Q- What are the fastest turtles in the world?
A- Anyone at CEDIA wearing a DirecTV shirt when they spot a person with Press credentials!
I walked up to the DirecTV booth and a representative was talking to an attendee and he turned around, saw my press badge, and immediatly said "Don't quote me on that!"
My interview was peppered with insightful replies like, "Sometime in the future", "I'm not sure", "there's no timetable", I can't comment" and "you'll have to talk to the guy that's here tomorrow"!
They could film Anger Management 3 at the DirecTV Booth, if only DirecTV could take a page out of JVC's handbook, but I digress.
I was able to pull a bit of info from Direc, and will see reps from all their divisions on Saturday.
Here's what's newsworthy.
DirecTV's Slimline Dish
Here are the LNBs, from left is the 99/101/103 integrated, the 110, and the 119.
Unfortunatly the mast is the same proprietary 2.0" outside diameter as the AT-9, meaning good luck finding the right size if you want to prepare a pole mount ahead of the installer.
The dish's form factor is very Starchoice/Primestar reminiscient, and is 15% lighter weight than the AT-9.
The slimline will be released as the stock of AT-9 dishes runs dry, DirecTV is estimating December.
A couple of differences from the AT-9 are the redesigned rear of the Dish,
Notice no more dither, tuning should be much easier. There are dials on either side of the mounting bracket as shown below.
I was told by the DirecTV rep that after you peak the signal that you move the small dial 3 rotations left, get a reading, then turn it clockwise until you get the same reading, and finally turn it back counterclockwise 1/2 way between the 2 settings.
Seems much easier that the AT-9.
On a related note I asked if DirecTV was going to continue to reduce pay for installs like they have for 3 years, the reply was "I don't know."
DirecTV's focus at CEDIA is an about face from their position of the last 2 years, that's signing up as many independant dealers as possible. They are also loooking for HSP's. Seems the draconian pay cuts to installers by HSPs are coming back to bite them.
Direc stated they are loooking for "High-end" installs and integration, in my opinion they are putting the cart before the horse. They need to straighten out their industry trailing HD before going after discriminating customers.
Finally the word on what you've all been waiting for.
Q-When will the OTA tuners in the HR20-700 be activated?
A- Um, there's going to be a download sometime in the future.
Q-Is that within a month? End of year?
A- Sometime in the future.
I'll try to find out more Saturday, leave your questions here for me to ask.
A- Anyone at CEDIA wearing a DirecTV shirt when they spot a person with Press credentials!
I walked up to the DirecTV booth and a representative was talking to an attendee and he turned around, saw my press badge, and immediatly said "Don't quote me on that!"
My interview was peppered with insightful replies like, "Sometime in the future", "I'm not sure", "there's no timetable", I can't comment" and "you'll have to talk to the guy that's here tomorrow"!
They could film Anger Management 3 at the DirecTV Booth, if only DirecTV could take a page out of JVC's handbook, but I digress.
I was able to pull a bit of info from Direc, and will see reps from all their divisions on Saturday.
Here's what's newsworthy.
DirecTV's Slimline Dish
Here are the LNBs, from left is the 99/101/103 integrated, the 110, and the 119.
Unfortunatly the mast is the same proprietary 2.0" outside diameter as the AT-9, meaning good luck finding the right size if you want to prepare a pole mount ahead of the installer.
The dish's form factor is very Starchoice/Primestar reminiscient, and is 15% lighter weight than the AT-9.
The slimline will be released as the stock of AT-9 dishes runs dry, DirecTV is estimating December.
A couple of differences from the AT-9 are the redesigned rear of the Dish,
Notice no more dither, tuning should be much easier. There are dials on either side of the mounting bracket as shown below.
I was told by the DirecTV rep that after you peak the signal that you move the small dial 3 rotations left, get a reading, then turn it clockwise until you get the same reading, and finally turn it back counterclockwise 1/2 way between the 2 settings.
Seems much easier that the AT-9.
On a related note I asked if DirecTV was going to continue to reduce pay for installs like they have for 3 years, the reply was "I don't know."
DirecTV's focus at CEDIA is an about face from their position of the last 2 years, that's signing up as many independant dealers as possible. They are also loooking for HSP's. Seems the draconian pay cuts to installers by HSPs are coming back to bite them.
Direc stated they are loooking for "High-end" installs and integration, in my opinion they are putting the cart before the horse. They need to straighten out their industry trailing HD before going after discriminating customers.
Finally the word on what you've all been waiting for.
Q-When will the OTA tuners in the HR20-700 be activated?
A- Um, there's going to be a download sometime in the future.
Q-Is that within a month? End of year?
A- Sometime in the future.
I'll try to find out more Saturday, leave your questions here for me to ask.
...
