Make A Quiet Statement To Direct TV (or your cable company) Tonight

We ran across a feature on our Direct TV receiver the other day that I had been unaware of. With some magic sequence of button pushes you can get your TV to display who is watching what on Direct TV in real time. Its a moving bar graph and it does indeed show that most of the time FOX has the highest viewership.

When we found it I watched it in fascination for a bit. I was pretty sure they constantly monitored who was watching what and here was proof positive that my head was being counted. Then it occurred to me that somebody somewhere deep in the Bowels of Direct TV was probably being paid good money to watch those numbers night and day. That is how they make their money and they have to know what the audience is to know what to charge.

So what about when I'm asleep at night? The Direct TV receiver is still on. It doesn't know if my TV is on or not, it doesn't really know if anybody is watching, just what channel its tuned into. So in essence, if they are paying attention and I'm sure they are, the best thing I can do to support a channel I like is to just leave it on that channel when I shut off the TV at night. That way something like Link or C-Span gets one more set of eyes as indicated viewership, it shoes interest in their programing, support for them instead of one of their competitors. It might not be much but every little bit of support for the good institutions helps is how I see it.

that would send a message ;-)

As example, and mentioned above, C-Span and the coverage of Link TV. If TV is beneath you that's fine with me but it works well at my ignorant level.

When Murdoch bought a major share...I wasn't alone in a switch to DishNet. I watch only two non-news show (Boston Legal, Ghost Hunters). I need my Link, CBC, BBC, Democracy Now and KO.

I work for DirecTV. We've undergoing a transition.

I love my DirecTV. I've been a (mostly) satisfied customer for about 8 years now. I hated cable because they weren't carrying the Sci-Fi channel for forever, and installing DTV was a much nicer choice.

Who has the majority share in it now? I know that NBC/Universal owns a lot of the basic cable channels now, from Sci-Fi, USA, Chiller and Sleuth--are they involved in the new ownership?

I got nasty with DTV customer service only once. I made a snide remark about Murdoch to the woman I was talking to, but after that, never have had any problems. :)

and eats big chunks of time, which i find i have too little of as it is. and i do wonder what our culture would be like if television weren't the national pastime. more community perhaps? more creativity?

anyway, to each their own - i don't think you're ignorant.

:)

Doug D.

no kidding. but at least it's interactive. and there are no commercials. well, at least not in the same way.

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28694

Area Man Constantly Mentioning He Doesn't Own A Television

CHAPEL HILL, NC–Area resident Jonathan Green does not own a television, a fact he repeatedly points out to friends, family, and coworkers–as well as to his mailman, neighborhood convenience-store clerks, and the man who cleans the hallways in his apartment building.

"I, personally, would rather spend my time doing something useful than watch television," Green told a random woman Monday at the Suds 'N' Duds Laundromat, noticing the establishment's wall-mounted TV. "I don't even own one."

According to Melinda Elkins, a coworker of Green's at The Frame Job, a Chapel Hill picture-frame shop, Green steers the conversation toward television whenever possible, just so he can mention not owning one.

It's funny because some people seem to take pleasure in equating not watching TV with being "leftier-than-thou".

Fuck it. I like TV, and I'm a liberal.

Spends a lotta damn time at the laundromat, too. Hmmm...

Firstly, I have two receivers and they are not usually hooked up to the phone line.

Unless they are hooked up to the phone line or are one of the DirecWay two-way receivers, DirecTV has no way for your receiver to talk back so this can't be literally true.

For it to be real time, the receivers would have to constantly be dialing in to DTV everytime you changed the channel. I think someone would have noticed their phone call being interrupted by now given that DTV has been around at least 11 years - I've had MY system that long and they were around before that.

Doug D.

I didn't say somebody told me about it - I told you I was sitting there watching it.

Think about what I said, you CAN use your receiver without connecting it to the phone so how can they know what you are watching.

At best it's some sort of sample of their DirecWay users or based on a very narrow random sample of receivers by phone, not an actual live measurement of everybody's viewing.

