Replay TV will be selling PC Software in a deal with Hauppauge

[Outvit]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

I never owned a 5000 series ReplayTV, but my experience with the 5504's I have make me think I would prefer the 5500 series method of comskip, i.e. show-nav. I find that on my crappy analog cable system (thanks Comcrap!) the commercial marking is inexact enough that I'd be missing a LOT of many of my programs if automatica comskip were enabled like the 5000 series.
I just use the show-nav to comskip and when I see it mismarked I then use the skip/rw 'x' minutes and quickskip/replay to locate the exact commercial breaks.

I suppose I could do something similar if I had 5000 series machine?

It has much more to do with an absolute hatred of everything the MPAA/RIAA stand for these days -- the digital millennium copyright act, the broadcast flag, and most recently closing the so-called "analog hole." They're slowly but surely killing off long established fair-use rights and the worst thing is people are applauding them because the biased media is doing nothing to alert the public because it's in their interests to get all of this passed. That and they've successfully bought several key representatives in Congress. I use the 5000 series ReplayTV more because it has the features and I can use them when I need them than the actual use of the features. I cant stand my fair-use rights being stomped on.

The reason I said their switch to PC would be interesting is because on the PC platform they can roll out changes far quicker than they could on a hardware device. They could simply install a mandatory update system and instantly before anyone notices a feature has been turned off without anyone’s knowledge and they wouldn’t have to re-release a new hardware device like the 5000 --> 5500 switch to appease the latest whim of the MPAA.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by blade

You guys must watch TV a lot differently than I do because I've never seen the real benefit of skip x amount of time or the smooth ff/rw for that matter. I use comskip and rarely have the need to use ff/rw in the first place.

I am also having a hard time understanding the desire for this feature. X amount of time back or forth. I'm watching a program for the first time so I have no idea how far I should go. Is it 10 minutes? 10.25? Sage also has the time scroll command so you can hit time scroll, press skip forward x amount of times and hit time scroll again. I used it with FF2 which was set for 3 minutes. Came in handy if I had to move ahead fast in a program. But with SA I rarely have the need to skip forward any more.

Gerry

[flavius]

If this was about TiVo's fastforward which is really smart..

[src666]

Originally Posted by blade

You guys must watch TV a lot differently than I do because I've never seen the real benefit of skip x amount of time or the smooth ff/rw for that matter. I use comskip and rarely have the need to use ff/rw in the first place.

In a house with multiple TV watchers who watch the same shows on different schedules, it is common for me to "lose my place" in a show because the other person started/finished watching it. These direct-jump features are much faster than hitting the jump key over and over.

As with any convenience feature, there are those who need it, and those who don't. Never assume that the feature is useless just because you don't use it.

[blade]

Originally Posted by src666

In a house with multiple TV watchers who watch the same shows on different schedules, it is common for me to "lose my place" in a show because the other person started/finished watching it. These direct-jump features are much faster than hitting the jump key over and over.

Ah, that's not a problem for me. I never start watching a show unless I have time to finish it. Maybe that's why I've never seen it as all that useful.

As with any convenience feature, there are those who need it, and those who don't. Never assume that the feature is useless just because you don't use it.

I said I'd never seen the benefit of it, I didn't say it was useless. I can see how on occasion it would be useful, but I still don't see it as being that important. I've just heard so many people brag on the feature as if it's something they use each and everytime they FF/RW. It had me wondering why they were having to FF/RW so much by a specific amount of time, especially since Sage can automatically skip over commercials.