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ReplayTV May Drop "Commercial Advance"
An anonymous reader writes "Wired News is reporting that the new owners of ReplayTV are considering dropping the Commercial Advance and Send Show options features." I had bad luck with that function chopping out bits of show anyway. Between that and the 30 second skip function, I'm surprised ReplayTV has lasted this long!
I've thought of Tivo and Replay TV in the past, but as time goes on the companies degrade their products by getting rid of useful features like this.
How feasable is it to do something as good, but without the crippling, on a computer with a large hard disk and good video card?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
They're eliminating some of their main selling points, aren't they?
They sell you these products with the promise of watching "TV Your Way" (or whatever their silly tagline was) and pull stunts like this. It's bait-and-switch.
Trolling is a art,
About 3 months ago I was really considering buying a ReplayTV, but with the whole bankruptcy thing swirling around I became a bit anxious. I have been speaking with people who currently own a Replay and they said their service is still great, so I was starting to come back around. This whole thing has just sent me back towards the Tivo way. I would love to get a Tivo, but I do not have a phone line in my house (cell phone is the only phone I need). Hopefully I can find a Tivo that will not require a phone line, and I will be all over it.
Johnkoerner.com
I don't understand why ReplayTV would even consider removing those features, especially seeing as those are two of the HUGE advantages it has over its (winning) competitor Tivo.
Sure, Tivo has the 30 second skip if you have the right model and you enter in the Easter Egg, but most people don't surf around for Easter Eggs and therefore aren't aware of it (plus it isn't advertised as a feature for drones shopping at Best Buy, etc.).
They already declared bankruptcy and were bought out by another company, so somehow by eliminating some of its most compelling features they are going to rise to the top?
Would you rather have cat^H^H^HTV detector vans running around?
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
I used to wonder the same thing, until a friend of mine who is messing around with mythtv pointed it out to me (and he's going to be pissed he didn't get to post this):
There are the screen changes, as you mentioned
Commercials are usually a set length: 30 seconds, 1 minute, per ad
Sometimes you get the network logo when the show comes back on
I think there are other ways...sc00p, post 'em up.
Warning: Opinions known to be heavily biased.
I'm sure it'll be a big hit.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
TV is evil anyway. It really adds no value to one's life. It is a disease in that it gives your brain just enough stimulation to prevent it from getting bored and doing something worthwhile. Stop watching it. Doing so will change your life. I'm not joking. Watching TV conditions you for the worse, and the only way you'll know I'm not making this up is to go without for 2 months.
Does it hurt to hear them lying? Was this the only world you had?
Software solutions such as MythTV and Freevo (both run on Linux) require fairly hefty hardware to do the encoding of TV to MPEG-2, MPEG-4, etc. Then they need to decode it to play it to the screen. Both encoding and decoding is necessary in order to do the time shift.
However, MythTV is leading the charge to offload this processing to the WinTV PVR cards, freeing up the system CPU for other stuff, or just allowing the user to scrape by with minimum requirements. So the feasability is improving quite rapidly right now.
MythTV has also been doing some impressive work on their GUI (check out the screenshots). This was one area I previously thought Freevo had a leg up on, but that advantage is going away.
Links:
MythTV
Freevo
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
I'm not sure, but you might be able to tell from the sound level difference.
I believe there was a Ask Slashdot a few weeks ago regarding building your own PVR. The majority of the comments seemed say "Why bother, just buy a TIVO/Replay TV, its already done for."
Well, this is why you roll your own. Yes, its a little more work, the cost is pretty much the same, but there is no monthly fee, and features don't get yanked out from under you.
MythTV is absolutely amazing, and its evolving incredibly fast. If your lookinng for a PVR, I recommend giving it a shot.
Open Source Time and Attendance, Job Costing a
Extraction to the PC was never a feature TiVo made available it was a hack made by people that have TiVo(s).
"Money didn't "flow" like that at all when cable was in its infancy. One of the selling points was that aside from the local stations, none of the other channels had commercials because you were already paying for it."
