MythTV, baby.
Just be glad they’re not showing “Blipverts.” Then you’d really have something to lose your head over.
Try ReplayTV. I have both systems, and replay beats TiVO by eleventy million miles. The only problem is that it’s not as easily intergrated into DirecTV.
I use the 30-second skip. It is very cool.
Don’t forget that Tivo can turn that off any time they want.
Bah, I have pre-programmed buttons for that on my Dish DVR. The same ones that skip ahead and back days on the program guide.
I guess I am in the minority here but I don’t really have a problem with this. I usually fast forward through comercials at the second level. If I understand correctly in the ~15 seconds it takes to fast forward through 3 min worth of commercials I will see a couple of ads that are just pictures instead of the high speed ad, not a big deal to me at all.
AFAIK commercials pay the majority of the costs for programming, if everybody skipped them (or a majority of people), then what would the consequenses be? Either less ‘free’ programs or programs with advertising buried in them.
A DVD (that I paid for) that will not let me skip directly to the movie is much more of a concern to me.
While I do have privacy concerns, if keeping track of what ads I look at means I see more ads for sports cars and tools and less ads for tampons and shampoo how is that a bad thing?
This has nothing to do with paying for programming. The networks won’t see a dime from this, AFAICT; it won’t mean shorter commercial breaks, more quality shows, or whatever. This is an arrangement between advertisers and TiVo.