ReplayTV May Drop "Commercial Advance" 366
An anonymous reader writes "Wired News is reporting that the new owners of ReplayTV are considering dropping the Commercial Advance and Send Show options features." I had bad luck with that function chopping out bits of show anyway. Between that and the 30 second skip function, I'm surprised ReplayTV has lasted this long!
Re:well yeah.. (Score:4, Informative)
I used to wonder the same thing, until a friend of mine who is messing around with mythtv [mythtv.org] pointed it out to me (and he's going to be pissed he didn't get to post this):
There are the screen changes, as you mentioned
Commercials are usually a set length: 30 seconds, 1 minute, per ad
Sometimes you get the network logo when the show comes back on
I think there are other ways...sc00p, post 'em up.
Re:ReplayTV Yo-Yo (Score:5, Informative)
Re:ReplayTV Yo-Yo (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Another crippled product (Score:5, Informative)
AP Article (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Another crippled product (Score:4, Informative)
They've already thrown VBR, and additional wishlist capabilities (as well as others).
Unfortunately, they haven't found a way to upgrade the 33Mhz Series 1 chip or the 32MB or Series 1 RAM over a phoneline
Re:What features has Tivo removed (Score:3, Informative)
How cable started. (Score:4, Informative)
I've had cable since the late 1960s. Its real infancy: there were no channels without commercials other than the one at the bottom of the dial where the camera panned back and forth across weather dials.
The selling point was that you could receive stations period. Without cable, the broadcasters were too distant to see.
In 2003, I still have cable since it the only way to see the broadcast networks.
30 skip on Tivo (Score:3, Informative)
While watching a show hit:
Select -> Play -> Select -> 3 -> 0 -> Select
The move to the end of the show button turns in to a 30 second skip button. It works great for me, sometimes it turns off after software updates so you will have to run the button sequence again.
Workaround: for bug# ????? (Score:4, Informative)
turn off commercial advance, after the advance and rewind a couple of seconds to desired point. Turn commercial advance back on.
Commercial advance is by far one of the greatest features, it makes hour long shows into 40 minute shows saving me time and giving me more tv!
Re:ReplayTV Yo-Yo (Score:4, Informative)
I bought my Series 2 last year when they were still at version 3. All you had to do was plug in the USB ethernet adapter and set the dialing prefix to #401. My TiVo has *never* touched a phone line - it's been ethernet only since day 1.
Why Replay? (Score:3, Informative)
The one reason that I bought a ReplayTV instead of Tivo is that I can plug the unit into my router and then download the recorded Mpeg2 files down to my primary computer, where I can then compress it into Divx or whatever.
It is the open attitude that SonicBlue represented that eventually won me over. I can only hope the D&M is good about this too. If not... MythTV is probably in my future
Re:Before the flames begin. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:ReplayTV Yo-Yo (Score:3, Informative)
Current units are still shipping with 3.x, so if you want to use a wireless network you're SOL until it self-updates to 4.0 (well, you can use a USB->ethernet dongle plus a wireless bridge).
Note, however, that the DirecTiVo's are not under TiVo's control, but DirecTV's. DirecTV has seen fit to disable the USB ports on all models, for no given reason. So none of the above applies if you have DirecTV and want to use a DirecTiVo (of course, if you have DirecTV you have to have a phone line anyway...)
Re:Yet another reason to go with Tivo (Score:2, Informative)
An additional note, you can even hook your series1 TiVo up to your wireless network, and remove the wires altogether. My TiVo at home "dials in" over my wireless network and cable modem.
Yum [9thtee.com]
Doug
Don't overlook SageTV (Score:5, Informative)
Don't overlook SageTV! [www.sage.tv]
While it's not free, nor open source, it's the most incredible PC-based PVR I've seen to date. At only $59.95, it's a bargain. Program guide data is FREE! Upgrades are FREE! And the pace of development has been outstanding.
In it's current build, it supports;
- Multi-tuner, multi-lineup recording (satellite on one card, cable on the other.. or two cable captures, or five.. whatever.)
- Recording to either Mpeg2 or Mpeg1 format (for easier portability to DVD-R or VCD.)
- Network streaming to other PCs
- Automatic recording of favorites, as well as suggestions based on your viewing history (which is easily disabled.)
- XMLTV listings import (if for some reason, free listings aren't good enough for you.)
- Dscaler support and plugins (much better quality than MythTV, Tivo, or Replay on my HDTV.)
- Audio library management..
Features they're saying will come 'soon' include;
- HDTV Support
- DVD Playback
It's not free, but it's definitely a value. The way the guys at Frey Technologies are adding features is just unbelievable. Sometimes, free solutions are not the best.
