# Get this Trash off my Tivo



## mba_2005 (Mar 20, 2012)

Every time I turn on my Tivo now in bright colors and the biggest print on the screen I get "HAPPILY DIVORCED" suggested to me on the main menu. Who is the clown at Tivo who things presenting subscribers with this kind of garbage is a good idea? Makes me want to get the DirecTV DVR having to see this garbage every day.


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

Um... so turn off TiVo's Suggestion feature?


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## SullyND (Dec 30, 2004)

What does TiVos suggestion feature have to do with it Fofer? It's an ad. Turning suggestions off doesn't make them go away.


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## 9300170 (Feb 21, 2003)

It's just an ad. They've been on TiVo for years. If you search through the archives, you'll find lots of back and forth about the horror/merit of TiVo's ads. I wasn't a fan when they added them either, but eventually, you just ignore them.


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

It would be nice if the people that whine about the TiVo ads could be given the opportunity to pay an additional fee to avoid the ads. I understand the ads are a necessary part of the TiVo revenue stream and help keep the costs to the consumer down, so I gladly accept them and mostly ignore them. Even with the ads, the price for TiVo with lifetime is expensive but no other company has anything comparable for the price and TiVo can't operate at a profit so I accept the product and service can't be provided for less money and I am thankful some companies are willing to pay TiVo to advertise, what other solution is there? Greater losses or higher prices?


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

LOL, noobs.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

mba_2005 said:


> Every time I turn on my Tivo now in bright colors and the biggest print on the screen I get "HAPPILY DIVORCED" suggested to me on the main menu. Who is the clown at Tivo who things presenting subscribers with this kind of garbage is a good idea? Makes me want to get the DirecTV DVR having to see this garbage every day.


Just be glad this doesn't mean you had an external drive which got divorced, taking all of your recordings out when it went.


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## takeshi (Jul 22, 2010)

mba_2005 said:


> Who is the clown at Tivo who things presenting subscribers with this kind of garbage is a good idea?


Nothing new, as stated above. Why don't you ask them instead of us?


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## uw69 (Jan 25, 2001)

takeshi said:


> Nothing new, as stated above. Why don't you ask them instead of us?


Ranting is a therapy I guess!


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## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

mba_2005 said:


> Every time I turn on my Tivo now in bright colors and the biggest print on the screen I get "HAPPILY DIVORCED" suggested to me on the main menu. Who is the clown at Tivo who things presenting subscribers with this kind of garbage is a good idea? Makes me want to get the DirecTV DVR having to see this garbage every day.


With the DirecTV DVR you'll get ads in your guide instead.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Chris Gerhard said:


> I understand the ads are a necessary part of the TiVo revenue stream and help keep the costs to the consumer down


Are they? Do they? Do we know that? I thought I'd read that in fact the ads were a miniscule part of TiVo's income.


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

wmcbrine said:


> Are they? Do they? Do we know that? I thought I'd read that in fact the ads were a miniscule part of TiVo's income.


Net income is minuscule for TiVo so a minuscule part of the gross income will be material to the bottom line. I don't see anyway that ad revenue isn't material to TiVo.


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## westside_guy (Mar 13, 2005)

I've been tuning these out for years, just like the ads on the pause screen...

I suspect wmcbrine is right, given the ads don't seem particularly effective (at least to me).


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

And what's so trashy about an ad for "Happily Divorced" anyway?

Just ignore it. 

Just like you'd ignore it if you didn't have a TiVo... and a commercial for the same TV show came on.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

Chris Gerhard said:


> It would be nice if the people that whine about the TiVo ads could be given the opportunity to pay an additional fee to avoid the ads.


I would be thrilled. The additional cost would be far less than the cost to me of the ads.



Chris Gerhard said:


> I understand the ads are a necessary part of the TiVo revenue stream and help keep the costs to the consumer down


This is just stupid. Who do you think pays for the ads? Answer: the consumer. Ads do *NOT* keep the costs of anything down. They just shift part of the revenue stream so the consumer pays through multiple vectors.



