TiVo to Sell Your Fast-Forward Button

Thomas Hawk writes "PVRblog is reporting today that TiVo will begin to place banner advertisements on your screen when you are fast forwarding. As one of the whole points for people getting a TiVo is to remove obtrusive advertising, it seems like a really bad move to force advertising on people at the exact moment that they are using your technology to avoid advertising. This act points to the desperation of TiVo and their management team and although it might help them in the short run it will most certainly backfire in the long run." This is ironic for a company whose slogan used to be "TV Your Way," but not surprising, since its CEO says he wants to move to a largely advertiser-supported revenue stream. I've bought three TiVos in the past four years, but my next PVR will run MythTV -- unless HR2391 passes and makes me a criminal for skipping commercials.

Comments

Get a ReplayTV

[nwf]

All the more reason to get a ReplayTV! I love mine, which I've had for a few years after upgrading the hard drive to a 250 GB model. And DVArchive rocks: download shows and save them for later! Store a whole seasons worth on your PC and access them over the network from your ReplayTV unit.

Everyone chill out!

[Slider]

Wow, talk about overreacting.
Do you really think Tivo is stupid enough to alienate its customers? If you read the article you'll see that this in no way interferes with skipping commercials. It basically expands the "press thumbs up for more info" tag that appears in the top right of the screen during some commercials and makes them more of a billboard size. This is actually a popular feature among Tivo users as you could say, get a brochure for the new Corvette sent to your home by simply pressing thumbs up during the Chevrolet commercial. I welcome this.

Re:MeedioTV

[Anonymous Coward]

sorry... http://www.meedio.com/

Re:I dont think its such a bad idea

[kb7oeb]

Thats not true, many of the channels charge the cable company per subscriber with ESPN and Disney being the most expensive

Re:that's fine with me

[LilMikey]

Not meaning to completely hijaack this thread but MythTV supports automatic commercial skip. It'll automagically jump past your commercials or you can skip them with the click of one button. Even 5 seconds is too long in MythTV land :)

True that some ReplayTV series had a similar feature but that's been done away with.

Series 1, oh yeah.

[ayeco]

I apologize for all my whining when I heard that TiVo was going to stop updating my Series 1 software. Now I'm glad I stuck with my old classic.

Once again, our Series 1 value bounces back. I have a series 1 w/ network card, additional hdd, web interface, and lifetime service. You couldn't pay me to trade a series 2 for my series 1.

Email Directv and Tivo

[thealpha]

Let them know that you are not pleased. I just sent a message to directv and will follow through with cancellation if this becomes reality. I have a PVR just don't use it because the Tivo is easy for my wife and kids to use.

Here is a link to the Directv Feedback page,
http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/glb/Form_Feed back.ds p

and a link to Tivo's contact page
http://www.tivo.com/5.9.asp

Re:How to irritate a TiVo owner

[Gannoc]

Okay then, why not use skip-ahead 30 seconds button or random-access? Oh, TiVo doesn't have that either.

Wrong.

During playback, on your remote, press:

Select - Play - Select - 3 - 0 - Select

and you'll have 30 second skip on your tivo until it loses power for whatever reason.

Re:Best way to avoid commercials

[suso]

I used that app for a while too. We didn't have TV for the last 6 months up until this fall. It was nice and my wife and I got a lot of other stuff done, including starting a business. Its amazing what TV sucks out of you. We turned it on again so that we didn't overwork ourselves. Its good to have a break now and again.

I've been tempted to buy a Tivo, but I don't want to dedicate that much to watching TV.

My Home Theater PC looks better and better

[dragon_imp]

Banner ads while fast-forwarding - what will they think of next?

After hearing about and drooling over the TiVo boxes. I'm glad I built my own HTPC using SageTV and Hauppauge PVR-250 cards. I can record and encode three shows simultaneously while playing a fourth. I can also stream to a client version of the software on my notebook. RealVNC lets me have in-depth control of the HTPC via my notebook to take advantage of my 1680x1050 notebook resolution.

I've got a writeup and pictures of my Home Theater PC setup on my website.

Terry

TiVo Commercial Skipping Trick

[EricHsu]

Select - Play - Select - 3 - 0 - Select

Now your 'jump to index button' (the right arrow pointing at a pipe ->|) will jump 30 seconds if you are in play mode. You can change the 3 and 0 to suit your needs. The 'jump to index' still works as it used to if you are in rewind or fastforward mode.

Re:I dont think its such a bad idea

[Monsieur Canard]

Then why did my cable bill go up $3 a month when Steinbrenner's YES network was forced on me? It really irks this BoSox fan that part of my bill is paying Yankee salaries.

Enable the 30 second skip and don't worry about it

[Luscious868]

Just enable the 30 second skip and you'll never use fast forward to skip commercials again. When it's enabled, the -->| button becomes a 30 second skip button.

To enable:

1. Grab your TiVo remote.

2. Bring up any recorded program. (You have to be watching a recorded program rather than "Live TV" in order to enable the feature.)

3. On your TiVo remote, key in the following sequence:
SELECT PLAY SELECT 30 SELECT

4. If you've successfully entered the code, you should hear three "bings" in succession to inform you that you've successfully enabled the 30 second skip.

The only down side is that any time your TiVo is rebooted (such as after a power outage or a software update) you'll have to re-enable this feature.

What is this thing "fast forward" you speak of?

[clmensch]

I feel bad for Tivo owners. I love my ReplayTV 5000. It skips commercials automatically with surprisingly good accuracy. It rarely if ever incorrectly skips content...but sometimes it doesn't realize that a commercial break has begun. In any case, I can just instantly jump forward 30 seconds (or however far I want).

Tivo is the AOL of PVR's.

Re:I dont think its such a bad idea

[arminw]

...ads you don't want is a betrayal of the customer...

