First Tech Problems

Observations on the amazing yet sometimes frustrating technology landscape. Oh, and some racing stuff. Email me

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The SVRA Saturday Group 2 Race at Road America on May 18th, 2024. A smaller field than usual for our first race weekend of the year, but turned out to be a very competitive race in the Formula Ford group, with my teammate Dan Ariens II beating me to the finish line by less than a tenth of a second. I also set my best lap time ever in my Lola T440 with a 2:33.616, almost a full second faster than last year's previous best.

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The SVRA Sunday Group 2 race at Road America on May 19th, 2024. Another really fun race between me, Dan Ariens II, Mark Repka and Jacques Dresang. At the start Patrick Flynn took off in his 1987 Van Diemen and by Turn 6 Jacques and Mark had worked their way up to Dan and I after they started further back after their Saturday race mishap. It settled into several laps of Mark and Dan trading for the lead of our group with Jacques and I lurking right behind them. I figured I would just keep in touch with the group, work out if there was any place on the track I had an advantage and then see if anyone made a mistake on the final lap. On the penultimate lap Mark was trying to pass Dan into Turn 5 and spun, which caused Jacques to spin while taking evasive action. I was able to navigate through it but it gave Dan a big lead that I wasn't able to overcome in just a lap and a half. However it did leave us with 1st and 2nd in Club Ford and 2nd and 3rd overall in Formula Ford, so add another red hat to the collection. Overall a great start to the season with near-perfect weather, great racing action and a few more medals to take home!

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2021 SVRA Spring Vintage Group 2 Formula Ford Race at Road America

Group 2 Formula Ford races from the May 2021 SVRA Spring Vintage Festival at Road America.This was some of the closest racing I've ever done in a Formula For...

My video of the Saturday May 15, 2021 SVRA Spring Vintage Group 2 Formula Ford race at Road America. I finished 2nd place in class just 0.139 seconds behind Chris Arrogante and 0.157 seconds ahead of Mark Repka in 3rd. Includes bonus footage of the first lap of the Sunday race that was scratched due to a rollover collision in Turn 8 (I have a good view of the accident in my rear-facing camera), in which no one was seriously injured.

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My Optimal Settings Guide for using a Dolby Atmos Soundbar via HDMI-ARC with an LG CX OLED TV and Xbox One X

First off, let me state that in my opinion a guide like this shouldn't be needed. The whole point of HDMI-ARC is that you connect your ARC-compatible TV and soundbar with via a single HDMI cable and you're done. Sadly nothing ever works like it's supposed to, so here we are.

I recently upgraded my game room TV from a Sony XBR 49X800D, a 4K 49-inch LCD TV with middling HDR and black level performance, to LG's latest and greatest 48-inch OLED48CXPUB. I hated the black levels on the Sony XBR and wanted all the latest HDMI 2.1 features that the LG CX supports, including Variable Refresh Rate and Auto Low Latency Mode for use with my Xbox One X. I also wanted a "future proof" TV that can support 4K 120 fps when the Xbox Series X shows up later this year.

My sound system here is a Vizio SB36514-G6 36" 5.1.4 soundbar. I watch a lot of 4K UHD Blu Ray movies on my Xbox so I wanted a sound bar with Dolby Atmos and included both front and rear upward firing speakers. It also had to fit in my game TV cabinet so the 36-inch size is perfect, which is also the reasons I selected the LG CX as it’s the first 4K OLED under 50-inches.

It all has to fit in here

The CX doesn’t disappoint at all in picture quality - it blows away the Sony LCD and VRR in Xbox games is fantastic. Until I noticed the horrendous 500 millisecond audio lag with Xbox games and apps with my default Dolby Atmos audio output setting.

Originally with the Sony TV I had the Xbox HDMI output hooked directly to the Vizio soundbar and passed the video through to the Sony. The Sony has HDMI ARC but doesn't pass Dolby Digital or Atmos audio, and since it also doesn't support HDMI 2.1 it was fine to just let the Vizio pass the video through while it directly decoded the audio stream.

However with the LG CX the only way to take advantage of all the great HDMI 2.1 features is to connect the Xbox One X directly to the LG CX and then use HDMI ARC for the LG to pass the audio to the soundbar. The LG passes Dolby Digital and Atmos bitstreams through ARC, so it seemed the perfect solution.