I would be interested to know what kind of receiver you have and what key sequence you used.

I have an 11 year old Sony receiver and a 3 year old Hughes HD receiver myself.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

:D
:rofl:

;-)

Not as good as his other stuff though..

Doug D.

I have every Democracy Now! episode lined up, ACLU's shows, PBS's Now, etc.

Thanks. That's news to me.

http://linktv.org/programming/index.php3

The ACLU Freedom Files
The ACLU Freedom Files is a new 10-part multimedia series that goes behind the headlines to reveal the impact of civil liberties violations on real people’s daily lives. Created by the ACLU and award-winning filmmaker Robert Greenwald's Brave New Films, the series is produced and directed by Jeremy Kagan.

Series topics will include the Patriot Act, the Supreme Court, free speech and dissent, religious freedom, gay and lesbian rights, drug policy, racial profiling, women's rights, and youth freedoms.


They're too short, but it's a good show.

as I recall..

That and 356 for the Keith Olbermann channel. I heard the channel is really called something else, but I don't believe them.

so we can see for ourselves?

..

Not in the book so she just ran across it. You go to the Guide and then see the movies and news channel button, Then the news preview and then the red button. At this moment more people are watching Planet Earth than anything else.

I go to Guide, then Movies, no "movies and news channel button". The only red button is power button.

First hit guide.

Then hit the one for news and information

Then go to channel 102 which is called MXS or something like that - it gives a thumbnail of a bunch of news shows.

Then hit the red button.

You can see a bunch of catagories, national, eastern, other stuff, viewers, and trend.

Guide
at bottom: family preference, movie, sports, all topics, alpha sort, scouts, other guides.

I can scroll to channel 102, MXS, but must order to see it. (I got the $7 local channels and PBS and other channels package only way back and don't get the other stations.)

Only red button on remote is power button, or do you mean a red button onscreen, if I could see channel 102?

Edited to add that I also am not hooked up to phone line, which upsets Directvpeople when I have to talk to them, but oh well.

I have this newer type, as well as the older type. So, I tried what you posted. I'm good up until I try the red button (one of four colored buttons in the middle of the newer remote for the newer box). My red button don't wooooork! The channel even has a little ad for the "What's hot" function if you press the red button, but my red button gives no joy.

Play with it - you'll get it to work. Sometimes I can't find it and I'd do it again right now but my good wife is watching the Sopranos. You know how that goes.

Anyway when I did it a few minutes ago I had to hold it down for a moment then the new screen popped up.

Pacific time. 60 Minutes is #1. Fox is #6.

I want to try this and try to get an idea of what is going on...

I suspect this based on a small sampling of viewers, not every viewer in real time.

Doug D.

I need to know what the function is called so I can identify the equivalent (if any) button on my two systems. Perhaps this function is not available on my boxes.

Doug D.

RCA model D11, manufactured 2/06. It's smaller than the black ones and it's silver. The menus are different as well, so it has new code. One of our black boxes had problems with the guide not wanting to display info, so they just sent this one to us.

(and apparently also a fire extinguisher.. :0)

Doug D.

Maybe I could RTFM. :D

We have Dish too and that's what I usually watch. heh heh

:rofl:

Mine is grey with much different buttons and look. You have colors, cool.

:eyes:

to take a screen shot of your tv in this mode?

Anyway, this is what I got:

looks like a tv guide like page that has shows rated...those are actual viewers watching the programs real time? Strange

Your camera may sometimes put the bar in the middle or the bottom too.

Remember that analog television works by refreshing a series of static images at a 60 Hz (well really it's two interlaced 30 Hz fields) of video each containing 480 lines of actual video.

There are 525 total lines in NTSC video including the 45 lines that are not visible during the VBI(vertical blanking interval) where time/date codes and closed captioning are normally carried.

During the VBI, your screen actually goes dark but your slow eyeballs are fooled by something called "persistence of image" the same as at the movie theater when the film projector advances to the next frame.

