Skip commercials with a single click?

[4Corners]

I saw this advertised as a new feature on the Directv website.

Is this a product of new hardware (I"ll need a new receiver) or a shortcut/upgrade available to all HD DVR receivers?

[Mike Bertelson]

I saw this advertised as a new feature on the Directv website.

Is this a product of new hardware (I"ll need a new receiver) or a shortcut/upgrade available to all HD DVR receivers?Where did you see that on their site?

Maybe they're talking about the 30 sec skip?

Mike

[Mertzen]

You have a link for it ?

[jdspencer]

Since all commercials are not of the same length, the best you can do is the 30s skip/slip. 6 clicks and you're through a 3 minute commercial.

[Rich]

Where did you see that on their site?

Maybe they're talking about the 30 sec skip?

Mike

I can't find it on the website.

Rich

[ThomasM]

There were actually various schemes tried to instantly skip over entire commercial breaks, some included in the software of VCR's. They worked by looking for the black screen which appeared for a number of seconds after a commercial break while the network/local station switched sources.

But I've noticed that with the advent of digital TV broadcasting, this "brief black screen" has disappeared!! Of course, on the DirecTV channels it might be possible to detect the end of a commercial break because the commercials seem to be at 1.5 times (or more) the audio volume as the program. :D:D:D

[jdspencer]

Didn't Dish Network get into legal trouble with one of their DVRs that tried this?

[LOCODUDE]

This would be a lovely feature to have....... :)

[Mike Bertelson]

There were actually various schemes tried to instantly skip over entire commercial breaks, some included in the software of VCR's. They worked by looking for the black screen which appeared for a number of seconds after a commercial break while the network/local station switched sources.

But I've noticed that with the advent of digital TV broadcasting, this "brief black screen" has disappeared!! Of course, on the DirecTV channels it might be possible to detect the end of a commercial break because the commercials seem to be at 1.5 times (or more) the audio volume as the program. :D:D:DI had a Panasonic VCR that did this. Once it was done recording it would RW to the begining of the program and then scan for and mark commercial.

When my wife watched General Hospital she would hit play and not have to touch the remote again. It would then FW through each commerical set...most times anyway.

It did well with GH but it had problems with things recorded during late night. I don't know why but it didn't mark the commercials very well.

Most times it worked pretty well. Hit play once and never touch the remote and never watch a commercial.

It was very nice. :D

Mike

[BubblePuppy]

Didn't Dish Network get into legal trouble with one of their DVRs that tried this?

IIRMC, Tivo had a a box that would do that, or some company had a dvr that would skip through all the commercials. I think a law suit ensued.
The 30sec skip is almost as good, does require abit more finger effort.:p

[Rich]

I tried a VCR that did that. Don't remember the brand. Didn't work very well and that feature kinda died out quickly. I think you had to let them sit for quite a while and figure out where the commercials were. The one thing I do remember about it was that any show that had a couple minutes extra at the end (I think Seinfeld was one), the VCR saw that "extra" as a commercial and wouldn't show it. Long time ago.

Rich

[bonscott87]

It was Replay that had a true commercial skip. They were sued to oblivion by Hollywood. We now see where Replay went.

[bpratt]

ReplayTV got into trouble because their commercial skip would automatically skip over commercials without ever touching the remote. I still own one of those Replays (5040) and the commercial skip still works and is about 95% accurate. The next generation ReplayTV (5504) turned off the automatic feature but would allow you to skip over the entire commercial with a single button push.

Too bad those old replays won't record HD.

[paulman182]

It was Replay that had a true commercial skip. They were sued to oblivion by Hollywood. We now see where Replay went.

Why did Hollywood sue them? It seems more likely networks would try to sue rather than movie studios over commercial skip.:)

[Mike_TV]

While not for Directv, automated commercial skipping is out there and works great with Vista based media centers stripping out commercials so playback is commercial and remote free (no need to hold the remote while watching TV). I've been using it for years now sucessfully with both standard and HD OTA TV. Looking at the audio and brief black space between programs and commercials is just one part of it. Additional data, like the closed captioning data is also used.

Like others have mentioned, there have been VCRs and Replay TV DVRs that had automated commercial skipping built in. We all know what happened to those guys so it'll always remain in the "hobbyist" and do it yourself area as no company wants to take on the content providers and be on the hook for removing their revenue stream.