I soon noticed the lag between the picture and the audio when playing Xbox One X games. Running test patterns in the Xbox Netflix app confirmed there is about a 500 millisecond audio lag with Atmos turned on.

And then there's the issue of the LG CX not passing DTS audio. I was a little surprised how many of my 4K UHD Blu-ray discs actually only have a DTS audio soundtrack, no Dolby Digital or Atmos. Even though my soundbar can decode all DTS formats, the LG TV wouldn’t passthrough the DTS bitstream.

So after a lot of experimentation with settings both on the TV, the Xbox, trying different combinations of cabling, here's what I found to be the optimal configuration settings if you want to use HDMI ARC with your LG CX and Xbox One X:

Connections: • Xbox HDMI to LG CX (use input 1, 3 or 4, save input 2 for Soundbar HDMI-ARC) • LG CX HDMI 2 to Soundbar HDMI Input

(Be sure to use HDMI High Speed cables, preferably certified for HDMI 2.1)

LG CX Settings: • Set Sound Out to HDMI-ARC • Set HDMI Audio Input Format to Bitstream • Set Digital Sound Out to Passthrough

Xbox One X Settings: • Playing Xbox Games and Apps (Netflix, etc.)      ○ Go to Settings > General >Volume & audio output      ○ Under Speaker Audio           - Set HDMI Audio to Bitstream Out           - Set Bitstream Format to Dolby Digital This will reduce the audio lag to 200 milliseconds or less, which isn't perfect but is acceptable. If you set the Bitstream format to Dolby Atmos for Home Theater you will get 500 milliseconds of lag which produces obvious lip sync and late audio cues. If you can live with it then by all means you can set this to Atmos, but I couldn't. 

• Playing 4K UHD Dolby Atmos Audio Blu-ray Discs      ○ Go to Settings > General >Volume & audio output      ○ Under Speaker Audio           - Set HDMI Audio to Bitstream Out (same as above)           - Set Bitstream Format to Dolby Atmos for home theater      ○ Go to Settings > Devices & Streaming > Blu-ray           - Select/check Let my receiver decode audio

With these settings the Xbox One X plays Dolby Atmos 4K Blu-ray movies in perfect sync with the full glory of Atmos sound. This leads me to believe the lag issues with Xbox games and apps when Atmos is turned on is a byproduct of the Xbox itself, something its doing in its Atmos processing. If that's the case, maybe this will be resolved with the dedicated audio processors in the upcoming Xbox Series X.

• Playing 4K UHD DTS Audio Blu-ray Discs      ○ Go to Settings > Devices & Streaming > Blu-ray           - Uncheck Let my receiver decode audio (the opposite of above) The LG CX isn't licensed to pass DTS audio through to your soundbar via HDMI-ARC. It is an incredibly annoying cost-cutting measure LG took considering their 2019 B9 and C9 TVs included DTS passthrough. But fortunately the Xbox One can transcode DTS on the fly into a Dolby Digital signal that can be passed over HDMI to the LG CX which in turn passes it to the soundbar which then decodes it. I tried changing the Xbox to use uncompressed 5.1 audio and changing the LG CX to pass PCM audio through but I couldn't get it to work. Simply unchecking the Let my receiver decode audio is the quicker, simpler solution anyway (less settings to change between gaming and watching a 4K Blu-ray). I tested this with The Fate of the Furious (don't judge) and the sound mix was excellent with plenty of action in the rear speakers and clear dialog via the center channel. 

Now there is one other option for Xbox games, apps and non-Atmos 4k discs and that's connecting an optical audio cable from the Xbox to the soundbar (assuming your soundbar supports optical audio; my Vizio does). This will actually give you perfectly synced Dolby Digital 5.1 audio for games and will pass through DTS soundtracks for the soundbar to decode natively since you’re bypassing the LG CX entirely for audio.

I ruled out connecting the optical cable for me as it just complicates the settings when you need to change them. On the Xbox you'd need to turn off HDMI Audio, turn on Optical Audio, and then switch the soundbar to the optical audio input. Then when I want to use the LG CX native Netflix app (which supports Atmos!) or use my NVidia Shield (which has no audio sync issues, by the way) I'd have to change the soundbar input from optical to HDMI, and if I want to watch an 4k Atmos Blu-ray disc on the Xbox I have to reverse all the optical settings back to HDMI. Sticking with HDMI lets me change just one setting between playing games and watching an Atmos movie on the Xbox (Dolby Digital to Dolby Atmos for Home Theater); for me the simplicity of that is worth living with the 200 millisecond audio lag with Dolby Digital in games over HDMI-ARC. And don't forget, the Xbox Series X won't have an optical audio output port, so that won't be an option on that console.

