[slice1900]

Sounds like an updated client that's maybe in a smaller form factor so works more like a dongle?

Probably the only thing other than size it could improve upon that would matter is something that supports wireless 4K.

 

[slice1900]

Should be considered a crime to use a 10/100 Ethernet port with the proliferation of GIG internet speeds these days.

Why? What need does it have for greater than 100 Mbit speeds? It can only stream 4K, which requires a fraction of that bandwidth.

This is like complaining that a golf cart doesn't have the capability go 65 mph, when it will be driven around a golf course and not on a highway.

 

[slice1900]

Apple does it for a reason I suppose.

Apple uses their market power to make bulk purchases - for instance they were the world's largest consumer of flash memory for years due to the iPod and then the iPhone. Apple needs a lot of ethernet NICs for Macs, but due to buying millions of them a year it probably ends up costing the same to order more of those for Apple TV than it would to order 10/100s for just that one product and simplifies their inventory management.

Directv (or rather the actual manufacturers of Cxx clients who also make set tops for other companies) probably use the same market power to buy a lot of 10/100 NICs because that's all ANY set top box really needs. They will switch to gigabit eventually, but only because at some point chipmakers like Broadcom will decide the cost delta between 10/100 and gigabit NICs is so small they want to drop the 10/100s off their standard price list and make them special order parts (for the sorts of companies who want to keep using the same parts for years, usually due to regulatory compliance in aerospace or defense that means any part change is a big pain in the ass for them)

 

[slice1900]

Are we sure it's the C71-KW or the A21-KW? It does say DTV is developing a new piece of hardware. So, could they still say that the C71-KW is new? Or would they be referring to the A21-KW? Or a totally all new Genie Mini just for DTV? Maybe the new box is just not listed on the FCC's website yet?

It could be something new not on the FCC site yet, or it could be a re-purposing of one of those boxes which when loaded with different software would work just fine for Directv wirelessly, or when using ethernet either via DECA or a customer's in home wiring.

It is well past time for Directv to get over their insistence on having their own little DECA network to connect all non wireless clients. More and more people have twisted pair installed in their house and new houses are being built without coax these days. They need to get with the times.

 

[slice1900]

How is it "comparatively easy" to run coax versus CAT6?

Running cable is running cable, it is a pain in an existing home either way.

My original point was that new homes are being built with cat5 wiring to every room, and without coax. The opposite situation was the rule 20 years ago. So Directv having hardware that's compatible with ethernet instead of insisting on coax would make sense.

That doesn't stop them from continuing to support wireless. That's probably their preference over any wired method, but wireless isn't a solution for every case. Not supporting ethernet in 2022 is just dumb.

They already are to a limited extent - that's how people are connecting their Genie to the internet in many cases. They just have to extend that to supporting clients connected via ethernet.

 

[slice1900]

I don't think their goal is to keep Sat alive in the future but to transition as many people to streaming as possible.

It makes no sense to try to transition people now, when the end of life for Directv satellite is a decade away. At least.

They have no reason to discourage people from signing up for satellite if they want it, and no guarantee that they can successful "transition" anyone to Directv Stream.

 

[slice1900]

It makes no sense to wait until something dies before you start migrating from it.

Consider what is currently going on at Shaw Direct with the thruster failures on Anik F2. They're having to scramble to get everyone set up for a more recent compression scheme (AVC or maybe HEVC) so that they can run the whole system using only Anik G1. [this sounds a lot like DIRECTV's glacial transition away from MPEG2]

DIRECTV/T 10 is still in use and it has just passed its projected 15 year useful lifespan. DIRECTV/T 11 ages out next March and DIRECTV/T 12 reaches the forecast by the end of 2024. Those obviously aren't hard and fast expiration dates but you'll recall that both DIRECTV 10 and DIRECTV 12 had some serious operational issues along the way (the great amelioration).

There's also the issue that the customer premise equipment is getting pretty creaky and most of it won't still be viable in five years, much less a decade.

Directv will know exactly what the fuel life situation is with each satellite, and what they would be able to do to move things around and keep going. So they have a pretty good idea today when they won't be able to offer the same level of service without launching replacement satellites.

The time you start worrying about migration is maybe 2 years from that date, not 10.

Customer equipment is not a problem - considering how many receivers they have that are way over a decade old (check my sig) given that today all HR2x are over a decade old there is no issue there. You just love to come up with fake problems because for some reason your life revolves around trolling Directv forums when you aren't a customer. Point to a picture of yourself and tell us where they touched you bad.

