# Pause Ads arrive with 14.4...



## _Ryan_ (Apr 4, 2010)

I was pretty disappointed when I saw my first "pause ad" on my Premiere today when I paused a Seinfeld recording. Thus far I had not seen this on the Premiere at all, and I strongly disliked them on the TiVo HD. I was hoping they would never show up on the Premiere... I assume they were implemented with the 14.4 update I received last week. I don't mind the ads on the discovery bar at all, but having a banner pop up over part of the screen when I pause a show is quite annoying. 

If anyone is interested, the ad said "See great (and green) technology here!"

Is everyone else suddenly getting "pause ads" on their Premieres? 

PS: I was a bit surprised to see TiVo working to get more ads implemented before they even finish all the HD menus and the video overlay...


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## andydumi (Jun 26, 2006)

I also noticed them today. One thing I wish we had more of was the button to record something during commercials.

And I agree they have their priorities all wrong. But I guess we already bought the machine, so we are lower on the totem pole now than advertisers.


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## deandashl (Aug 8, 2008)

It can be exciting to buy a product that is not finished. But I have a year old HD XL and it's not THAT exciting that I'd buy a TiVo Prem____ (to be completed, per TiVo)


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## TrueTurbo (Feb 19, 2008)

Can't say I've noticed. I don't look at the ads. The only time I notice any ads on a TiVo is when someone here starts *****ing about ads appearing on a TiVo! 

Learn to focus, people. The ads don't get in the way of anything and if you absolutely can't stand seeing pause ads, just hit the 'clear' button and they disappear.


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## _Ryan_ (Apr 4, 2010)

TrueTurbo said:


> Learn to focus, people. The ads don't get in the way of anything and if you absolutely can't stand seeing pause ads, just hit the 'clear' button and they disappear.


Actually, they do get in the way of something: the picture. The ad cover's part of the screen when you pause a program.

Is it a deal breaker? No. Is it annoying? Yes. A big bright banner pops up over your show. Can you make it go away? Sure, by hitting the down button. But the next time you watch a program, the ads come back upon pausing it. You can't turn the ads off permanently.

This new ad implementation seemed to be worth mentioning in this forum to try and figure out if it was a new feature in 14.4, or if the ads are simply rare and I didn't see one until today. If you disagree, I'm not sure I understand why.


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## kturcotte (Dec 9, 2002)

Wish they had a way to disable it. I'd be willing to pay $2 or $3 more a month for this.


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## TrueTurbo (Feb 19, 2008)

_Ryan_ said:


> This new ad implementation seemed to be worth mentioning in this forum to try and figure out if it was a new feature in 14.4, or if the ads are simply rare and I didn't see one until today. If you disagree, I'm not sure I understand why.


I don't understand what you are getting at. Disagree with what!? 

Anyway, TiVo ads are _not_ new. They've been around for a while now and they are not going away. I don't know if they have only recently started on the TiVo Premiere because I simply and truly just ignore them. I personally don't find them obtrusive in any way.

So what if an ad pops up when you pause! If you paused because you wanted to look at a still picture in detail, you're not going to leave the play bar on display anyway so you'll hit the 'clear' key. That makes the play bar and the ad go away. If you paused because you need to take a leak or something, again, who cares if an ad pops up! You're not sitting there looking at it. When you get back, you hit play and continue watching whatever you were watching.

Honestly, I really don't get why some people get their knickers in a twist over the TiVo adds. They do not hamper TiVo functionality and if they help bring in a little more revenue for TiVo, I have absolutely no problem with that.


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## kturcotte (Dec 9, 2002)

TrueTurbo said:


> I don't understand what you are getting at. Disagree with what!?
> 
> Anyway, TiVo ads are _not_ new. They've been around for a while now and they are not going away. I don't know if they have only recently started on the TiVo Premiere because I simply and truly just ignore them. I personally don't find them obtrusive in any way.
> 
> ...


I haven't noticed them yet. On the Series 3, do ads show up ONLY during Pause, or also during fast forward and rewind? If JUST during Pause, that won't bother me in the least. Fast forward and rewind are different though, if you can't see when to hit play.


