# Which Providers Let You Watch Live TV on Delay Conveniently?



## DavidZ (Nov 13, 2010)

I like to watch live TV on delay so I can skip commercials. With my VIP 722, I can rewind live TV up to an hour. When I eventually catch up to current time, I can't skip commercials anymore. But, I can swap channels to the other tuner, do the same thing for another few hours while the original channel's buffer fills up again. That's how I watch TV. I absolutely hate commercials. I understand that the Hopper let's you do this, but it's not nearly as convenient.

A couple of years ago, I visited a friend in Florida who had Hotwire. On Hotwire, you can rewind channels for 2 days or more! And you can switch to another channel and do the same thing. You don't need to be previously tuned to that channel before you switch! Unfortunately, Hotwire is not available in my area.

Are there any other providers (cable or satellite) that allow you to watch TV this way conveniently?


----------



## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

DavidZ said:


> But, I can swap channels to the other tuner, do the same thing for another few hours while the original channel's buffer fills up again.


Fills up and overflows.

My solution is to record. I have a timer set for every program of interest on my subscription and I live off of the DVR menu most of the time. Watch and delete, with the only caveat being getting around to watching the content. All commercial skipable since it is a local DVR recording not an on demand download.


----------



## DavidZ (Nov 13, 2010)

James Long said:


> Fills up and overflows.
> 
> My solution is to record. I have a timer set for every program of interest on my subscription and I live off of the DVR menu most of the time. Watch and delete, with the only caveat being getting around to watching the content. All commercial skipable since it is a local DVR recording not an on demand download.


I watch news channels. I have a lot of timers, mostly for news programs.

Timers are great, but not for my primary mode of TV watching. For example, right now I'm watching CNN and skipping commercials as they appear.

But that's not my question. I'm asking if there are any other cable or satellite providers that allow you to watch live TV on delay conveniently, including switching channels.


----------



## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

Record everything you watch then they all do it. And select what to watch out of your playlist. Even if it’s still recording.


----------



## DavidZ (Nov 13, 2010)

inkahauts said:


> Record everything you watch then they all do it. And select what to watch out of your playlist. Even if it's still recording.


Way too inconvenient. The way I do it now is much simpler than that.

Again, that's not my question. I'm asking if there are any other cable or satellite providers that allow you to watch live TV on delay conveniently, including switching channels.


----------



## slice1900 (Feb 14, 2013)

DavidZ said:


> I like to watch live TV on delay so I can skip commercials. With my VIP 722, I can rewind live TV up to an hour. When I eventually catch up to current time, I can't skip commercials anymore. But, I can swap channels to the other tuner, do the same thing for another few hours while the original channel's buffer fills up again. That's how I watch TV. I absolutely hate commercials. I understand that the Hopper let's you do this, but it's not nearly as convenient.
> 
> A couple of years ago, I visited a friend in Florida who had Hotwire. On Hotwire, you can rewind channels for 2 days or more! And you can switch to another channel and do the same thing. You don't need to be previously tuned to that channel before you switch! Unfortunately, Hotwire is not available in my area.
> 
> Are there any other providers (cable or satellite) that allow you to watch TV this way conveniently?


If you have cable a Tivo will let you do what you want, with up to 6 tuners.


----------



## DavidZ (Nov 13, 2010)

slice1900 said:


> If you have cable a Tivo will let you do what you want, with up to 6 tuners.


Good suggestion. I used to have a Tivo when it was integrated with DirecTV. When DirecTV stopped integrating with Tivo, I switched to Dish.

Would a cable/Tivo setup be as seamless as Dish/722?


----------



## slice1900 (Feb 14, 2013)

DavidZ said:


> Good suggestion. I used to have a Tivo when it was integrated with DirecTV. When DirecTV stopped integrating with Tivo, I switched to Dish.
> 
> Would a cable/Tivo setup be as seamless as Dish/722?


I've never used Dish other than changing channels a couple times at a friend's house, so I don't know. I think Tivo generally has the rep of being the best DVR out there, YMMV.


----------



## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

DavidZ said:


> Again, that's not my question. I'm asking if there are any other cable or satellite providers that allow you to watch live TV on delay conveniently, including switching channels.


I can't think of any that allow you to watch multiple channels delayed without recording. The moment you change channels, they go to live and unless you paused, the buffer will be lost (with many services, even if you do pause, the buffer will be lost).

Some services may allow you to rewind a bit, but it is often a multi-step process.