What you are seeing in your camera image is an artifact that results from your very fast digital camera catching the TV screen in the middle of updating the image, something that your eyes would never catch.

You may sometimes notice the same sort of effect on the news when a news camera captures a computer monitor or TV monitor on screen. Usually the camera operator can correct for this blanking by a special timing adjustment that he or she can make.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

NT!

???

Leaving myself wide open for smart aleck responses, I know.

Does the button have a label so I can see if my receiver does it?

Doug D.

I leave for work or go to bed I'll leave it on Link or MSNBC..

Damned if you do...damned if you don't.

Doug D.

The on/off modes are not much different. The box pulls current no matter what. If you have one, feel how hot it is after an hour of watching. Turn it off and go to bed. Get up and before you turn it on, fell how hot it is.

I have not yet applied my DMM to it to see how much current it pulls in the on and off modes, but when it's "off", the power supply is still activated.

And your DMM won't measure AC amps unless it has a clamp-around, and you can separate the conductors.

My older system has AC plugs on the back of it to run other devices. Perhaps you have something else attached to your system that is always on and drawing current?

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

...

I would think that an external device could make the box hot, at least near the plug connection.

I don't have this problem. Perhaps he's picking up heat from another piece of equipment in his stack that is still on? Does it sit on the A/V Amplifier?

I'm not an EE but I have been fiddling with electronics, especially audio/video, for many years.

When somethings pulling current when in the off mode, I tend to notice.

I gotta quantify this. Otherwise, this discussion is worthless. Sorry for the trouble.

I would do it with an AC cord, an AC socket and some jumpers, cuz I do stuff like that.

a current transformer. You can't just hook the leads from a multimeter either across or in series with a leg of an AC supply line. I do stuff like that too...for 52 years now. :D

It's what I use for working on guitar amps. The meter has an 8 amp range, no good for this. I should build a little box for checking things. These parasite devices around the house, things with remotes and those damn wall warts, pull a fair amount of current when doing nothing. Multiply that by millions of homes and it adds up fast.

of a change of a few watts. But as you say, all those things (how many wall-warts are plugged in the average house these days?)...I know for sure we have about 50 of them - and even if the devices they run are "off" they still suck up SOME power.

That's the common way most people I know make this measurement.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

Here's the Ferrari of the stable:

http://www.powermeterstore.com/index.php?products_id=1821

uses an induction coil to induce a current in a separate circuit that is smaller than the original current in the device being measured that can then be measured using a DMM.

Doug D.

The measured voltage is correspondent to the current flowing through its core. (You probably know this, but you can multiply the readings by any integer amount you want just by making more loops of the conductor that goes through it)
;-)

Obviously transformers work by induction and the voltages are related to ratio of the number of turns on the primary vs secondary coils.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

:D

I know calls it a current clamp, not a transformer.

Doug D.

until some jerk decided to muck things up. Hell, I still say 'condenser' instead of 'capacitor' sometimes! :silly:
And don't EVEN get me started on the metric system! Dimensional analysis is the only way to go!

In fact it is easier, especially for mechanical force measurements. No more slugs vs. lbs, etc.

Condenser...good grief...did you know Marconi personally? What was life like before he invented the radio?

Doug D.

:D

Yes I know dimensional analysis is...er, dimensionless. If I had a dollar for every damn equation I ever wrote with
slugs, poundals, degrees Rankine, ad nauseum, I'd retire. Oh, wait, I did that already. :D Well, almost.
I don't engineer much any more but I'm still a damn good pilot...at least I get well paid for that perception. haha

I just finished study for my IFR ground school.. I've been at it not quite 10 years but haven't actually flown since Oct 2002 because of money. I'm hoping to finish out my instrument rating this year.

Doug D.

When I learned to fly, I paid $6.50 an hour for a Cessna 140 wet. No kidding. Wednesday I took some folks to Denver and the fuel bill (there and back) was $488. I'm trying to cut a deal to buy the 310 I used to fly years ago from the guy who ended up with it but never flies it any more. We're haggling around the 80K figure. I sure loved that old plane.
:D

and that was 10 years ago.