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## ewilts (Feb 26, 2002)

TrueTurbo said:


> Anyway, TiVo ads are _not_ new. They've been around for a while now and they are not going away.


They will go away for me. When my TiVo box eventually dies, I will not replace it with another box by TiVo.



> Honestly, I really don't get why some people get their knickers in a twist over the TiVo adds


When I bought my box and subscription from TiVo, ads were not included. They were later added without an option for me to decline them.



> They do not hamper TiVo functionality


Yes they do. They block part of the image on the screen and force users to use additional effort to make them go away.

If TiVo gave users an option to turn ads off, you may chose to leave them on but I'd be willing to bet at least a quarter that the vast majority of users will turn ads off. That would be a clear message to TiVo that we DO NOT WANT THEM.

I have never chosen to click on a TiVo-provided ad and I never will.


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## lujan (May 24, 2010)

I agree with ewilts and I don't know what's wrong with TrueTurbo because if you agree with the ads now and find no problem with them, TiVo and others will just continue to add more of them to see what they can get away with until we're seeing nothing but ads everywhere. The time to complain about it is now to help prevent them from spreading like cockroaches.


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## SnydersWeb (May 5, 2010)

I let TiVo have it last week over this. It's not about the fact they have ads, it's really how they're going about it that I find so objectionable.

In short, finish the product, finish delivering on the promise of what this product can be then give us the ads or at least give us the ads while they give us the big enhancement. Doing it that way the ads are likely to be better received. 

To include ads in with what more/less appears to be a bugfix release was a bit galling. There are so many other things that need to be done for this product to realize its full potential.


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## philhu (Apr 11, 2001)

SnydersWeb said:


> I let TiVo have it last week over this. It's not about the fact they have ads, it's really how they're going about it that I find so objectionable.
> 
> In short, finish the product, finish delivering on the promise of what this product can be then give us the ads or at least give us the ads while they give us the big enhancement. Doing it that way the ads are likely to be better received.
> 
> To include ads in with what more/less appears to be a bugfix release was a bit galling. There are so many other things that need to be done for this product to realize its full potential.


We have a half finished product, with lots of bugs, after 4 years of development, and their highest priority was to get the ads back into the pause screens?

It does seem Tivo has lost sight of the fact that their customers should still come first. I read that Tivo Guide data recurring revenue was down to $170,000. This tells alot about tivo unit sales. How long before they stop and publish the guide data api so others can do it or stop selling units and going away.

I for one, with 3 lifetime subscriptions better get guide data for life of the units!


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## NYHeel (Oct 7, 2003)

TrueTurbo said:


> I don't understand what you are getting at. Disagree with what!?
> 
> Anyway, TiVo ads are _not_ new. They've been around for a while now and they are not going away. I don't know if they have only recently started on the TiVo Premiere because I simply and truly just ignore them. I personally don't find them obtrusive in any way.
> 
> ...


Completely agree. I really don't see what the big deal is about Pause ads. Who cares. If I hit pause then I either stopped watching and I don't care what's on the screen or I want to look at a static image and I need to hit clear to get rid of the play bar anyway. So again who cares! It doesn't bother me at all. If I had the option to turn them off I wouldn't even bother with it since it doesn't bother me at all and let Tivo make a little money off the ads.


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

_Ryan_ said:


> PS: I was a bit surprised to see TiVo working to get more ads implemented before they even finish all the HD menus and the video overlay...


My guess would be that there's a relatively significant problem with the HD interface that it's taken this long since launch and is no closer to working. Turning on text ad links is something that was probably all set to go in the software and just needed a switch flipped. Maybe they can use the revenue to hire someone to fix the HD menu problem.

As far as the ads themselves... on my THD they don't bother me at all. I'm completely oblivious to them, don't read them, and couldn't recall what one of them said if you paid me to try. I'm not sure why the advertisers are paying for this sort of advertising, or why Tivo is bothering to put it on the box. The click-through rate is probably extremely poor. The same goes for ads that show up in the menus. In my entire history of owning Tivos, I've never clicked one.

What does worry me is the potential for more intrusive ad formats. The first day that video ads ever start to show up when paused, the Tivo either gets thrown in the dumpster or goes up for sale on ebay and gets replaced by something less intrusive.