Re:ReplayTV Yo-Yo (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Another crippled product (Score:3, Informative)
Possible, but damn difficult. Getting everything going and working together is possible, but it takes a LOT of work.
I'm still fairly early in the process, but it looks like I'm going to have to change keymapping in just about every application to get them to work with my remote, without a keyboard and without use of a mouse. PC applications just aren't setup that way.
It's possible that a Freevo-like approach will work, but Freevo itself doesn't have any sort of a plugin system, so it's all or nothing... Freevo doesn't have everything that you would want, so a lot of coding needs to go into it still. It might be easier to start from scratch than try to adapt Freevo to do everything (editing, transcoding, burning, transfering, network functions, etc).
Not sure at this point, I'm still working on it. But in any case, it's very difficult to get a machine working like a Tivo unless you want the exact features, and only the features that MythTV or Freevo have, and are capable enough to trawl through the cryptic documents often needed to setup the hardware (video capture, remote, video+TV-out, etc.) and can solve all the problems that are sure to come up in the process.
Re:Why is this controversial? (Score:2, Informative)
MovieAdvance and CommercialAdvance.
CommercialAdvance is *by far* the greatest feature. I set my program to record and let it go. It will record as you'd expect. Except, at the end, it then goes back over the show (assuming nothing is queued up to record after it) and runs through the show marking the commercials. It takes a couple of minutes and then it's done.
When I go to watch the show, I just hit play and watch as usual. When it hits a commercial a blue screen (no jokes please) pops up and the VCR automagically fast-forwards past the commercials. Never once has it screwed up, it *always* returns to picture just as the show is coming back on.
The other feature which I rarely use since I don't rent tapes anymore is the MovieAdvance. This actually causes the VCR to fast-forward past all of the advertisements and FBI warnings at the start of the tape and begins rolling at the start of the movie.
The CommercialAdvance feature is the primary reason I refuse to by a DVR. Until one offers me the same feature (no hassle commercial skipping) I see no reason to switch. Oh, and for the content producers out there, the VCR DOES record your ads, I just don't see them. You have no right to force me to watch your ads. I have every right to skip them.
Re:Yet another reason to go with Tivo (Score:4, Informative)
Commercial Advance is not 30 second skip - it is the feature that allows a Replay TV to instantly skip a whole set of commercials without even pressing a button, so even if it is removed, who cares... I still have a 30 second skip button that works just as well. Of course the article doesn't talk about the features being removed from all Replay TV's, it only talks of it being removed from future models... for those of you who didn't rtfa here are the pertinent passages:
"ReplayTV said it would likely leave some controversial features on its home television recording machines for now but may strip them from new models."
"Hollingsworth added that ReplayTV models selling today still include Commercial Advance and Send Show options, but the company has not made up its mind about including those features in future products."
For those other Replay TV users who have troubles with Commercial Advance (I have them too) I have found the best way to use CA is by leaving it off, and when you hit the beginning of the commercial break, turn it on and 90% of the time you will instantly be back to the program with the usual cues that you've just come back from the break (logo in the corner, banner for the next show, etc). Turn it off in preparation for the next break.
For those few times where it doesn't work, the 30 second skip and instant replay buttons will work fine as is usual, just turn off CA before using them to avoid skipping too far ahead on accident (when CA activates in the middle of 6 30-second skip button presses).
There's an easy solution, build your own TIVO! (Score:3, Informative)
My family can watch the recorded shows on any computer throughout the house. We can pause live TV. ATI's software identifies the station and gives the program's name (which is great for surfing). You can also set it up to check what's on all of your favorite channels at the same time!
Plus, you can use if to store you music collection (which you can also play throughout the house) and for games.
And best off all, you can build such a system for less than $500 bucks and you'll never have to pay monthly fees.
Re:Higher volume "myth"? True & False (Score:1, Informative)
False: The loudest parts of the ad aren't any louder than the loudest parts of a show.
The sound in the ads is compressed, ie. the frequencies are compressed. There is less dynamic range. The audio is run through a compressor which squishes the highest and lowest frequencies.
Lots of pop music does this. It sacrifices dynamic range for a punchier sound. Listen to an older recording (a symphony; Dark Side Of The Moon...) and watch the meters. They peak at parts that don't sound that loud. This is the stuff that gets compressed away. Soundtracks, like Pink Floyd, care about preserving the full dynamic range of the sound; pop songs and ads don't. They just want your attention.
By running the signal through a compressor, all the rest of the frequencies can be boosted up to the peak level. If you look at the meters for an ad, they hover around the peak level. So more of the sounds are more consistently louder - but at their loudest, the ads aren't any louder than the shows.