Thank God for (HD) DVR's

[EdwardGein]

Curious if most people here have switched their TV habits. I personally will not watch live TV other then a Sports event any more because the commercials & spacing have gotten too annoying. I knew it wasn't my imagination that when seeing shows like "Lost" it seems like there were too many commercial interuptions because there was an article about this in USA Today on Wensday. Apparently networks like ABC instead of putting commercials in 4 segments now put them in on 6 segments. As a result, I'm watching everything on my 2 DVR's & fast forwarding all the time.

I'm still not clear if the "old DVR's/TIVOs" have a still functioning feature that skips commercials alltogether.

[Eric Z]

i am soon going to jump onboard the DVR/Tivo craze! i'm placing a call to my cable company this week to get the dvr. i saw your previous posts about the 8300- i think i just need the 8000 (that's the standard one they provide) because. my friends have tivo and they love it- i wonder how dvrs compare to tivo.

[eisforelectronic]

i am soon going to jump onboard the DVR/Tivo craze! i'm placing a call to my cable company this week to get the dvr. i saw your previous posts about the 8300- i think i just need the 8000 (that's the standard one they provide) because. my friends have tivo and they love it- i wonder how dvrs compare to tivo.

the 8300 is the replacement for the 8000, any 8000's sent out are older stock.

[robert393]

44yrs old and finally jumped onto the DVR sceen in a big way! Signed with Dish Network and got 2-HD DVR's (model 942). This is the ONLY way to go. No more commercials, I watch record all my favorite programs and watch them ON MY time schedule. Total of 23 HD channels i.e., VOOM (11 channels), HBO, SHO, ESPN, TNT, DISCOVERY,HDNET, HDMOVIES, FOX, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS. Dish just aquired Rainbow 1 Satalite this week so we will now have 11 more VOOM channels to view in a couple months!

Plenty of HD content to view & record!

THIS ROCKS!
Robert

[shokhead]

And your monthly bill is?

[EdwardGein]

I thought you can no longer program your DVR/TIVO to skip commercials & you have to fast forward them or can you still do that on the older models?

Shokhead, don't know if you were referring to me, but Time Warner charges about $10 a month for their HD DVR rental/service & I'm paying for 2 of them- one for the living room & 1 for the bedroom.

[GMichael]

I don't have the Tivo. But the hard drive on my DVD recorder works in many of the same ways. It also has a skip button. It doesn't skip all the comercials but it does skip ahead 30 seconds. If I hit it 6 times in a row it skips 3 minutes. Cool huh? If I go too far it has a back button that skips back 7 seconds. Commercials no longer bother me.

But yeah, gotta watch football in real time.

[EdwardGein]

[QUOTE=GMichael]I don't have the Tivo. But the hard drive on my DVD recorder works in many of the same ways. It also has a skip button. It doesn't skip all the comercials but it does skip ahead 30 seconds. If I hit it 6 times in a row it skips 3 minutes. Cool huh? If I go too far it has a back button that skips back 7 seconds. Commercials no longer bother me.

Do most DVR's like Scientific Atlanta HD DVR's have the skip ahead feature? I've been just pressing the fast forward button. Any info appreciated. Thanks

[GMichael]

[QUOTE=GMichael]I don't have the Tivo. But the hard drive on my DVD recorder works in many of the same ways. It also has a skip button. It doesn't skip all the comercials but it does skip ahead 30 seconds. If I hit it 6 times in a row it skips 3 minutes. Cool huh? If I go too far it has a back button that skips back 7 seconds. Commercials no longer bother me.

Do most DVR's like Scientific Atlanta HD DVR's have the skip ahead feature? I've been just pressing the fast forward button. Any info appreciated. Thanks

Sorry Ed, I just don't know. Do you have the manual? if not, maybe you can find one on Google.

[GMichael]

Sorry Ed, I just don't know. Do you have the manual? if not, maybe you can find one on Google.

Very sorry, Here is what I found on line.

Can I automatically "skip ahead" 30 seconds through commercials?
No, AllTouch AT-8400 and 8500 series remote controls do not have a 30-second skip ahead button. However, you can fast forward and rewind at three different speeds -- 4x, 10x and 32x. You can also skip back 8 seconds using the key to the left of the green LIST key for instant replays.

http://www.scientificatlanta.com/consumers_new/CableBoxes/8300hd.htm

[nightflier]

I don't have the Tivo. But the hard drive on my DVD recorder works in many of the same ways. It also has a skip button. It doesn't skip all the comercials but it does skip ahead 30 seconds. If I hit it 6 times in a row it skips 3 minutes. Cool huh? If I go too far it has a back button that skips back 7 seconds. Commercials no longer bother me.

But yeah, gotta watch football in real time.

Is that a Panasonic PVR? At the time I bought my Panasonic it was the only model anywhere that had the CM Skip (Commercial Skip) button. I heard that the newer models have firewire ports, but I think they did away with the CM Skip button, too. Does anyone have any info on the newer models?

Mine only has an 80Gb drive, and I wouldn't mind a 320Gb unit, or larger if they make them. Doesn't have to be Panasonic either...

[GMichael]

Is that a Panasonic PVR? At the time I bought my Panasonic it was the only model anywhere that had the CM Skip (Commercial Skip) button. I heard that the newer models have firewire ports, but I think they did away with the CM Skip button, too. Does anyone have any info on the newer models?

Mine only has an 80Gb drive, and I wouldn't mind a 320Gb unit, or larger if they make them. Doesn't have to be Panasonic either...

I got the JVC all in one HD/DVD/VHS recorder. My not so old Sony VHS died so I got this. It was the only one I found with all three.
I think the Commercial Skip may be a thing of the past. Commercials pay too many of the bills. Money talks and, well, you know the rest.

[agtpunx40]

Yes dvr has totally made watching tv a much better experience. Yes, comercial skip is a think of the past. Yes, nightflier, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the best movie ever

[EdwardGein]

The problem is there are too many greedy morons running things. I'd gladly pay an extra $100 a month to watch total commercial free programming of Network TV. Why do these idiots think people pay for HBO & Showtime? But would these people ever consider it-no! Instead they're not letting people purchase downloads for their IPODS at $1.99 a pop for selected shows. All they would have to do is just put it on cable pay TV. The same thing with music downloads. I think most of us would gladly pay a yearly licensing fee of $250-$500 for unlimited downloading (including burning of CD's) for all recordings in existence, not just certain ones. These people don't grasp the idea that say 5% of mega billions is worth alot more then 100% of 30 million or whatever. But no they don't do that. While I personally don't download for free only because I don't need the adware/spyware these programs put on your computer, in my personal opinion, anyone who pays 99 cents to download one song, is a sucker.

There was a point I could tolerate commercials on TV but now there's 20 minutes or so of commercials for a 60 minutes show, and another 2 minutes of recap of the previous episode. All this is spead now over 6 commercial breaks instead of the previous 4. The end result is I watch everything on my HD DVR is just fast forward all commercials. Before I was willing to sit though a couple of minutes but no more!

[shokhead]

Belive me,if they made more money charging you to keep comm out,they would but not enough would do it and 100 bucks amonth wouldnt cover it to the millions they get per hour show.

[nightflier]

...the Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the best movie ever

No argument here. I own it on VHS, DVD, and the last "extended 5.1" release. If only Clint made a few more of these movies instead of that Million Dollar Baby stuff that just makes you want to cut your own heart out with a rusty knife....

And Commercial Skip is something a courageuous upstart should dare to bring back!