Contributor
TOP Secret menu appeared claimed I UPLOADED 61.9 MB of Data TO AT&T, ????
Greetings & Salutations to you all, this is my very first post here, Thank You for your interest and time...
I was just watching tv and a menu never previously seen by me appeared on my screen. It was interactive both up and down & sideways. It listed 6 different antenna strengths, network strength, mac address, ip address, name of internet device, how many times I have connected and disconnected since boot, a few other items I do not remember, how much data I have downloaded, and how much data I have uploaded.
Other than the name, time and date of the ONE pay per view I watched, what on earth (or in space) could possibly occupy 51.9 MEGABYTES, NOT BITS of data?????? Just to clarify, it claimed I Downloaded over 300 MegaBytes, so there is no chance that the Up/Down Loads are backwards.
I can only surmise that AT&T is applying their wireless phone service business model to DirecTV and mining EVERY useful BYTE of data possible such as ALL MY VIEWING HABBITS, such as what I watch, when I watch, & where I pause or rewind/fast forward, not to mention some other data I havent considered yet.
Seriously, my Commodore 64 has a Kick Butt Flight Simulator with AWESOME graphics and sound and it runs on 64 KILOBYTES, how does the above data from one movie occupy almost 100 times that????
I hope I am thinking waaay tooooo much and somebody has a less SINISTER explanation... please, thank you very much.
If only I took a picture or two, as None of the 6 "Technicians" at "Tech Support" had ANY IDEA what I was talking about, they blamed my ISP!?!?!? WT#$%^&!!??
litzdog911
ACE - Sage
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46.4K Messages
6 years ago
Not sure what screen you saw, but internet-connected DVRs are always downloading data. If you downloaded a movie, it would likely have consumed much more than 51.9MB of data. A typical two-hour high def movie consumes ~2GB of data. So 51.9MB is hardly anything.
If it concerns you, disconnect your DVR from your home network. Internet access is not required for DirecTV satellite equipment. You just won't have access to OnDemand or streaming content.
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VeryWorried
Contributor
6 years ago
Thank you very very much for the response. I al greatly appreciate your
very practical suggestion, which I did as soon as I saw this data on the
afforementioned menu.
However, Not for any DOWNloading concerns, but for the UPloading. To
clarify, I have limited bandwidth from the isp connected to my receiver,
therefore, I have Not Downloaded Any programing material whatsoever. I have
a brand new receiver less than 2 months old and have watched 1 payperview,
No On Demands. That being said, my receiver claimed to have Well over 300
MegaBytes DOWNloaded, while (Here is wherein my concerns lie) it also
claimed to have UPLOADED 61.9 MegaBytes of data TO AT&T's server farm. Now,
after having spoken with Well over a dozen AT&T representatives, I have
been CONSISTANTLY told the ONLY data they UPload is my Pay Per View
purchases ONCE a month. While they didn't mention on demand searches or
purchases, I imagine, any of either would require Uploading such data, yet,
I have NEVERONCE done either from this brand new receiver. My C=64
reference was serious, as how many bits, not bytes does the name, title,
time & date of the Single (1) movie I have Purchased occupy? I am guessing
I could DOWNload a short few minute video itself with 62 MegaBytes, let
alone upload the data on one ppv purchase.
Again, I sincereley do appreciate your sharing your most valuable time and
your generosity in taking that time to respond to my inquiry.
Nobody at AT&T even believes I accessed ANY screen other than the
standard interface. As I mentioned, it appeared on it's own volition, not
by ANY buttons being pushed or secret passwords being yodeled. It is
clearly some internal diagnostic page intended for enginiere or field tech,
as the phone support just provide extremely basic troubleshooting.
All this being said, my posting and account dissappeared this morning
with zero notice or explanation. As this was my first posting to this
forum, I am not familliar with any etiquette. Would you perhaps possibly
possess any concept of an idea as to why this might have occured or what my
inquiry possible said that might not have conformed to a policy?
Thank you again most SINCERELY,
VeryConfused
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shannon02
ACE - Expert
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21K Messages
6 years ago
There is back round data usage maintaining the On Demand guide and when a new receiver is first connected it has to download the On Demand guide for each channel that offers On Demand.
There is anonymous user viewing data sent to DTV/AT&T.
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Juniper
ACE - Expert
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22.8K Messages
6 years ago
Background usage, anonymous viewing data, PPV orders, On Demand (use and info are all from internet) all contribute to any upload.
Devices that use the internet are built to handle much more data than the Commodore 64. So I wouldn't use that as a fair comparison. But that brought back a lot of memories as the flight simulator was mom's favorite program. Haven't run that one in a long time.
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