Here in Florida, it will run you about $95/hr for a C172 and that's actually a bargain here.

When I started in TN, I could rent a Rockwell 112B for $63/hr WET.

It's ridiculous!

Flying and airplanes and aerospace engineering are my passion but I right now flying is damned expensive and I'm working in the RF test world because it pays better at the moment and I have specialized programming skills (NI LabVIEW) that allow me to pick pretty much any industry I want. (I've done aerospace, automotive, RF/telecom/electrical, defense, and biomedical).

I get paid pretty well but both houses and airplanes have zoomed out of reach price wise in recent years - especially here in Florida. Meanwhile my salary has gone down since W. "Thanks a lot" George...


Doug D.
Orlando, FL

Most any semi-modern tricycle gear plane that's more than 10 years old probably will never depreciate any more than it already has. Even a 1980s vintage, if properly maintained, is in most ways just as good as a 'brand new' one. I often fly a friend's Luscombe, built in 1939, it's in almost perfect condition. Not fast but very economical, about 4 gallons per hour, 100 mph. It's worth way more now that when it was new...in plain dollars anyway...(it's a tail-dragger which probably isn't your cup of tea but there are lots of other bargains)

I actually read a history of the invention of television a few years ago. Milo Farnsworth was one of the inventors of TV, but not the only one.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

:D

He was actually a high school drop out and farm boy from Idaho???

Doug D.

or amprobe.
We also use multimeters and induction testers.
I have never once heard an engineer or an electrician call it by the names y'all are using.

I have not really seen the effect you are describing.

It should draw quite a lot more running having to run the pre-amp for the satellite down the coax to the dish. It should not be running the dish pre-amp when it is off. Perhaps you have a short in the system somewhere?

Doug D
Current RF Test Engineer / Degreed Aerospace Engineer
Formerly working at Motorola and Scientific Atlanta

the receiver is "off". (They have to be in order to get software updates)

The only things that aren't powered when it's "off" are the panel LEDs and the modulators and A/V outputs.

My units have rarely updated as far as I know and do not normally stay in a "hot" condition as he described.

I stand corrected on the LNB. I know in the past when I've experienced a line short on mine that the cable and box got very hot from that.

According to what I've just googled, the LNB should be nominal 13.5V to 18V and 400mA so that's about 2W.

I guess I was remembering that old fashioned analog cable TV systems used to put 90V on their lines to drive their amplifiers and was thinking that the sat systems coax was just as hot. If it was then it would have used about 25 times as much power or about 50W. My bad.

The RF VHF modulators and baseband video out should not really use much power either.

Again, perhaps the problem is a device plugged into an AC port on the back of the box or poor air circulation?

Doug D.

of the VA it consumes in the "on" state when it's "off", I will send you a large jug of your favorite potable! (I'm not trying to be a smartass, I've worked with electronics since 1955...I actually do have a pretty good idea how this stuff works)
:D

so I don't know how I'd measure this other than bring it into the office to test it.

I've also been doing this kind of work since the mid 90's - sorry I'm not as old as you though, I'm only 40 years old.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

If you think about it, you'll see why you can't really measure AC current (easily...there are a few ways to do it approximately) with a meter in series with one of the legs...because of inductance and power factor. Think about the electric meter our on the pole, it's actually nothing more than a small AC motor that drives a series of rotating number wheels, sorta like an odometer. (There are newer solid-state versions that use hysteresis current sensors, A/D converters and dedicated microprocessors, though)

:-)

Did you mean this reply for someone else?

Doug D.

so I don't know how I'd measure this other than bring it into the office to test it.

I've also been doing this kind of work since the mid 90's - sorry I'm not as old as you though, I'm only 40 years old.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

As for a short, well I just call that "broke". :-) My recievers are not broke. Also, Dtv/RCA has confirmed what Karl has described. They have made some noise about future receivers not operating in this fashion in future, so as to save energy. We shall see.

So perhaps the problem is manufacturer or product specific.