[Spanky_Partain]

My DVR's skip commercials perfectly with one single command, "Honey, fix it!". :lol:

[EricRobins]

It was Replay that had a true commercial skip. They were sued to oblivion by Hollywood. We now see where Replay went.

I thought the litigation against Replay from Hollywood was for allowing a Replay box to distribute recorded media to others over the internet.

[BubblePuppy]

My DVR's skip commercials perfectly with one single command, "Honey, fix it!". :lol:
!rolling
And of course the proper response is "Yes dear.":lol:

[mdavej]

A practical solution is simply a macro with 6 skips. Overshoots or undershoots now and then, but works pretty well most of the time. That's one button press on most universals except harmony, which requires 2 (harmony maxes out at 5 commands per sequence, so you have to do 3 skips and press the button twice). You're out of luck on the harmony 1100 since it can't do sequences at all.

[unlockme]

Just learned this from a good friend.... Program 30 second skip into your HD DVR HR 2X.
Follow these steps.... On the remote, click on Menu, Shearch for shows, Keyword, type in "30skip" from keyboard on screen (not with "texting" buttons on remote), Continue, All, Done, then Exit. Check by rewinding program and hit 30 slide button and you should see instant skip of 30 seconds. To change back, follow the same instructions, but type in "30slip" in the search bar.

[The Merg]

Just learned this from a good friend.... Program 30 second skip into your HD DVR HR 2X.
Follow these steps.... On the remote, click on Menu, Shearch for shows, Keyword, type in "30skip" from keyboard on screen (not with "texting" buttons on remote), Continue, All, Done, then Exit. Check by rewinding program and hit 30 slide button and you should see instant skip of 30 seconds. To change back, follow the same instructions, but type in "30slip" in the search bar.

You can use the "texting" version to enter the text of 30SKIP as well. The big thing is to go through the entire search and get Nothing Found.

- Merg

[rudeney]

And 30SKIP will allow you to skip commercials with one click - as long as the commercial is 30 seconds long! :)

By the way, I had an RCA VCR many years ago that had commercial skip and it worked perfectly. Apparently, it would identify commercials as it recorded with about a 50% accuracy rate. Then, after the schedule d recording, it would rewind the tape and re-scan it, marking them with better accuracy. When you'd playback the tape, you'd get a blue screen while it automatically FF'ed through the ads.

[unlockme]

You can use the "texting" version to enter the text of 30SKIP as well. The big thing is to go through the entire search and get Nothing Found.

- Merg

Good point Merg, making sure nothing is found in the search. I also tried it with the "texting" and found it did work, I just shared what I was told, I stand corrected... lol

And 30SKIP will allow you to skip commercials with one click - as long as the commercial is 30 seconds long!

Most commercials are sold as 30 second spots (or combinations thereof, 30, 60, 90, etc.), except PSAs which can be 10 to 15 seconds also. This wasn't meant to be an automatic commercial skip like the old VCRs, just a way to not have to "fast forward" through the commercials. If you go past the last commercial, just use the 10 second return until you get back to the start of your program.

[Techie]

:DThis is why I love my replay 5000 series and wont get rid of it! (replay was bought out by d* this year. Wonder why???):D:D:D

[RCY]

Anyone who can get their content into a HTPC application like GB-PVR or BeyondTV can easily get the ability to skip commercials. In GB in particular, you can set the playback to automatically skip the commercials. BeyondTV marks the commercial segments allowing you to hit "up arrow" to skip that segment.

I'd say the utilty used by GB-PVR is about 95% reliable for network HD content. But with tuning (which I haven't bothered with) you might be able to improve on that.

[CCarncross]

Bottom line is you probably wont find a commercially available off the shelf DVR that allows you to push one button to completely skip the commercial breaks, advertisers have lobbied hard against any devices that would allow that anymore. There are custom apps for an HTPC that do try to mark and skip the commercials, but most of I have seen are not near as easy to use as a commercial DVR product. They also typically require beefy PC's if you want HD and lots of setup tweaks to work as flawlessly as a commercial DVR product. And currently none work natively with DSS sat service.

[The Merg]

In regards to skipping commercial breaks, I have found that I can usually hit the Skip button 6 times and it is usually pretty accurate. For those times that I am off, I then quickly hit the Skip Back button three times (backs up 18 seconds) and that usually takes care of it.

- Merg

[Hutchinshouse]

Since all commercials are not of the same length, the best you can do is the 30s skip/slip. 6 clicks and you're through a 3 minute commercial.