Many /.ers are probably to young to remember the days before cable tv existed. There was only broadcast over the air. At first, cable was touted to the consumer as a way to get commercial free tv and consistent high quality reception. It did not take long and there were lots of commercials on the "commercial free" cable channels. So now with Tivo it will be just a repeat performance of past history in a new technology.

Try Out Freevo

[Anonymous Coward]

Speaking of "free" tivo (free as in commercial free) check out http://freevo.sourceforge.net/

Tivo's revenue stream and stock price.

[Chatmag]

Doing a bit of digging, I find that Tivo is a public company. Some information on them:

Company Profile

Company Two Year Stock Chart

This move seems to be a result of the hard stock price drop which occurred between March and September of 2004. I've always thought of corporations as one of those huge Euclid off road dump trucks with the 12' tires, and no power steering.

Re:Tivo's revenue stream and stock price.

[Hassman]

No problem. Oh, I'm sure they are looking for other sources of revenue. I still think they are opperating in the red (though not by much, perhaps a little more this quarter due to a huge advertising push in some states). Generally this is a no-no when thinking about buying a stock.

The reason I bought it is because they are on the verge of being so great. It is a bit of a risk, but I was hoping to jump in while the getting was good, before the stock took off. As it turns out I got in a litle too early, and have lost a bunch of money.

I still think it is a good company that is ready to hit it big. The timing is the tricky part.

Oh well. Good luck!

Re:I dont think its such a bad idea

[stanmann]

Time warner aka Roadrunner made it fairly easy as well calling it "antenna+ service" or something similar, However Cableone where I currently live has "basic service" for $45+ and when you ask for the minimum service, they don't know what you are talking about, their program is called "lifeline" and if you don't ask for it by name, the phone support employees play dumb.

Re:Make your TiVo "ReadOnly"

[triffidsting]

From what I understand however, this only applies to Series 1 boxes. Series 2 box owners are SOL, as they are not as "friendly."

TiVo Employee clarifies change (article misleads)

[mkraft]

From this post over at the TiVo Community TiVoPony (a TiVo Employee) states:

I can tell you now - I expect you won't be bothered.

The article mentions some improvements to our tagging capabilities. Nothing changes in terms of your ability to move through a show.

The 'billboards', or new tags, can be interactive, just as Ipreview tags are today. While they can be larger than today's tags, you can always see what's going on. Your fast forwarding skills will not require revision.

Ipreview tags have always displayed based on a 'tag' that is embedded into the broadcast signal, and this works the same way. No Pepsi billboards over Coke commercials. No spillovers into the program you're watching. It's all tied to tags built into, and timed to, the commercial being broadcast.

And to state what's become old hat to many here - the article was very loose with it's description of TiVo and your privacy. TiVo does not know how many times *you* specifically watched Janet Jackson. We absolutely respect your privacy. Everything that is collected is both anonymous and aggregate. We know how many people watched a show, but not specifically which subscribers. The last quote in the article (just like the headline) made for a good soundbite...but is grossly misleading.

Cheers, Pony

Re:I dont think its such a bad idea

[Caseyscrib]

I disagree. I think, most people, bought Tivo for its timeshifting and season pass features. Are commercials really so bad?

Ya know, back several years ago there used to be limits on how many commercials were allowed to be on tv. It was something like 2 minutes for every half hour. Then the companies lobbied the FCC and said they would behave. For the first few years they did as they promised, and slowly started to get worse and worse. It has now gotten so out of hand there are nearly 8 minutes of commercials for every 30 minutes. If they could make money out of 2 minutes of air time, they can certainly make money out of 8. I don't think media executives are worrying about putting food on their plate.

HR2391 Does Not Ban Commercial Skipping

[Anonymous Coward]

Has anyone read HR2391? Oh wait, this is Slashdot, where no one follows the links and reads all the way through.

Well, if you did, you'd see on page 26

SEC. 212. EXEMPTION FROM INFRINGEMENT FOR SKIPPING AUDIO AND VIDEO CONTENT IN MOTION PICTURES.
(a) SHORT TITLE.--This section may be cited as the
''Family Movie Act of 2004''.
(b) EXEMPTION FROM COPYRIGHT AND TRADEMARK
INFRINGEMENT FOR SKIPPING OF AUDIO OR VIDEO CON-
TENT OF MOTION PICTURES.--Section 110 of title 17,
United States Code, is amended--
(1) in paragraph (9), by striking ''and'' after
the semicolon at the end;
(2) in paragraph (10), by striking the period at
the end and inserting ''; and'';
(3) by inserting after paragraph (10) the fol-
lowing:
''(11) the making imperceptible, by or at the di-
rection of a member of a private household, of lim-
ited portions of audio or video content of a motion
picture, during a performance in that household for
private home viewing, from an authorized pre-re-
corded copy of the motion picture, or the creation or provision of a computer program or
other technology that enables such making imperceptible and that is
designed and marketed for such use at the direction
of a member of a private household, if no fixed copy of the altered version of the motion picture is created by such computer program or other technology.'';
and (4) by adding at the end the following:
''For purposes of paragraph (11)--
''(A) the term 'making imperceptible' does not
include the addition of audio or video content that
is performed or displayed over or in place of existing
content in a motion picture; and
''(B) the term 'pre-recorded copy' means a copy
of a motion picture that--
''(i) is manufactured under the authority
of the copyright owner; and
''(ii) has been made available for sale to
the public.''.

If you didn't read where I bolded and italicized the appropriate content, then let me break it out for you:

"if no fixed copy of the altered version of the motion picture is created by such computer program or other technology."

There's no room for misinterpretation here. Unless you are *CREATING* an altered copy by skipping commercials or other content (which Tivo DOES NOT) you are perfectly fine.

RTFA!!!