Got this email from a customer, and couldn’t stop laughing:
Hello!
We were given a taco series two with a lifetime subscription that we apparently cannot connect to our regular tv per our service rep because of the switch to digital around 2012. Is this correct? Can we still use it? Do we need anything to modify? Thanks!
I recommended dousing with Cholula and guac.
We just received stock today of the new DIRECTV Genie Mini C51. This is the latest of the wired Genie Mini clients.
We don’t have the full info yet on what is new here, but it ships with the RC73 RF remote and has the same outputs as the C41 that preceded it.
We are now shipping DIRECTV’s new lower-cost H44 GenieLite. This is, in effect, a Genie (HR44) but without a hard drive built in. External hard drives will be sold separately, but we don’t yet know whether the H44 will accept drives larger than the DIRECTV-branded 1TB.
The main advantages of the H44 are its size and price. It can be mounted behind a TV and out of sight, and it also can be used in conjunction with other clients in other rooms (C31, C41, C41W). The H44, like the HR44, requires a SWM (single-wire multiswitch) setup, either via SWM LNB or a SWM8 or SWM16.
The H44 also has a PI21 built in, so it can power a SWM LNB without a separate power supply. It CANNOT power a SWM8 or SWM16, however. For a SWM8/SWM16 module, a separate PI29 is required. The H44 itself also requires a power supply.
The H44 supports wired and wireless clients, but without a hard drive (or HR2x on the network), it will not work with a GenieGO.
Our initial view is that there is minimal reason (aside from cost and space constraints) to get an H44 over an HR44, especially since (at least for now), DIRECTV will not permit an H44 and an HR44 to be one account. Given the flexibility and versatility of the Genie HR44, we think that is a far superior box and recommend it over the H44 for most users.
The TiVo HD flashing green light problem has become much more prevalent. We’re seeing a lot of these units come through, and we are able to fix just about all of them at this point.
If you have a TiVo HD or TiVo HD XL (TCD652160 or TCD658000) and it gives no video out at all, and a green light flashes on the front, we should be able to fix it.
We have more information about this problem on our website:
TiVo HD with Flashing Green Light
So if you have one of these units with lifetime service, we can help get it running again!
We’ve been getting this request more and more: customer has an older, non-HDMI TV, and wants to use a streaming stick or player, like an AppleTV or an Amazon Fire Stick, that only has an HDMI output.
So we sourced a solution. It’s an adapter that converts HDMI to RCA (red/yellow/white composite) output. Frankly, this wasn’t easy. There are a TON of these adapters out there, and our testing showed that many (maybe even most) don’t work. Some work, but aren’t bright. Some work, but only with certain sticks and players. Some work, but have bad image quality.
Anyway, we tested and tested, and now we’re selling these adapters that really truly work in every situation we could throw at them.
Here is our page of HDMI to Older TV Video Adapter configurations.
These work for: