Don’t put tinsel on your dish
This is an image I found on the internet. I was driving along the other day and I saw a satellite dish with tinsel on it. If I could have, I would have stopped and taken…
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NICE AND EASY: Do you need a special HDMI cable for 4K?
Looking for a deeper dive? Check out this article! First, let’s clear the air. Despite what some companies would have you believe, there is no standard for a 4K-capable HDMI cable. Most HDMI cables will…
How much does it cost to upgrade to DIRECTV Genie?
Well, it sort of depends. If you’re using older DIRECTV equipment, you might be getting a bit nervous that it might stop working in the future. DIRECTV says that standard definition service is going away…
What does the guide look like if you have a DIRECTV AM21?
DIRECTV still lets you get over-the-air channels through their DVRs and receivers. The trick is that they no longer sell the adapter. At Solid Signal we still have a small number of them and the truth is you…
Is the headphone plug obsolete?
I’ve been meaning to write this one for a while. So yeah, I missed out on a lot of the furor when Apple announced a phone without a headphone jack. Apple has done this sort of…
Even if you have a smartphone, a separate GPS still makes sense
Has it really only been 10 years since people started using GPS systems instead of maps? The old days of keeping a road atlas in the car seem decades away. Still, it’s been a swift evolution from…
Leave it on or turn it off?
Which saves more energy… turning it off or leaving it on? At first it may seem obvious. Turning off a device saves more energy now. But, traditional wisdom tells us that turning a device on and…
PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT: Solar Charger
This is one product you almost hope you don’t need. The iWerkz Solar Charger can keep your mobile devices going as long as you need using the power of the sun. It folds up to be nice and…
FUN FRIDAY: Not even one week until…
December is famous for a lot of things, but for the most part we associate it with a number of holidays. Today is “Black Friday,” the day when the holiday shopping season traditionally kicks off. But…
“My Genie DVR says it needs to change channels. How can that be?”
It’s rare, but it happens. You get a message on your Genie DVR saying it needs to change channels to record something. The Genie DVR has five tuners, but every so often it does run out….
Bluetooth 5.0 has been released, so now there’s that
I guess I picked the wrong week to talk about how Bluetooth hates me. In a recent editorial, I complained that my 14-year-long experience with Bluetooth has been anything but smooth. Bluetooth hasn’t always performed as promised for…
Apple enables Single Sign On for DIRECTV and DISH (and others, but you don’t care about that)
Great news for iPhone and AppleTV users. After teasing us for [strike]about ten years[/strike] about six months, Apple has finally rolled out its Single Sign On feature for DIRECTV, DISH, and other providers that you probably…
Has antenna technology peaked?
Fifty years ago, a TV antenna was a 12-foot-long beast. You can still buy those big ones, but most people can easily get away with a cool-looking, 2-foot wide spaceship like this Televes DigiNova Boss. That’s partially…
OPINION: Enough with the comic book movies
Jake Buckler started talking about superhero movies, and it got me thinking. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was probably the most disappointing film of the year for me. Here’s a movie that started with great source material —…
FROM THE FRONT LINES: Add a Genie DVR without getting up on the roof
I’ve talked about this before just a few months ago, but I think it’s important to keep saying it, If you have a SWM-enabled DIRECTV dish, you can’t expand its capacity without getting up on the roof….