Something else that may help all of this is eARC, or Enhanced ARC. HDMI eARC supports the higher bandwidth of the HDMI 2.1 specification and should improve support for Dolby Atmos. The LG CX supports eARC (another reason I chose it), but so far I can't find an eARC soundbar under 43-inches wide with wireless upward firing rear speakers (having both front and rear upward firing speakers makes a huge difference with Atmos in my opinion). HDMI eARC is brand new so I'm hoping later this year there will be more choices available.

So to summarize, when using HDMI-ARC audio with an LG CX TV, Xbox One X and Dolby Atmos soundbar, select Dolby Digital on the Xbox One when playing games or using apps, and select Dolby Atmos for home theater when watching 4k UHD Blu-ray discs with Dolby Atmos soundtracks. If you have a 4K Blu-ray with a DTS soundtrack remember to turn off Let my receiver decode audio in the Blu-ray section of the Device and Streaming settings (if you forget, the Xbox will display an error message telling you to do this). Lets hope this all gets better with the next generation of eARC soundbars and/or the Xbox Series X. 

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My drives in the VSCDA ELVF Sunday Open Wheel Special and Group 4 Feature races on 9/16/2018. There’s just two laps of the afternoon Group 4 race as the Lola overheated again. Well, at least I have all winter to figure out what’s causing that!

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My drive in the VSCDA ELVF Group 4 Sprint Race at Road America 9/15/2018. 

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2018 Chicago Air & Water Show

88 new photos · Album by Jeffrey Tschiltsch

My pictures from the Chicago Air & Water Show on Saturday, August 18th. 

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My drive in my 1977 Lola T440 in the WeatherTech International Challenge Group 4 Sunday Feature race (Formula Ford, Formula B, Formula Atlantic, Formula Continental). 

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My drive in Saturday’s WeatherTech International Challenge Qualifying Race at Road America. 

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The Formula Ford battle between Dan Rhodes in his 1977 Tiga and Rod Bolhous driving his 1981 Lola T540 in the Sunday Group 2 race at SVRA's Spring Vintage event at Road America. Since I wasn't racing the Sunday race I installed my two GoPros on Dan and Rod's cars - what I didn't realize was the mounting point for the camera on the Tiga was cracked (perhaps I over-tightened) and you can see right from the start the footage from that camera is very unstable. It survived the first lap until the Kink, at which point it spectacularly left the car (thanks to the corner workers and Ben Cissell at SVRA for finding and returning the camera to me so I could include the footage!). From there on out we see the race solely form Rod's vantage point in the Lola. I also had some mobile phone footage taken at Turn 5 that I've incorporated along with a couple of shots of the action shown on the big screen. There's some dicing back n' forth between Dan and Rod - there's never much more than a couple of car lengths between them the entire race, and a red Formula B gets in the action as well. (The yellow Brabham BT35 you see  lap the field is driven by Geoff Brabham who was driving on another planet). In the end only 0.06 seconds officially separated Dan and Rod at the finish (although we discovered the Lola's transponder was mounted at the rear of the car, so it was probably more like 0.006 seconds). It was an exciting duel to watch and based on the expressions on the podium it must have been a blast to drive.

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Justice League: A-

A- for DC fans, B for normals.

Very good; I admit I was worried about a couple of the character treatments from the trailers (which is why I don't like to watch trailers for movies I know I'll see but there's no avoiding them for a year if to go to the theater as I do) but was pleasantly surprised and liked them all.

The Mother Boxes were handled a little strangely, but no matter, they just the MacGuffin to get everyone together and have a big third act fight anyway.

Which, for once, isn't completely overblown and drawn out forever. The movie has nice pacing and actually comes in under 2 hours (when's the last time you saw a super hero movie under 135 minutes?).