 

[slice1900]

[QUOTE="Steveknj, post: 3614501, member: 444449"But look at their current advertising. There's almost no mention of satellite
[/QUOTE]


That makes sense for them, because acquiring new Directv Stream customers is cheaper. Because 1) it doesn't require an installer visit or an HS17, just the clients that are required either way and 2) it is an easier sell to potential new customers in 2022 to offer something delivered over the internet than something that requires sticking a dish on your roof.

Everyone who would consider signing up for satellite services or live where they can't get good internet knows Directv is a satellite company, so it isn't like they are losing out on potential customers by promoting Directv Stream and downplaying satellite.

Preferentially signing up customers on Stream instead of satellite isn't the same thing as transitioning existing customers, which they don't need to do and won't want to do until the end of the decade. It isn't like people need five years of advance notice to plan for it if Directv someday announces an end to satellite service.

 

[slice1900]

True to some extent, but also consider the cost of maintaining a Sat customer is much higher than a streaming customer. With Sat, you have to maintain and replenish hardware, you may need to do dish maintenance and other things that may require a home visit. You have NONE of that with streaming and the vast majority of issues are probably internet related and thus have little to do with DirecTV. So from a cost standpoint the sooner they move customers to streaming the better.

Whatever "maintaining and replenishing hardware" might add up to, it is paid for 10x over by the $8 per box per month fee you pay, and the $15 per month fee for the Genie.

Directv is much more profitable than Directv Stream, because of all those fees it adds that are almost all profit. That's the biggest reason they don't want to "migrate" anyone off satellite, even if they could guarantee they'd land on Stream and stay there.

 

[slice1900]

I'm far from convinced that there is a use case for 16 tuners but I could very much see where DIRECTV could benefit from going to 10 (since stacking of the big LIL broadcast channels on a single tuner as DISH does isn't possible given SWiM constraints).

What SWM constraints are those? There is nothing stopping Directv from doing this. A satellite tuner decodes the entire transponder, the receiver's firmware can pick one or many channels out of that bitstream. Directv's firmware hasn't been written to do that, that's all.

If Directv wanted to they could share transponders in the server when people are watching the same channel on multiple clients, or different channels on the same transponder. They must not think it is worth the possible confusion over customers not understand why sometimes they run into limits at watching/recording 7 different channels at once, sometimes 9, and sometimes 13.

Directv has clearly made the decision that the number of customers who have more than 7 TVs or want to record more than 7 things at the same time are too small to care about. That's why things they could do to address those people like transponder sharing, multiple Genies, or Genies with more than 7 tuners haven't happened.

It isn't people running into those limits who are leaving Directv, it is people who are unhappy about how much TV costs. They aren't fleeing to Dish or cable TV, they are losing tons of customers too.

 

[slice1900]

No. They all just ripped off other peoples ideas and iterated / improved on them. First MP3 player was some random Asian dude. First tablet was Microsoft. A digital music player and a tablet in general were innovations. The iPod and iPad may have done it better and may have had some innovative features. And technically Microsoft didn't invent the tablet either, they just built one. It was really thought up by Star Trek writers in the 60s. Maybe The Jetsons had some sort of tablet?

Not sure what your obsession with touchscreen PCs is lol. Who has a touchscreen PC?

Photoshop had your magic eraser 30 yrs ago. Putting it on a phone isn't an innovation.

If your magic eraser could delete this conversation, that would be an innovation.

You're just choosing arbitrary points where you think a "thing" was invented. Where does the Apple Newton figure into your reality? That was the first PDA, and the PDA evolved into the smartphone, so I guess Apple invented the smartphone in the form of the Newton? (just lacking the "phone" part, and camera, and touchscreen and pretty much everything we associate with a smartphone today) Heck, maybe that's the first tablet too, just a smaller version?

Going back even further to who "thought" of something is even more ridiculous. If 10,000 years from now someone figures out a warp drive, does Gene Roddenberry (or some sci fi author who undoubtedly wrote a book with the concept before Star Trek) get the credit for "inventing" it?

There's a big difference in coming up with an "idea", being the first to market something that has limited or no success, and being the first to market something that succeeds and redefines the expectations of consumers of that product category in the future.