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## Mike-Mike (Mar 2, 2010)

yeah, i don't see the big deal about the ads either


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

NYHeel said:


> So again who cares! It doesn't bother me at all. If I had the option to turn them off I wouldn't even bother with it since it doesn't bother me at all and let Tivo make a little money off the ads.


If you wanted to help Tivo make money, you would click on those ads.


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## gamo62 (Oct 12, 2002)

deandashl said:


> It can be exciting to buy a product that is not finished. But I have a year old HD XL and it's not THAT exciting that I'd buy a TiVo Prem____ (to be completed, per TiVo)


That's like buying a Toyota whose product has problems with their acceleration. People still buy the Toyota even though something is wrong with it.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

I swear, if I see any of these suggestions for additional ads appear on my Tivo I'm going come back here....










....and yell at you guys!!!


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

ewilts said:


> They will go away for me. When my TiVo box eventually dies, I will not replace it with another box by TiVo.
> 
> When I bought my box and subscription from TiVo, ads were not included. They were later added without an option for me to decline them.
> 
> ...


As was already mentioned, if you pause to see something on the picture, you will have to press a button anyway to make the play bar disappear, which will also make the advertisements disappear too. So there are not any extra things to do. I don't notice any ads, when I paue I'm doing something else, I couldn't care less what is on the screen when I pause since I'm not looking at it while paused. And if for some reason I do want to look at it, I have to hit a button to make the play bar disappear which blocks part of the screen anyway. Having an advertisement there doesn't take anything away from the TV viewing experience.


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## AnotherBostonGuy (May 6, 2010)

>> My guess would be that there's a relatively significant problem with the HD interface that it's taken this long since launch and is no closer to working.

The likelihood that they ever get the Flash-based menus to have good performance is about as close to 0% as you can get.


>> Click on the ad to make TiVo money
I just spent over $500 on the TiVo unit. I've already done my part.


Including it in a so-called bug fix release, and with so many problems still existing, really does show no one is advocating for the customer.

It's high-time TiVo joined the Community Forum officially, so we can have some two-way discussions. Furthermore, it'll allow us to let off some steam, and having some source of information is essential.

We're the early adopters for the Series 4, and no matter how much marketing TiVo attempts, we're the ones who will ultimately make or break it. And if you don't think so, you're living in the 90's.


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## ewilts (Feb 26, 2002)

AnotherBostonGuy said:


> We're the early adopters for the Series 4, and no matter how much marketing TiVo attempts, we're the ones who will ultimately make or break it. And if you don't think so, you're living in the 90's.


The Series 3 users actually were. And TiVo never did fix critical, show-stopping, box-crashing bugs. It's no surprise to me that the S4 also had issues and why I didn't (and won't) buy one.


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## TrueTurbo (Feb 19, 2008)

AnotherBostonGuy said:


> It's high-time TiVo joined the Community Forum officially, so we can have some two-way discussions. Furthermore, it'll allow us to let off some steam, and having some source of information is essential.


Yeaaaah, riiiight, TiVo should definitely officially join the forum so they can get *****-slapped and water-boarded by the rabid, dissatisfied Premiere users in here! They would sooooo enjoy the experience and we'd all get tons of valuable information from them.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

ferrumpneuma said:


> I just had a brilliant idea. TiVo should sell ad space on the green screen of death.:up::up::up:


I've never seen it.


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## caddyroger (Mar 15, 2005)

TrueTurbo said:


> Yeaaaah, riiiight, TiVo should definitely officially join the forum so they can get *****-slapped and water-boarded by the rabid, dissatisfied Premiere users in here! They would sooooo enjoy the experience and we'd all get tons of valuable information from them.


You are right why would any Tivo employee come here on this site. The only thing they would get is their ass chewed out even if it not there fault. I know I would not be here.
As for the ads as long as they do not appear on the recorded program. I have said it before Tivo should have 2 tiers of service. 1 tier priced with the ads and a second higher priced tier for no ads. Let the no ads tier make up for the money lost.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

caddyroger said:


> You are right why would any Tivo employee come here on this site. The only thing they would get is their ass chewed out even if it not there fault. I know I would not be here.
> As for the ads as long as they do not appear on the recorded program. I have said it before Tivo should have 2 tiers of service. 1 tier priced with the ads and a second higher priced tier for no ads. Let the no ads tier make up for the money lost.