I have a Sony SAT-B from 11 years ago (dual LNB) and a Hughes HD receiver (no TIVO) from about 3 years ago.

It may be too that if your RCA includes a TiVo, it is kicking on to record things and/or I'm sure it takes more current to handle the TiVo portion.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

This means that I am in the embarrasing position of talking from my hind-quarters, something I am all too happy to point out when others do it. But, unlike others, I do give a heads-up when I start reaching behind me! ;-)

without using power, well, just say I'd love to dope it out. :D I'd buy that airplane I really want. :-)

http://www.smarthome.com/9034.html



Clever little device, but kinda pricey.

Even my cheapo DMM cost $99.00 (I CAN use it to test voltage for brownout.)

I write software for controlling test instrumentation. In fact, my current project is a multi-function RF test instrument. The world of test instruments I deal with is in the tens of thousands of dollars.

For 22.99, I ought to buy one.

Thanks,

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

I got my Fluke 77II DMM new at a yard sale for 12 bux. My Phillips dual trace scope came from a swap meet for 10 bux. Just needed some cleaning. But, in the real world, you are right. It's not expensive. And certainly not when compared with the stuff in, oh, a Tektronix catalog.

I'm a CAD guy these days, so I have not had the pleasure of fondling high-end test equipment for about 8 years. You guys writing the code and creating the interfaces do a hell of a job. :thumbsup:

That nifty gadget will tell you what's on when you think it's off, and then you can decide if the remote function or whatever is that important.

But I've never actually tinkered with one so I can't vouch for their accuracy. :-)

I could probably find out the answer here. One of the guys here in my office invented a similar power quality / power consumption meter and lost his shirt on it. I'll ask him tomorrow if I can borrow one of them.

It would be interesting to borrow it for another reason as well. Another engineer and I got into a debate over CFB's (compact fluorescent bulbs) and whether they caused more problems than solved in terms of energy saved. His argument was that they degraded power quality which in turn cost money with big motors in your house like your HVAC and washer/dryer set, etc. I said that was not really likely unless you have tons of these lights all on at the same time.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

I don't get the fluorescent bulb thing...is he saying they're affecting the phase of the incoming power and reducing the efficiency of motors? If so, it's ridiculous. Actually, I think those lamps have phase-correcting capacitors already built into them...

(distortion / SINAD type stuff)

Doug D.

...

take our debate up as a subject. They did a related one on current inrush for fluorescent bulbs recently, i.e. should you leave a fluorescent continuously on because inrush current uses a lot of energy? Answer: no. Worst case was a traditional fluourescent which used about 23 seconds of "on" energy to start, everything else used less than 1 second. The only advantage to leaving bulbs on was they lasted longer than repeatedly cycling them.

Doug D.

There's nothing magic about fluorescent lamps...just "get 'em hot & zap 'em" ;-)

Which reminds me, neon sign transformers are a lot of fun to play with. heh heh

He disagrees though and I haven't done the actual experiment to prove him wrong...

Doug D.

Usually the more expensive it is, the less measurement uncertainty in the test instrument... not a physics explanation but it generally seems to be true in my experience.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

Proper calibration affects the latter, not the former. :-)

Measurement precision has to do with the ability to resolve two adjacent measurement values and in the world of digital measurment devices is related to the number of bits of precision in the ADC. A ten bit ADC has 4 times the precision of an 8 bit ADC for the same measurement range.

Precision is a necessary condition for accuracy but not a sufficient condition.

Accuracy is more closely related to the repeatability or measurement uncertainty. How close is the measurement to a designated reference source? It depends on the uncertainty present in the measurement.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

In analog instruments (which are still way more useful for some things), precision is determined by how far apart the tic marks are and how much of a change they represent. They also have the advantage of visualizing trends more easily.

But I have to disagree with your second point: A precise measurement can be wildly inaccurate, and vice versa -
for example a digital meter can show 5.013 volts (4 significant digits of precision) yet be completely wrong!

