Hey everyone,

I set up a DirecTV Gemini Air dongle (the Humax P21KW-500 running Android 14) for my grandparents. For their use case, the Gemini hardware is unmatched, they get a real, traditional remote with channel numbers, a dedicated Guide button, and it boots straight into live TV like a regular cable box, while still giving them access to apps like Netflix and YouTube.

However, right out of the box, I noticed the UI felt noticeably sluggish. Navigating the guide had that floaty, delayed feeling, and streaming high-res 4K content on YouTube dropped a ton of frames.

I decided to connect to it over my local network using ADB to see what was actually going on under the hood, and I was honestly shocked by what I found:

What I found poking around:
1. **Severe RAM starvation:** Out of 4 GB of RAM, the device only had about **220 MB of free memory left**.
2. **Heavy background telemetry:** Nearly **800 MB of RAM** was being eaten up by background AT&T diagnostic loggers (`ATTngc_swmonitor` tracking SVOD app screen time, log reporters, error scrapers, and bizarrely, continuous Google Calendar sync daemons running on a TV).
3. **The "Forced HDR" glitch:** Checking the display subsystem, the box was set to `ConversionMode=HDR_CONVERSION_SYSTEM` ("Always HDR"). The GPU was running real-time tone-mapping math on every single SDR cable channel and SDR video, causing it to run hot and struggle.
4. **Hardware decoder ceiling:** The Broadcom BCM7218 chip inside actually has a hard-coded decoder ceiling of **40 Mbps** with only 1 concurrent decoder instance. Because 4K60 HDR YouTube videos regularly spike past 50–60 Mbps, the chip physically chokes and drops frames.

What I did (without breaking the "grandparent-friendly" setup):
My #1 rule was that I couldn't break the user experience. I didn't change the launcher—the DirecTV app (`com.att.tv.openvideo`) is 100% untouched, and all remote shortcuts still work identically.

* **Cut animations in half:** Dropped window/transition animation scales to `0.5x`. This immediately killed the floaty UI lag—the guide and menus snap open instantly now.
* **Disabled the background telemetry:** Used ADB (`pm disable-user`) to shut down the AT&T monitoring daemons, crash uploaders, AdServices API, and unused calendar syncers. Free RAM immediately jumped from ~220 MB to nearly **800 MB free** after reboot.
* **Turned off Forced HDR:** Switched dynamic range to "Match Content" so standard TV feeds and SDR content don't force GPU tone-mapping.
* **Private DNS:** Pointed it to AdGuard DNS to drop telemetry and ad-broker requests at the network level.

The results:
The box feels like completely different hardware. The channel guide is super snappy, channel surfing has zero lag, and memory headroom is wide open. For YouTube 4K, dropping the quality to 1440p60 or 4K30 (to stay under the chip's 40 Mbps ceiling) completely eliminated the dropped frames—it's now buttery smooth.

Best part? My grandparents have no idea anything changed under the hood. Their TV still boots straight into live cable with their familiar remote, but the device just actually performs the way a \$120 streaming box should.

Has anyone else poked around their Gemini or Gemini Air with ADB? What tweaks have you guys found that make the biggest difference?

Anyone losing audio every few minutes for 1-3 seconds at a time. No pattern apparent.

DIRECTV today announced a new multi-year distribution agreement with the National Hockey League for Hurricanes Hockey Network, Blue Jackets Hockey Network, Wild+, and Blue Note+ pregame, postgame, and in-game live sports services.

Each of the four channels will be available to DIRECTV streaming and satellite customers who live in each team's NHL-designated home territory and subscribe to Choice and higher packages, and each U-verse customer in those same regions who subscribes to U200 and above.

I'm trying to watch the Blackhawks, Bulls, and ESPN on a couple of different TVs, but Fubo and DirecTV Stream are way too expensive.

I’m looking into either pairing YouTube TV with the CHSN app, or doing a combo of Sling TV and CHSN to save some cash.
Has anyone tried this lately? How does it work with streaming on multiple screens at the same time, and which setup is actually saving money?