TiVo has a complicate pricing structure now, so adding one without Ads that ordinary people understand, not happening. (You have two Lifetime plans now $299 for some existing customers with less than 5 or 6 TiVos and $399 for new customers, and you want to add two more plans?) 
I guess a lot people spend a lot of time with the UI, I don't, just use the UI to get to the program I want to watch, if i pause, I am leaving the room, if I want a better look at the still picture I do the same thing I did before there were any Ads, I hit the down arrow (or clear button).
For the Ad haters, would you take a toll road without billboards or the free road with billboards if the travel time was the same?
When TiVo stops me from fast forwarding through commercials, then I will be an AD and TiVo hater.


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## RichB (Apr 2, 2003)

caddyroger said:


> You are right why would any TiVo employee come here on this site. The only thing they would get is their ass chewed out even if it not there fault. I know I would not be here.


I have a novel thought.
Why don't TiVo employees stay off this site and concentrate on fixing its problems? That should keep them busy 

I really think they missed the big gravy train. 
We need a bigger waiting circle and put ad's inside it.
For gods sake, give us something to look at while we are watching that spinning circle. 

- Rich


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## _Ryan_ (Apr 4, 2010)

Just saw my first *double-decker* pause ad on my Premiere... double the height and required two down clicks to get it to go away. Is this new, or just new to me?

It was kind of bothersome, since I didn't have the remote, and the person with the remote was trying to pause the show to see themselves in the audience of a gameshow - the ad blocked the view and they didn't know how to get it to go away. I told them to hit down and it still didn't go away. Took another down push to do it. Bah. This is getting almost embarrassing when guests are over...


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

_Ryan_ said:


> the person with the remote was trying to pause the show to see themselves in the audience of a gameshow - the ad blocked the view


I pause things all the time, trying to read or examine stuff in the show and the ads are *always* annoying, requiring an additional keypress every time. Double-decker? Ug.


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## CharlesH (Aug 29, 2002)

RichB said:


> I have a novel thought.
> Why don't TiVo employees stay off this site and concentrate on fixing its problems?


 The TiVo folks who used to post on this forum were not developers. They were from areas like product marketing and support, jobs that by their nature involve interactions with customers. While random TiVo people may be browsing this forum, TiVo employees need formal management approval to post here.


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## andydumi (Jun 26, 2006)

Another bad part in my opinion is that the ads are low resolution SD and on a large HD TV they stretch to giant proportions and look terrible.

Sadly I foresee the day when ads will appear while we actually watch the way TV channels have ads for their own shows.


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

SnydersWeb said:


> To include ads in with what more/less appears to be a bugfix release was a bit galling. There are so many other things that need to be done for this product to realize its full potential.





philhu said:


> We have a half finished product, with lots of bugs, after 4 years of development, and their highest priority was to get the ads back into the pause screens?


the trick play code is likely the same from TiVo HD code base. It is not like the pause bar is in HD/Flash now 
This means that TiVo did nothing more than simply supply some ads that the pause function can display. This is really no big whoop or resource hog. Would not expect it to change anyone's opinion on ads in general though, have fun with the rants.


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## bschuler2007 (Feb 25, 2007)

The secret is to invest in a good macro enabled remote. It helps alot with these Tivo annoyances. 

As for the guy who was embarrassed when his friend struggled to clear it... ummm... Something similar happened about 2 years ago to me, and yes, it is VERY sad. Especially when you are laughed at with a room full of people just because of some crappy ad on Tivo. Thus, I started my Facebook group the very next day and started fighting the useless and annoying ads. Sadly, most people don't realize how problematic and traumatic it can be until it happens to them.

My pause button is currently, PAUSE, DOWN, DOWN.


