# What is "trick play"?



## jrdnyquist (Sep 13, 2006)

I've seen the term "trick play" thrown around but I'm not sure what it means. What is trick play and how do I use it?

Side Note: HD locals recently became available in the Charlotte NC area. I have my Sat guy here today tearing out my 1000 and 500 dishes and he's replacing them with a 1000+. I do use OTA but It will be nice to have sat locals as well since I pay for locals anyways.

Thanks,
-jrdnyquist


----------



## ChuckA (Feb 7, 2006)

Trick Play is the term used to describe the abilities provided by the FF/REW/Pause/Skip keys.


----------



## skyviewmark1 (Sep 28, 2006)

ChuckA said:


> Trick Play is the term used to describe the abilities provided by the FF/REW/Pause/Skip keys.


That doesn't work very well anymore..


----------



## jrdnyquist (Sep 13, 2006)

skyviewmark1 said:


> That doesn't work very well anymore..


Odd I've never had problems problems with FF/RW/Skip/Pause that I've noticed. How do you reproduce a problem with those functions?


----------



## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

I agree with skyviewmark1, to a certain extent. I've noticed that FF and REW is not as fluid now as it used to be and even at full speed it doesn't seem nearly as fast as it used to be. However, I am not having problems with skip.


----------



## jrdnyquist (Sep 13, 2006)

That makes sense. I use skip forward/back 95% of the time. FF/RW seems ok but I guess it could be smoother and/or faster. I never critically looked at in L3.66 and older though. Skip has always been rock solid I use it constantly before and after L4.03 (I never noticed getting L4.01). I absolutely LOVE the skip function.


----------



## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

jrdnyquist said:


> That makes sense. I use skip forward/back 95% of the time. FF/RW seems ok but I guess it could be smoother and/or faster. I never critically looked at in L3.66 and older though. Skip has always been rock solid I use it constantly before and after L4.03 (I never noticed getting L4.01). I absolutely LOVE the skip function.


Try it on slow mode (pause, skip forward back,etc). It is definitely a little more eratic then it was but I think this may predate l366. I've been wondering if they made changes to try and bypass the Tivo patents.


----------



## skyviewmark1 (Sep 28, 2006)

tnsprin said:


> Try it on slow mode (pause, skip forward back,etc). It is definitely a little more eratic then it was but I think this may predate l366. I've been wondering if they made changes to try and bypass the Tivo patents.


That was my thought too.. That it had something to do with patent issues.. All I know is that the slow motion is now horrible on some. Seems to be worse on the 129 or maybe it is the mpeg4 stuff.. Not really sure. Skip forward and back are fine as long as you don't do it to many times in sucession. Mostly just the slo-mo features and the top speed fast forward.


----------



## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

skyviewmark1 said:


> That doesn't work very well anymore..


I think we've been tricked, huh.


----------



## joebird (Sep 15, 2003)

I was just about to start a thread on this very topic. The trick play (and here I'm talking about pausing, frame advance/backup, slow-mo -- not the two skip ahead or backup buttons) have really deteriorated over the last couple of releases. 

I don't remember the release versions, but it got screwed up a few releases ago, and those same problems are still here, and now more. 

I agree with Rob that simple fast forward (at any speed) is not 'fluid' -- it's very herky-jerky. And just try and pause a sports event, then hit the frame advance -- more like a 4 second advance for the next frame, and this 'jump' is very unpredictable. Obviously with MPEG encoding and GOP sequences, it may never be a true 'single frame' advance, but the performance of this feature now is just about unusable.


----------



## DanoP (Sep 29, 2006)

joebird said:


> I was just about to start a thread on this very topic. The trick play (and here I'm talking about pausing, frame advance/backup, slow-mo -- not the two skip ahead or backup buttons) have really deteriorated over the last couple of releases.
> 
> I don't remember the release versions, but it got screwed up a few releases ago, and those same problems are still here, and now more.
> 
> I agree with Rob that simple fast forward (at any speed) is not 'fluid' -- it's very herky-jerky. And just try and pause a sports event, then hit the frame advance -- more like a 4 second advance for the next frame, and this 'jump' is very unpredictable. Obviously with MPEG encoding and GOP sequences, it may never be a true 'single frame' advance, but the performance of this feature now is just about unusable.


I'm glad it is just not me. 3.66 worked fine for me but this latest update makes the DVR playback herky jerky and imprecise. Don't fix what's not broke!


----------



## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

Could we get a list of the tricks, maybe post them in one of the sticky thread topics kind of as a reference? I'm assuming that it's stuff that you can do that is NOT listed in the owner's manual? Something like... the yellow skip button advances the program guide 24 hours?


----------



## Hunter Green (May 8, 2006)

Inexplicably, our fast-forward jitters are gone, even though we're still on 4.03.


----------



## rictorg (Feb 2, 2007)

I tell you, back in my TiVo days, I loved the fast forward and rewind buttons. I never even bothered with the thirty second skip. However, with the 622, I can't stand the fast forward and rewind buttons, and am now skipping around.

Thing is, I hate skipping on Network TV programs; I always jump too far, and then have to rewind... I'd rather fast forward through, perhaps see a new commercial fly past me, and on to my program. Oh well, this has to be the most minor complaint of my life. =)


----------



## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

dmspen said:


> Could we get a list of the tricks, maybe post them in one of the sticky thread topics kind of as a reference? I'm assuming that it's stuff that you can do that is NOT listed in the owner's manual? Something like... the yellow skip button advances the program guide 24 hours?


Actually they are all documented in the manual. Now if they only worked perfectly as described.


----------



## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

Example - to swap between the last two sorting methods in the recordings list, use the pip swap button.

I don't believe that is in the manual.


----------