Yup, I have a macro setup within my Marantz RC5400 remote. One click of my remote sends the 30 second skip 6 times.

[dreadlk]

For right now the closest you can get is with a Tivo and this.
http://lifehacker.com/5048824/decrypt-and-remove-commercials-from-tivo-recordings-in-one-step

I remember years ago this guy said he had created the perfect software to remove commercial, it was going to connect to an Internet database that contained the exact insertion points for commercials and some sort of data on what the frames after the commercials would look like. Kind of like how iphone song identfication software works. Somebody must have shut him down before the software even got released because I never heard anything more on the subject.

[RCY]

.. They also typically require beefy PC's if you want HD and lots of setup tweaks to work as flawlessly as a commercial DVR product. And currently none work natively with DSS sat service.

I just bought a Dell for $300 ( Dell Studio Desktop, E5200, 2 GB, 500 GB HDD, Intel x4500HD integrated graphics, integrated 7.1 audio - $369 list before discounts) that would work well as a HTPC and have no problems playing HD. Even comes stock with an HDMI output. Install your tuner card of choice, and you have the capability to have a HTPC Dvr. GB-PVR requires some time to tweak and I wouldn't recommend it if you're not comfortable with doing some manual editing of setup files, etc. BeyondTV is no worse than installing MS Office. Or if you want something really simple, just use the Windows Vista Premium TV interface that comes with the system.

It's certainly not as simple as a commercial DVR solution, but it's not like it was 3 or 4 years ago.

As to DSS native, that is in D* and Dish's hands. I don't see them ever providing that capability unless forced to by the FCC a la cable companies/cable cards. They want to keep the DVR market to themselves.

[RobertSeattle]

I wish I could adjust the skip to like 20 seconds as that tends to be the time between pitches in Baseball...

[mdavej]

Just make a macro that does one 30s skip and one or two skip backs (6s each), assuming you don't have a harmony 900 or 1100.

[TomCat]

There were actually various schemes tried to instantly skip over entire commercial breaks, some included in the software of VCR's. They worked by looking for the black screen which appeared for a number of seconds after a commercial break while the network/local station switched sources.

But I've noticed that with the advent of digital TV broadcasting, this "brief black screen" has disappeared!!...It was not digital broadcasting that caused the black screen to disappear, it was server-based playback controlled by automation, which has proliferated in local and network TV. That you noticed it with the advent of digital broadcasting is only coincidental.

Back in the day programs rolled from tape, and they would have "black holes" built into them. The main tape kept rolling while the Master Control Operator used a schedule to roll other tape machines to coincide with the black holes, switching to the other source for the commercials and back to the still-running program at the end of the black hole.

The holes were usually slightly longer than necessary (2:02 for a two-minute break, for instance) to account for the inevitable slop in a manual operation. The Op could even fade to black and back up, and there was a lot of artistry involved. Many folks thought that a bit of black transitioning from program to spot and back gave a nice psychological cue to distinguish program from commercial.

But those days are gone. TV folks don't want to help you figure out when the commercial is coming, because they want you to sit there and watch it. A non-linear operation such as automated servers instead puts metadata pointers at the beginning and end of every program segment and commercial, and a computer does the actual switching, meaning that there is no more black holes, and no more slop in the system (usually).

It works very much the same way that your DVD player can non-linearly jump from scene to scene without "winding" through content. Automation uses a choreographed playlist to play segments of programs and commercials stacked up so closely that the black is mostly gone (which thwarts the commercial-killers based on looking for dips to black), quite often from the same source server.

There is still a bit of black in local-to-network switching, but commercials are usually not as often 30 seconds long anymore, and networks use open-ended promos (the voiceover stops, music and generic video continue, and the local spot interrupts) instead to transition to local. I actually recently devised a system for FOX stations that were having splicer audio burps at net-to local transitions that actually automatically added a half second of black before each local break, which masked the burp. It also has a nice retro look on air :D.

One commercial-killer based its algorithm on detecting dips to black that were within 28-32 seconds or 58-62 seconds apart, defining that as a commercial, which in 1975 might have been a clever idea. Unfortunately, that technology emerged in the late 80's instead. It would rewind the VCR and crash record again just after the spot where the commercial first began, automatically removing the commercials on the fly as it recorded, and you were left with a 42-minute recording of an entire 60 minute program, virtually commercial-free. As 20's, 10's, 15's, 5's and even 3's became the norm and 30's and 60's became the exception, that system became a lot less accurate and fell by the wayside.