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## NYHeel (Oct 7, 2003)

bschuler2007 said:


> The secret is to invest in a good macro enabled remote. It helps alot with these Tivo annoyances.
> 
> As for the guy who was embarrassed when his friend struggled to clear it... ummm... Something similar happened about 2 years ago to me, and yes, it is VERY sad. Especially when you are laughed at with a room full of people just because of some crappy ad on Tivo. Thus, I started my Facebook group the very next day and started fighting the useless and annoying ads. Sadly, most people don't realize how problematic and traumatic it can be until it happens to them.
> 
> My pause button is currently, PAUSE, DOWN, DOWN.


Can't you just press clear? Plus you usually need to press clear anyway as there are things that cover the screen even without ads. I really don't get the big deal with the ads. As long as it doesn't affect my usage of the Tivo I don't care at all. And as of now it doesn't affect me at all. True, there are times when I pause something to see the screen but I press clear anyway since I want a completely empty screen without the green bar on the bottom. I just don't get the whole ad complaint.

And seriously, traumatic? Don't you think that's a little overboard. Annoying, maybe, but traumatic?!


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

NYHeel said:


> Can't you just press clear? Plus you usually need to press clear anyway as there are things that cover the screen even without ads. I really don't get the big deal with the ads. As long as it doesn't affect my usage of the Tivo I don't care at all. And as of now it doesn't affect me at all. True, there are times when I pause something to see the screen but I press clear anyway since I want a completely empty screen without the green bar on the bottom. I just don't get the whole ad complaint.
> 
> And seriously, traumatic? Don't you think that's a little overboard. Annoying, maybe, but traumatic?!


To each their own. Everyone will have their own annoyance and traumatic threshold. So you now have to press an EXTRA button. What if you later had to press two? Three? What if you had to wait THEN press a button? It is a slippery slope. The current pause ads don't bother me much. Neither do the text ads added to the main menu list. But *I* draw the line at static vs. animated and silent vs. sound. Even a SINGLE animated ad or audible ad, anywhere, instantly crosses my "traumatic" threshold. Others may not care as much.

BTW- That threshold of mine is exactly the same for web sites, which is why I am "forced" to use Adblock, Flashkill, and Javascript Switch addons for Firefox. Otherwise, I could not tolerate reading 90+% of sites.


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## daveak (Mar 23, 2009)

bschuler2007 said:


> The secret is to invest in a good macro enabled remote. It helps alot with these Tivo annoyances.
> 
> As for the guy who was embarrassed when his friend struggled to clear it... ummm... Something similar happened about 2 years ago to me, and yes, it is VERY sad. *Especially when you are laughed at with a room full of people just because of some crappy ad on Tivo.* Thus, I started my Facebook group the very next day and started fighting the useless and annoying ads. Sadly, most people don't realize how problematic and traumatic it can be until it happens to them.
> 
> My pause button is currently, PAUSE, DOWN, DOWN.


Item in *bold* made me LOL. Hopefully someday you will look back on that VERY sad experience and be able to laugh about it. Are you sure they were laughing at you? Just because an ad appeared on your TV screen? That is VERY sad indeed. What was it about the ad that made them seem like they were laughing at you?

I know it can be tough when you feel like people are laughing at you at you because of a TiVo ad that appears on your TV, but I am sure (assuming they are your friends) they they did not mean to hurt your feelings or embarrass you because of the ad and their reaction to it.

Advertising that hurts or demeans is certainly wrong for TiVo to be displaying in any way through the TiVo service.


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## NYHeel (Oct 7, 2003)

crxssi said:


> To each their own. Everyone will have their own annoyance and traumatic threshold. So you now have to press an EXTRA button. What if you later had to press two? Three? What if you had to wait THEN press a button? It is a slippery slope. The current pause ads don't bother me much. Neither do the text ads added to the main menu list. But *I* draw the line at static vs. animated and silent vs. sound. Even a SINGLE animated ad or audible ad, anywhere, instantly crosses my "traumatic" threshold. Others may not care as much.
> 
> BTW- That threshold of mine is exactly the same for web sites, which is why I am "forced" to use Adblock, Flashkill, and Javascript Switch addons for Firefox. Otherwise, I could not tolerate reading 90+% of sites.


