# Skipmode Issues Due to East Coast Snowstorm



## JTHOJNICKI (Nov 30, 2015)

Just talked to a TIVO tech who said that the Bolt is going to be experiencing some skipmode issues this weekend due to the snowstorm on the east coast. He didn't explain why; just said that is the case.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Since there is a human component, then I would think the workers would have issues getting to work. If they are in the area of the storm.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

Or the source they use may not have the program on to work with. They have to be using regular feeds. Doubt the networks are giving them programming to skip commercial with.


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

The ad TiVo placed to hire Skip Mode people said they'd be required to work in inclement weather. I'm glad they were sensible and stayed home, even if it means some of us have to go back to using the *Advance* button. Here in sunny California we go nuts when it rains; I can't imagine what people do when it blizzards.


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## SomeRandomIdiot (Jan 7, 2016)

ej42137 said:


> The ad TiVo placed to hire Skip Mode people said they'd be required to work in inclement weather. I'm glad they were sensible and stayed home, even if it means some of us have to go back to using the *Advance* button. Here in sunny California we go nuts when it rains; I can't imagine what people do when it blizzards.


They should allow those people to work from home.

No reason for them to be in an office. Its very clear how fast they should be able to turn the output around - and if they can do it just as effectively from home, no reason to prohibit that.


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## HobokenSkier (Oct 14, 2015)

SomeRandomIdiot said:


> They should allow those people to work from home.
> 
> No reason for them to be in an office. Its very clear how fast they should be able to turn the output around - and if they can do it just as effectively from home, no reason to prohibit that.


They may not have set the tools to be WFH. This would be a bandwidth intensive job.


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## sangs (Jan 1, 2003)

ej42137 said:


> Here in sunny California we go nuts when it rains; I can't imagine what people do when it blizzards.


We hunker down, break out the bourbon, hot chocolate, junk food and TV, and then head out into the breach and have a great time! Loved it.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

HobokenSkier said:


> They may not have set the tools to be WFH. This would be a bandwidth intensive job.


Allow versus have to are two different things.

I had the same thought about working from home but I had a chat with a friend who does the score thing for Sirius XM (updates the score on the display) while she also marks audio for play highlights. They put her up in a hotel near the XM building in DC for the storm. I asked why she couldn't do it from home and she said the setup is quite elaborate and sent a picture of multiple screens being monitored at once.


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## GoodSpike (Dec 17, 2001)

SomeRandomIdiot said:


> They should allow those people to work from home..


Maybe they do, and that's the reason for the "inconsistent" thread. Some of the people doing this work are working from home and some shows don't get skip mode because those employees are hitting the bong!


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## SomeRandomIdiot (Jan 7, 2016)

HobokenSkier said:


> They may not have set the tools to be WFH. This would be a bandwidth intensive job.


Not as much as you would think, given that the process is semi-automated.

All they need to do is check and verify (or move) the skip points.

Edit Addition:

And quite frankly, in virtually any show, the breaks are pretty well set in place.

IE, After a short open and title credits, 2 Broke Girls and Big Bang goes into commercials, while NCIS will go into at least one act....all shows breaking for commercials at roughly the same time week after week.

After you view a few airings, you know within a few seconds where the breaks are going to be.

A template could be made for each show, with automation looking for a black frames in those areas - and you could virtually nail all insertion points.


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## HobokenSkier (Oct 14, 2015)

SomeRandomIdiot said:


> Not as much as you would think, given that the process is semi-automated.
> 
> All they need to do is check and verify (or move) the skip points.


But they are still marking on the multichannel data stream, not a discreet mp4 of the show.

You may be right and I have no idea what the skip mode team workstations look like but I see desktops and custom software all over this, not some web based tool kit or Microsoft office.

Now if TiVo is using some thin client system then those machines are in a datacenter and can easily be accessed anywhere but if they are on standard desktops then depending on the level of security on TiVos network, remote access may be more complex.


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## SomeRandomIdiot (Jan 7, 2016)

HobokenSkier said:


> But they are still marking on the multichannel data stream, not a discreet mp4 of the show.
> 
> You may be right and I have no idea what the skip mode team workstations look like but I see desktops and custom software all over this, not some web based tool kit or Microsoft office.
> 
> Now if TiVo is using some thin client system then those machines are in a datacenter and can easily be accessed anywhere but if they are on standard desktops then depending on the level of security on TiVos network, remote access may be more complex.


I added more to the thread to make it clearer as you were responding.

Take a look at the rest and it might clarify it for you.


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## HobokenSkier (Oct 14, 2015)

SomeRandomIdiot said:


> I added more to the thread to make it clearer as you were responding.
> 
> Take a look at the rest and it might clarify it for you.


Yes, but the human aspect is verifying that end and start point in the stream.

The historic automated solutions failed in the courts as they missed the mark and meant people missed the show which the court ruled as a problem.

So it comes down to the tech and how that can be ported home to work from home (or RDPed into)


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## SomeRandomIdiot (Jan 7, 2016)

HobokenSkier said:


> Yes, but the human aspect is verifying that end and start point in the stream.
> 
> The historic automated solutions failed in the courts as they missed the mark and meant people missed the show which the court ruled as a problem.
> 
> So it comes down to the tech and how that can be ported home to work from home (or RDPed into)


I used a very old program, HDTVtoMPEG2, over 10 years ago long before Video Redo existed.

I often used it via Remote Software on my Laptop using the earliest Sprint and Verizon Data Cards, which were at speed not much faster than dialup.

And quite frankly, it did not take that long to go through an hour program.

So I know it would be extremely easy to do in 2016 via a Broadband Connection with virtually no issue, using Virtual Desktop Machines on the TiVo Servers.


