# Wanted: Better ability to interrupt commercial skip



## Keybounce (Jun 19, 2009)

Right now if I hit commercial skip 6 times (as most commercial breaks seem to be 6-8 commerials right now), I have trouble getting the fast forward to stop and return to normal play.

Specifically, the rewind key does nothing. I have to first hit play, then hit rewind.

What I want is to just hit the rewind key.


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

Keybounce said:


> Right now if I hit commercial skip 6 times (as most commercial breaks seem to be 6-8 commerials right now), I have trouble getting the fast forward to stop and return to normal play.
> 
> Specifically, the rewind key does nothing. I have to first hit play, then hit rewind.
> 
> What I want is to just hit the rewind key.


When you are fast forwarding why on earth would you want to hit the REWIND key to STOP? Hitting the rewind key changes to the next lower fast forward speed which is how it was designed. If you want to STOP the fast forward (or slip) option early, just press PLAY.


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## Keybounce (Jun 19, 2009)

I want to hit the rewind key to rewind.

If I hit play, then it resumes forward from where I hit play. There is no autocorrect.

The issue here is when a commercial break is short -- 4 commercial breaks are rare, but happen. Heck, sometimes I think there's going to be a title sequence, then commercials, but it's just titles, and then show -- that's only 60 seconds of skip.

So what I want is to stop the skip, and back up.
To back up, I hit rewind.

But it just keeps going forward. Interrupting commercial skip is more difficult than it could be.


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## jacksonm30354 (Mar 29, 2007)

Hit the button to the left of stop a time or 2. I can't recall the name of the button - it's the one with the curled arrow. It'll stop the commercial skip when you hit it the first time. Hit it several times in a row and it'll go back a little.


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## kikkenit2 (Oct 26, 2006)

Keybounce said:


> Right now if I hit commercial skip 6 times (as most commercial breaks seem to be 6-8 commerials right now), I have trouble getting the fast forward to stop and return to normal play.
> 
> Specifically, the rewind key does nothing. I have to first hit play, then hit rewind.
> 
> What I want is to just hit the rewind key.


What you are asking for seems like a valid request to me. I got tired of trying to guess how long a commercial will last so I pause a split second between each skip to verify what is showing. As soon as the real show is back on I jump back to end of commercial and just let it start playing. That way I don't miss even 1 second of my show and it doesn't take much longer total time than your way. And much simpler. I gave up on trying to use fast forward, slip and rewind during commercials. Or maybe hit 4 quick presses and slow down for the last 2.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

While I understand your points, should D* really be wasting alot of time on technology on its way out(I'm referring to SD)


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

CCarncross said:


> While I understand your points, should D* really be wasting alot of time on technology on its way out(I'm referring to SD)


Why are you posting in the SD DVR forum since all you seem to do is criticize SD? Do YOU have an SD TV? Or an SD DVR? The HD DVR forum is one flight up on your browser screen.... :nono2:


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## armophob (Nov 13, 2006)

I can only suggest you slow down on the skips until you get to know each program better. I usually do it in groups of 2 until I get a better feeling for each channels station break habits. Also use 3sec back button as mentioned above if you skip past. 
If only all shows could be like Fringe, which tells you exactly how long the break will be.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

ThomasM said:


> Why are you posting in the SD DVR forum since all you seem to do is criticize SD? Do YOU have an SD TV? Or an SD DVR? The HD DVR forum is one flight up on your browser screen.... :nono2:


I wasnt nasty about anything, I think I have a very valid question. If you don't like what I have to say send me a PM, no reason to show your bitterness here.


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

CCarncross said:


> I wasnt nasty about anything, I think I have a very valid question. If you don't like what I have to say send me a PM, no reason to show your bitterness here.


Millions and millions of DirecTV subscribers do not have HD. The R16 SD DVR is back in production and I'm sure hundreds of them are being installed every day. SD is going to be around long after we are both dead with many channels devoted to "classic TV". Most of the DirecTV dishes in my area are the old 18" round model supporting my position.

I'm sure readers of this forum who do not have HD or are here asking questions about their Standard Definition DVR's aren't interested in comments about how obsolete the technology is or that DirecTV should abandon it.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

The wanted threads keybounce started are pertaining to someone using an SD receiver on what is apparently an HDTV and he doesnt like how it works. The absolute best recommendation for him is to get the HD box and most of what he doesnt like about the SD box might become moot. My point is I don't think D* should spend development dollars to make the SD boxes more HDTV friendly. Making them better for people that have SDTV's, I'm all for it. Within 5 years I don't think there will be a SD station left. Classic 4:3 tv can be uprezzed and displayed beautifully with sidebars on a HDTV, in fact its done all the time right now. I watched the Wizard of Oz recently and it looked fabulous.


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## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

Why the SD-only or HD-only attacks? DIRECTV has a common interface across the SD and HD platforms, and where features are common to both interfaces we've seen that changes on one (HD for example) eventually lead to the same change on the other platform (SD, for example). It works the other way as well. 

