[…]Roku App As the Tablo Gen 4 has had more time in the marketplace, there have been many folks complaining online about bugs in the Roku app such as having it crash or reset unexpectedly. The solution for many has been to purchase a $20 ONN Android streaming box from Walmart. Of course, no one should have to do that! Tablo customer support says they are aware of the issue and are releasing a solution. Reader Rick found a possible cause and workaround. For him, playback using some Roku devices was pixelated and terrible when using an external hard drive. […]
[…]more channels more reliably. A no-brainer, right? I’ve been testing both passive and amplifiers and indoor antennas for over ten years now. My conclusion is that although an amplifier is necessary in some situations such as with very weak signals or long cable runs, in many cases they don’t significantly help reception and can even hurt your reception. Here are a few situations to determine whether or not an amplified TV antenna is right for you: If You Have Strong TV Signals (a few miles from transmitters)… When I lived in Providence, RI, I had a mixture of very strong signals from […]
[…]no adverse repercussions, but Verizon could stop this at any time, so don’t bank on this working in the future. Can I attach my own 5G antennas to the gateway? It depends on which model you receive (you don’t have control over which model you get). If you receive the ARC-XCI55AX model, you can hack it to attach your own antennas but it requires opening up the unit and running cables from it. It would definitely void any kind of warranty on the unit. The ASK unit does not have a way to attach external antennas. There is a newer […]
[…]Internet. Check the Verizon website to see if you’re in range. The Built-In Wi-Fi Router: Understanding Its Limits Because the Verizon Home Internet Gateway box includes a built-in Wi-Fi router, I went ahead and tried it out. For the first month, it worked great, with good signal strength that reached throughout my two-story home and even into my garage below that. After a month though, my signal strength inexplicably fell off a cliff. I noticed it when my outdoor Ring cameras went dead due to low Wi-Fi signal. Inside my home the signal strength was fine. I can’t explain the […]
[…]slightly less convenient, you might get better results when using the AC adapter, since the power coming out of many TV’s is poor quality. For my testing, I used the AC adapter. Plug in the Chromecast, then open a Chrome browser on your computer and go to the URL specified in the instructions. On iOS, you’ll need to download the Google Home app. During setup, the Chromecast acts as its own Wi-Fi network. As part of the setup process, you’ll have to connect to it from your computer or mobile device and to enter your Wi-Fi password. After setup, my Chromecast […]
[…]was about. The bottom of the “y” in “my” spoke to me, and that became a coax cable pointing back at the user. The rest of the “y” became a flat antenna receiving a signal from the sky. Thus my logo was born! The Finished Logo I’m happy with how it turned out. I’m not saying that you should always design your own logo. In fact, for a “real” business, you should probably hire a professional. But why not have a little fun first and give it a try? At the very least, it can be a starting point when you do […]
[…]using the cumbersome letter picker. After starting up, there is a short introductory video that points out the main features of Fire TV. You can also select some commonly-used apps to install. The Home Screen Amazon re-vamped their home screen layout a while ago, and to me, it’s not as straightforward as, say, the Roku home screen. I also didn’t like having the Sprint ad right in the middle of my app grid! But, that’s not a showstopper and overall, it’s simple to navigate around using the four-way directional buttons on the remote, once you get used to it. Channels […]
[…]live in an apartment (unless your landlord agrees) or just don’t want the hassle and expense of routing coax cable to the roof and installing an antenna. Could there be another alternative? I’ve been experimenting with some small metal antennas that you can mount right on your patio or outdoor wall. These don’t require routing a lot of cables, crawling on your roof or in your attic, or setting up poles. The only thing you have to do is find a way to route the antenna cable from your TV to the outside. Test Results I tested the small, inexpensive […]
[…]into the LAN1 port. From there, access the web portal at 192.168.0.1: http://192.168.0.1/ Log in using the password printed on your unit. Can’t Log Into Your Gateway? If you can’t log into your Gateway, you probably need to do a factory reset by using a paperclip to press the reset button on the bottom of the unit for 3 seconds. This happened to me, and after I reset the unit, my firmware was upgraded from 222656 to 3.2.0.21. Setting Passthrough on the ARC-XCI55AX If you have the ARC-XCI55AX, use these instructions to enable passthrough mode. After doing that, skip past […]
[…]saving a ton of money by spending ZERO dollars for TV most months. I’ll continue to post my findings and research on DisableMyCable. I hope it is helpful to you. – Brian My Antenna Experiments and the Mohu Leaf My old rabbit-ear antenna got a good number of channels, but there were more that were flaky or that didn’t come in at all. So, I went out and purchased a big metal antenna, the Antennas Direct DB-4 from Solid Signal. This got me more channels, but I still wasn’t satisfied. Around that time, there was a lot of hoopla about […]
[…]avoid ads). There is no free trial, but that’s not a big surprise given the number of new movies coming. Hulu Good for TV Shows, Movies Hulu is increasingly investing in original programming like “The Handmade’s Tale”. I also enjoyed the story of one-time James Bond actor George Lazenby in “Becoming Bond”. They have a one-month free trial so there’s nothing to lose to try it. Hulu (the regular non-live TV version) is a very popular streaming service featuring a catalog of TV shows and movies for $7.99 per month with limited commercials and $14.99 per month with no commercials. Starz Lower […]
