I used to say “never say never.” Sadly, I think it’s time to say “never.” Let me explain.
DIRECTV’s official over-the-air adapter, the AM21, was first released in 2008. It was a response to the company’s removing OTA tuners from its DVRs. The adapter worked well, but was never popular enough to justify the high cost of manufacturing. DIRECTV discontinued its over-the-air adapter about seven years ago. For a while, there was a thriving business on eBay and other secondary markets but that’s long since dried up. Just in the last year, enthusiast web sites have started reporting that the AM21 no longer works with their DVRs.
DIRECTV did launch a very limited edition product called the Local Channel Connector but it was limited to older DVRs and was never updated to support Genie 2. The LCC was never officially available for sale. It was given away to customers in areas affected by channel blackouts, and Solid Signal was never able to offer it.
On the other hand…
DISH has had an OTA adapter for its Hopper3 and Wally receivers for years. Their adapter for older gear still works as far as I know. However, as far as I can tell, there are no plans to release anything like that for DIRECTV. All the people I’ve talked to, who have asked to remain strictly anonymous, have told me that nothing is being developed right now, which means there will be no over-the-air adapter for the next two years
Why is DISH jumping back on OTA and DIRECTV isn’t?
Despite losing a chunk of its customer base in the last five years, DIRECTV isstill the largest TV provider in the world. In fact it controls a massive proportion of the TV content in the Western Hemisphere. They’re a quantity organization. Niche markets are hard for them to support, which is why they dealers like Solid Signal control such a large percentage of the marine market for example. DIRECTV themselves are happy to serve the residential market, and the percentage of satellite customers who also want antenna TV in their homes is too small for them to worry about. This is even more true than ever as subchannel content makes its way to streaming.
On the other hand, as a (relatively) smaller company, DISH has to try a little harder. They own a larger percentage of the RV market, because they allow month-to-month subscriptions and because their hardware lets you get HD using a smaller dome. RV customers especially need over-the-air TV if they’re outside their local areas. Adding this capability to Hoppers and Wallys makes sense because a larger percentage of their customers want it.
Will DIRECTV change its tune?
It’s hard to know if DIRECTV will ever follow suit. Back in the days before DIRECTV was bought by AT&T, the management were big fans of antenna TV because they believed it was a bargaining chip when it came to contracts. Oh, you want to charge us more for your broadcasts? We’ll just give away antennas and antenna adapters. That technique “may” have been successful at avoiding blackouts in the past.
It wouldn’t be that hard to implement something like this Really, all devices of this sort are fairly similar, they all decode the live TV signal and convert it to a format that most computers (including the DIRECTV products) can read. It would just be a matter of proper Linux drivers for such a device, and some method for getting and storing guide data on the back end. But that does seem to be too high of a hurdle for DIRECTV at the moment, so I would not expect anything to happen for a while, if ever.
Here’s what you can do
If you want to get over-the-air reception, just get an antenna from Solid Signal. Connect it to your TV or use one of the many third-party DVRs you can buy. Some TVs, including ones running Roku’s operating system, can use a flash drive to pause live TV (but not record.)
If you need more advice on buying an antenna or integrating it with your home theater, call us! We’re here for you during East Coast business hours. The number is 888-233-7563. When you call, you’ll reach an expert in our Novi, Michigan corporate offices who is ready to help. If it’s after hours, fill out the form below and we’ll get back to you, usually within one business day.
