Do you watch commercials? (Or, how DVRs have changed things)

[DoYouKubuntu]

I don't know about you, but ever since I got a DVR some years ago I've been rid of one of my biggest annoyances, TV commercials. I record or live pause shows that I want to watch, and then watch them by zapping through the ads.

Prior to DVRs I would simply grab the remote and either change the channel or mute the TV when an ad came on...but DVRs are so much nicer!

What about you? Do you watch commercials? Do you mute them? Do you zap through them with your DVR?

A side note: I know that commercials pay for programming, and that if no one watches them and buys the products they're advertising, that's a problem. However, 98% of the shows I watch are non-network, i.e., they're not on broadcast channels, they're cable--and I *PAY* for DirecTV, so I don't see why I should suffer through ads when I'm already paying for what I watch. :P

[Telengard]

Re: Do you watch commercials? (Or, how DVRs have changed things)

I almost never watch broadcast television at all anymore. My TV only sees use for games and streaming from Netflix. If there is a show I want to watch, I prefer to watch from the web. There are commercials on most legitimate web streams nowadays, excluding subscription services like Netflix, but the commercials are tolerable for me.

I've never owned a DVR, so I guess it has no impact on my entertainment programming.

[SteveRiley]

Re: Do you watch commercials? (Or, how DVRs have changed things)

Comcast has started inserting commercials in their on-demand feed -- and they disable your remote's fast-forward button when the commercial runs. Grrrr!

[DoYouKubuntu]

Re: Do you watch commercials? (Or, how DVRs have changed things)

Comcast has started inserting commercials in their on-demand feed -- and they disable your remote's fast-forward button when the commercial runs. Grrrr!

You're kidding...right?

[SteveRiley]

Re: Do you watch commercials? (Or, how DVRs have changed things)

Nope. My kids constantly gripe about it.

It's enough to push me into figuring out how to eliminate cable TV entirely and rely only on the Internet for television. But my family is so used to watching their programs when they initially air that I sense I'd cause a revolt if forced their habits to change...

[DoYouKubuntu]

Re: Do you watch commercials? (Or, how DVRs have changed things)

I don't have on-demand service so I don't know how this works, but can you record a show and then zap through the ads? Or is that disabled, too?

[sithlord48]

Re: Do you watch commercials? (Or, how DVRs have changed things)

i don't watch tv. but i have noticed lots of videos that are streamed now start with an ad.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Do you watch commercials? (Or, how DVRs have changed things)

I have recently returned to broadcast TV after a decade of cable/directtv. I got tired of paying $1500+ annually to watch basically 6 channels out of 800. BTW, my OTA signal here is a better picture than I ever got with DirectTV.

The DVR was the last thing holding me to pay TV until I finally bought a Korean product called TViX by a company named DVICO. It's not nearly as wonderful as my multi-room FIOS DVR or DirectTV HD Tivo's but it's small, quite, low power, dual tuner, hooks to my media server, and I can watch it's recordings in other rooms. Greatest thing is Pause and FF - skip those commercials!

I also bought a Roku box for another TV so I spent about $600 for hardware and $8 a month for Hulu Plus and plenty of content for us. Frankly, as DoYouK pointed out, we were suffering though commercials while paying for the privilege. I'll break even in 4 months and the rest will go into my pocket (or some new SSD's for my computer )

[SteveRiley]

Re: Do you watch commercials? (Or, how DVRs have changed things)

I don't have on-demand service so I don't know how this works, but can you record a show and then zap through the ads? Or is that disabled, too?

Can't record from on-demand. That's an curious idea, though...surely someone has figured out how to hack the box to get around that?

i don't watch tv. but i have noticed lots of videos that are streamed now start with an ad.

You know what's worse? Commercials at movies. It's especially loathsome in Singapore. My $DEITY, you pay 12 bucks to see a movie and sit through 20 fscking minutes of advertisements first!

