Why not Commercial Advance?

[dcwebman]

Unfortunately I've been without my DirecTV for the past couple months because I have been living in a hotel room. I was able to get my old RCA VCR though and have been using that. I realized the one feature I really missed about time-shifting recording was the VCR's Commercial Advance feature where after recording a show, it will go back and mark where the commercials are. Then when you watch the show, it hits those marks and automatically fast forwards to the end of the commercials. This was always 90-95% accurate.

So how come in this day and age of DVR's has no one applied this same function? Instead it's always 30 second skip or so forth.

 

[bonscott87]

Hollywood doesn't like it. There is a reason why the 30 second skip on a Tivo is still just a backdoor code that 98% of Tivo owners have no idea exists and most new DVRs don't do an instant skip. They don't want to be sued to death like Replay TV was.

 

[WalksInDarkness]

As always it boils down to $$$

Unfortunately I've been without my DirecTV for the past couple months because I have been living in a hotel room. I was able to get my old RCA VCR though and have been using that. I realized the one feature I really missed about time-shifting recording was the VCR's Commercial Advance feature where after recording a show, it will go back and mark where the commercials are. Then when you watch the show, it hits those marks and automatically fast forwards to the end of the commercials. This was always 90-95% accurate.

So how come in this day and age of DVR's has no one applied this same function? Instead it's always 30 second skip or so forth.

As always it boils down to $$$, IMHO...

I read an article that indirectly addresses this issue. It was actually an article about campaign ads. The new trend for the candidates is making "mini-ads" specifically made to fit into the 15 second overlap that is hard to avoid on DVRs. On my D*TiVo, I got so good at using the FF button that I could hit the end of the commericial within 2-3 seconds. Now that I have the HR-20 (700), I can NEVER do better than 15-30 seconds before or past the program. I am guessing this is an ad sales tool for companies like D*; where they sell that last 30 seconds at a higher price.

 

[Jimbo]

As always it boils down to $$$, IMHO...

I read an article that indirectly addresses this issue. It was actually an article about campaign ads. The new trend for the candidates is making "mini-ads" specifically made to fit into the 15 second overlap that is hard to avoid on DVRs. On my D*TiVo, I got so good at using the FF button that I could hit the end of the commericial within 2-3 seconds. Now that I have the HR-20 (700), I can NEVER do better than 15-30 seconds before or past the program. I am guessing this is an ad sales tool for companies like D*; where they sell that last 30 seconds at a higher price.

I have gotten very good with my FF and usually can time it to within a few seconds, IF I happen to go past it, the 6 sec. back works great !

I have heard that some network (Fox) was thinking about 5 sec. comercials, there was also talk about themmaking comercials that would be seen while in a FF mode !

Jimbo

 

[WalksInDarkness]

I have gotten very good with my FF and usually can time it to within a few seconds, IF I happen to go past it, the 6 sec. back works great !

I have heard that some network (Fox) was thinking about 5 sec. comercials, there was also talk about themmaking comercials that would be seen while in a FF mode !

Jimbo

When I use FF on the HR-20 (700), my DVR seems to have an unpredictable "delay" effect on the video; it seems to randomly overshoot what it is showing. My D*TiVo was way easier and accurate, in fact if I was in the "Two Arrow" FF mode it would flash a clip of the show while still on the commericial to alert you to stop (and it was almost always dead-on. It is a learning process for me with the HR-20 I guess.

Anyhow, I just read a related ad in the Wall Street Journal. For VOD, some of the media groups are starting to force the cable companies to COMPLETELY disable any FF function at all. At the moment, this does not affect DVR services (but you know how these things go...).

 

[Jimbo]

Anyhow, I just read a related ad in the Wall Street Journal. For VOD, some of the media groups are starting to force the cable companies to COMPLETELY disable any FF function at all. At the moment, this does not affect DVR services (but you know how these things go...).

I would be suprised if this actually does happen .

Jimbo

 

[johnml]

As always it boils down to $$$, IMHO...

I read an article that indirectly addresses this issue. It was actually an article about campaign ads. The new trend for the candidates is making "mini-ads" specifically made to fit into the 15 second overlap that is hard to avoid on DVRs. On my D*TiVo, I got so good at using the FF button that I could hit the end of the commericial within 2-3 seconds. Now that I have the HR-20 (700), I can NEVER do better than 15-30 seconds before or past the program. I am guessing this is an ad sales tool for companies like D*; where they sell that last 30 seconds at a higher price.

Tivo was by far superior in skipping commercials compared to my HR20-700. With my HR10 tivo I was 99% right on, but with the HR20 I cant go faster than 3 and even then I have to rewind a bit.

 

[Jimbo]

Tivo was by far superior in skipping commercials compared to my HR20-700. With my HR10 tivo I was 99% right on, but with the HR20 I cant go faster than 3 and even then I have to rewind a bit.

Great place for a 6 sec rewind button , eh !

I guess I'm just not that picky when I am watching TV that if I catch 10 seconds of commercial it doesn't bother me.

Jimbo

 

[WalksInDarkness]

hmmm

Great place for a 6 sec rewind button , eh !

I guess I'm just not that picky when I am watching TV that if I catch 10 seconds of commercial it doesn't bother me.

Jimbo

I have gotten used to the 15 seconds of commercials. What drives me nuts, is the "randomness" of the whole problem. Even only set to "2" the FF can, for apparently NO reason at all, suddenly shoot at least 1 minute or so past the beggining of the show. And even that I get used to rewinding. But when it happens a few times in a row, I go back-and-forth a few times overshooting the start by a minute or whatever. Like I said it is frustratingly random, it only happens occasionally (but it drives me totally nuts...). Maybe it will get better with the ongoing software upgrades???

The only problem I ever had with the D*TiVo, was when watching football games. Once or twice I went to FF, and the TiVo went wacky and jumped ahead a whole 30 minutes or so in an instant (as if I hip some sort of "skip" function). But only during football games, which is very curious...

 

[Jimbo]

I have gotten used to the 15 seconds of commercials. What drives me nuts, is the "randomness" of the whole problem. Even only set to "2" the FF can, for apparently NO reason at all, suddenly shoot at least 1 minute or so past the beggining of the show. And even that I get used to rewinding. But when it happens a few times in a row, I go back-and-forth a few times overshooting the start by a minute or whatever. Like I said it is frustratingly random, it only happens occasionally (but it drives me totally nuts...). Maybe it will get better with the ongoing software upgrades???

The only problem I ever had with the D*TiVo, was when watching football games. Once or twice I went to FF, and the TiVo went wacky and jumped ahead a whole 30 minutes or so in an instant (as if I hip some sort of "skip" function). But only during football games, which is very curious...

Fortunatly I've never had that problem.

Jimbo