July 2012


Who is Sir Tim Berners-Lee?

If you’re like Meredith Vieira, you’ve never heard of Sir Tim Berners-Lee. In fact, given the contributions he’s made to daily life, he’s fairly unknown. Dr. Berners-Lee is in that rare group that includes Edison, Tesla,…


Solid Signal Fall 2012 Buyers Guide

Does your DIRECTV receiver seem like a dinosaur? If it’s been a while since you looked at new satellite equipment, it’s time to look again. Even if it’s only been 5 years since you looked at…



Why Home Run Wiring?

Home Run Wiring. It’s a confusing term and a frustrating one as well. When property owners or restauranteurs hear that term, they may have no idea what it means. Or, they may simply know one thing:…


TV Apps are a little wonky today

If you’re a fan of DIRECTV TVApps, you’ve no doubt noticed that they have been a little bit twitchy the last few days. You might have noticed that the weather channel app is not responding right…



How Big Should a TV Be?

What’s the ultimate in TV? I mean, we all agree that we want a huge TV, right? Who wouldn’t? Isn’t that what life’s about? We want our TVs to be somewhere between the viewscreen on the…


Happy birthday, satellite TV!

In all the hoopla over DIRECTV and Viacom yesterday, we missed a very important anniversary! On July 10, 1962, exactly 50 years ago yesterday, the first TV communications satellite was launched. Telstar 1 was created…


DIRECTV vs. VIACOM: Is ESPN really to blame?

DIRECTV subscribers may lose 26 channels tonight and the real culprit might be… Disney? Of course that doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense but it’s one way of looking at the problem. Disney is…


WHITE PAPER: A Guide to DIRECTV Networking

Networking can be hard. When you’re connecting a computer network to a complex home theatre system, it can be even harder. DIRECTV provides tools and parts for connecting its receivers and DVRs, but they don’t always…


Focus on DIRECTV Residential Experience 2.0

There are several articles on this blog about DIRECTV Residential Experience. DRE was the focus of DIRECTV’s marketing efforts at the HITEC show, and if you’ve read our review of COM1000 and Floodgate based on HITEC experiences, it’s only…



Focus on the COM1000 Headend System

At the HITEC show, I got to spend a little time with the folks at Technicolor, who make the COM1000 Free-to_Guest headend system for commercial installs. I learned a lot about why someone would want a…