American Idol blocking fast forwards on Comcast HD-DVRs

[rtt2]

Lost Remote is reporting that one of their readers couldn't fast forward while watching an episode of American Idol he recorded on his Comcast HD-DVR, but could on other shows. The reader in question, even sent in this photo showing the unversal "no" symbol, which we assume showed up while fast forwarding.

This appears to be the 'transitional fair use' that we've been hearing in action. Some of the comments on Lost Remote speculate that it was merely a bug, either needing a reset of the PVR or caused by an encoding problem. We've previously heard of fast forward problems on 24, another show on Fox. Have any other Comcast HD-DVR users had problems? Let us know in the comments.
http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/2005/02/american_idol_b.html

 

[korsjs]

i hope my cable company doesn't start doing it. There is a known issue that Fox recordings are getting broken up into section. Some people think it is because the are switching between local and national feeds.

 

[MustangLX89]

Talk about doingt heir damndest to kill a great piece of technology. Personaly I think it's all bs them saying that it would cut into their profits. I'd rather buy the dvd or cd myself. I wonder how long it'll be for them to realize people don't have the money to spend they once had. Be it either due to lost jobs and pay or simply because they charge to much damn money for the things to begin with. I usually don't buy a new release either since I know in about 6 months it'll drop $5-$10. Makes no sense to keep making their damn boat and exotic car payments.

 

[BFG]

sounds like a bug.

 

[DarrellP]

I'm glad I have a stand alone DVR, sure it's not HD, but it can never be upgraded by any means unless I put the disc in myself. Commie pigs! Next thing you know, cars will have a throttle limiting governor so we can't go over 70 MPH.

 

[voomster2]

No problem fast-forwarding thru American Idol here on my Comcast HD-DVRs.
No one in my family could stand to watch their boatload of commercials.

 

[Murph74]

Doubt it's related, but using Dishnetwork, we were unable to use the auto commercial advance with the ReplayTV 5504 during A.I> Wednesday night... coincidence? Probably.

 

[BFG]

hmm replay must've been paid off to disable it...

 

[hbk409]

look at this letter i got from scientfic atlanta


Dear DVR Subscriber,

It has just been brought to our attention that the providers of the program information in your interactive program guide have labeled tonight's and tomorrow's episodes of "American Idol" as re-runs when, in fact, they are first run episodes. So, if you've set up your DVR to record first-run only episodes of American Idol, it will not be recorded tonight or tomorrow night.

To ensure that these episodes are recorded, you will need to manually schedule each of them again by time or by program name for tonight and tomorrow night.

If you have any friends or neighbors who are not members of the Explorer eClub, you might want to let them know about this.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

Sincerely,

Scientific-Atlanta

 

[TuxCoder]

... friends or neighbors who are not members of the Explorer eClub ...
...
Sincerely,

Scientific-Atlanta

Explorer eClub looks familiar...

I've always liked SA but without knowing too much about their stuff, just the stuff I'd had and used over the years was pretty nice in my opinion. However, last year I went to their site to get information on one of their boxes, and the site demanded I join the eClub before I can get to the documentation.

Anyways though, back on-topic, could it be that this is another low trick by American Idol or whoever owns it to keep people from recording it?

 

[hbk409]

Explorer eClub looks familiar...
Anyways though, back on-topic, could it be that this is another low trick by American Idol or whoever owns it to keep people from recording it?

thats what is was thinking, did anyone have this problem with tivo or replay were it thought the episode was a repeat and did not tape?

 

[Derwin0]

It has just been brought to our attention that the providers of the program information in your interactive program guide have labeled tonight's and tomorrow's episodes of "American Idol" as re-runs when, in fact, they are first run episodes. So, if you've set up your DVR to record first-run only episodes of American Idol, it will not be recorded tonight or tomorrow night.

That's why I never set up anything for just new episodes. I always tell it to record them all. If I've seen it, I'll just delete soon enough. But it ensures I never miss anything, and can catch a repeat that I (or the wife) might have missed.