As for this thread, I don't see a reason to devote resources to coming up with a "better" way to interrupt commercial skip, as the existing way (PLAY) works just fine for many of the DBSTalk users (based on the lack of complaints about it). If you put in too many skips, hit PLAY and then hit INSTANT REPLAY. It's trained behavior that will be second nature in no time...


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## The Merg (Jun 24, 2007)

CCarncross said:


> This wanted threads keybounce started are pertaining to someone using an SD receiver on what is apparently an HDTV and he doesnt like how it works. The absolute best recommendation for him is to get the HD box and most of what he doesnt like about the SD box might become moot. My point is I don't think D* should spend development dollars to make the SD boxes more HDTV friendly. Making them better for people that have SDTV's, I'm all for it. Within 5 years I don't think there will be a SD station left. Classic 4:3 tv can be uprezzed and displayed beautifully with sidebars on a HDTV, in fact its done all the time right now. I watched the Wizard of Oz recently and it looked fabulous.


I'm agreeing with Drew here... (Sorry Drew) :lol:

No where did the orginial poster remark that they were using an SD receiver with a HD TV. Since they mention _skip_ and not _slip_ and are posting in the SD forum, but describe it as if they are watching shows in FF, I would assume they meant to say _slip_. Thus, they are probably using a R15 or R16 which is specifically made to be used on SD TV's, although it can be used on HD-ready TV's. In my case I have an SD receiver on an HD-ready TV, yet I don't want to upgrade as I don't feel like paying an additional $10-$15 month for the HD service.

As for keybounce's wish list request, in order to do what they want, I currently hit the Skip Back/Instant Replay button (button to the left of Stop). This will stop the Slip and automatically jump back about 6 seconds (and is one less keystroke than Drew's suggestion--not hitting Play ). Due to normal reaction time, this will generally get you at the point that you wanted to stop. Sometimes you have to hit the Skip Back button a second time though.

As for the Play button, there is an auto-correct feature built into it when coming out of FF, but I have found that it does not seem to jump back enough when using it to exit out of Slip.

- Merg


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## Keybounce (Jun 19, 2009)

CCarncross said:


> While I understand your points, should D* really be wasting alot of time on technology on its way out(I'm referring to SD)





> The wanted threads keybounce started are pertaining to someone using an SD receiver on what is apparently an HDTV and he doesnt like how it works. The absolute best recommendation for him is to get the HD box and most of what he doesnt like about the SD box might become moot.


Direct TV has made the decision to require extra money to access HD signals. Additionally, when we got our system set up, there were no HD DVR's -- DVR's had to be in SD. We have HD receivers, and SD DVR receivers. Since we did not see any improvement in TV picture quality from HD channels or SD channels, we dropped the extra cost HD channels.

Therefore, there is good reason to complain about the SD show and receiver quality, even when displayed on an HD set.

Now, even if an HD DVR was available, and HD channels were free, would that render my issues moot? No. I cannot move my recorded shows to a new recorder, and neither can my mother; some of these shows do not show anymore, and cannot be re-recorded (she records, and keeps, the occasional good movie and show, for watching when falling asleep, etc.). It would take a month to watch most of what I have recorded, and then there's a serial where I have most of season 2 recorded (aired out of order), and season 1 is now showing. So we are kinda stuck with the equipment that we have.

And, we have two HD receivers. The software on those seems very similar. Similar enough that fixing issues on one system can be assumed to result in those fixes being applied to the second source tree as well. Ideally, there is one source tree, with IFDEF's for the SD/HD difference, but I suspect the reality is otherwise.

So, there's your answer:
1. We have an investment in the shows on these boxes, and cannot trivially dump them,
2. There is an extra cost associated with HD that we are choosing not to pay,
3. Fixes/improvements to both sets of software should happen together.

Ok, so I should call it commercial slip, not commercial skip. Fine. Yes, it's a 15, on an HD set as SD input.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

Keybounce said:


> Since we did not see any improvement in TV picture quality from HD channels or SD channels, we dropped the extra cost HD channels.


You must have had something setup incorrectly, difference in PQ between an HD channel and an SD channel on an HD tv is virtually night and day.....sorry you had a bad experience that seems to have tainted you against how gorgeous HD looks.


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## the1who (Jul 20, 2009)

Keybounce said:


> Now, even if an HD DVR was available, and HD channels were free, would that render my issues moot? No. I cannot move my recorded shows to a new recorder, and neither can my mother; some of these shows do not show anymore, and cannot be re-recorded (she records, and keeps, the occasional good movie and show, for watching when falling asleep, etc.). It would take a month to watch most of what I have recorded, and then there's a serial where I have most of season 2 recorded (aired out of order), and season 1 is now showing. So we are kinda stuck with the equipment that we have.
> 
> 1. We have an investment in the shows on these boxes, and cannot trivially dump them,


If it is a big investment, wouldn't it be doubly important to invest in a DVD recorder and record them off your DVR? Then when you do that you can can get your new equipment at your discretion. I have a DVD recorder just for that purpose so was curious on your thoughts.

Matt


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