New Genie Menus Coming in July

[Foxbat]

Since I do her Tech Support, I went and rearranged her connection. Her original Toshiba HDTV did not have enough video inputs to support switching from DirecTV to DVD to VHS, so everything was routed through the Denon. She is pretty tech-adverse, so the Harmony remote does all the heavy lifting in the background. The last programming change was when her Toshiba died (backlight CFL failure) and we replaced it with our 40” 2014 Sony Bravia that was a spare after I had picked up an 48” LG OLED.

Unfortunately, the Sony doesn’t do ARC and recently lost its ability to display the Local Programming Guide, so she might be needing a new HDTV as well (it’s only money, right?) I was able to move the DirecTV to the input the Denon was using so the “Watch TV” activity didn’t need to be updated on the remote, and I ran a coaxial RCA cable from the DVR to the COAX digital audio input on the Denon, changing the Cbl/Sat Audio input to COAX from HDMI.

The “Watch Local TV” activity stays the same, but she won’t be able to watch DVD or anything else through the Denon as it’s plugged into the TV’s HDMI 3 input which the Harmony remote won’t switch to unless I reprogram it. I want to get a stable situation before that.

So, what’s to stop DirecTV from sending another security update and Borking this again? It sounds like the DBS industry needs to inform their customers that they can’t guarantee their service will work except with new devices…

 

[Tom Speer]

If the TV has two HDMI inputs that you can use, use them for DIRECTV and the AVR. Run everything else through the AVR.

 

[Foxbat]

I did get a response to my Support Request to Denon. They confirmed I have the latest Firmware installed, but they said this should only be a concern on 4K content. Nope, this is on local TV channels, music channels, 480, 720, and 1080 content.

Basically, the DirecTV puts this message up on every channel regardless of the content resolution; everything is encrypted.

 

[Foxbat]

Update: replacing the decade-old Denon AVR-E400 with a Denon AVR-S660H audio-video receiver took care of the “not authorized” message. This Denon supports up to 8K video, way more than our friend will ever need.

 

[dtv757]

got the new menu today in 757 VA

 

[John2021]

Is there a particular software version associated with the new menus?

 

[John2021]

One thing I don't like about the Gemini box is it doesn't have an HDR On/Off setting.

Agree though since the new update for our sonys we keep the boxes set to HLG mode works great no more throwing the remote at the TV while trying to watch it lol since it has eliminated the grey screens and pixelations!!! We keep our gemini set to 4k all the time.

 

[Jimbo]

Agree though since the new update for our sonys we keep the boxes set to HLG mode works great no more throwing the remote at the TV while trying to watch it lol since it has eliminated the grey screens and pixelations!!! We keep our gemini set to 4k all the time.

Oh John ....
Patience ....

You Never want to throw your Remote at your Sony TV ...

 

[John2021]

Oh John ....
Patience ....

You Never want to throw your Remote at your Sony TV ...

no i don't wanna pay that sony tax again to soon it's not that time yet to upgrade.. there's nothing out there worth making a change for just yet as far as oleds. though for a mini led the bravia 9 is pretty sweet!!! though i see they made the remotes smaller now and there not like fly swatters

 

[CSM]

On my x930e I had to download the Dolby Vision update, and I think that update was bad because I need to turn HDR off to make the picture bright.

 

[John2021]

There's speculation there working on the guide to. There putting the channel logos back. If this is true it will be a good thing as dtv has the worst guide on the planet!

 

[John2021]

I was talking about when they did the redesign of the guide before this new one.

The new menu is the same for the c61k as well it's just black and not blue like the Gemini is

 

[Jimbo]

There's speculation there working on the guide to. There putting the channel logos back. If this is true it will be a good thing as dtv has the worst guide on the planet!

I hate the Logos as it clutters up the guide all the more.
One other issue that was speculated was that the recvrs didn't have enough Power to run the guide with the Logos.

 

[John2021]

I hate the Logos as it clutters up the guide all the more.
One other issue that was speculated was that the recvrs didn't have enough Power to run the guide with the Logos.

why do you say that??? or was that an AT&T screw up on how they designed it!!! id'e say it would be better than the gibberish they have on the screen now.

 

[Johnnyspot]

why do you say that??? or was that an AT&T screw up on how they designed it!!! id'e say it would be better than the gibberish they have on the screen now.

It was well reported and documented by Directv Engineers that the reason it was pulled prior was because of performance. Unless there is a massive overhaul to the software to improve performance the current equipment cant handle all of that

 

[b4pjoe]

It was well reported and documented by Directv Engineers that the reason it was pulled prior was because of performance. Unless there is a massive overhaul to the software to improve performance the current equipment cant handle all of that

Performance issues would be lessened if they could use vector .svg images for the logos instead of using bitmapped graphics like jpeg or png files. They are much smaller files with much better quality but I am not sure if the old DIRECTV hardware and software could be made to use .svg files.

 

[KyL416]

There's speculation there working on the guide to. There putting the channel logos back.

Anyone "speculating" that has no idea what they're talking about. There is no grid guide redesign in the works.

Performance issues aside, when there was logos instead of callsigns it was an inconsistent mess as there are multiple channels that for various reasons will never have logos like the independent locals and the pay to play channels paying to be next to popular channels like USA, Comedy Central, GSN, AMC, History, etc. Along with channels that don't have unique logos like many of the west coast feeds and the in house channels that all have the generic DTV logo. Then you have the networks that still have outdated logos from several years ago because they never provided an EPG friendly version of their current logo to affiliates. Heck, there's actually a reverse of that right now since back in August Discovery Family jumped the gun and told all of their affiliates to immediately switch to the new "DFC" logo, yet two months later they are still using the previous logo on air.

 

[Jimbo]

why do you say that??? or was that an AT&T screw up on how they designed it!!! id'e say it would be better than the gibberish they have on the screen now.

Are you referring to the ADs ?
They have been there for about 10 years now... they are actually quite dumb as, do they really think people are signing up for things they see on that ad ?
I wish they would be gone, but I really just skip over them and move on.

 

[KyL416]

The banners in the guide predate AT&T, they've been around since the old blue & white UI. At quick search the first mention of them here was back in 2011.

Some of them are useful though, like the ones that mention free previews and targetted discounts that most viewers wouldn't otherwise know about unless they visit forums like this, browse the slate channels in the 9700s, or regularly check the insider website.

 

[John2021]

Are you referring to the ADs ?
They have been there for about 10 years now... they are actually quite dumb as, do they really think people are signing up for things they see on that ad ?
I wish they would be gone, but I really just skip over them and move on.

No. I'm referring to the channel numbers on the left of the guide logos would be alot better. I agree the ads are annoying as all hell for crap I'll never order 😒. I wish they would go away also. What's even more annoying is downloading a show to binge watch and there's 40-50 episodes and you have to fight with the genie to delete it. You should not have to keep pressing the red button over and over to delete them!!