----------



## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

DavidZ said:


> Would a cable/Tivo setup be as seamless as Dish/722?


That depends largely on your cable provider. I don't think a TiVo will buffer multiple channels either.


----------



## slice1900 (Feb 14, 2013)

harsh said:


> That depends largely on your cable provider. I don't think a TiVo will buffer multiple channels either.


Yes it will. I posted that a few posts above. Any DVR that can't by definition sucks IMHO.


----------



## Delroy E Walleye (Jun 9, 2012)

Does *any* TiVo allow more than 30 minutes on a buffer without recording?

(As far as TiVos go, I've only had experience with several of the the DirecTV TiVos, and none of them did.)

DirecTV (non-TiVo) DVRs allow two buffers per DVR up to 90 minutes each, but "double-play" has to be activated every time the DVR is turned on in order to have two working buffers (but sometimes will hold the second buffer for a little while after turning off).

To the best of my knowledge, the genies do not retain any buffers until they are turned on, whereas the HR2x DirecTv DVRs will generally hold one 90 minute buffer under most non-recording conditions (as long as the channel on that buffer isn't changed).


----------



## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

slice1900 said:


> Yes it will. I posted that a few posts above. Any DVR that can't by definition sucks IMHO.


Will it support more than two channels? I get the feeling that the TS is looking to channel surf buffered programming without having to jump through menus.


----------



## slice1900 (Feb 14, 2013)

harsh said:


> Will it support more than two channels? I get the feeling that the TS is looking to channel surf buffered programming without having to jump through menus.


Tivo supports using all tuners in this way, with a single button press for going through them in order, or a few simple presses to select a particular tuner.


----------



## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

slice1900 said:


> Tivo supports using all tuners in this way, with a single button press for going through them in order, or a few simple presses to select a particular tuner.


Pray tell, for how long per buffer? 30 minutes?


----------



## slice1900 (Feb 14, 2013)

James Long said:


> Pray tell, for how long per buffer? 30 minutes?


Yes, 30 minutes.


----------



## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

DavidZ said:


> Way too inconvenient. The way I do it now is much simpler than that.
> 
> Again, that's not my question. I'm asking if there are any other cable or satellite providers that allow you to watch live TV on delay conveniently, including switching channels.


I set up things to record once and then they always record. I never have to touch it again. It's just there. That is way more convenient than having to make sure I look in the guide and find things to watch then make sure I don't actually hit the wrong key and lose a buffer do to a channel change etc.

If anyone would ever just record whatever was being watched by that tuner for the last 90 minutes instead of only on the one channel that'd be a real upgrade and nice. But I've never found that.


----------



## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

slice1900 said:


> Yes, 30 minutes.


Every service had their shortfall in buffering sadly.


----------



## slice1900 (Feb 14, 2013)

inkahauts said:


> Every service had their shortfall in buffering sadly.


What's wrong with 30 minutes? If you want to go back longer you can always record. No matter what length of buffer you set, someone is going to say it is too short. If you made it two hours, someone will want four. If you make it eight hours, someone will want 24!

The main use I have for multiple buffers is switching between college football games. Skipping commercials and halftime I can watch two games at once. If I skip between the plays themselves I can watch four, though there are hardly ever four games on at once that interest me. It works better to do this with live buffering because it is quicker to switch between live tuners than it is to switch between multiple recordings.

Even 30 minutes of buffer is more than I need for that - if I get too far out of date with one game I'll inevitably see a highlight or score update on another one so it isn't like being able to watch it two hours off live would be of much use.


----------



## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

That is a very specific use case. I'd rather have less but longer buffers. It is good that my provider matches my preference.

While I realize you are trying the age old "reductio ad absurdum" argument, each increase incapacity reduces the number of people asking for additional capacity.

That works in your favor when discussing the number of channels that can be buffered. Buffering one channel is enough for many, I'd say most TV viewers, buffering two channels with swap takes care of many if not most who want more than one buffer. Buffering five channels is ridiculous - but at least it is more than nearly anyone would want. There is always one person who wants more ... but they would probably want more than 30 minutes on each buffer.

The length of buffer would meet a similar fate. I'd consider 30 minutes to be a minimum - but not enough to make me happy. An hour would satisfy me and probably most other TV viewers. I wouldn't mind having more time, but it would be rare that I'd use it. Following the pattern each increase would satisfy more people. There would be one person who wants more, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time.