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## gamo62 (Oct 12, 2002)

I noticed that the X-Files is missing skip on both Sunday and Monday's episodes.


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## HobokenSkier (Oct 14, 2015)

gamo62 said:


> I noticed that the X-Files is missing skip on both Sunday and Monday's episodes.


That handegg after game analysis really messed that show up.


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## HobokenSkier (Oct 14, 2015)

SomeRandomIdiot said:


> I used a very old program, HDTVtoMPEG2, over 10 years ago long before Video Redo existed.
> 
> I often used it via Remote Software on my Laptop using the earliest Sprint and Verizon Data Cards, which were at speed not much faster than dialup.
> 
> ...


To edit the stream not reliably place markers on it.

I agree you that video intensive workstations can work remotely. Lots of development in that space.

Perhaps the weather will have TiVo evaluate WFH strategies for these roles.


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## DeDondeEs (Feb 20, 2004)

I have had my Tivo a week and have yet to have a recording where the Skipmode was enabled.

You would think tagging those commercials breaks would be a pretty easy thing to crowdsource with data where you get an idea of the breaks based on aggregated data from where people are hitting FF and Play and just have software look for the fade to black from the last commercial via a drop in datastream or something.

But it almost sounds like there _needs_ to be a human component to avoid lawsuits? What if they had it built into the Tivo software where users would submit the breaks and in exchange get a discount on Tivo service or get Tivo Points redeemable for something. I bet if you did that people would get very competitive about being the first to add the breaks in.

Knowing this forum, I bet these concepts have already been discussed adnauseum in another thread.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

gamo62 said:


> I noticed that the X-Files is missing skip on both Sunday and Monday's episodes.





HobokenSkier said:


> That handegg after game analysis really messed that show up.


No issues for me worked great for Sunday night used Skip to get to the start of show and no issues from there (I had set the show to record extra). Monday also has SkipMode and does not appear to have any isssues.


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## GoodSpike (Dec 17, 2001)

DeDondeEs said:


> I have had my Tivo a week and have yet to have a recording where the Skipmode was enabled.


That does seem odd, assuming you're recording things in the right time frame and the right 20 or so channels. Usually it's more hit or miss.

I wonder if there's anyone at the other extreme, where everything that should have it always has it?

For me it's just very inconsistent. I don't think there's a single show that should have it that always has it, or one that should that never has it.


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## ScottFL (Dec 14, 2015)

They hire people to create those skip modes. If they allow someone to do it from home I will tell my wife to send in an app. LOL


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## SomeRandomIdiot (Jan 7, 2016)

HobokenSkier said:


> To edit the stream not reliably place markers on it.
> 
> I agree you that video intensive workstations can work remotely. Lots of development in that space.
> 
> Perhaps the weather will have TiVo evaluate WFH strategies for these roles.


No, the program I am talking about did have a scan mode to automate some of the process.

It missed some commercial breaks - and it was often off by 1 GOP or more.

Those had to be manually adjusted.

And missing Commercial Breaks searched for and marked.

Again, that could be done via Remote Desktop from a low bandwidth (I actually did it via dialup multiple times) for a 60 minute show in 5 minutes or less.


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## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

SomeRandomIdiot said:


> Not as much as you would think, given that the process is semi-automated.
> 
> All they need to do is check and verify (or move) the skip points.
> 
> ...


This is all speculation on your part, not facts.



SomeRandomIdiot said:


> I used a very old program, HDTVtoMPEG2, over 10 years ago long before Video Redo existed.
> 
> I often used it via Remote Software on my Laptop using the earliest Sprint and Verizon Data Cards, which were at speed not much faster than dialup.
> 
> ...


Again, your past experience has -zero- realation to what TiVo may or may not be doing.

You keep saying how easy it is, and how it can be done from home, and how ten year old technology can do this, without ANY idea what the real process is.


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## SomeRandomIdiot (Jan 7, 2016)

astrohip said:


> This is all speculation on your part, not facts.
> 
> Again, your past experience has -zero- realation to what TiVo may or may not be doing.
> 
> You keep saying how easy it is, and how it can be done from home, and how ten year old technology can do this, without ANY idea what the real process is.


1) Using my own TiVo and a simple remote, I was able to go the exact point where a cut would need to be made as well as a rejoin. As I stated with this very crude - no assist method - I did a 60 minute program in less than 5 minutes.

2) Clearly an automated assist method would have cut the time tremendously, as would repeated knowledge of where the commercial breaks were in certain shows.

3) With Broadband from the home and logging into Virtual Machine on the TiVo Server, one could literally accomplish anything that could be done locally (I just called TiVo tech support and they tell me their Systems are Linux, but same principles should apply).

4) Bottom line, its just not that hard.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

The issue is probably more about property and intellectual property. If this is an entry level job that requires special hardware or connections, who pays for that? Do you entrust an entry level person with a company provided piece of hardware? Do you require them have hardware and high speed at home?

Then how do you support when issues invariably arise?

It may develop that the job is a work at home opportunity but I doubt they would do that for first rollout. And I'd expect it to be much more automated if not totally by the time they are willing to farm it out.


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## lew (Mar 12, 2002)

TonyD79 said:


> Or the source they use may not have the program on to work with. They have to be using regular feeds. Doubt the networks are giving them programming to skip commercial with.


+1 It doesn't matter if people work from home or how automated the process if the feed tivo is using is being interrupted by weather alerts/news. Won't work if regular programming is being preempted by special weather programs.

Eastern and Central time zones air programs at the same time. A lot of the country won't have skipmode data if the feed tivo is using isn't airing regularly scheduled programming, in whole or in part.

Work from home is a red herring.


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