# “Skip” feature more absent than present...



## davetroup (Aug 15, 2004)

I love TiVo’s “skip” feature. It was great when they introduced it a couple of years ago. And, for a while, nearly all Prime time network TV programming supported Skip, maybe not immediately, but within a few hours of the show's broadcast.

Lately, though, fewer and fewer programs have skip enabled, and it’s gotten to the point that perhaps only about 20-25% of the shows I record support the skip feature. I’m not talking obscure programs, I’m talking about shows like Modern Family, The Blacklist, etc. I still reflexively press the skip button, but now I find myself startled on the rare occasion that it actually does anything.

Presumably there is some sort of manual process for inserting the skip markers into programs. Is Tivo/Rovi simply not investing in doing so any more?

Edit: I’m amused that the forum still calls me a “New Member” after nearly 14 years...


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

TiVo said recently that they are playing with a new system where they add skip to the most popular shows across a larger number of channels and times, rather then a fixed set of channels and a specific block of time. It's resulted in some shows having it intermittently and some shows that use to have it not getting it at all.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

davetroup said:


> Lately, though, fewer and fewer programs have skip enabled, and it's gotten to the point that perhaps only about 20-25% of the shows I record support the skip feature. I'm not talking obscure programs, I'm talking about shows like Modern Family, The Blacklist, etc. I still reflexively press the skip button, but now I find myself startled on the rare occasion that it actually does anything.
> Edit: I'm amused that the forum still calls me a "New Member" after nearly 14 years...


TiVo uses post count for that tag, but you can change it.

There's a thread, somewhat active, where SM failures are posted. -> Skip not available on shows recorded tonight I can't recall ever missing SM on The Blacklist.

So I checked -> Skip not available on shows recorded tonight


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

JoeKustra said:


> TiVo uses post count for that tag, but you can change it.


Yeah, I make it a point to change mine weekly...


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

davetroup said:


> I love TiVo's "skip" feature. It was great when they introduced it a couple of years ago. And, for a while, nearly all Prime time network TV programming supported Skip, maybe not immediately, but within a few hours of the show's broadcast.
> 
> Lately, though, fewer and fewer programs have skip enabled, and it's gotten to the point that perhaps only about 20-25% of the shows I record support the skip feature. I'm not talking obscure programs, I'm talking about shows like Modern Family, The Blacklist, etc. I still reflexively press the skip button, but now I find myself startled on the rare occasion that it actually does anything.
> 
> ...


Something is wrong. Except for the nights TiVo had a problem, skip has been pretty consistent for me. I hardly ever get it on one channel that has garbled CC but otherwise, pretty dependable.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

Yeah, as of early this morning I had it on all but one of last night's shows (Krypton)...


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## longrider (Oct 26, 2017)

I only use TiVo for OTA but the only thing that has been missing Skip for several weeks was the last episode of Agents of Shield


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## davetroup (Aug 15, 2004)

Thanks for the link to that other post. There seem to be people complaining about some of the same shows I’ve noticed don’t have Skip anymore (60 Minutes, Late Show with Jimmy Fallon, Deception) but it seems as if others report success with episodes which failed for me. 

I don’t have an understanding of how the skip data is transmitted and maybe that’s part of the problem. Sometimes a show will start out saying “Skip is available” but then when I try to use it, it’s not, and the “available” message disappears. 

Does Tivo still pay any attention to that old survey where you could report skip failures?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

davetroup said:


> Does Tivo still pay any attention to that old survey where you could report skip failures?


Unknown, but I still report them.


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## KDeFlane (Jan 29, 2014)

davetroup said:


> Presumably there is some sort of *manual process* for inserting the skip markers into programs.