Thing is that it's not really any extra buttons. You have to press clear if you want to remove all of the "non-ad" stuff from the screen when you press pause anyway. If I press pause to see something on the screen, I need to press clear to get rid of the progress bar and some other message even when there is no ad on the screen. So it's not really any extra button presses.


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## magnum68 (Aug 22, 2004)

_Ryan_ said:


> I was pretty disappointed when I saw my first "pause ad" on my Premiere today when I paused a Seinfeld recording. Thus far I had not seen this on the Premiere at all, and I strongly disliked them on the TiVo HD. I was hoping they would never show up on the Premiere... I assume they were implemented with the 14.4 update I received last week. I don't mind the ads on the discovery bar at all, but having a banner pop up over part of the screen when I pause a show is quite annoying.
> 
> If anyone is interested, the ad said "See great (and green) technology here!"
> 
> ...


Wow! I sure miss the days when I had to walk up to the TV to turn it on/off or increase/decrease the volume or better yet, change the channel. I guess an advertisement banner is not that bad compared to the good old TV days.
Just a little humor guys.


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## jmccorm (Oct 8, 2000)

bschuler2007 said:


> As for the guy who was embarrassed when his friend struggled to clear it... ummm... Something similar happened about 2 years ago to me, and yes, it is VERY sad. Especially when you are laughed at with a room full of people just because of some crappy ad on Tivo.


Funny that you mention that. I really feel cheap when I have company and I or someone else pauses the TV, only to see an advertisement pop-up.

Someone may not share that point of view, and that's fine. But I think it reflects poorly upon me when I've chosen a piece of personal electronics that behaves in that way. It is like I'm running advertisement sponsored freeware or something because I can't afford the regular version.


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## strejcek (Mar 15, 2006)

I would have to agree, I don't like paying for service and seeing advertisement pushed to me. I am paying for a premium service with Tivo and I don't like seeing the ads pop up. The ads don't bother me, but what bothers me is seeing them when I have already paid for the service. I wouldn't care to see them if Tivo wasn't already charging me and I was getting the service free. Seems like Tivo is double dipping; getting paid from their subscribers and also getting paid by the companies for advertising. I don't do free advertising; first thing I do when I buy a new vehicle is tell the dealership to remove their sticker from the back, unless they agree to pay me for advertising for them. Oddly enough, I have yet to have a dealership take me up on that offer.


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## caddyroger (Mar 15, 2005)

strejcek said:


> I would have to agree, I don't like paying for service and seeing advertisement pushed to me. I am paying for a premium service with Tivo and I don't like seeing the ads pop up. The ads don't bother me, but what bothers me is seeing them when I have already paid for the service. I wouldn't care to see them if Tivo wasn't already charging me and I was getting the service free. Seems like Tivo is double dipping; getting paid from their subscribers and also getting paid by the companies for advertising. I don't do free advertising; first thing I do when I buy a new vehicle is tell the dealership to remove their sticker from the back, unless they agree to pay me for advertising for them. Oddly enough, I have yet to have a dealership take me up on that offer.


Just remember you could be paying more a month or more for lifetime if there was not for ad's. May be they need 2 tiers of service 1 for ad free at $25.00 a months or 1 with ad's at $12.95 a month


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## RichB (Apr 2, 2003)

strejcek said:


> I would have to agree, I don't like paying for service and seeing advertisement pushed to me. I am paying for a premium service with TiVo and I don't like seeing the ads pop up. The ads don't bother me, but what bothers me is seeing them when I have already paid for the service. I wouldn't care to see them if TiVo wasn't already charging me and I was getting the service free. Seems like TiVo is double dipping; getting paid from their subscribers and also getting paid by the companies for advertising. I don't do free advertising; first thing I do when I buy a new vehicle is tell the dealership to remove their sticker from the back, unless they agree to pay me for advertising for them. Oddly enough, I have yet to have a dealership take me up on that offer.


I agree about the pause ad's. It lacks class.

I had to laugh, I always do the same thing with dealerships. I offer to rent them advertising space. No takers. 