Chris Gerhard said:


> product and service can't be provided for less money


Which means you have to pay for it, no matter what. The only difference is, if you don't buy the TiVo, you don't pay the direct costs. You still have to pay for the ads, though, whether you buy it ot not.



Chris Gerhard said:


> and I am thankful some companies are willing to pay TiVo to advertise


Where do you think those companies get that money? The tooth fairy?



Chris Gerhard said:


> what other solution is there?


Pay your own way, and quit expecting everyone else to pay for you. You'll save money in the long run.



Chris Gerhard said:


> Greater losses or higher prices?


Higher prices for the TiVo, lower prices for all the things being inflated to subsidize the TiVo (and every other ad supported product).


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

Fofer said:


> And what's so trashy about an ad for "Happily Divorced" anyway?
> 
> Just ignore it.
> 
> Just like you'd ignore it if you didn't have a TiVo... and a commercial for the same TV show came on.


I have no idea what the OP's point of view is for calling it trashy but the same ad sort of struck a wrong chord with me too. The ad has been relentlessly appearing for months now. I'm only going to guess and say he takes offense to the idea that the concept of there being anything funny about divorce which of course there is not. I'm sure if you've ever been through one it is a gut wrenching experience for most people and you wouldn't want that thrown in your face anymore than, for example, the recent death of your mother. "Good Riddance Mom" in your DB everyday would probably be a big bummer. Its not on an HD channel in my area so I wouldn't bother trying the show anyway.


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

rahnbo said:


> "Good Riddance Mom"


LOL. Agreed.

I wouldn't want to see an ad for "Throw Mama From the Train," either.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Fofer said:


> LOL. Agreed.
> 
> I wouldn't want to see an ad for "Throw Mama From the Train," either.


Unless it was the frying pan scene.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

I think the ads are annoying, but Tivo's choice/placement of ads are about the least annoying they could be if they exist at all. Basically, once in a while, you have to go one up from the bottom menu choice (to ignore an ad).


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

TiVo has ads? I've been ignoring them for so long that I guess I forgot they even existed.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

rahnbo said:


> I have no idea what the OP's point of view is for calling it trashy but the same ad sort of struck a wrong chord with me too. The ad has been relentlessly appearing for months now. I'm only going to guess and say he takes offense to the idea that the concept of there being anything funny about divorce which of course there is not. I'm sure if you've ever been through one it is a gut wrenching experience for most people and you wouldn't want that thrown in your face anymore than, for example, the recent death of your mother. "Good Riddance Mom" in your DB everyday would probably be a big bummer. Its not on an HD channel in my area so I wouldn't bother trying the show anyway.


I've never even seen this ad. And I use my TiVos every day.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

When I've gone to the Tivo Central screen, I noticed an extra line at the bottom. I can't tell you what it was because I was more focused on getting to where I was going.
I notice the ads at the bottom of a grouped show list. Again, I ignore those and don't care that it might take an extra button press to get to the show I want to play.
I've seen the ads on the pause screen, but it's very rare I pause anyway so it doesn't matter to me.

Personally I love the ads being on Tivo. They make it easier to enter the SPSPauseS backdoor code.


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

aaronwt said:


> I've never even seen this ad. And I use my TiVos every day.


I think ads are somewhat of a regional thing. I know I've seen ads for local businesses and when I sold a Tivo to someone and reconfigured it for their region I saw ads that I had never seen before for their locality. Anyway, this is it:


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## cannonz (Oct 23, 2011)

Fran Drescher "trash" I get it.


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## hillyard (Nov 1, 2011)

Well their prices keep going up. I have had tivo for over 10 years. during that time monthly and lifetime has increased, started adding sales tax on the monthly bill, their privacy statement is bad, if you payed full price for your box how much does it cost them for supplying you guide info. I have an elite with lifetime (just under 1000.00) and a premier on monthly ( 100.00 box 24.97 monthly service and sales tax ) I would like to know if there is a setting I can put on my router that would block the add server.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Chris Gerhard said:


> Net income is minuscule for TiVo so a minuscule part of the gross income will be material to the bottom line.


