Sitting there watching TV, and suddenly the screen saver comes on? You’re not alone. This is a strange behavior that has plagued DIRECTV receivers for over ten years. It’s come and go, and it seems like…
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With the last of the blog team home safe, it’s time to take one last look at the show. It wasn’t the biggest… and that was on purpose. At times it actually felt a little underattended. It seemed…
Will we all be wearing headsets like the one you see above by the end of the year? There’s no doubt that the Oculus Rift has rebooted the once dead virtual reality industry by providing an…
So this article’s a little off topic. As in, none of these items are for sale at Solid Signal, and none are likely to be. Maybe if I had a DeLorean and could go back and…
Over, practically before it began. Hearst stations reapppeared overnight in over 25 cities for DIRECTV customers, a sign that a new contract has been signed. The 5-day long blackout was resolved before most new programs came back from…
You know how you can walk through an airport and not lose Wi-Fi? That’s got to be some trick when you realize that a Wi-Fi signal can reach 100 or 150 feet, sometimes less. Did you…
This is SureCall’s Signal Catcher antenna. It’s an admittedly pricey little piece of kit, but the promise it makes is pretty enticing — use the most powerful cell booster without getting up on the roof. Is it…
In the words of that great sage Robin Thicke, “you know you want it.” Transparent monitors are a staple of near-future sci-fi and it just seems like the kind of thing we’ll all have at our…
This is probably my favorite article of the year. This is the fourth time I’ve written it now… and my 2016, 2015, and 2014 articles are still available if you’re curious. I know it’s a little bitter and cruel of…
A day spent on the floor was certainly worthwhile. Today the blog team spent time at some of the hotspots at the Consumer Electronics Show. We started at the Sands Expo Center, where the wearables…
Broadcast TV has changed a lot over the years. Starting with an analog black-and-white signal in the 1940s, TV first went to color, added captioning, went stereo, added multiple audio tracks, and without a doubt the…
This could be big… eventually. The HDMI Forum, who do nothing but develop the standards used in HDMI cables, announced HDMI 2.1, which will eventually have a use in TVs and computers. The move was…
DISH and Sling TV were in a new location this year in the central hall, closer to RCA and other manufacturers and away from the Intel booth, which was inexplicably busy considering that no one really…
OK, fair is fair. The show actually doesn’t open until tomorrow. There have been press events and all, but the main action at the convention center doesn’t start until tomorrow at 10am. So what, exactly, did…
If you have an AIM meter, you know the importance of keeping it current. Unfortunately, since these meters are intended just for DIRECTV installers, firmware can be hard to get. As a public service, we keep…