 I picture a team of slaves in a dark room watching these shows for the elites of society, marking the skip breaks for pennies per click. {_*wink* hyperbole/humor *wink*_} Sure, conditions are (probably) not that bad for the workers, but I still feel uncomfortable taking advantage of them when I can just FF thru commercials myself. Our household sometimes rewinds to watch an amusing ad, a movie trailer, or other local info we would otherwise miss. From what I gather, some complaints about the erratic nature of SkipMode might be lessened with a marker to indicate when SM will or won't be applied, such as a "come back in 2 hours" or "this show is not slated for SM processing" after a query. It's more about expectations, isn't it?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

KDeFlane said:


> It's more about expectations, isn't it?


Just think how nice it would be if every program recorded had a code that reflected its SM status.


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## davetroup (Aug 15, 2004)

KDeFlane said:


> I picture a team of slaves in a dark room watching these shows for the elites of society, marking the skip breaks for pennies per click. {_*wink* hyperbole/humor *wink*_} Sure, conditions are (probably) not that bad for the workers, but I still feel uncomfortable taking advantage of them when I can just FF thru commercials myself. Our household sometimes rewinds to watch an amusing ad, a movie trailer, or other local info we would otherwise miss. From what I gather, some complaints about the erratic nature of SkipMode might be lessened with a marker to indicate when SM will or won't be applied, such as a "come back in 2 hours" or "this show is not slated for SM processing" after a query. It's more about expectations, isn't it?


Hahaha... finally, full employment for vidiots! 

More seriously, I had hypothesized that Tivo had enabled a capability on the devices of their employees for adding commercial markers on programs those emoloyees watched at home, and then propagating the skip data through their network to other users. I thought that might be a way of getting skip data on most popular shows, if they could incentivize enough employees to participate. That might also explain why there would be less skip data these days, as people may have grown weary of dutifully marking the commercial.

The idea of having people in a room watching every TV show just to mark commercials seemed awfully expensive. But I am rather curious how they DO do it.


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## JohnS-MI (Jan 25, 2014)

If the show doesn't display the skip icon in the listing (My Shows), I can handle that. However, I am seeing a lot of cases where the Skip icon is displayed, but Skip Mode doesn't work. Those get me all excited, then dash my hopes on a pile of rocks.


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## davetroup (Aug 15, 2004)

JohnS-MI said:


> If the show doesn't display the skip icon in the listing (My Shows), I can handle that. However, I am seeing a lot of cases where the Skip icon is displayed, but Skip Mode doesn't work. Those get me all excited, then dash my hopes on a pile of rocks.


Yes, I have that a lot too. When you first start playing the show, it displays "Skip is available" but then it turns out not to be.


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## Rob Helmerichs (Oct 17, 2000)

longrider said:


> I only use TiVo for OTA but the only thing that has been missing Skip for several weeks was the last episode of Agents of Shield


Looking at the other thread, that was one that showed up for me overnight...


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

davetroup said:


> The idea of having people in a room watching every TV show just to mark commercials seemed awfully expensive. But I am rather curious how they DO do it.


This post might help -> Skip Mode Not Working Sunday 04/29/18


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## andyw715 (Jul 31, 2007)

It funny. I just received an email from TiVo today with the subject "You have SkipMode!"

"
Here at TiVo, we are thrilled to let you know that SkipMode® has arrived on your TiVo box.
Haven't heard about SkipMode? On certain recorded shows SkipMode gives you the power to skip entire commercial breaks with the push of a single button. SkipMode is supported for the top 20 most-watched broadcast and cable networks.
You'll find SkipMode-enabled shows in your My Shows folder with the SKIP icon. When you watch your recorded shows, press the green *D* button and TiVo will skip over entire commercial breaks and resume your show in the blink of an eye.
Is this a rip in the space-time continuum? No. It's just SkipMode from TiVo.
Happy Watching!
Your TiVo Team"


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## Miles Lott (Dec 25, 2017)

Yeah, I got the same email which is what led me here. I was pretty sure this was already a feature  I haven't monitored consistency. But, for shows also in syndication, perhaps only the first run in prime time is marked as compatible? Just a thought.


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## MichaelAinNB (Dec 28, 2013)

I got the same email. Thing is, I own three Premiere's so, no TiVo, I DON'T have skip mode. But thanks just the same for the worthless email.


