NICE AND EASY: Can you have a 4K Genie DVR on your commercial account?

Satellite TV is a bona fide hit for businesses. Whether that TV is in the waiting room, the lunch room, or the warehouse, it’s going to help the time go by faster. It will lead to happier customers and happier employees. Pretty much the only downside to having a commercial account with DIRECTV is that you can’t have a Genie DVR. It’s not really DIRECTV’s fault, as the contracts that DIRECTV signs with its programming providers don’t allow it. It has to do with “public exhibition.” If commercial customers could record something, then they could show it an unlimited number of times, and DIRECTV would have to collect royalties every time.

That’s the theory anyway. I have a feeling if they really wanted to address this situation they would. But for now, they haven’t.

If you think about it, this also means that businesses can’t use the C61K 4K Genie client, because in order to use one, you need a Genie DVR. And that brings up one question:

Are you totally out of luck?

Yes, this leaves commercial customers out of luck when it comes to the black box of goodness that is the DIRECTV Genie DVR. A Genie in a commercial environment would be a big win because you could have wireless clients, but it just doesn’t seem to be happening.

However, if you think that locks you out of 4K, you’d be wrong.

Right now, you can put in DIRECTV’s COM3000 system which is a compact headend about the size of a large audio/video receiver. It’s small enough to fit under a bar or in a closet. You can configure it with exactly the channels you need, including unlimited 4K TVs depending on how you configure it.

There’s another option as well. There is a solution for commercial customers that includes an HR54 DVR and 4K client. The recording function is disabled, but it does allow for 4K. It’s a good choice if you really only want 1 or 2 4K TVs. If you’re interested in this solution, read our exclusive White Paper. It lays it all out.

If you are ready to move up to 4K in your business, you have choices! The biggest choice is who to work with. If you call DIRECTV, they’ll tell you they don’t work with businesses. They leave that to their dealers. So, your choice is to work with DIRECTV’s dealer of the year, the company with proven customer satisfaction… or someone else. If you want to work with the best, call the experts at Signal Connect. We’re here for you at 888-233-7563. Let us take care of the details and you do what you do best: run your business. Call, or if it’s after hours, fill out the form below.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.