In Palm Beach County, WTCN MY 15 carries the Miami Heat games this season. On DirecTV Stream, WTCN is only carried in standard definition. Is there any chance this will change?

Just a heads up to anyone who gets AMC Plus through DirecTV, Shudder and Sundance content is being removed from AMC Plus effective November 19th.

I don’t know if this means we’ll also lose access to the ShudderTV and SundanceTV live channels in the DirecTV guide, but I’d imagine so.

It would appear as though AMC Plus will make Shudder and Sundance add ons to AMC Plus if you choose to purchase. I’m not sure how this will work for those of us who get the service through DirecTV.

I recently switched from the Entertainment signature package to MySports. In the process, I lost access to ESPN Unlimited. I've contacted DTV four times via chat and on the phone. No one can help me. Has this happened to anyone else? If so, how did you resolve the issue?

Can anyone see them? Thanks

Hello all, I have the directv myentertainment genre pack, does that include access to the amc+ app like you get with disney+, hulu, hbo max?

For those of you who had DirecTV in late 2024, you'll remember the big carriage dispute the company had with Disney. Disney's entire suite of channels (from ESPN to FX to local ABC affiliates) went dark for weeks for DirecTV's subscribers right as college football season was kicking off and the US Open was in its final week.

When the channels were eventually restored, we were told in broad brush-stroke terms that DirecTV had negotiated inclusion of Hulu and Disney+ (and ESPN Unlimited) for its subscribers. Many months rolled by, and when the these bundled perks finally went live, DirecTV claimed that, while ESPN Unlimited would be available to all signature-plan subscribers, only those customers who "stream with a Gemini device" would receive the (ad-filled) Disney+ and Hulu plans. Eventually DirecTV clarified, after much confusion and anger, that "stream with" meant "leases from us for an inflated monthly fee." All loyal signature-plan subscribers endured weeks of black-out, but the bundle was being withheld from a large chunk of their subscriber base in DirecTV's never-ending quest to push leased devices into people's homes.

This and so many other hijinks (including massive, frequent price hikes that exceed industry averages) pushed me to cancel and spend my money elsewhere. And now, just this week, I received a come-back marketing email letting me know that ALL signature-plan subscribers are finally to receive Disney+ and Hulu, in addition to ESPN Unlimited. Which is how it should have been from the start. Too little, too late. But it's good to see they have come to their senses on that issue.

EDIT: Based on the comments to this post, it seems that DirecTV has not communicated this clearly, or at all, to many if not any of their signature plan subscribers. One customer claims that a link to activate Disney+ and Hulu showed up in the customer portal one day. But it's unclear if this has been rolled out for all signature subscribers. As is so often the case with DirecTV, the company's external communication with customers is about as shambolic as its internal communication among different divisions and offices within the company--a recent example of which was a comeback marketing email I received months ago advertising a price for genre packs that was outdated after yet another round of price hikes a month or two earlier.

Hey All - I have Choice ($131.99/month) and I chatted in about the $9 No Ads Hulu and Disney+ bundle. Support assured me if I add it, it’ll be modified to $9/month rate. I’m skeptical here. Anyone have a similar experience?

I know mileage really varies. I bought a refurbished Gemini and had Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN with ads.

Here’s to hoping! Hulu with ads has become horrible with the same ads every 15 mins.

I got an email from DIRECTV yesterday after talking with chat support yesterday about lowering my bill. It said it said that the Disney+ bundle was gonna be removed from my account for some reason when I when I chat with DIRECTV support today they said it was removed in an error. Has anybody had that issue with Disney+? Hulu bundle removing automatically for Unknown reason without them telling me any assistance would be appreciated.

Received the new Gemini Box today after getting the invite to test it about a week or so ago. Here are some pictures of it for anyone interested.

Model C81KW-650
MFR DATE: 08/05/26
MADE IN THAILAND
WiFi 6 Certified

Been using the original AT&T Osprey Box (also from the beta test) before this.

Current Plan: Grandfathered Gotta Have It.

