Folks, let’s put our cards on the table. DIRECTV’s naming sometimes gets confusing. Residential DIRECTV customers have the Gemini for satellite TV, and there was also an identical-looking device, also called Gemini, which was for internet-only customers. Those boxes weren’t interchangeable.
So what to make of the H44 and H44-COM?
In 2015, DIRECTV released a new device which they called the H44 Genie Lite. You can read my initial review here. It was supposed to be a satellite TV receiver that could be turned into a full-featured DVR just by adding an external hard drive. This is something that DISH has had for years with some success, so DIRECTV tried it as well.
There were some issues with the way the H44 went to market. As it was shipped, it was only possible to have 3 of them in a typical home install. You had to use a specific hard drive with it, rather than any off-the-shelf drive like DISH. And, as it was marketed, it was more expensive than other standalone receivers. In short, it wasn’t a popular option in the marketplace.
What was the final result? DIRECTV’s warehouses had a lot of these devices sitting in them. And, as it turns out, that was a good thing.
Enter the H44 Commercial Receiver
By the early 2020s, DIRECTV’s commercial division was facing a growing problem. Commercial customers had always used the same hardware as residential receivers. But, DVRs aren’t allowed in most commercial installations. Commercial customers needed standalone receivers. DIRECTV hadn’t made any new standalone receivers since 2011. The durable H25 has lasted far longer than anyone expected, but there comes a point where you just can’t send the same devices out to the market anymore.
That’s when someone had a smart idea. They said, we can take all these H44s and repurpose them for commercial use. We can fix the software problem that limits them to 3 receivers per dish, and we’ll have ourselves a great new product for commercial customers. The H44 Commercial Receiver was a hit from the day it was released. You can read my review of it here.
It’s exactly the same hardware
There is no hardware difference between a residential H44 Genie Lite and an H44 Commercial receiver. The only difference is in the software. The commercial software allows for up to 15 receivers from each leg of a SWM-30 (rather than 3) and it disables DVR function and some other interactive features. You, as a regular user, can’t convert from one to another, but it’s very easy for those wizards at DIRECTV to do it.
Looking for a commercial DIRECTV receiver?
You can still get an H44 Commercial Receiver from Solid Signal. You can also get the H26K Commercial Receiver, which is even newer and does 4K. Yeah, I know 26 doesn’t sound newer than 44. It’s up to you which receiver you choose. The H26K will be a bit faster, smaller, and more reliable, but if you have H44s already and you want to keep everything looking the same, there’s no reason to upgrade unless you want 4K.
Either way, if you need help choosing or even want to upgrade your entire system, call the experts! We’re here for you during East Coast business hours. If it’s after hours, no problem! Fill out the form below and we’ll get right back to you!
