[The Homelander]

Late yesterday I was attempting to watch a dvr-recorded show from ABC. A commercial came on and I got up to make a sandwich and etc. When I sat back down the commercials were over and the show had been playing for a while, so I top-speed rewound it and accidentally ended up back in the commercial segment. When I went to fast-forward it back to the show, it informed me that fastforwarding through commercials was not allowed.

I am infuriated with Directv like I've never been before. We've had it for over 7 years now, stuck with it through price hikes and other hogwash. But this is beyond unacceptable.

If you had an early 90's VCR and a TV that didn't even have cable, you could set it to record an ABC show on a blank VHS when you were gone. Then, when you had the spare time, you could watch the show, fast-forwarding and rewinding WHEREVER you pleased. Now, we have this box that cost hundreds of dollars that we pay Directv to use, and it can no longer even do that?

I know that was kind of longwinded, but does anyone have any information about this new development? Tomorrow we are going to call up and ask a representative about it, and if we don't get the right answer we're simply canceling. We've got other options, and it really isn't worth the money if this is the way things are going to work now.



Has anyone else had this problem? I searched the general discussion forum, and found an old post talking about the technology to force people to sit through portions of things they had recorded that they had no desire to watch...even though they are paying a handsome price for a recording/playback device.

If you also have this problem, what are you planning on doing about it?

 

[tgater]

First of all WELCOME to the Fourm! Second is this being done by D* or the network? You stated the this happened while watching a recorded show from ABC. Was it from the local station or the broadcast feed? It's the first I've heard of and I have not had it happen to me. Although most of recorded programming comes from ESPN. NATGEO, Comedy Central and A&E TV. Good luck and keep us posted on any information you are able to obtain.

 

[joed32]

If you downloaded the show from "On Demand" then that's the way it works. If you simply recorded it then something is definitely wrong.

 

[augisdad]

I get this on the ON DEMAND channels 1004 and 1007, but have never had it happen on the network's local channels.

 

[dpeters11]

I think your frustration is misplaced. As the others said, recording it from on demand is the only time this will happen, and it's a requirement of the providers. There has been a bug where locally inserted ads can't be skipped, but there has been no issue slipping or fast forwarding.

If it ever does happen where normally recorded shows can't be fast forwarded through commercials, I think it's safe to say it won't be by choice by Directv, and won happen without a fight. At that point, it would probably be useless to go to another provider.

I honestly don't see that happening. They have other annoying ways to handle us.

 

[peds48]

wow…all of this over one commercial???

 

[dpeters11]

No, I don't think it was one commercial. This isn't the can't skip local inserted issue. This was not being able to fast forward through commercials at all.

Now, we do feel this is because it was a program downloaded. If it actually happened that a program recorded normally, and normal fast forwarding wasn't allowed, I'd be upset as well. In this case at ABC, not DirecTV however.

 

[CCarncross]

From the sound of it it appears to have been over 1 commercial break...there are a few commercials you can't skip, especially if its from the network station ondemand stuff, which is a requirement being imposed on all providers by the networks. But overall we arent being forced to watch all the commercials or truthfully even that many of the commercials yet. Seems like way too over the top for such a thing.

 

[peds48]

From the sound of it it appears to have been over 1 commercial break...there are a few commercials you can't skip, especially if its from the network station ondemand stuff, which is a requirement being imposed on all providers by the networks. But overall we arent being forced to watch all the commercials or truthfully even that many of the commercials yet. Seems like way too over the top for such a thing.

+1

 

[PCampbell]

I had this happen once but it is not the norm and for me it was not a big deal.

 

[n3vino]

wow…all of this over one commercial???

Since we pay D* for the service and D* pays the broadcasters whatever price they demand, we shouldn't have to watch commercials at all. The way I see it is, we shouldn't have to watch commericals at all if they are being paid for us to watch their channel. They have their cake and eat it too. Without viewers, their channels would get no advertisers. Now if it was free over the air, then we should get the commercials. But that's just me.

 

[peds48]

Since we pay D* for the service and D* pays the broadcasters whatever price they demand, we shouldn't have to watch commercials at all. The way I see it is, we shouldn't have to watch commericals at all if they are being paid for us to watch their channel. They have their cake and eat it too. Without viewers, their channels would get no advertisers. Now if it was free over the air, then we should get the commercials. But that's just me.

have you noticed how much HBO, Showtime, etc cost. this is because there are no commercials on those channels. so now take very single channel in your package and times it by lets say $10.00 just to be fair. you would be be paying upwards of $1000 a month if it was not for those beautiful commercials…

Glad we have commercials

 

[dpeters11]

I'll take commercials before the really annoying ones they are starting to do within programming.

 

[n3vino]

have you noticed how much HBO, Showtime, etc cost. this is because there are no commercials on those channels. so now take very single channel in your package and times it by lets say $10.00 just to be fair. you would be be paying upwards of $1000 a month if it was not for those beautiful commercials…

Glad we have commercials

You make a good point. HOwever, I already have a bunch of channels, especially those that show movies, that I don't watch because of editing and heavy commercial showings. D* is going to have to eventually do something with their packaging, because there will come a point where their fees will be too high, and a lot of people will just do without all the channels they bring, and just go over the air. Netflix is a very good option right now. I watch it a lot. But we'll see what the future brings.

 

[usnret]

As long as they don't force us to watch election comm's. Watching recordings vice live these past few weeks have really paid off, especially here in Ohio

 

[redhot]

We missed the last Revolution tv show. I downloaded it from on demand. It said it was 46 minutes long. It had, I think, 3 commercials that were about 8-10 seconds each. No big deal. I tried to fast forward the first commercial and it said you can not fast forward through the commercial.

 

[armophob]

We missed the last Revolution tv show. I downloaded it from on demand. It said it was 46 minutes long. It had, I think, 3 commercials that were about 8-10 seconds each. No big deal. I tried to fast forward the first commercial and it said you can not fast forward through the commercial.

Yeah, the tech is now out there and I think this will become the new advertising costs. Companies will pay more to make their commercials "unskipable". We will be back to muting the commercials like we did in the old days. Until one company makes us pay more for a device that gives us a way to override it.
And on and on.

 

[dpeters11]

We missed the last Revolution tv show. I downloaded it from on demand. It said it was 46 minutes long. It had, I think, 3 commercials that were about 8-10 seconds each. No big deal. I tried to fast forward the first commercial and it said you can not fast forward through the commercial.

It also depends on the network. I downloaded an H2 show, and it allowed fast forwarding through the limited commercials.

The whole commercial debate though, has nothing to do with DirecTV, except the skipping issue, but that's an unsupported feature.

 

[CATCRAW]

Our Local Programming Stations have done something in the past 60 days so now you cannot FF through commercials. If you try it will take you to the beginning of the program or the end and nothing in-between. Not a DTV issue but a local broadcast issue.

 

[SledgeHammer]

Just stop download programs from VOD and start downloading them off the internet. Eventually, once VOD viewership dwindles to nothing, they (DirecTV & the providers) will get the hint. I no longer use VOD for this very reason.