And an 'accurate' measurement can be "right" -within its specification-, it could read simply 5 which might be
'precise' from say, 4.5 to 5.5. That's its resolution and that is where your ADC comes into play, bitwise. ;-)

Firstly: In the digital world of modern instruments, your analog "tick mark" becomes the binary bit of precision and in either case, precision is about resolving two adjacent measurements. That's also what we mean when we start talking about significant digits. People with digital calculators get into trouble when they start assuming extra decimal places because their calculator told them so.

And I've already said that precision is necessary condition BUT IT IS A NOT SUFFICIENT condition. Therefore, yes, an instrument may be highly precise and still be wildly inaccurate.

Something MORE is needed than simple precision - measurement uncertainty must ALSO be considered.

This brings us back to calibration. When calibrating instruments you must consider the "uncertainty ratio" between the unit under test and the test instrument used to calibrate the UUT. If the test system is not at least 4x smaller uncertainty then the calibration will probably not be a valid one within UUT specs.

An accurate measurement can be right within its calibration specification but the tighter the spec, (i.e. the less uncertain the measurement is) the more accurate the instrument will be.

That's why I said that measurement uncertainty is much more relevant to measurement accuracy.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

precision is not in any way a prerequisite to accuracy. Assume we're attempting to measure watermelons. What exactly does that mean? In the real world, it's the total -number- of them that actually matters, right? So we can bring in a truckload of them, unload them one at a time and count every single one. That represents 100% precision and coincidentally 100% accuracy at the same time. Every one is a 'bit' and we can construct a binary number that exactly represents the total (binary or any other base, for that matter)

But that's too labor-intensive so we say "well, each melon weighs ~7 Kg., the truck minus the tare weighs 7000 Kg. so we have 1000 watermelons. " And that will be very likely be just about right...close enough for our purposes.

In this case, we have virtually no precision but the accuracy is quite good. We depend on what we know to be statistical averages and it works well in the real world.

And we have to use those same kinds of approximations when measuring almost everything...from barrels of oil to photons. Uncertainty and accuracy are opposite sides of the same coin; they're both practically and mathematically inverse functions. ;-)

or you will never be able to characterize the uncertainty in the first place.

Uncertainty is defined as the mean measurement error between the reference signal and the measured value. This value will generally vary randomly within a statistical distribution from the reference value and usually one speaks of two sigma or two standard deviations and one characterizes the overall uncertainty based on the various portions of the uncertainty in terms of a root mean squares sum of the various component uncertainties.

(I used to work for Motorola/CE's Test Equipment Engineering dept and implemented an automated calibration stand for them for RF generators used in turn in their production line for end of line test.)

Therefore I stated that precision is a NECESSARY but not a SUFFICIENT condition.

Your example is flawed because it does not measure the mass of an individual watermelon but attempts to count a large number of melons based on an average watermelon weight. The actual precision in your example would be in terms of how many watermelons +/- it could measure per truck load or more generically speaking a % of the total watermelon count. Is the scale accurate to +/- one melon, +/- ten melons, +/- fifty?

In terms of measuring an individual watermelon if your watermelon scale precision-wise could only indicate in tens of kg then if it had an uncertainty of 2kg you would never be able to characterize the uncertainty because the precision would be too coarse to do so. Does an individual watermelon weigh 6 kg or 10kg?

What you are actually describing is called "dithering" the measurement and it is also commonly employed to synthetically increase measurement precision by "averaging" the measurement across many successive samples. This is an OK thing to do if the measurement is known to be static or you are otherwise not concerned with a single measurment but if the measurement is dynamic it is not valid because you will lose the transient component.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

and so isn't so much concerned with absolute measurement as with obtaining the best result within some defined 'deadband'...which of course does ultimately depend on some degree of both accuracy and precision. My watermelon example wasn't intended to describe a perfect system (which doesn't exist, as you mention), it was to show an example of how we deal with the uncertainties encountered in the real world.