I also tell them not to expect me to pay for a car with their emblem on it 

- Rich


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## RichB (Apr 2, 2003)

caddyroger said:


> Just remember you could be paying more a month or more for lifetime if there was not for ad's. May be they need 2 tiers of service 1 for ad free at $25.00 a months or 1 with ad's at $12.95 a month


NO ad's for lifetime service.

How about no fee but you have to watch commercials. Any takers 

- Rich


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## windsurfdog (May 1, 2009)

Ads? What ads?


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## jmccorm (Oct 8, 2000)

caddyroger said:


> Just remember you could be paying more a month or more for lifetime if there was not for ad's. May be they need 2 tiers of service 1 for ad free at $25.00 a months or 1 with ad's at $12.95 a month


Your imagined fee structure is off-target, but you have the correct basic idea. I don't want freeware-style sponsored advertising. (Even more so when it the hardware and the service isn't free to begin with.) I have no problem paying more in order remove the nuisance which screams that I'm either stupid or cheap.


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## jerryboyle (May 23, 2009)

kturcotte said:


> Wish they had a way to disable it. I'd be willing to pay $2 or $3 more a month for this.


Check the alt.video.ptv.tivo newsgroup for my 8/29 post titled "TiVo Premiere hack to disable annoying ads when pausing".

This hack essentially turns the Pause button into a Pause-Clear button. You can undo the hack simply by repeating it, i.e. it acts as a toggle.

Wish there were an easy way to collect my monthly fee!


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

jerryboyle said:


> Check the alt.video.ptv.tivo newsgroup for my 8/29 post titled "TiVo Premiere hack to disable annoying ads when pausing".
> 
> This hack essentially turns the Pause button into a Pause-Clear button. You can undo the hack simply by repeating it, i.e. it acts as a toggle.


Could you post it here? Or would that be bad?


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## jerryboyle (May 23, 2009)

crxssi said:


> Could you post it here? Or would that be bad?


**WARNING (8/31) ** This hack isn't behaving quite as expected. After a cold reboot to try to clear Netflix issues, the unit rebooted again shortly thereafter for reasons unknown. After the 2nd reboot Pause ads came back, as expected, for SD menus but not for HD menus. Play bar behavior reverted as expected for both HD and SD menus. All else seems normal so far. Consider this hack risky pending further testing. Volunteer testers please report your results. Thanks, Jerry

**UPDATE (9/1) ** The unexpected reboot did not occur after reapplying the hack and doing a restart; also the Pause ads and Play bar came back, as expected, in both HD and SD menus. The hack now behaves exactly as I expected and initially described it and I've observed no adverse consequences. Since the S-P-S sequences have been around since TiVo Series 1 days when TiVo made no attempt to hide them, they are as safe as hacks can be. But they're still hacks and aren't officially supported by TiVo. Proceed with caution, if you like, and please report your results if you do. Thanks, Jerry.

From alt.video.ptv.tivo:

This extends a well-received TiVo S3 hack that I posted some time ago so
that it also works for the HD menus of the TiVo Premiere. As others noted
then you can clear the ads manually with the Clear button or by tapping the
FF button each time you pause, but this does it automatically. I just wanted
to share this here in case no one else has discovered and posted it.

** TiVo Premiere/S3 hack to disable annoying ads when pausing **

1. Switch to SD menus:

TiVo | Messages & Settings | Settings | Displays | Choose TiVo Menus | TiVo
with SD Menus

2. Execute (slightly modified) hack to make Play bar disappear quickly:

Live TV-Pause-Down Arrow-Select-Play-Select-Pause-Select

3. Switch back to HD menus:

TiVo | Messages & Settings | Settings | Displays | Choose TiVo Menus | TiVo
with HD Menus

Skip steps 1 and 3 if you're using SD menus or for TiVo S3. Repeat above
after each reboot.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

jerryboyle said:


> **WARNING (8/31) ** This hack isn't behaving quite as expected. After a cold reboot to try to clear Netflix issues, the unit rebooted again shortly thereafter for reasons unknown. After the 2nd reboot Pause ads came back, as expected, for SD menus but not for HD menus. Play bar behavior reverted as expected for both HD and SD menus. All else seems normal so far. Consider this hack risky pending further testing. Volunteer testers please report your results. Thanks, Jerry
> [...]
> Skip steps 1 and 3 if you're using SD menus or for TiVo S3. Repeat above
> after each reboot.


