A guide to Satellite Setup with the new DIRECTV Genie Menus

Step 1. Turn the Genie DVR on.

There is no step 2.

Unlike previous DIRECTV products, it is no longer necessary to manually set up your satellite dish. While there is a menu for Satellite settings, most of the options are now missing or greyed out. The only choices are SL5 or SL3, and whether you have a reverse band LNB. These are set automatically when the DVR boots up and do not need to be set manually.

If you suspect your dish setup is wrong, press the red reset button on the DVR and let it reboot. That should be all that is necessary.

This change means that you don’t have to remember sets of numbers or refer to a confusing list of dish types. Unfortunately it also means that it is impossible to use a Genie with a round dish of any type but that doesn’t represent a problem for most people.

Overall, this new setup is part of a trend in AT&T hardware toward simplifying options and removing those options which really don’t make sense. Supporting over 25 different dishes did not make sense since most of those dishes have not been made in over 5 years, which is the typical lifespan of a dish in average weather conditions. The goal here is to standardize on just a few combinations of dish and LNB to make support easier. Unfortunately it does create some issues for people who choose not to upgrade their entire system when they move to a Genie DVR, such as customers on RVs or boats with much more expensive satellite dish technology.

I personally contacted some higher-ups at DIRECTV to ask that at least the round dish option be reinstated, but unfortunately it is not in the cards especially since an HD-capable (non-round) dish will be required to receive most channels when the planned shutoff of standard-definition channels happens sometime next year.

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.