You don't get to count it that way. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that TiVo made 1% profit in a year, and in that same year, advertising was 1% of their revenue. So advertising was their entire profit for that year! Right? No. Notice, they could've achieved the same effect by eliminating advertising and raising their prices by 1% -- an increase so small it would go unnoticed. Or, heck, they could raise their prices by 5%, and quintuple their profits! At some point these price increases will curtail demand, of course, so it's not a linear equation. But the question is -- or should be -- do the ads gain TiVo more than they cost them? Because having ads on the TiVo also curtails demand.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

rahnbo said:


> I think ads are somewhat of a regional thing. I know I've seen ads for local businesses and when I sold a Tivo to someone and reconfigured it for their region I saw ads that I had never seen before for their locality. Anyway, this is it:


My Discovery bar is dimmed unless I actually move to it. When I highlight any of the lines in TiVo central it is dim. Maybe when showing the video window this is the case since in your image the discovery bar is showing six items. Mine only shows four items and by being dim doesn't draw attention to it until I decide to look at it for suggestions.


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

lrhorer said:


> I would be thrilled. The additional cost would be far less than the cost to me of the ads.
> 
> This is just stupid. Who do you think pays for the ads? Answer: the consumer. Ads do *NOT* keep the costs of anything down. They just shift part of the revenue stream so the consumer pays through multiple vectors.
> 
> ...


I have seen your nonsense rants before, please don't bother with repeating this drivel again and again. The facts are absolutely nothing like you suggest but it isn't worth disputing here. The fact that TiVo receives advertising revenue and the OTA I watch is funded by advertising revenue is indisputable and whether or not you believe it is an efficient way for companies to communicate product attributes to consumers and differentiate their products from the competition is irrelevant to me.


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

wmcbrine said:


> You don't get to count it that way. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that TiVo made 1% profit in a year, and in that same year, advertising was 1% of their revenue. So advertising was their entire profit for that year! Right? No. Notice, they could've achieved the same effect by eliminating advertising and raising their prices by 1% -- an increase so small it would go unnoticed. Or, heck, they could raise their prices by 5%, and quintuple their profits! At some point these price increases will curtail demand, of course, so it's not a linear equation. But the question is -- or should be -- do the ads gain TiVo more than they cost them? Because having ads on the TiVo also curtails demand.


Nonsense on the increase going unnoticed, every increase in a product price results in a decrease in sales, there is no other way to measure it. If you have a solution to the fact no DVR company can offer a DVR profitably, please go ahead and provide your proof to TiVo. I am certain offering the DVR at the lowest possible price and collecting ad revenue is the best option. In my opinion the question is answered, TiVo benefits from ad revenue and if any consumers are driven away from TiVo because of ads, the benefit exceeds the cost but if you have an example of a successful DVR, not subsidized by cable or satellite TV subscription fees, funded without ad revenue, show me the example.


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

Oh, because of this thread I tried to watch an episode of this show, I would have never even heard of it otherwise. I don't have cable but using Google TV, I stumbled on it at the TVLand site. Fran Drescher was terrible, as was the script, in my opinion and I couldn't make it all the way through an episode. I love Fran but have never watched an episode of any of her TV series and probably never will. I did make it half way through and noticed an awful lot of ads I couldn't skip, guess that is what I will have to live with as a cord cutter watching internet TV funded by ads.


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

Chris Gerhard said:


> I love Fran but have never watched an episode of any of her TV series and probably never will.


Huh?


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

Fofer said:


> Huh?


I have seen several of her movies and quite a number of interviews, I think she is very pretty and very sexy or I probably wouldn't have bothered to read about her life but I know a little about her personal life, and think she is really an interesting and strong person. She has had some misfortunes in life but can deal with anything that happens to her, she has my respect. As far as the TV shows, nothing of any interest to me based on what little I know of the shows. I am also aware she is very political and supports causes she believes in but I am not likely to agree with her politics either.


