15 minute skip discovery

[Chris Blount]

I haven't seen thing anywhere else yet but please excuse me if this is known (hey, I'm still a newbie :) ).

One thing I miss about the Dish 508 is the 300X scan speed. Sometimes I need to speed to the end of a program to search something out. This morning I found a solution to that problem on the DirecTivo.

As you know, when you program in the 30 second skip on the DirecTivo, you lose the ability to skip 15 minutes at a time via the tick marks on the progress bar. I discovered that while in any of the forward scan modes, the 30 second skip is temporarily disabled returning the unit to the 15 minute skip. This is very handy when wanting to get to the end of a show quickly.

[Phil T]

It took me a while to figure that out also. Of course my 16 year old daughter found it right away. :)

When we watch something recorded my daughters (twins) always want to control the remote. Dad doesn't do it fast enough!

[cnsf]

also, if you hit rewind and the 30 sec skip, it goes backwards 15 mins too.

[BrettStah]

With long recordings (> 2 hours, I think) those tic marks are 30 minutes apart.

[Ray_Clum]

Okay, forgive the new DTivo initiate, but how do you do the 30 second skip?

[Chris Blount]

Okay, forgive the new DTivo initiate, but how do you do the 30 second skip?

While playing back a recording, on the remote do this key combination:

select-play-select-3-0-select

[BrettStah]

And if/when your Tivo reboots (after a software update, for example), you'll have to repeat those steps. You may want to print them out and tape them to the inside of the battery cover on the remote.

I also like the remote control "hack" that enables the quick-clear on the status bar graphics, mainly for when I watch football games as well. Select-Play-Select-Pause-Select. Now when you fast-forward, instant replay, 30 second skip, etc. the green bar only stays up for a brief fraction of a second, which means you can see the entire screen immediately. Repeating those button presses toggles it off.

[cnsf]

All in the Codes posting I put up for you.....

:D

[Chris Blount]

also, if you hit rewind and the 30 sec skip, it goes backwards 15 mins too.
This doesn't seem to work for me.

[BrettStah]

Chris, I don't think it works with live TV... just recordings. When you start watching a recording from Now Playing, then when you're fast-forwarding or rewinding the 30 second skip button should jump to the nearest little tic mark in the direction you're currently zooming in...

[Chris Blount]

Chris, I don't think it works with live TV... just recordings. When you start watching a recording from Now Playing, then when you're fast-forwarding or rewinding the 30 second skip button should jump to the nearest little tic mark in the direction you're currently zooming in...AH! I got ya. I think I was trying it from live TV. Will try it from a recording tonight. Thanks.

[BrettStah]

I think that the 4.x software update that the standalone Series2 Tivos now have makes this function from the live tv buffer, so hopefully if/when the DirecTivos get 4.x this behavior will become more consistent.

[cnsf]

Don't hold your breath.... 4.0 will mean HMO, and I doubt they'd invest to strip it out.

Higher level issues to address before we see that.

My guess is that HMO is on hold because it is now D* on the hook for all the licensing concerns and ratings reporting.

Think about it....Tivo didn't care if the networks got pissed, they were pretty network-independent. D* on the other hand doesn't want to ruffle feathers...look at what happened to ReplayTV..... D* is now responsible for the Tivo software upgrades. So, until D* can reasonably feel comfortable the networks won't get angry, they won't have HMO. I highly doubt it's a software development issue in the end.

[BrettStah]

No reason that 4.x would require that they implement the HMO features, in my opinion. Standalone Series2 Tivos with 4.x don't have HMO unless the customer signs up for it. Seems like it'd be simple enough to just not make that option available if they aren't ready to enable it.

But I don't think that the Tivo HMO features would upset the networks... it's limited to in-house sharing only, it's encrypted along the way, and therefore it shouldn't be a big piracy issue to anyone.

[cnsf]

Think about it for ratings. You have 3 boxes in your house, you get picked up 3 times for watching the show if you record it on multiple units (I know I do). Why would they want to reduce that?

As far as encryption and securing to the home....good luck seeing how long it takes Tivocommunity underground to knock that one down. You also enable the USB ports....more options for hacking......

[BrettStah]

As long as the officially supported and sanctioned functionality is legitimate and legal (i.e., sharing only within a home, encrypted on the network wire, etc.) there wouldn't be any problems for DirecTV or Tivo. Do you see Dell, Gateway, HP, etc. getting into trouble because hackers are using their product to do something illegal?

As for ratings... maybe a good point, but since I already have a way (channel modulator) of distributing the outputs of my DirecTivos throughout my house I don't have many duplicates.

But the main point is that they could release a 4.x version, if they wanted to, without HMO functionality.

[cnsf]

Absolutely right.

So, what do you think is the holdup? The NewsCorp merger/purchase? Laziness? Not enough cost/benefit?