Rick wants to know if he can get a satellite antenna that offers "free hi-def" channels. Leo says it's not the channels he thinks he'll get. He'll end up getting stuff that's already being streamed on the internet. Almost certainly a bogus offer.
The FCC has approved an application from Elon Musk's SpaceX to deploy 7,000 satellites into space that would offer global broadband internet access. Elon Musk wants a total of 12,000 satellites around the earth in Low Earth Orbit to provide internet to every square inch of the planet's surface. One of the problems with satellite internet is that there's a lot of latency, but Musk says they can get it down to 25 milliseconds, which could be faster than the internet many of us have at home.
Nick wants to know about the DirecTV Genie 2. Does it do 4k? Leo says that DirecTV claims to offer two separate 4K streams, but he wonders how legit that is. 4K satellite is very compressed.
Peter switched from one satellite company to another. On his old satellite receiver, he had an HDMI output he could run to his TV and RCA audio outputs that he could run to his outdoor speaker system. his new unit no longer has the RCA audio output. It has an AV Out, a 1010 round port, and a digital audio out. How can he convert the audio? Leo says he can get a little dongle that could convert either the digital audio out or even from the HDMI out. He would need an adapter that will strip the audio out of it.
Ramona has discovered that her ISP can't go to the area she's moving to. Is satellite internet a good option? Leo says that satellite is expensive, there's a lot of latency and lag as the signal goes up and back, and it's slow. She wouldn't get much bandwidth either. One provider is a little better than others though, and that's WildBlue Exede. Cable would be much better, and even LTE wireless would be a better option.
Ron has an RV and wants to know how to get satellite internet for it. Leo says he can get a disk that fits on his RV, but it's not the greatest and he'll always have to reposition it. Leo says that 4G/LTE is a better option. Every carriers sell MiFi cards that will enable him to connect up to 5 devices to it and have access to the internet.
Another option is the KarmaGo. It's pay as you go and Leo uses it when he travels. It's about $10 a GB. Ron should also check with his carrier.
Bonnie has a Sharp LCD TV, had FIOS TV installed yesterday, and now the picture quality is terrible. She cancelled it, but now it's still not any better. Scott suspects that the cable that they replaced her HDMI with was faulty or cheap and that caused the inferior reception. Scott suggests connecting her DVD player via component and then connect the satellite box via HDMI, and get a different cable. That should solve it.
Marilyn says that her internet carrier is trying to charge her extra for bandwidth. She uses Dish. Leo says that satellite internet has bandwidth caps because it's very constrained. Leo only recommends satellite when there's no other choice. He recommends going to DSLReports.com. They have ISP reviews by geographic area. If there's nothing else in her area, Marilyn would be much better off going with LTE wireless.
Richard has a security cam in his home in another state and he wants to know how he can access it and monitor what's on it with a dynamic IP address. Leo says that DynDNS will enable him to do this without requiring a static IP. Other options include No-IP DNS and Duck DNS. His router may also be able to do to it.
Frank's cable company was taken over by Frontier from Verizon and it has constant outages that drive him nuts. Leo says it's gotten so bad that they're having hearings about it! Frank wants to change, but what are his options? Leo says that he probably won't have a choice for telephone, but he can change his internet service. He will have other TV options as well because he can always go with satellite or even Time Warner Cable. In fact, he can switch to Time Warner for all three and his phone number may be portable. Time Warner wants his business, so he should try to call them.