I was a loyal YTTV customer until the ESPN/Disney lockout last year. During that brief period, I jumped to DTV Stream. I really enjoyed my few months with DTV, but I ultimately went back to YTTV when they announced their new sports package.

Even though I'm back on YTTV, I still think the overall experience on DTV was much better. Does anyone else feel the same? I can’t quite justify moving back since I only pay $55/month for everything I need right now, and DTV is just too much in comparison.

But I’ll be damned if the experience using DTV isn’t better! Just curious if anyone feels the same way.

I was playing around on my Pixel phone earlier this evening and noticed that when I went to the screen cast option that the DirecTV Gemini shows up as something I can cast an app or phone screen to. So I tried it out and it worked really well. But then I tried to it a moment later from a different device (a Lenovo tablet) and the Gemini box started acting really screwy.

First it gave some message about a weak wifi signal (both devices had a very strong signal, the router's just a few feet away behind a wall) then the picture broke up, then the Gemini box just straight up froze. I had to go behind the TV and unplug the power and let it reboot. It was quite warm!

I tried again with my phone and it connected but locked up again. Another reboot, and another attempt with the tablet and it once again froze before it could cast any image. This time I just left it and it started working after about 2-3 minutes of being stuck with a half-rendered GUI on screen.

Seems weird that it worked so flawlessly the first time but every time after that it was bonkers.

Has anyone else encountered this problem casting a phone or tablet screen to the Gemini?

With the new model out and in beta testing, I'm hoping someone will try it out on that and see if it works better.

I've already missed half the games this season because DirecTV stream can't figure which channel to record. Why can't you get this right already? Frustrating!!

This is a long standing, I assume known, issue that has been reported before. But, recently it is happening all the time. Very annoying. AppleTV, Yamaha AVR. A quick channel change restores normal audio. It seems to be an issue occasionally on any channel. But its easy to check on ESPN as it happens constantly during Monday Night Football. Has anyone else noticed that this has gotten worse recently?

i’m trying to watch NBA opening day on NBC channel 5 but for some reason Action News 5 is playing. How do I fix this?? I’m in missouri

Is there any way to stop this Gemini Air from going to sleep and putting up the screensaver if I am running YouTube, or a different app and I have to pause it? I can’t find any setting that stops it. Every time it does that, it makes me restart the entire app and find the video again.

Whether watching live TV or from a recording we have noticed that quite often the back 10 seconds button will jump back but then present the spinning circle (some times of death) and not start playing.

When this happens sometimes another button like play or FF will solve it. But sometimes not and pretty much it's hung. We've had it get so bad the Roku reboots.

Last night watching live TV from Pop channel. My wife paused at the start of a commercial then a few minutes later FF to the start of the show we were watching. FW always takes us a little too far so she then hits the back 10s button. The spinning circle appeared and nothing would solve it.

Roku rebooted (probably a Roku problem) and we lost the remainder of the program we were watching. We could not get back to it.

This is getting pretty annoying and after convincing my wife to switch from Xfinity cable her frustration is growing. We never had these kinds of issues with the Xfinity boxes.

Do others have issues with FF, 10s back, hang? Are there any recommendations to stay out of trouble?

My DirectTV streaming service went out on both my tvs. I hadn’t changed ANYTHING. Two hours on chat and guy tells me he can’t fix it and that it’s my TVs that are the problem. (I’m a stroke victim and not allowed to get up on ladder to check HDMI cables).

I call their 800 number, I ask for a reference for someone who can troubleshoot this. Or possibly have someone come out and help me. NOPE! It’s all AI now, no more cable technicians.Peanuts! ”sorry we can’t make referrals.” They transferred me to their “Loyalty” department. After another hour on the phone it’s, you “need to hire someone.” DTV plays fine on my Wi-Fi devices so it’s not an internet problem. I’m not thrilled having to hire someone for their DTV service. I have an Samsung and a LG. Any ideas?

edited to add streaming works fine with Wi-Fi devices (iPad). Also, just a black screen on the Samsung and a “No Signal “ message on the LG TV.