(or some new SSD's for my computer )

That one. I'd bet on it

[DoYouKubuntu]

Re: Do you watch commercials? (Or, how DVRs have changed things)

I have recently returned to broadcast TV after a decade of cable/directtv. I got tired of paying $1500+ annually to watch basically 6 channels out of 800. BTW, my OTA signal here is a better picture than I ever got with DirectTV.

The only times I ever had problems with DirecTV picture quality was when I lived in Dallas. The weather there SUCKS! (Says this born and raised Southern California girl who inexplicably ended up living in Dallas.) Between the tornadoes, the ice storms, and the thunderstorms that dumped buckets of rain like there was no tomorrow, we had a lot of issues with 'rain fade.' But since moving back home to California it's only happened once, and then only for a couple minutes--unlike Dallas where it'd be out for hours at a time. My signal quality really is crystal clear.

The DVR was the last thing holding me to pay TV until I finally bought a Korean product called TViX by a company named DVICO. It's not nearly as wonderful as my multi-room FIOS DVR or DirectTV HD Tivo's but it's small, quite, low power, dual tuner, hooks to my media server, and I can watch it's recordings in other rooms. Greatest thing is Pause and FF - skip those commercials!

I've never heard of it, but it sounds interesting. Do you happen to know if it's Linux based, as TiVo is?

Frankly, as DoYouK pointed out, we were suffering though commercials while paying for the privilege.

See, that's what really gets me. We're PAYING for the programming! You know what irks me the most? Infomercials! The ones that are all over the program guide during the night, on channels I'm paying for. Ugh.

[blobfish]

Re: Do you watch commercials? (Or, how DVRs have changed things)

I get all the tv shows I want from usenet. Just have to watch the following day, but no commercials and no cable bill.

[de_koraco]

Re: Do you watch commercials? (Or, how DVRs have changed things)

It's enough to push me into figuring out how to eliminate cable TV entirely and rely only on the Internet for television. But my family is so used to watching their programs when they initially air that I sense I'd cause a revolt if forced their habits to change...

I don't think it would be such a great change. I did an apt-get purge TV from my place a year ago, and haven't missed it for a second really.

[SteveRiley]

Re: Do you watch commercials? (Or, how DVRs have changed things)

I don't think it would be such a great change. I did an apt-get purge TV from my place a year ago, and haven't missed it for a second really.

Heh. I'm not so worried about that. It's the subsequent apt-get install family-tv-new-behavior that I worry might be incompatible with my existing downstream

[Qqmike]

Re: Do you watch commercials? (Or, how DVRs have changed things)

(Deleted by Qqmike -- post was not relevant to the discussion -- I had misunderstood previous posts.)

[oshunluvr]

Re: Do you watch commercials? (Or, how DVRs have changed things)

The only times I ever had problems with DirecTV picture quality was when I lived in Dallas.

What? Geez, I hope the job (or whatever) was worth it Actually, I live in Long Beach (give it up for SoCali, yayyy-ahhh) so my DirectTV signal was fine, but FIOS (which we had for a year) and OTA provides a better image. At least on my HD equipment - YMMV.

I've never heard of it, but it sounds interesting. Do you happen to know if it's Linux based, as TiVo is?

It is linux based, but not open source unfortunately. I wanted a DVR and my family room has a 50" Plasma monitor (as in no tuner) and the TViX has a dual ATCS/QAM tuner. It's far from a perfect device so I wouldn't recommend it without caveat. But at $269 in a field of little choice it was the only real option (a decent stand alone tuner costs at least $100). They are actively improving the product so I'm hopeful my issues will get resolved. The main bonus is besides the dual tuners and DVR functions is it's SAMBA/NFS enabled so I can watch it's recordings elsewhere and play media from my server on it. All-in-all worth the price admission.

You know what irks me the most? Infomercials! The ones that are all over the program guide during the night, on channels I'm paying for. Ugh.

This is what ultimately drove me away from DirectTV. I would spend a half hour deleting the infomercial channels and then once a month DirectTV would re-arraign them - thus forcing them back into the channel listing. I don't make a religion out of avoiding bad corporate behavior, but this drove me over the edge with them.