Lots of previous complaints from the Internet that the DC movies are too "dark" - well, the topic here is still dark (end of the world, hard to make that light) but there is a nice balancing of character interaction that moves the dialog closer to "what the people want" (read: Marvel, or more precisely, Tony Stark) but not going as far as Thor: Ragnarok (which wanted to be the Lethal Weapon of Marvel movies. Without the violence). I still think Batman v Superman was a great movie (probably because I love the Public Enemies story from the comics - although I do wish Doomsday had been done better), so I'm glad the filmmakers didn't panic and kept the tone - the additional characters (and better writing) have solved the problem for the rest of you 😉

My guess though is that this movie will do well for one reason in particular: more Wonder Woman. And she's great; if your a WW fan you're gonna love Justice League (which now can be subtitled, WW 75 Years Later).

And if you're a Superman and/or Batman fan I think you'll enjoy it too. I don't know if it will appeal to fans of the Flash TV series, I only saw the premier, and while is isn't the typical Barry Allen that I think of, he's likable and gives the team chemistry what it needs. Jason Momoa really does steal the show as Aquaman - no more making fun of him on Robot Chicken after this.

So go see it, it’s a fun movie that builds nicely on Wonder Woman's success and will hopefully pull a few more fans into the extended DCU.

Side note: when I first saw TK Simmons I thought, why is JJ Jameson at the Daily Planet? Why does it look weird? Oh, its a police station. Oh, he's Jim Gordon. (I like Simmons but that's lousy casting still).

Oh, and stay for the credits, of course; there are TWO extra scenes at the end. The last one is the usual teaser for the next movie, but the first is classic, an homage to one of my favorite comic issues I had as a kid.

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Racing my vintage 1977 Lola T440 Formula Ford at the Road America WeatherTech International Challenge. 

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Second race of the VSCDA Spring Brake at Gingerman Raceway weekend. We were the last race on Sunday so only about half of the field turned out, which netted me a third place overall and another second place in class. For the second race I mounted a second GoPro on the opposite suspension arm facing the rear. Not as effective as the mount points I had on my Lynx B, but still provided some interesting footage. 

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I’ve moved up a class for 2017, selling my Formula Vee for this 1977 Lola T440 Formula Ford. After some work over the winter the Lola was ready for a shakeout weekend at VSCDA’s Spring Brake event at Gingerman Raceway. The Lola ran great at I finished second in class (Club Ford) in the Saturday 2 lap sprint race. I didn’t really have time to figure out where to mount my GoPros, so I mounted a single camera to the front suspension arm just to see how it would work out. The view is a little blocked by the tire but overall it’s a pretty cool viewpoint. 

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Could Microsoft Release Project Scorpio Hardware at E3?

So 22 years ago I was a freelance writer covering the videogames industry. I played everything back then, but my preferences leaned towards Sega as I loved their hardware focus (I had a SegaCD, a Nomad and a 32X!) and their exclusive games always appealed to me more than Nintendo's (although I was already  enamored with Ridge Racer on my gray market PlayStation Japanese import).

The 1995 E3 trade show was held in Los Angeles that year, where I happened to live. Thanks to Tom Kalinske's stunning announcement at the press conference I attended, I was able to buy a Sega Saturn (and Virtua Fighter!) by stopping in at the Toys R Us near my house on the way home. I couldn't believe it!

Of course, that early release of the Saturn is a well documented disaster (read: Console Wars by Blake Harris) and was pretty much the end of the Sega I loved. However, it got me thinking after reading all the release coverage on Microsoft's upcoming Project Scorpio console:

Wouldn't it be awesome if Microsoft released the Project Scorpio console hardware at this year's E3?!

Now before you write that off as insane, hear me out. Microsoft announced the Xbox One S and Project Scorpio at the same time at last year's E3 show. While the S was a nice revision bump for the current console, those of us who already owned an Xbox One console (I was already on my second one, having upgraded my Day One box to the beautiful limited edition Forza console) and understood the promise of Project Scorpio were immediately put in a hold pattern. Why buy the S in September when a year later true 4K gaming was going to arrive?

So instead gamers like me have been biding their time waiting for Scorpio. It's painful since many of us have popped for a 4K UHD HDR TV - which my current Xbox One works great with, but I can't play UHD Blu-rays yet (but at least my Kinect still works without an adapter). I applaud Microsoft for actually announcing their Scorpio plans when they did, as I probably would have bought an S if they hadn't - new hardware is very hard to resist.

