI combination is to avoid having to place the HR54 and GEMINI next to each other AND if possible to avoid having to connect the HR54 to the router via WIFI to get to the internet.

In other words I would like to keep the HR54 with it's eSata drive and AM21 OTA tuners in another part of the house out of the way and keep everything wired to DTV MOCA coax or my home wired ethernet network. I understand the HR54 becomes "headless" when the colocate service is activated and can no longer output video.

After I activate the colocate service with the specified direct wired ethernet HR54/GEMINI connection, could I remove the direct connection and connect the HR54 and GEMINI to a Gigabit switch that is upstream connected to my ROUTER to get the internet? I'm not sure this will work to move the non-IP protocol network traffic between the HR54 and the GEMINI and the IP protocol network traffic between the HR54 and ROUTER?

Alternatively, after the colocate service is activated using the direct wired ether HR54/GEMINI, could I remove the direct connection and use a DTV MOCA adapter to connect the GEMINI to the same DTV MOCA network the HR54 is connected to via COAX and then connect the HR54 to my ROUTER using a wired ethernet connection? I'm not sure if this connection will work to get all the traffic moving to the right destinations either.

 

[b4pjoe]

What I'm looking to accomplish when the colocation service is activated for the HR54/GEMINI combination is to avoid having to place the HR54 and GEMINI next to each other AND if possible to avoid having to connect the HR54 to the router via WIFI to get to the internet.

You can put them in different locations but you would need a long enough ethernet cable to connect them together. Co-location can only be accomplished via an ethernet connection between the two devices...HR54 <===> Gemini. Then the only option to get internet is via wireless to the HR54 which supplies internet via the MOCA network to all other receivers