New DirecTV Hardware?
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Apple does it because their SoCs are used in different applications where the additional speed is beneficial.
The unfortunate side effect is that their lesser devices are often a relatively poor value because they use the same iron as their more costly devices.
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If you read the rankings, there are a number of streaming boxes that are ranked higher than the ATV and are less expensive (with the exception of the nVIDIA Shield TV Pro that is featured closer to a console than a streamer). The ATV is usually cited as the best streamer for those fully engaged in Apple Ecosystem which is a rather unusual qualification for a "streaming box".
Well I have used Fire TV sticks, Fire TV boxes, Fire TV Cubes (1st and 2nd generation), Google Chromecast, Roku, and few off brand Android sticks and none of them match the ATV in any category. All of those devices are stored away in a box somewhere except the 2nd generation Cube and the only reason I still have it connected is for my Blink security cameras.
Might consider it after football season is over due to issues I have with the satellite system that DirecTV seems to be unable to solve.
This new 4K HDR replacement for the Genie Mini, which includes apps for Netflix, HBO Max, Prime Video, etc., is clearly either the existing DTV Stream box (C71-KW400) running Android TV Operator Tier or it's a second-generation version of that box which has yet to be released. I imagine when used on the satellite side, fetching live satellite TV and DVR recordings from a Genie/Genie 2, it will have a little different UI and maybe different firmware than when deployed for use with DTV Stream.
And for those who remember, the original User Manual filed with the C71-KW400 at the FCC a year or two before it ever came out hinted that that device might be used with some future Genie 3 referenced in the manual as the "HS-27". Apparently plans for that were scrapped -- why sink additional resources on the dying satellite side of the business? -- so they've just made the C71 compatible with the current Genie 2, i.e. the HS-17.
Getting these units deployed and in use by DTV satellite customers makes for a seamless future transition of those customers over to DTV Stream if and when the customer (or the company) wants that to happen.
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Given that the DIRECTV Stream Device doesn't support DECA, this would be a fairly radical departure and not a drop-in replacement for a Genie Mini.
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Apparently you weren't born yet when Apple dropped the PowerPC platform for Intel x86.
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9-1-2022 at 12:48 PM - PDT
Actually, I DID HAVE a PPC/PowerMAC by PowerComputing. It was their 604/132, I maxed out the RAM to 96MB from TechnologyWerks, I had installed the Adaptec 3940UW SCSI Controller, installed a Quantum Atlas F&W SCSI 3GB Drive, and a Matrox Millennium 8MB WRAM PCI Video Card. It was purchased back in 1996, and was a clone of the Apple 9500.
It was the return of Steve Jobs, and his decision to 'Kill the Clones', that ended the PPC/PowerMAC Demand followed by the excuse that the PPC Architecture was 'Limited' and then Jobs moved from the PPC to Intel.
(Actually, as a Museum Piece, I still have my PowerComputing PowerWave 604/132 System - Intact.)
TimeLord04
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If only there were a small device that converts coax to Ethernet that you could attach to the C71....
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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)
If only the c71 had coax.....
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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?
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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.
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Are there any A21KW-500 units in the wild?
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More and more people are choosing to implement increasingly complex Wi-fi configurations rather than stringing CAT6.
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There is no NIC per se - only PHY part, like LFE8423 by DELTA, is separate component; so , everything inside of the SoC.
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