So it's been almost a year since the initial Scorpio announcement and in the meantime we have the release of the PlayStation 4 Pro. This is the first generation where I haven't owned "all" the systems. I used to buy every new console on launch day; originally because I wrote about games and hardware, and then later because I had a young son who shared my passions. But after stints with AOL and VideoGame Advisor/GameWeek I turned my attentions full-time to my IT career, my son grew up, and then gaming became purely recreational for me. When the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were announced, I looked at the past 8 years, realized I almost never played my PS3 and lived on my Xbox 360, and decided all I needed was an Xbox One (racing games are my passion, and for me Forza is the only exclusive that matters).

Anyway, the hardware junkie in me was tempted by the PS4 Pro, but I had just upgraded my PC to a GTX 1070 and an ASUS ROG 27" 2K monitor, so I decided that would hold me over until the Scorpio arrived with true 4K gaming (and mercifully, based on Digital Foundry's articles, that faith in Scorpio looks well founded!).

So - why the idea of releasing the Scorpio console hardware at E3? First off, the Scorpio hardware is 100% backward compatible with the current Xbox One consoles. So on launch day one, without doing anything else, the Project Scorpio console has a library of literally hundreds of games, maybe a thousand. Games that now immediately get a bump in framerate and possibly resolution, depending on how they were coded.

Now Microsoft is seeding hardware in the hands of its hardcore Xbox evangelists. They’re showing it off to their friends - cool new hardware and look how good the games are? For those Xbox One first-gen owners who skipped the S, they now get those "S" features like HDR in Forza Horizon and Gears of War, and the ability to play 4K UHD HDR Blu-ray discs (I've already started buying them instead of regular BD discs now even though I can't play them yet, because I know I'm getting a Scorpio). Even though there are only a few HDR games for Xbox One, at least there would be some titles that would immediately take advantage of the Scorpio hardware beyond improved frame rates.

Depending on the price, I think there is a huge pent up demand for a true 4K console like the Scorpio - an early hardware release could let Microsoft ramp up production towards the big holiday push while delivering those early adopter consoles, which would mean more true hardware availability in 2017 and potentially a much larger sell-through for the year. Any game developers who are on the fence would see that, and it could give them the push to have more 4K asset "upgrades" available for download in December/January, which in turn would drive more hardware demand and provide a nice bump in sales for those older, upgraded titles as there would be a new reason to own/play them.

And none of this would diminish "Holiday 2017" - it would still be the big blockbuster mainstream rollout as that's when the new AAA titles are released and the Scorpio ad campaigns would feature the console and the "upgraded" versions of those games. Plus that's when Microsoft would release the bundles (Scorpio + Forza 7, Scorpio + Crackdown 3, or maybe Star Wars Battlefront II).

Beyond all of that, just imagine how it would play at E3 in June. It would simply be epic.

Is there any chance of this happening? My realistic guess is no. For starters, I don't think there's any way Microsoft and retailers could keep something like this a secret; they'd have to be shipping well in advance of the date to have stock in hand and unlike 1995, the Internet and blogs are far more pervasive now.

So the only way to do it would be a Microsoft Online Store exclusive (at least for the first couple of weeks). That would probably upset retailers (many were furious with Sega for giving a few chains the early exclusive on Saturn, a necessity due to limited hardware availability and trying to keep it a secret). Digital game sales are already straining relationships with retailers, but maybe because of that it doesn't really matter much anymore.

And we really don't know yet how Microsoft defines "Holiday 2017" - The S launched in September of 2016, and the last several iterations of the Forza games have also been released in September. If Microsoft keeps to that sort of schedule (and as a dedicated Forza player I sure hope they do!), then it's possible that we could see pre-orders announced at E3 with availability in September - that's only another three months.

Another wrinkle could be that perhaps not all the Xbox One game backward compatibility testing/tweaking is complete yet. It would suck if Scorpio was release but there was a list of games that were problematic; it needs to play the existing catalog at least as good as the original Xbox One on Day One.  

Microsoft is probably building the production versions of the new consoles right now, but since they all have to go through the "Hovis Method" it may take time to build up an adequate supply of consoles. They may not want to announce availability and then have 2 month shipping backorders (like Google with the Pixel phones).

Given all of that, September is probably the earliest realistic availability date. But given the unprecedented release of detailed hardware information ahead of the release, and that this holiday is "all about the games", it just feels like something truly unexpected could happen during the June 11th event. We'll find out in less than two months!

What do you think?