I've had cable since the late 1960s. Its real infancy: there were no channels without commercials other than the one at the bottom of the dial where the camera panned back and forth across weather dials.
The selling point was that you could receive stations period. Without cable, the broadcasters were too distant to see.
In 2003, I still have cable since it the only way to see the broadcast networks.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
The commercial skip works great on sitcoms that are on the main network stations. That's about it. On TechTV and G4 it doesn't skip past the long commericals (video professor, that air filter thing). On dramas like 24, Buffy or Alias it skips too far, requiring me to rewind several minutes. I probably use commercial skip on about 1/4th of all my recorded shows.
My Parents:
Watch TV all the time. Requests to turn the damn thing off are met with a confused gaze.
My Apartment:
TV gets turned on when we have friends over for the purpose of watching a movie, or we're too brain drained to do anything but sit and watch pretty colors. Oh, and when I want to play with my PS2.
How does that impact our lives? I spend most of my time with my friends. A night to myself becomes a rare and cherished thing spent reading a book I've been looking forward to or on a game I haven't played in ages.
My GF and I throw dinner parties, have nights out with friends, spend time talking to each other and interacting as adult human beings.
Hell, I didn't have cable for four years and never missed it.
Although I do admit, the Food Chanel is pretty fun. Of course, my GF and I end up trying a lot of the tings we see on the shows there.
My mother can give a run down of the entire life story of all the characters on "Friends" and "Stargate SG1" (The latter watched not for the content, but for MacGyver's presence.) Her social life consists largely of people from Church, and she doesn't see them very often.
I prefer my life, thank you very much.
And to add a slice of irony, I'll quote a character from a very bad sci-fi show: "We stopped watching movies when we realized that our own lives were far more interesting."
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
I have the DSS tivo, very nice as its all digital, no analog saving. Saw that the Replay was onsale at costco, and the slashdot article on copying files to your PC/MAC.
Bought the replay, found out you had to buy a subscription, it wouldnt work without one. (and it was refurbished...)
Hooked it up off the tivo, and the picture quality saving fromt the Tivo to the Replay was not that great. Could of been the Digital->Analog problem, but even my VCR recorded better. But I was able to move the files to the PC or MAC and edit them. But in the end, I didnt want to pay for the subscription, and he quality wasnt as good. Also, it didnt work with my normal DSS box. (the IR didnt control it) So I returned it.
Even thou Tivo doesnt have an option to copy the movies off, the DSS models have a great picture, even better than the normal broadcast quality. Im thinking of getting the series 2 for DSS, could use more HD space also.
BTW, i used the litttle secret code to enable 30 second skip, works great. Only problem tivo has, season pass manager is slow.
While watching a show hit:
Select -> Play -> Select -> 3 -> 0 -> Select
The move to the end of the show button turns in to a 30 second skip button. It works great for me, sometimes it turns off after software updates so you will have to run the button sequence again.
I had bad luck with that function chopping out bits of show anyway.
turn off commercial advance, after the advance and rewind a couple of seconds to desired point. Turn commercial advance back on.
Commercial advance is by far one of the greatest features, it makes hour long shows into 40 minute shows saving me time and giving me more tv!
"It takes many nails to build a crib, but one screw to fill it."
I have not made the move to a PVR, but we use our 9 year old VCR to tape shows and watch later. And guess what, I use the fast forward button to get through the commercials! Perhaps we should remove that button from all remotes.
