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!
Another crippled product (Score:5, Interesting)
How feasable is it to do something as good, but without the crippling, on a computer with a large hard disk and good video card?
Well, (Score:3, Interesting)
ReplayTV Yo-Yo (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Another crippled product (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Another crippled product (Score:2, Interesting)
Why oh why... (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure, Tivo has the 30 second skip if you have the right model and you enter in the Easter Egg, but most people don't surf around for Easter Eggs and therefore aren't aware of it (plus it isn't advertised as a feature for drones shopping at Best Buy, etc.).
They already declared bankruptcy and were bought out by another company, so somehow by eliminating some of its most compelling features they are going to rise to the top?
It’s a good start (Score:1, Interesting)
Market vs users (Score:1, Interesting)
More worryingly, the BBC's PDC system seems to be in a complete mess right now (The Simpsons haven't recorded automatically for weeks!), mainly, it seems because they don't have the staff to set up the PDC information in the transmission control system and it's clearly not a commercial priority for them either.
It looks like commercial pressures are bearing down on all services that are designed to assist viewers in choosing what they wish to watch...
Yet another reason to go with Tivo (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, in reply to another post, you can hook the Tivo to the net using a USB Ethernet adapter, eliminating the need for a phone line.
UltimateTV (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Another crippled product (Score:3, Interesting)
Not a big loss (Score:3, Interesting)
not perfect (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Before the flames begin. (Score:3, Interesting)
nope. consumers pay for broadcasting in the usa with the extra cost of their consumer goods due to the spend on advertising. The adverts don't come for free, and the companies advertising the goods pass that cost on to the consumer.
in countries with a TV licence, the cost is yearly/ monthly/ not-optional, but it costs *less* (unless you buy *no* consumer goods during the year.)
IF FMCG companies weren't spending the money on adverstising, your goods would be cheaper, and your TV viewing would be uninterrupted by ads.
TV is a drug. And that's a good thing. (Score:3, Interesting)
I like TV when I'm frustrated; it can reset my mind when I'm spinning on some issue. I like TV when I'm ill; it takes my mind off the suffering. I like TV when I have 30 minutes to kill and there happens to be an episode of The Simpsons on.
It's a drug many, many people abuse, and I'm sure that's what you're thinking of in your post. If you're watching TV three hours a night, every night, it's clearly a drug that has begun to control you. If you're settling for the best thing on TV rather than getting on with your life, you're doing it wrong.
To paraphrase Shakespeare: "Good TV is a good familiar creature, if it be well used; exclaim no more against it."
I do wish most people would watch less TV, but I think that declaring TV in general to be a "disease" is counterproductive. Try thinking of it as a drug that too many people are addicted to.
Re:well yeah.. (Score:3, Interesting)
On the other hand, I've never actually tried this, and am just thinking out loud...
Re:UltimateTV (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Before the flames begin. (Score:3, Interesting)
We already have those, our tivo's think we're gay, and are telling advertisers we will pay over a hundred dollars a year to avoid them (do I watch a $100 in advertising?). God help you if you fall asleep with the TV on skinamax overnight.
I can tolerate some advertising with my tv. I would much rather be able to rate/select advertisements so I didn't have to see people discussing muffin maintenance or "truth" ad's that are absurd to the point of almost promoting the products they revile.
This is also why I send the local PBS and public radio station a fat check every year.
30 second skip not going anywhere (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sure many RTV owners will agree with me that having the ability to send shows over the internet is pretty pointless (it can take hours to days to send one). That feature is probably rarely used my most. However, in the process, D&M better not remove the ability to stream shows from other RTVs on your LAN. That would sucks and break DVArchive (which is probably the biggest selling point of Replays).
Now Commercial Advance is a nice feature, but it only works on about 1/2 of the shows I watch, and on that half it doesn't work flawlessly. It wouldn't kill me to lose this features, but it is one of the reasons why I bought a Replay instead of Tivo.
Lastly there is the 30 second skip. There is no talk of removing this feature...and they better not. Being able to "shorten" show watching time is one of the big reasons for owning a PVR in the first place. This feature is a must!
And for those who don't know, you can do a X minute skip by typing the number of minutes on the keypad and pressing skip. 3 + Skip works well to skip over a lot of commercials.
The 30-second skip is better anyway (Score:3, Interesting)
I think the networks should align the commercials very regularly, such that a 30-second skip will give you a few frames after the start of each commercial. I've been watching TV with a ReplayTV recently, and haven't seen any of the commercials people have talked about. Ideally, people would skip all of the commercials which aren't targetting at them and watch the ones that are because they're interesting.
Ads between shows are also effective, since ReplayTV continues to play the audio while you're selecting a show and doesn't let you skip if there's nothing to skip to.
Re:Another crippled product (Score:1, Interesting)
As a former Series1 owner and current Series2 owner, I agree that the progress is too slow. But when they do implement a new feature, they do at least make it wife-friendly (from my perspective).
Re:Another crippled product (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Yet another reason to go with Tivo (Score:3, Interesting)
Second: Yes, TiVo DOES let you hook up a USB wireless adapter, but ReplayTV announced that they would be releaseing a software version very soon that would enable that feature. Given that they just released a new software update, I think they are on track. Yes, the release was delayed because of the bankruptcy and company sale, but they have proven that they are continuing to develop the product.
Re:well yeah.. (Score:3, Interesting)
A TV which does not obscure the overscan area will show the flashing white square in the top left.
IIRC, it flashes slowly for a few seconds 30 s before break, starts flashing rapidly 5 or 10 before, and goes solid during the above mentioned transition to the still frame.
Course, I haven't seen it recently on modern TVs which cover the overscan area well...perhaps it's changed...
Re:Before the flames begin. (Score:2, Interesting)
Then why do some commercial supported channels cost more than other commercial supported channels?
And, seriously, it isn't that expensive to get a connection to the uplink. Heck, I can do it with consumer parts for under $50 these days (people are just trashing their old C-Band systems... so sad, really). For a cable company, I'd say no more than $5000 per satellite, and $2000 per channel. At current rates most cable co's should have all the stations paid for in a month.
The fact is you don't just pay for the connection / upkeep of the connection, you actually have to pay for the already commercial supported channels. It's sad, really.