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“DIRECTV READY” should be called “READY ... as soon as you give us another $50″

So I got the itch to replace my 11 year old Sony Bravia 40" LCD TV that I use with my Xbox One with a new 4K HDR TV to get ready for Project Scorpio coming later in the year. My gaming systems live in a hutch and I found I could upgrade from the 40" set to a 49" display thanks to the newer TVs' thinner bezels. After some research my choices came down to the Sony XBR-49X800D and the Samsung UN49KS8000. Ultimately I went with the Sony based on the price (I was able to get an open-box special for $600 less than the Samsung would cost) and that it's primarily just a gaming TV, not my main home theater display.

So far the Sony hasn't disappointed, it makes an excellent Xbox One display and I've enjoyed using the Android TV apps for Netflix and Amazon, trying out 4K HDR shows like The Grand Tour and The Man in the High Castle (this is my first 4K set, my home theater has a 60" Pioneer Elite Kuro plasma and InPlay HD projector, both of which are "just" 1080p).

I also had a DIRECTV Genie Mini hooked up to the old gaming Bravia and Xbox One that I connected to the new Sony 4K TV. The 800D has an IR blaster built in and includes a few remotes which I initially used to have it control the Genie mini and my Vizio surround soundbar setup which provides the audio for this rig. It as a little finiky to setup but eventually I got it all working great. Then in the Android TV section I noticed an app called DIRECTV Ready, and realized the 800D has RVU tech built-in. That's cool, I thought; using the Genie Mini is kinda clunky, why not switch over to use RVU in the Sony and get rid of a box?

So I disconnected the Genie Mini, connected the DIRECTV coax directly to the 800D, launched the DIRECTV Ready app; the display showed "Searching for Genies" ... and that's it. After 30 minutes I called DIRECTV support and said I was trying to hook up my new 4K DIRECTV Ready set to my Genie and was told, "Sure thing! I can totally help you with that!" We discussed my account, the rep noted they had just been out to my house last month to replace my three aging HR20 and HR24 DVRs with the single Genie Server DVR, blah blah, and then said, "OK, so we'll need to schedule a technician to come out and install your TV".

I'm like, "what are you talking about? Its already set up and working fine. Just replace the mini on the account with the RVU and it will be good to go."  And then I get a bunch of nonsense about how its not simple to setup, the tech needs to "sync" the tv to my sytems, blah blah. I'm frustrated, but I'm like fine, lets get it scheduled. And then she says it will cost $49.99 plut $19.99 shipping and handling.

And I lost it.

"WTF?!?! Are you f*@$knig kidding me?!? You call this DIRECT 'ready' - there's nothing 'ready' about a set that requires a technician visit to activate it!" So I yell at this poor support person for a good 15 minutes. To her credit, she just listened, said she understood and that's just how it is, and did waive the $19.99 shipping and handling fee since she couldn't figure out what that was for anyway.

So two days later the tech comes out, great guy, and "installs" my Sony 4K TV. Which was basically him just running a test on my Genie DVR to make sure everything was configured correctly, which it was, and then logging into the DIRECTV tech system to flag that everything was good to go. At that point the Sony sudddenly was able to connect to the Genie DVR, we entered the PIN to connect it, and voila! DIRECTV Ready is finally "ready".

I guess I understand there are probably a lot of older DVR installs out there and not everyone is up to speed on how these devices all connect, but it still feels criminal to me that I was charged $50 to have a tech come out, run a system diagnostic that I could have run my self over the phone with Customer Support, and flag my system as "ready". The tech didn't have to touch my dish, didn't change a setting on my DVR, didn’t touch my TV other than to enter the "add a device" PIN on the Sony screen which I could also have done with Customer Support over the phone. What could have taken 10 minutes on the phone took two days to complete because DIRECTV feels the need to gouge me another $50 to hook up a TV to use a service I pay on average $250 a month for. It was a waste of time for me, for the tech that came out to the house, and caused 15 minutes of angry customer grief for the poor customer support person who took my initial call.

Like most things related to AT&T/DIRECTV customer service, it was all just stupid and unnecessary. Unless, of course, you're AT&T and you've baked in those $50 service calls as part of your revenue stream.

Actually I think DIRECTV could fix this really easily - just drop the "ready" from the name, call it "DIRECTV Inside" or something like that.

So bottom line, if you're a DIRECTV customer and your thinking about a DIRECTV Ready TV, just know that you won't be able to just bring it home from the store and use it, you'll need a $50 visit from your DIRECTV tech first. Plan accordingly.

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKkD46AIiqE)