# Some questions about Tivo? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 28, 2005, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-tivo/332981 "2005-11-28T01:26:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-tivo/332981/41 "2005-11-29T18:26:54Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > To make matters worse, Tivo’s fast forward and rewind buttons are next to useless. There are three speeds, and there is no clue in the manual to what they even are. The first is so slow as to be not useful for anything. The next is too slow also. It takes at least 10-20 seconds to get through a commercial, which is way too long. The last is too fast for a commercial, but way too slow for getting to the middle of a three hour movie. Re: FF through commercials…I agree that it would be nice to have a 30 second jump button; but I manage to do quite well with just the medium FF speed. I can nail the resumption of the program, without having to backup or go forward, about 90% of the time. And for getting to the middle of a movie: while FF’ing, you press one of the buttons (I think it’s to the immediate right of the Select) and it jumps forward 15 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-tivo/332981/42 "2005-11-29T20:21:53Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > All the [fast forward / rewind] speeds have an annoying feature that automatically skips backwards once you hit play, so you end up watching at least one commercial per break. FWIW, this is one of my favorite features of TiVo. You’ll soon learn to hit play several seconds into the program, and it resumes playback at just before the end of the commercials. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-tivo/332981/43 "2005-11-29T20:54:14Z")
[Topfield PVRs](http://www.topfield.co.uk/terrestrialequipment.htm), popular in Europe and Australia, have a killer feature - a documented API provided by the manufacturer that allows any programmer to add new features or improvements. There’s a thriving community producing these software enhancements, things such as Season Passes (well, sort of), configurable ad-skipping buttons, MP3 players, making the recordings available over a network, emulations of old computer games, etc. It’s almost like an open source PVR. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-tivo/332981/44 "2005-11-29T21:43:46Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > Not true. Both DirectTV and Dish network give you a DVR for free. Sometimes. Our secondary Dish Network DVR in our son’s room is costing us $5.00 a month. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-tivo/332981/45 "2005-11-29T21:58:34Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > All the speeds have an annoying feature that automatically skips backwards once you hit play, so you end up watching at least one commercial per break. You can turn that off and/or adjust the amount of compensation in the setup menu somewhere. > [@Debaser](#): > > Does anybody have a link to how to modify Tivo to get the skip forward/backwards feature? I didn’t know that it was possible to modify it. While watching a recording, press {select}{play}{select}{3}{0}{select} There’s another good secret combo for the newest software that changes the way your recorded programs list is displayed. Instead of one long list of shows, the screen is split in half. The lower half shows the list as before, while the upper half show the program details of whatever line is highlighted on the lower half. I believe you get that with {thumbs up}{thumbs down}{thumbs up}{7}{8}{7}. I may have the ‘thumbs’ reversed. You know what I miss? I had a ReplayTV from the pre-lawsuit days. It would sense the commercials somehow and skip them _automagically_. They just never appeared. Man, that was nice. ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2005, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-tivo/332981/46 "2005-11-29T21:59:46Z")
Our TiVo keeps recording “Roseanne”, “Golden Girls” and “Good Times”. It may be possessed. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2005, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-tivo/332981/47 "2005-11-30T06:09:27Z")
Have you checked if those three shows are on your TiVo WishList®? ---
**Author:** ![douglips](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@douglips](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/douglips)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2005, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-tivo/332981/48 "2005-12-01T21:36:58Z")
Functions all DVRs should have: - Skip 30 seconds forward button - Skip 7 (or so) seconds back button - Jump instantly to arbitrary point in the show (e.g. “1-7-jump” goes to 17 minutes, “1-2-3-jump” goes to 1:23:00) - Skip arbitrary number of minutes forward or backward instantly (e.g. “3-skip” jumps 3 minutes forward) - Watch shows recorded in one room in a different room over your network - Remember where I was watching the show so I can go back to it later - even if two different people were watching the same show on different machines - Bonus: Transfer shows to a PC in an open format All of these have been features of ReplayTV for several years, even the transfer of shows to a PC (with some free 3rd-party software.) Being stuck with fast-forward and reverse is annoying - why do we need to use VCR style controls for a random-access video source? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/some-questions-about-tivo/332981.md?page=2)