Thanks! I didn't know it was not persistent, so I probably won't bother. Especially since I do still want to see the bar, just not the Ad's nor the "more info about" stuff. I wish they (TiVo) would give us some control over this stuff.


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## lujan (May 24, 2010)

I couldn't get the hack to work on my Premiere.


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## jerryboyle (May 23, 2009)

lujan said:


> I couldn't get the hack to work on my Premiere.


Check the section titled Select-Play-Select Codes in the New Almost Complete TiVo Codes List thread. This is in the TiVo Underground forum. I think this link should get you there:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=122090

Select-Play-Select codes can be tricky to enter and may take several attempts until you get the rhythm. I almost always get them to work the first time by holding the remote absolutely still, placing one thumb on the Select key and the other thumb on the Play key and then entering the sequence in a steady rhythm of about 2 key presses per second.

As the referenced forum thread states you may have more luck if you Pause when playing a recording rather than in Live TV. Both ways work.

Just be sure

1. You're in SD Menus - the S-P-S-Pause-S code won't work in HD Menus.

2. You clear *all* Pause ads before entering the sequence - you may need to hit Down more than once. Make sure you hit the key below Select, not the Slow key below Pause.

3. Don't leave SD Menus if the Pause ads still appear there. If they're still present in SD Menus they'll still be there in HD Menus. If you need multiple S-P-S-Pause-S attempts, go back to TiVo Central before going back to Live TV or playing a recording and reentering the sequence. Sometimes if your 1st attempt fails TiVo seems to ignore subsequent attempts in Live TV or that recording. If the S-P-S sequence is successful you'll hear a Ding-Ding-Ding sound.

4. Note the **WARNING** that I added to the hack. If you're not an experienced user or a gambler who hates these ads, don't try this hack. So far I've still had no problems except that my Pause ads seem to be gone forever in HD Menus - I expected them to return after each reboot.

Good luck if you choose to proceed. Please report any success or problems you encounter.


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## jerryboyle (May 23, 2009)

crxssi said:


> Thanks! I didn't know it was not persistent, so I probably won't bother. Especially since I do still want to see the bar, just not the Ad's nor the "more info about" stuff. I wish they (TiVo) would give us some control over this stuff.


We had a discussion about the loss of the Play bar when I originally proposed this hack for the TiVo S3. This was shortly after they introduced the sometimes useful More About This Show buttons when you paused. One experienced user was thrilled to get rid of everything, finding the Play bar even more obtrusive than the new button; I generally agree with him but sometimes I want it and sometimes I miss it. Another user stated that he liked my hack better than his technique of using the FF button to clear the screen. I liked the FF idea better than my own hack because FF is right next to Pause; as a lefty it's quite awkward to stretch for the Clear button after you hit Pause. However, now that they've replaced the useful More About button with nothing but ads I prefer my hack.

Try the FF button instead of Clear if you don't use my hack - I think you'll like it. And speaking of FF I should warn everyone that my hack also quickly clears the Play bar during FF mode; again this is a mixed blessing depending on your preferences.

Also note my 9/1 update to the posted hack. I now feel more confident about it, but users should still evaluate the risk.


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

Thanks for this info, jerryboyle. I was able to invoke the hack to get the ad (and playbar) to hide quickly. Will see how I like it for awhile. Those ads make my eyes bleed.

Now I wish there was a button to make the playbar appear for a bit (without resuming/affecting the video playback.)


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## worachj (Oct 14, 2006)

Fofer said:


> Now I wish there was a button to make the playbar appear for a bit (without resuming/affecting the video playback.)


Hit the play button.


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

worachj said:


> Hit the play button.


Yeah, except that "resumes/affects the video playback."


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

Fofer said:


> Yeah, except that "resumes/affects the video playback."


Which is the lesser evil? You can't have your cake and eat it too.

When I pause, it's because I want to see what is on the screen. That is more important than seeing the progress bar, so that's what I choose.
The only purpose of the progress bar is to show you where you are in the recording. Press play before you pause, or while you're watching.
Problem solved.


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