The real power of TiVo can be found here: -A list of all your recorded programs (just browse through to see what you want to watch) -Program once, record forever (even if the show changes time slots) -Pausing live TV (great for potty breaks & getting a snack - you don't have to wait for a commercial) -Rewinding live TV (Whoa! Was that a boob I just saw?!) -Beautiful & instant Pause -Insanely speedy fast-forward & rewind (60x play speed by default - can be "hacked" to be faster) -Recommended programs that are automatically recorded I have a TiVo & the 30 second skip button is nice (yes it's an easter egg), but the "super-fast-forward" will generally get you through the commercials in 5 seconds (instead of the 2 seconds that it takes to hit the skip button 8 times), and it starts playing the instant you hit the play button. People who make the decision to buy a TiVo based on the 30-second skip button probably don't understand the product. It does so much more... Since I've had TiVo, I watch more television shows than I used to, but I spend less time doing it (i.e. watching American Idol takes 20 minutes instead of 1 hour, most shows only takes 20 minutes instead of 30, you can get right to Dave Letterman's Top Ten List, etc.)
Like any drug, used occasionally, wisely, and with moderation, it can add pleasure to your life without ruining it.
I like TV when I'm frustrated; it can reset my mind when I'm spinning on some issue. I like TV when I'm ill; it takes my mind off the suffering. I like TV when I have 30 minutes to kill and there happens to be an episode of The Simpsons on.
It's a drug many, many people abuse, and I'm sure that's what you're thinking of in your post. If you're watching TV three hours a night, every night, it's clearly a drug that has begun to control you. If you're settling for the best thing on TV rather than getting on with your life, you're doing it wrong.
To paraphrase Shakespeare: "Good TV is a good familiar creature, if it be well used; exclaim no more against it."
I do wish most people would watch less TV, but I think that declaring TV in general to be a "disease" is counterproductive. Try thinking of it as a drug that too many people are addicted to.
Responding to all of the "I told you so" Tivo posts:
:)
The one reason that I bought a ReplayTV instead of Tivo is that I can plug the unit into my router and then download the recorded Mpeg2 files down to my primary computer, where I can then compress it into Divx or whatever.
It is the open attitude that SonicBlue represented that eventually won me over. I can only hope the D&M is good about this too. If not... MythTV is probably in my future
I'm a bit confused as to why commercial skip/advance has become so controversial all of a sudden. VCRs have had these features for years: Panasonic, Sony. So why is this a big deal when it comes to PVRs?
On the other hand, I've never actually tried this, and am just thinking out loud...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I don't own a TV, and my parents haven't for about 18 years.
They got out of it around the same time TV began pushing the boundaries of what used to be morally unacceptable. Since then, TV has succeeded in programming a generation into mindless drones. They don't interact with other people, so all their perceptions of morality and acceptable behavior come from the TV. They watch the commercials and buy what they see.
That said, like many things it is the abuse which is harmful. Some people are intelligent enough to judge the content, and have the willpower to get up and turn it off. But a lot of people would have no idea what to do with their time. They have no skills or hobbies, because they have spent all their free time watching canned entertainment and laughing with the fake audience even if they don't get the joke.
Not everything on TV is bad, and certainly there are some fun programs to watch (for example, Junkyard Wars or Battlebots are some pretty fun shows for a bunch of engineering students to watch). But you need to be able to walk up and turn it off. Switch your mind from remote-control to self-control.
I wish there was a version of Quicken that accounted for your time and personal development. It would be interesting to track mental acuity, skillset expansion, energy, and rest levels in response to different activities. You could budget in time for entertainment, working on a hobby, reading a book, and even exercise. Then you could plot a graph and see whether you are a skilled and improving person, or a sad sack sitting on the couch, getting sadder and sackier.
...
As a long-time ReplayTV owner (have a model 2001, 2020, and a 5040) for me, this really is no big deal at all.
First off, it only affects the 5000 or newer series. So, two of my three ReplayTV boxes will be unaffected.
Second, some have had great success with Commercial Advance, but I never had much luck, so I never use it.
And third, the Internet File Sharing for me is another non-issue. Given the upstream cap on my Internet connection, show sharing is just plain prohibitive.
Dinally, let's not confuse "Internet File Sharing" with in-house program streaming between ReplayTV boxes on the same LAN. This feature is NOT being removed. This is the one feature for me that makes the 5040 worth it--it lets me seamlessly offload shows using the DVArchive app to my PC where storage is cheap and either stream them back to the ReplayTV box or burn them to DVD.