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## realityboy (Jun 13, 2003)

MichaelAinNB said:


> I got the same email. Thing is, I own three Premiere's so, no TiVo, I DON'T have skip mode. But thanks just the same for the worthless email.


It's being added to Premieres. That was the purpose of the email.


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## mmf01 (Jan 31, 2011)

Miles Lott said:


> Yeah, I got the same email which is what led me here. I was pretty sure this was already a feature  I haven't monitored consistency. But, for shows also in syndication, perhaps only the first run in prime time is marked as compatible? Just a thought.





MichaelAinNB said:


> I got the same email. Thing is, I own three Premiere's so, no TiVo, I DON'T have skip mode. But thanks just the same for the worthless email.


Oh, you all mean this email?

Didn't Tivo roll out skipmode like 2 years ago? At first I thought it was April fools, and then when I realized it wasn't, I couldn't stop laughing. We have 2 Roamio's and 2 Mini's that have had this for years. Seems like the marketing magic machine is on the blink, went back in time and did in fact rip the space-time continuum. LOL.










*And as originally communicated back on 02/17/2016







*


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## MichaelAinNB (Dec 28, 2013)

realityboy said:


> It's being added to Premieres. That was the purpose of the email.


That's not what the link in the email indicated. When I selected the "click here for more information" link, the information read, 
*This feature is available on:*


TiVo BOLT®(all models)
TiVo Roamio®(all models)
TiVo Mini (if connected to TiVo BOLT or TiVo Roamio
No indication it's coming to Premieres.


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## realityboy (Jun 13, 2003)

MichaelAinNB said:


> That's not what the link in the email indicated. When I selected the "click here for more information" link, the information read,
> *This feature is available on:*
> 
> 
> ...


The email is not clear at all, but check out the thread about the newest update.


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## MichaelAinNB (Dec 28, 2013)

realityboy said:


> The email is not clear at all, but check out the thread about the newest update.


I will do that. Thanks reality.
The back story to my irritability with the email is, I have "unsubscribed" to these types of emails from TiVo about half a dozen times. But I'm guessing all that did was confirm to TiVo marketing that the email address is valid.


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## realityboy (Jun 13, 2003)

MichaelAinNB said:


> I will do that. Thanks reality.
> The back story to my irritability with the email is, I have "unsubscribed" to these types of emails from TiVo about half a dozen times.


Here's the relavent bit:



> SM will be turned on for half of our S4 installed based tomorrow, and the remaining half on Tuesday. There's a freeze on service changes for the holiday weekend. RC42 is continuing to rollout across our installed base. I believe that only 846 devices and MINI's remain. They will all be authorized for update by Friday afternoon.


So we should get it by Tuesday.


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## MichaelAinNB (Dec 28, 2013)

realityboy said:


> Here's the relavent bit:
> 
> So we should get it by Tuesday.


Thank you.


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## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

I was very pleasantly surprised today to find that last night's NHL playoff game featured skip mode.

Nice!


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## MichaelAinNB (Dec 28, 2013)

chiguy50 said:


> I was very pleasantly surprised today to find that last night's NHL playoff game featured skip mode.
> 
> Nice!


Yeah and it looked like the Knights defense used it to skip most of the game.


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## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

MichaelAinNB said:


> Yeah and it looked like the Knights defense used it to skip most of the game.


So much so that Holtby took pity on them and gave them one freebie.


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## samccfl99 (Sep 7, 2013)

I did not want to start a new thread, so I found this one in Search.

Last night, on Comcast, NOTHING on ALL channels had Skip (AGT particularly pissed me off) and all of them usually have Skip. BAH!!!


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## Mr Tony (Dec 20, 2012)

samccfl99 said:


> I did not want to start a new thread, so I found this one in Search.
> 
> Last night, on Comcast, NOTHING on ALL channels had Skip (AGT particularly pissed me off) and all of them usually have Skip. BAH!!!


more current one
Skip not available on shows recorded tonight


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