Recording is an option but it has it's own problems. While I offered it in this thread it doesn't solve the use case of fliping back and forth between two news channels with programs that end nearly every hour. One would need to set a recording for every hour one might potentially watch, then delete and change recordings at the end of each playback. Not a seamless playback of whatever was on that channel within the past hour.


----------



## slice1900 (Feb 14, 2013)

James Long said:


> Recording is an option but it has it's own problems. While I offered it in this thread it doesn't solve the use case of fliping back and forth between two news channels with programs that end nearly every hour. One would need to set a recording for every hour one might potentially watch, then delete and change recordings at the end of each playback. Not a seamless playback of whatever was on that channel within the past hour.


OK so you say you need an hour long buffer so you can to walk up to your TV at the top of the some random hour, and rewind a full hour to the beginning of one of the news programs, right? You can't record because you don't know when you might want to watch, and don't want to record 24x7 to be ready for whatever time you want to watch.

Actually implementing that plan means you'd have to keep two tuners permanently fixed on your two news channels. I guess that's sort of possible with Tivo, since you can control which tuners are used for recordings (whichever one has been 'live' longest ago is recorded first, then the second longest ago and so forth) but you better live alone or almost never record because no way are you are going to get a wife and kids to go along with rules about tuner allocation to serve a news junkie habit!


----------



## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

It was not MY usage pattern being discussed, although I did set up a daily auto-tune for the beginning of one of my local channel's evening news block at 4pm that turns on the receiver and starts filling the buffer so it is full by 5pm. Pre-COVID I would get home around 5 or 5:30, turn on the TV and hit rewind then watch the news skipping commercials and stories of less interest. By the time the news block ended at 7pm I was usually back to "live" (three hours of news in 90-120 minutes ... adding my own "breaks" for bathroom, food, etc). My use has changed with work from home.

The usage pattern being discussed was the thread starter, who would need to do what you suggest - except the Tivo limitation of 30 minutes would probably get in the way.

As far as your personal comments of "living alone or never record" ... My wife has her own dedicated receiver to handle her television needs. We can, of course, watch content recorded on each other's receivers but we don't interfere with each other's television recording or viewing. And I gave up my own "news junkie" habit five years ago (too many shouting heads, regardless of network). Hopefully David is not offended by your characterization.


----------



## DavidZ (Nov 13, 2010)

James Long said:


> It was not MY usage pattern being discussed, although I did set up a daily auto-tune for the beginning of one of my local channel's evening news block at 4pm that turns on the receiver and starts filling the buffer so it is full by 5pm. Pre-COVID I would get home around 5 or 5:30, turn on the TV and hit rewind then watch the news skipping commercials and stories of less interest. By the time the news block ended at 7pm I was usually back to "live" (three hours of news in 90-120 minutes ... adding my own "breaks" for bathroom, food, etc). My use has changed with work from home.
> 
> The usage pattern being discussed was the thread starter, who would need to do what you suggest - except the Tivo limitation of 30 minutes would probably get in the way.
> 
> As far as your personal comments of "living alone or never record" ... My wife has her own dedicated receiver to handle her television needs. We can, of course, watch content recorded on each other's receivers but we don't interfere with each other's television recording or viewing. And I gave up my own "news junkie" habit five years ago (too many shouting heads, regardless of network). Hopefully David is not offended by your characterization.


James, you understand the way I watch TV and what I'm looking for. I realize it's a very unusual style and difficult to understand for some people, but that's what I do. I live alone and have all the TV's in my 3 bedroom condo tuned to the same channel on the same Dish VIP 722 DVR with an HDMI splitter and HDMI extenders. That way I can walk anywhere in my condo and continuously follow the discussion. I have remotes in each room to quickly skip any commercials, etc. I have about 60 timers set, but some are obsolete. I also auto-tune two channels so that when I wake up there are 2 full buffers on the channels of my choice.



slice1900 said:


> Actually implementing that plan means you'd have to keep two tuners permanently fixed on your two news channels.


No, it doesn't work that way. I lose the buffer often. I lose it when I watch a recording and when I channel surf. The good news is that it replenishes quickly. By having 2 channels with buffers, I just swap to another channel while it fills up.


----------



## krel (Mar 20, 2013)

ide rather record everything than dealing with a buffer. i don't like watching ad's for useless crap that i'll never buy. another thing is when the ad's come on there blaring vs the show!!! recording everything makes it easier to manipulate the show you can FF though the entire show without worrying about the buffer running out and being forced to watch ad's.


----------

