Skipping Ads on PVR - Do you forget?

[sampatterson]

I have had various PVRs for about 2 years now.  I love 'em and couldn't do without. 

Just curious, how many out there occasionally forget to skip ads when you have something PVR'd?  My wife and I forget sometimes (usually she reminds me) ;)

Seems like we "forget" about 25% of the time, and then remember and skip forward.

[Maniacal1]

Yes, at times, I've forgotten that I'm watching a recorded program and can skip. More than once, a particular friend of mine will be here watching TV and I'll hear him whine, "I'm watching commercials." It's my own fault--I got him a TiVo last Christmas and created the monster he is today.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yes I forget all the time. I can't count how many times my wife has hit me asking "why are you watching the commercials?"

[DmitriA]

I wonder if this situation would be better if there would be some small icon in the corner of the screen indicating to you that you are watching a buffered program?

[Scott Greczkowski]

No thanks, I wouldn't want burn in my screen (Sorry had to be the first to say it) :D

[Steve Mehs]

I never forgot to skip a commercial yet

[Pete K.]

When I'm tired late at night, I sometimes
forget to skip em. Mea culpa! Mea culpa!
Mea maxima culpa!

[Mark Holtz]

If I'm doing a batch transfer of programs from PVR to VCR, I may forget to pause the tape and end up recording the commerials.

[Karl Foster]

I don't usually forget, but my wife is a chronic commercial-watcher. I always have to remind her that she doesn't have to watch commercials. She forgets that the program is recorded and not live. Long live the PVR!!!!

[JBKing]

Very rarely! :)

[marshalk]

I never forget anything like that....as far as I can remember.

[marshalk]

I always remember things like that...or did I post to here already?

[Bill D]

I don't forget and I actually hate watching stuff Live because I can't..
I watched one of the Giants preseason games in like an hour, soon as the play ended, skip forward would bring you exactly to the start of the next play

[Kerry High]

No, I'm usually trying to find where I misplaced the remote during the commercials. :)

[Jacob S]

At times I forget to skip commercials and I am sure a lot of people forget, especially if they are occupied with something.

[TomCat]

Since I normally find 99% of commercials extremely annoying I have conditioned myself to always zip past commercials (although I seem to find myself rewinding that Gillete Venus Razor commercial a lot!) I'm a true couch potato that keeps a remote in hand pretty much all of the time (sad, isn't it?).

This was true even in VCR days...I developed a lot of my PVR habits way back in the day, such as taping everything I watch specifically so I could zip past the commercials or repeat a snippet of dialog; so you can imagine that I considered my first Tivo to be God's gift.

I am guilty of watching way too much TV, so my lame attempt at compensation is to spend less time watching the same amount of TV, and the CM's were naturally the first thing to go.

[John Corn]

For some reason somedays I forget to skip commercials, other days I remember to do it........:shrug:

[Jacob S]

This will also be easier done on recorded shows on dvd players just as it on pvr units. Thats why I am actious for the dvd players that can record to come down in price.

[STXJim]

I never forget to skip recorded commercials;
...but I continually forget that I can't skip a live commercial during a live viewing.:)

[geneb11]

Steve Mehs wrote:I never forgot to skip a commercial yet

You will eventually. I do all the time.

(BTW) Will the real Slim Shady please stand up!

[toddjb]

I wish the PVR had the same "Commercial Advance" feature of my RCA VCR (which gets little or no use these days).

The VCR would automatically forward through commercials and resume play when the show started. (you could obviously turn this off if you wanted). It works great...the VCR searches for tags that the national broadcasters place in for the local affiliates (to add commercials). It uses these same signals to skip the commercials! Great feature. Would clearly cause an uproar if it was added to PVRs, which is a shame.

-todd

[DarrellP]

I have just the opposite problem, I am constantly hitting the Skip button while watching Live (since I rarely do, I am conditioned to hit Skip automatically).

[cnsf]

I also have the opposite problem. I HATE watching live TV, but can't wait the extra time for the HBO Sunday shows. :bang

I LOVE it when someone calls, pause, and hope for a LONG conversation so I can skip the commercials again. :hurah:

My remotes have taken quite a few beatings between my old, long-gone DPs and my 501s......

[gsusser]

How does everyone skip commercials. The skip button only skips 30 seconds, right? I usually put mine in fast forward at 15x. What's the most efficient way?

[Timco]

I normally use the skip button.

[Steve Mehs]

How does everyone skip commercials.

300x for a second

[Jacob S]

I wonder how many more people have and will be replacing their remotes that have the pvr functions and if they mdde the platinum remotes any better than the regular universal remotes due to the buttons going to have more use than a normal remote would.

[Karl Foster]

Originally posted by gsusser
How does everyone skip commercials. The skip button only skips 30 seconds, right? I usually put mine in fast forward at 15x. What's the most efficient way?

I use the skip button on my UTV. It advances 30-seconds per push of the button. Just my personal preference.

[9300170]

We just hit the skip button 4 or 5 times.  The remote on the 501 in the bedroom where we watch most of our TV has lost most of its silver finish near the skip button.

[TomCat]

Originally posted by Steve Mehs


300x for a second

That sounds like it would work great...if every CM break were exactly 5 minutes long. In my experience few are.

Are you using some sort of macro programming technique to achieve this? The only PVR I know of that does X300 is the 501 (possbly the 721...mine hasn't shipped yet), but it takes a number of button pushes to get there, and 1 sec at X300 is pretty hard to do that quickly or that accurately, at least for old "fumble-fingers", here.

I could never get used to the "jump-back" ballistics on Tivo...contrary to their own opinion, this (just one more annoying undeletable Tivo) "feature" is not smarter than I am at compensating for overshoot. They'd do better to just cave in and add the 30 skip feature.

The Replay option of pressing a number button before the skip (which then skips back or forward that number of minutes) seemed like a good idea, but is only practical if you already know going in how long the break is..and only the most dedicated couch potatoes do, probably. Its good for going to a specific place within a program, however.

It's easier to just push the 30 second skip until I see what I want and then jump back 8-10 seconds (depending upon which PVR) which means I still end up sitting through the last 5 seconds of every commercial break (a savvy advertising buyer should buy those 5 seconds). I thought that this was a pretty clunky way to do things until I was watching the rare program on a VCR the other day, which sucks MUCH worse at skipping CM's. I wish all PVR's had the Replay Commercial Advance feature.

[Steve Mehs]

I just hit FFW 4 times then hit play right away, usually I'm a few seconds over, and sometimes I do hit the 30sec reverse button. And sometimes I do go 60x, but never 4 or 15.

[gsusser]

Originally posted by Steve Mehs
I just hit FFW 4 times then hit play right away, usually I'm a few seconds over, and sometimes I do hit the 30sec reverse button. And sometimes I do go 60x, but never 4 or 15.

Uh, you lost me there. Hitting FF 4x = 300? [i had to get my abacus out :)]