I'm looking at my B&K frequency counter over on the other table. It's set right now to give me 3 decimals in the
VHF range. I just keyed up one of my walkies (Motorola GP300) at 155.37(0000000?) Mhz. The counter says
157.370. So it's precise to that point but I have no idea how accurate it is. (Actually, I consider it pretty close because I can zero beat the WWV signal at 10 MHz against my xtal calibrator which comes up on the counter to 4 places)

My point is that in doing any sort of measurement, we're actually doing the watermelon thing because we can ONLY depend on an average. And that's true with both static and dynamic measurements...the only difference is the instant it's taken.

I have switched over to those in most of my sockets. The bathroom light is one of those long fixtures using eight 4" glamour bulbs. I have six CFBs in there now (they make the 4" globe style now). When that is turned on, if it was inducing noise I should be able to detect it in the video or the hifi I would think.

Has he done any tests?

I would tend to agree about induced noise being apparent in my A/V equipment as an audio buzz or video "snow" and would also argue that a 200W switching power supply in PC would be far worse than a measly little 23W bulb.

Doug D.

and isolated from the AC lines...they rarely cause any problems. I recall some years ago when I worked at a mfg. company, all the CNC machines started going berserk. It wasn't my job but I thought I might look for a cause...borrowed a scope and found a hideous spike in the power...turned out they had just bought a brand new Xerox machine (yes Xerox brand) copier and the SCRs in it were feeding back this noise into the supply. I unplugged it and everything worked fine.

:rofl:

That's a pretty funny story.

Personally, I've had problems with overhead fluorescents screwing up low power RF measurements in the past.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

with CFBs and I fired up my old Tektronix 692 spectrum analyzer...I couldn't detect anything at all from them.

I've been using CFB's since 1997 when I moved to Tennessee into a large farm house with a gazillion light bulbs and found this an effective way to cut down on my power bill and bulb replacements. I now live in Florida in a much smaller hosue but still use the CFB's. I was using them before Al Gore made them "cool".

Doug D.

all in all, it's a pretty painless and easy transition. We think they're less 'glary' than incandescents now. :-)

I always figured that's how they rate Fox Noise as the highest rated by combining all the ratings of the other Fox channels and shows.

not that DTV carries FoxNews...

Doug D.
Orlando,FL

We're unsure when it will be final.

The immensely popular and high-quality "Planet Earth" is on tonight.

I can't' wait for DTV to offer a larger lineup of 1080i channels. Right now there are only a few HD channels.

I guess I'll end up having to buy a new receiver again this year though if they do this.

Doug D.

is to disconnect the phone line from your box, Direct tells you it must be connected, that is pure BS, mine has never been connected and my box works just fine, the only exception is if you order PPV event then your phone has to connected but only then.

Doug D.
Orlando FL

they will give you grief about it. (My partner installs both and we -have- both in the house) :D

I first bought my DSS.

Doug D.

if you know what I mean. :evilgrin:

i switched to directv, and am much happier overall- the picture quality is much better.

If Fox, American Idol has been the most watched show so it makes sense.

2. headline news
3. Fox
4. CNN
5. Weather Channel Storm stories

Before I fall asleep, I make sure my tv is set to cspan or the weather channel or Nick-at-Nite or the Travel Channel or PBS before the auto-shut off. :hi:

My Directv tuner stays on IFC at night, for what that's worth.

Plus, I make sure I do not tune out after the Daily Show. I keep Colbert on, even if I'm not watching him.

Tada! :)



Oh, and I didn't know they had a realtime graph. But I just figured they knew. They have to for advertisers.

Sure try to alter the results of what is really happening in news and the preferences of the majority - is that how you are going to be in politics too?

so they have NO WAY of knowing what i watch or ever have watched. the satellite dish is not an uplink.

If you keep the phone unplugged from your receiver, no worries.

If you don't, you can go into Directv's online billing area and there's a section where you can opt out of their system that compiles data. I believe that your receiver connects to their system once nightly and that's when the compiled data gets sent.

I'm tempted to opt back in, though, because FOX is never on in this household and perhaps that isn't bad information to pass along.