Can you watch the feed from your Ring camera on your DIRECTV receiver?

Here’s another one that comes from our customer service representatives. A customer recently wrote to us and asked,

I would love it if the feed from my doorbell camera could pop up on the screen while I’m watching DIRECTV. How can I make this happen?

It’s not a bad question, actually. And as much as I hate to say it, it’s not exactly possible. At least not with DIRECTV equipment. DIRECTV satellite TV equipment is only designed to show DIRECTV satellite TV content. It’s not really even possible anymore to integrate feeds from an over-the-air antenna in most cases. It’s really a closed system.

You’re not totally out of luck

You can get the functionality you’re looking for two ways. Select Samsung TVs can show door alerts by using the SmartThings widgets that are built into most of their newer TVs. Also, you can use any Alexa-enabled device such as an Amazon Fire TV stick, with the following commands:

  • Alexa, show the front door
  • Alexa, hide the front door
  • Alexa, go home
  • Alexa, play the last event from the front door
  • Alexa, pause
  • Alexa, answer the front door

I’m also told that if you have an Alexa device like an Echo Show that it can be set to automatically show the video feed when the doorbell rings. But the goal here is to have it on the TV and not on a separate device.

What would it take to make this happen?

Integrating outside content into DIRECTV systems isn’t hard, it’s just expensive. It requires a headend system. Headend systems take the outputs from multiple different devices and put them all on the same wire. At that point you can connect that wire to a TV and use channel up and down to look at them. This sort of thing is very common in hotels and other large installations, but it’s rare at home. A typical system starts somewhere in the mid 4-figures and goes up from there. Of course, if you’re the sort of person for whom money is no object, it’s certainly possible to put something like this in the home. It’s just probably not the best way to do it.

Solid Signal is your DIRECTV source

It’s true, we can’t help you integrate your Ring camera or any camera system into your DIRECTV system. But, we are one of the nation’s largest satellite TV dealers and we specialize in providing total customer care. Give us a call at 888-233-7563 or shop the great selection at SolidSignal.com!

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.