work-around for fast forward prohibition

[Raul McCai]

My HDTV content company used to advertise that you could fast forward rewind etc.
That was part of how they sold the service.
Recently they have changed their advertising to suit a new and growing trend of broadcasters of disallowing fast forward so as to force you to take in their advertising content.

My content provider supplies their own proprietary DVR that communicates with their network and authorizes the subscription (probably by just returning a number).
It's been great. I don't mind the fees. I've been happy. I record everything that I'm interested in and play it back when I feel like.

But things have changed. Recently several broadcast networks have been able to prevent the use of fast forward on prerecorded content.

I've been looking for a work-around. I want to fast forward through the advertisements.

I considered maybe a second DVR (maybe a region free DVR) attached in-line between my content provider's proprietary DVR and the HDTV might be able to capture the programming and the controls of that DVR might allow me to skip the commercials.

(((({proprietary DVR ----------- second DVR---------- HDTV}}}}

It seems a bit klugey & I have no idea if it'd work.

But maybe if I played the programming that I'm interested in while not actually watching it, the output from the content provider's DVR should be recorded on the secondary DVR and maybe solve my issue?

I don't know. What do you think?

[Krispy Kritter]

I doubt that would work, and it wouldn't work in real time. Assuming the proprietary unit would even sync and play, you could play the content on the proprietary and maybe record on the second. Then play the recording on the second and FF. But in the time it would take to move material from one DVR to the other, you could have already watched the program.

In any event, they usually don't restrict what you record (although I'm sure that they could). I've only seen restrictions for VOD material. That material isn't recorded on the DVR, it's streamed.

[Raul McCai]

Maybe I'll switch to Dish and get their hopper it's supposed to facilitate commercial skipping.

Any one remember the early days of Cable Subscription TV back in the late 60s? The promise was no commercials because you were paying for a subscription.

[Krispy Kritter]

In the years that I've had cable, the only channels commercial free were the movie channels. And that's because you pay extra to have those channels. All other channels still rely on commercials to cover operating cost.

[usually_quiet]

Maybe I'll switch to Dish and get their hopper it's supposed to facilitate commercial skipping.

Any one remember the early days of Cable Subscription TV back in the late 60s? The promise was no commercials because you were paying for a subscription.

My recollection doesn't go back quite that far, but my family got cable around 1970. Maybe people dreamed of no commercials back then, but reality was quite different. For most, the only channels available were over-the-air broadcast channels (locals plus other cities in the region), and commercials were certainly present. HBO was not yet available nationally.

I use a SiliconDust HD Homeun Prime digital cable tuner with Windows Media Center and a CableCARD rented from my provider instead of a DVR. I can fast forward through recordings to my hearts content.