 

[slice1900]

Newer C71's have 4GB of ram The software never uses above like 1.75. Its clear its written to not take advantage of that ram

That's probably because they couldn't get small DRAMs anymore. Something like that would like using 4 x16 chips to create a 64 bit wide DRAM channel, and if your supplier stops offering 4Gbit DRAMs then you either swap in 8Gbit DRAMs and leave everything else the same or you have to change your memory controller to accept 2 x32 DRAMs (which exist but have less availability)

 

[slice1900]

That's probably the commercial only receiver Stuart Sweet has been hinting at for some time.

 

[slice1900]

Sorry bud but not true It’s happened several times in the past on there

No what happened before is that a "name" consisting of a random hex code showed up. There has never been a false alarm showing up that exactly matches Directv's naming scheme. If you were going to name a 4K receiver, H26 or H30, probably followed by a 'K' would be very likely candidates considering what names Directv has used in the past.

As for why this hasn't shown up on the FCC site, maybe it doesn't use any radio frequencies? Past hardware has shown up because it supports some flavor of RF remote control, and/or wifi. A commercial only receiver would be controlled via IP over DECA, and IR for initial configuration or troubleshooting. No point in supporting either wifi or RF remote control, so it may never appear on the FCC site unless the RF usage via the coax connection counts.

This is clearly a real receiver.

 

[slice1900]

This doesn't make sense as it would preclude the W designation along with denying Wi-fi, MoCA and RF remote capability.

There is no reason why a commercial receiver would have wifi or support an RF remote. MoCA is irrelevant to FCC approval - it is delivered via coax and if FCC approval is required for stuff delivered via the coax port then SWM would trigger the need for it.

 

[slice1900]

Almost every restaurant I’ve ever went to that had directv the receiver was out of sight either mounted behind the tv or somewhere else. I think they would definitely need RF.

Most use IP. Unless you want to deal with a couple dozen remotes, using RF is impractical unless the place is tiny - in which case using RF (which can have up to 8 codes) works just as well.

 

[slice1900]

Do you mean TCP/IP using SHEF or did you mean infra-red? I think SHEF being used by most would be a hard sell.

All recent STBs other than the H25 support RF remote but there was an aftermarket dongle to give the H25 RF remote capability (which it certainly should have come with).

There are tons of apps that control IP enabled hardware, including Directv's. Directv also has an iPad app built for commercial accounts.

You're talking outside your experience and knowledge once again. Maybe look at my sig, consider why I have that many receivers, and realize that I know far more about the bar/restaurant world than you ever will.

 

[slice1900]

Most of the local establishments that I've visited that have DIRECTV use IR remotes. Some they have chained down at the booth and others are kept behind the "bar". Of course none of the establishments around here have anywhere near 30 DIRECTV receivers as DIRECTV doesn't offer Pac-12 requiring that Comcast (or DISH) be part of the mix. YMMV.

If they use IR remotes they don't need RF. If they use IP they don't need RF. There is not much point to RF remotes in a bar/restaurant because having a dedicated remote per TV would be totally unwieldy if you have more than a half dozen or so TVs.

Since Directv can use 8 different IR code sets you can manage TVs next to each other in various ways like by putting a little colored sticker on a TV that indicates the remote code its receiver is set to, and choose that color remote. Though places that use IR remotes don't seem to be that clever, I'll see them do stuff like wrapping their hand around the end of the remote so the beam only hits the desired TV lol

 

[slice1900]

So this Gemini device has an ethernet port but you have to have it wired via an ethernet coax adaptor to coax and can’t just use an ethernet cable to your router. But if you use Wi-Fi you only have to connect to your house Wi-Fi.

Set up Gemini device using a wired connection | DIRECTV Customer Service & Support

Learn how to set up your Gemini device using a wired connection.

www.directv.com

Set up Gemini device over Wireless | DIRECTV Customer Service & Support

Learn how to set up your Gemini device on your Wireless network.

www.directv.com

I'm sure it'll work fine with ethernet directly connected - they'd have to really go out of their way to avoid that. They just won't support that type of connection nor will their installers install it like that, because they don't want to deal with customer supported equipment (i.e. router/switch)

 

[slice1900]

What's hilarious is that sat clients are free to DirecTV infrastructure wise, but adding streaming clients is very expensive from that point of view since each one adds additional load to the backend and there's a lot more people & processes required. For sat, all the bits are floating in the air for free. They got the per-client fees backwards on this one.

They don't have the choice to charge that way for streaming, there is too much competition. If it was just them and Dish no doubt they would charge per client and have two year commitments.