TV Answer Man, I read your stories about DIRECTV having sports in 4K, but I don’t know how to get 4K on my DIRECTV receiver. Can you help me? I would like to try it out. — Jen, Nashville.
Jen, DIRECTV has more live sporting events in 4K than any other TV provider so I can understand your interest. But it can be a bit daunting for people who are not familiar with the technology so let me walk through the steps to watch 4K on DIRECTV.
1. You need a 4K TV.
This may seem obvious, but I’ve received several e-mails from readers who try to watch 4K by connecting a 4K-enabled Roku or Fire TV to a non-4K TV. That will not work. The TV itself must be a 4K TV.
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2. You need a DIRECTV 4K-enabled receiver.
I’ve also received e-mails from DIRECTV subscribers who own a 4K TV, but don’t have a 4K-enabled DIRECTV receiver. You must have both. The DIRECTV 4K-enabled receivers are model HR54 and HS17. If you don’t have one of those, you will need to contact DIRECTV and ask for a receiver upgrade.
3. You need a 4K-enabled DIRECTV Genie Mini.
Yes, even if you have the right TV and receiver, you will still need a DIRECTV Genie Mini attached to the 4K TV. The Genie Mini is model C61K. If you’re not sure if you have the Genie Mini, contact DIRECTV.
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4. You must have a Select plan or above.
Okay, let’s say you have all the proper equipment. You will still need a Select programming package or above to watch live sporting events in 4K. And if the event is from a channel that isn’t available in the Select plan, you may need a more expensive package, such as Choice.
DIRECTV’s live 4K channels are 104, 105 and 106. The satcaster is currently offering the French Open tennis tournament in 4K. You can also watch other sports, and movies in 4K on channels 104 through 108.
Jen, hope that helps. Happy viewing, and stay safe!
Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvpredictions.com. Please include your first name and hometown in your message.
— Phillip Swann
Let’s talk about the real world and exactly what Direct provides. I speak as a 22 year Directv customer with an HOA contract that is Spectrum and outstanding so Drect is sort of an adjunct provider and mainly for 4K. That said I have owned a 4K TV for about 5 years. Currently a 77″ LG OLED purchased last year. I am a watcher of sport and have enjoyed numerous sporting events in 4K on Direct. In the last six months or so there have been changes. Off times when I click on one of the 4K station to watch a sporting event I get the message “unavailable in my package” I don’t understand that because, say channel 105 IS in my package. I called to get and answer and the answer was “well that is showing on ESPN in high definition and you do not subscribe to that station.” I argued that I DO subscribe to channel 105 where the 4K is being show so why am I being denied viewing….obviously I lose that “battle” This has happened time and again and the sports are varied. Pro Basketball and Baseball have been the two significant “offenders” Personally when Direct advertises “4K available in all package” it is not true.
I’ve been a DirecTV customer since 1996. I have a 4K TV and 4K Denon AVR but no 4K content. The deal breaker for me is that I sacrifice my current non 4K DVR content recordings to upgrade to a 4K DVR. IMO DirecTV will no longer exist 5 years from now and that is sad to me. DirecTV corporate management doesn’t seem to be interested in promoting new or upgraded technology. Obviously I’m technological challenged because it seems that transferring content from a prior DVR to a new upgraded 4K DVR should be a simple digital transfer process even if it had to be done by an authorized technician home visit.
Hi Ken Moo, I see it’s been quite a while since you posted this situation with DirecTv and 4K programming.
First, to put your mind at ease about DirecTv and them still being around in 5 years from the time you wrote the post. Trust me when I say they are going to be around simply because there are still so many areas in the country where the only way to get media is to have a satellite dish. Cable and internet are not in certain out of the way areas due multiple reasons.
Now, as far as them not appearing to be as motivated to dedicate time and effort into improving or adding technical “stuff” to keep up with the industry…in my opinion, from what I’ve been told or heard through the grapevine is that AT&T purchased DirecTv a few years ago for the purpose of DirecTv having loads of bandwidth and AT&T needing that to stay competitive in the internet and television markets. After the purchase I can tell you things changed and not for the better.
They no longer offer those nice Tips and Tricks books they have for customers with a nice detailed channel and programming guide in the back of it. The knowledge that the CSR’s (cust. service reps) have is so much less than it was. They literally can read from a script. They so often misdiagnose issues and that can tie the hands of a technician.
The reason for the loss of recordings is due to copyright issues. They are not able to just freely float all these recordings, some of course would be big blockbuster movies and most recordings are copyrighted. So these have to be kept in some sort of control. So given that the recordings are on a hard drive they don’t offer a way to transfer the recordings so that there is some sort of control in letting these programs just float around anywhere.
The technicians have no way of taking that data off of one receiver and putting it on another. The receivers are not set up that way.
At least not for a regular technician to be able to do.
That’s all I can think of. Any other questions are welcome. I have knowledge of DirecTv but not so much with Dish Network. But they are.pretty much the same in principle. We are going to still need Satellite for years to come due to lack of quality internet in outlying areas. Satellite internet is NOT YET the answer. Too slow to watch movies once neighbors have it too.