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## larrs (May 2, 2005)

Chris Gerhard said:


> I have seen several of her movies and quite a number of interviews, I think she is very pretty and very sexy or I probably wouldn't have bothered to read about her life but I know a little about her personal life, and think she is really an interesting and strong person. She has had some misfortunes in life but can deal with anything that happens to her, she has my respect. As far as the TV shows, nothing of any interest to me based on what little I know of the shows. I am also aware she is very political and supports causes she believes in but I am not likely to agree with her politics either.


My wife and two daughters love her new show. And, by the way, I think they found out about it via the ad on the premiere. I watched an episode with them the other day and it is quite funny- probably lowered my testosterone a few points, but still funny.

I hate to admit it, but we have found a few shows we like via those darned ads. They quit bothering me long ago. I don't even pay attention most of the time.


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## Joe01880 (Feb 8, 2009)

maybe the OP is not "HAPPILY DIVORCED"


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## sieglinde (Aug 11, 2002)

It is an innocuous show. The premise is that the couple gets divorced not because they hate each other but the man comes out gay. The live in the same house because they are underwater and cannot afford to move out. It is a cute sitcom. Nothing to get upset about because of the title. Geeze.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

Nothing to see here, move along. Another drive-by one-post shooter.


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## blacknoi (Jan 23, 2006)

Could you block tivo ads at the router-level with some sort of filter?


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

Geez, this ad for "Your Grandma's a Ho!" has really got to go  :down:


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

aaronwt said:


> I've never even seen this ad. And I use my TiVos every day.


I ignore the ads, but try this. Just keep hitting the "TiVo" button on your remote to cycle between "Tivo Central" and "Now Playing." Every time you cycle back to "Tivo Central" there should be a different ad at the bottom of the screen. For me, on both my TivoHD and S2DT, there are three different ads - Aflac(insurance); Touch(Fox Drama); Happily Divorced(TV Land comedy).

As someone else mentioned above, I don't even notice them. Besides, they are at the bottom of the screen in otherwise empty space and don't interfere with anything.

[edit] Oh, I see that you have HD menus, which I don't. The above info applies, obviously, to SD menus as that's all my machines have.


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

You could monitor your router logs for outgoing traffic from each tivo and systematically block IP address it hits. There is a good chance all the ads come from tivo.com itself via a stream all the other info you need like guide data, etc comes from. You run the risk of completely blocking everything from Tivo including the stuff you need.


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## larrs (May 2, 2005)

rahnbo said:


> You could monitor your router logs for outgoing traffic from each tivo and systematically block IP address it hits. There is a good chance all the ads come from tivo.com itself via a stream all the other info you need like guide data, etc comes from. You run the risk of completely blocking everything from Tivo including the stuff you need.


Yeah, blocking service updates and guide data updates might be a little counter-productive just to get rid of an ad for Happily Divorced.


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## janry (Jan 2, 2003)

Sounds like a show I would have enjoyed. I wish they'd told me about it last season.


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## terpfan1980 (Jan 28, 2002)

Every time I see this thread title show up in the list of recently updated threads I think the OP must be complaining because his TiVo automatically recorded Jersey Shore.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Chris Gerhard said:


> Oh, because of this thread I tried to watch an episode of this show, I would have never even heard of it otherwise. I don't have cable but using Google TV, I stumbled on it at the TVLand site. Fran Drescher was terrible, as was the script, in my opinion and I couldn't make it all the way through an episode. I love Fran but have never watched an episode of any of her TV series and probably never will. I did make it half way through and noticed an awful lot of ads I couldn't skip, guess that is what I will have to live with as a cord cutter watching internet TV funded by ads.


You need to go watch The Nanny, if for no other reason than the sparring between Daniel Davis and Lauren Lane. They could have been a show by themselves.


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