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
I don't see anything in the article that mentions the 30 second quick skip. They are talking about Commercial Advance (which jumps over commercials automatically when it detects them) and the send show feature.
;)
I'm sure many RTV owners will agree with me that having the ability to send shows over the internet is pretty pointless (it can take hours to days to send one). That feature is probably rarely used my most. However, in the process, D&M better not remove the ability to stream shows from other RTVs on your LAN. That would sucks and break DVArchive (which is probably the biggest selling point of Replays).
Now Commercial Advance is a nice feature, but it only works on about 1/2 of the shows I watch, and on that half it doesn't work flawlessly. It wouldn't kill me to lose this features, but it is one of the reasons why I bought a Replay instead of Tivo.
Lastly there is the 30 second skip. There is no talk of removing this feature...and they better not. Being able to "shorten" show watching time is one of the big reasons for owning a PVR in the first place. This feature is a must!
And for those who don't know, you can do a X minute skip by typing the number of minutes on the keypad and pressing skip. 3 + Skip works well to skip over a lot of commercials.
ÕÕ
I'm noticing a lot of posts along the line of 'This is why you should use MythTV..'
Don't overlook SageTV!
While it's not free, nor open source, it's the most incredible PC-based PVR I've seen to date. At only $59.95, it's a bargain. Program guide data is FREE! Upgrades are FREE! And the pace of development has been outstanding.
In it's current build, it supports;
- Multi-tuner, multi-lineup recording (satellite on one card, cable on the other.. or two cable captures, or five.. whatever.)
- Recording to either Mpeg2 or Mpeg1 format (for easier portability to DVD-R or VCD.)
- Network streaming to other PCs
- Automatic recording of favorites, as well as suggestions based on your viewing history (which is easily disabled.)
- XMLTV listings import (if for some reason, free listings aren't good enough for you.)
- Dscaler support and plugins (much better quality than MythTV, Tivo, or Replay on my HDTV.)
- Audio library management..
Features they're saying will come 'soon' include;
- HDTV Support
- DVD Playback
It's not free, but it's definitely a value. The way the guys at Frey Technologies are adding features is just unbelievable. Sometimes, free solutions are not the best.
I've not found commercial advance to do a good job of identifying the commercials, and always turn it off. The skip forward feature is just as effective, particularly if you're watching a show you watch frequently enough to know the pattern of the commercials.
I think the networks should align the commercials very regularly, such that a 30-second skip will give you a few frames after the start of each commercial. I've been watching TV with a ReplayTV recently, and haven't seen any of the commercials people have talked about. Ideally, people would skip all of the commercials which aren't targetting at them and watch the ones that are because they're interesting.
Ads between shows are also effective, since ReplayTV continues to play the audio while you're selecting a show and doesn't let you skip if there's nothing to skip to.
Same in North America.
A TV which does not obscure the overscan area will show the flashing white square in the top left.
IIRC, it flashes slowly for a few seconds 30 s before break, starts flashing rapidly 5 or 10 before, and goes solid during the above mentioned transition to the still frame.
Course, I haven't seen it recently on modern TVs which cover the overscan area well...perhaps it's changed...
About 6 months ago I built my own computer/TIVO based around ATI's AIW Radeon 8500DV, which comes with their fantastic RemoteWonder. ATI's latest software has a 30 second skip feature, plus you can set up custom buttons to skip back or forward 3 seconds to get exactly where you want to be.
My family can watch the recorded shows on any computer throughout the house. We can pause live TV. ATI's software identifies the station and gives the program's name (which is great for surfing). You can also set it up to check what's on all of your favorite channels at the same time!
Plus, you can use if to store you music collection (which you can also play throughout the house) and for games.
And best off all, you can build such a system for less than $500 bucks and you'll never have to pay monthly fees.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.