DVR trimmer?

Smiile · ‎06-27-2009

i have the office season 5 and season 6 on my dvr, it would be cool if you could "trim" out the commercials and leftovers of the shows out, it wont be much for just 1 show but theres goonna be like 50 recordings after season 6 is over and itd end up savin alot of space on the dvr.

RCSMG · ‎12-10-2007

That would be nice. If the dvr had a pause feature during a recording, at least you could pause the recording through the commercial breaks. And then you would never record the commercials at all.

kryptonite · ‎04-10-2009

You think the channels would allow such a feature? I could see a standalone TiVO with a "pause recordings as you watch live" feature, but I don't think the channel providers would allow the TV service providers (AT&T, DirecTV, Comcast, etc.) to have such a feature.

Joe_FL · ‎01-26-2009

I had a similar idea, but it wasn't about trimming the commercials out of the middle sections of a show like The Office.

It was about trimming away the end of the recording.

I record football games and because of the variable length of games and possibilitiy of overtime, I routinely set the games to record at least one hour beyond the program guide's idea of when the game ends. That way I don't miss the most exciting parts of many games. What I end up with is a lot of DVR disk space wasted on time after the game was over.

My idea was that one solution might be to allow recording of channel 9999, which is the DVR channel, so to speak. If that were possible, I'd make a secondary recording of just the game, and leave out whatever follows. Once I have the second generation recording, which being digital, should be a perfect copy, I could delete the orginal and save a bunch of disk space on my DVR for more football.

RCSMG · ‎12-10-2007

One flaw I can see with that ability is, if you don't have enough space on your dvr to re-record the program. You run the risk of missing part of it, or the dvr just wouldn't record it because of limited drive space. IMO

nicechiguy · ‎12-03-2008

One way to solve this problem would be to allow people to either: (1) supplement their built-in DVR hard disk with an external HD or (2) allow people to copy their DVR content to their computer hard drive.

mcavic_1 · ‎10-02-2009

You don't need to trim out the commercials - just fast forward them. We're lucky enough to have that ability.

nicechiguy · ‎12-03-2008

Skipping commercials used to be a real quick pitch, tap the 30 second jump button six times. Roughly six months ago, AT&T changed this so now it is a 29 second skip, and I have to wait for one skip to complete before I can start the next skip.

I hear Comcast is making a real push to get back some of their old subscribers. I'm seriously considering it.

DouglasPHill · ‎01-22-2008

In my family, a recorded show is watched at different times by different family members. I always thought that the first person watching a recording, as he/she skips commercials, that the DVR would remember this for the follow up viewings.

stonecrd · ‎03-23-2010

Joe_FL wrote:
I had a similar idea, but it wasn't about trimming the commercials out of the middle sections of a show like The Office.
It was about trimming away the end of the recording.

I record football games and because of the variable length of games and possibilitiy of overtime, I routinely set the games to record at least one hour beyond the program guide's idea of when the game ends. That way I don't miss the most exciting parts of many games. What I end up with is a lot of DVR disk space wasted on time after the game was over.

My idea was that one solution might be to allow recording of channel 9999, which is the DVR channel, so to speak. If that were possible, I'd make a secondary recording of just the game, and leave out whatever follows. Once I have the second generation recording, which being digital, should be a perfect copy, I could delete the orginal and save a bunch of disk space on my DVR for more football.

I would prefer that the guide would just get realtime updates so that if programming runs over the guide would know it and deal with the ending time approprietly.

texasguy37 · ‎05-18-2009

stonecrd wrote:

I would prefer that the guide would just get realtime updates so that if programming runs over the guide would know it and deal with the ending time approprietly.

Are you aware of a DVR that has this technology?

RCSMG · ‎12-10-2007

My DTV dvr didn't. I had many recordings end abrubptly because a sporting event ran long, or a news event went long. I guess we will be seeing that feature in the InTelligent DVRs.

texasguy37 · ‎05-18-2009

It seems like an impossibility. The ability would need to exist to monitor the duration of every live event on every broadcast and cable TV channel that exists and to then instantaneously update every program guide used by every TV provider to extend the duration of those live events to reflect the exact minute that the program ends.

RCSMG · ‎12-10-2007

Actually, technology already exists for tv broadcasters. For computer controlled commercial insertion advertisers pay to have their ads run during specific programs. There signals transmitted from the networks that some of these systems receive to let them know when to air a specific ad. Unfortunately the technology would be quite expensive for a stb manufacturer to add for the public. But if a software app that could detect that signal could be developed and implemented. Then that would pave the way for dvrs to be able to detect when a scheduled show begins and ends. The developer of that software would make a lot of money also. Who knows, someone could be working on it even as we write.

Need_Answers · ‎01-08-2012

I have an "old" Pioneer DVR which has all these trim functions and then some. You can go into edit mode on any recorded content and trim out anything you want. Typically, a 1 hour program can be editted down to around 40 minutes. The comercial skip feature of it also rocks. Press once for 30 second skip, quickly press again to skip 1 minute, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, and lastly 10 minutes, although pressing once more returns to no skip action being taken in case you went to far. There is a brief delay before it does the skip action in case you press multiple time to skip more. As a bonus, it has the exact same feature to back up. Backup 30 seconds, 1 minute, etc.

jbdet313 · ‎09-23-2011

You're confusing two meanings of "DVR". What you're speaking of is a DVD recorder rather than what is known as a DVR.

DVRs are designed to be time-shifting devices. DVD recorders are designed to be archiving devices. Because of copyright limitations and licensing issues, provider-issued DVRs will not have these features.

clmoore3rd · ‎01-08-2012

nicechiguy wrote:
Skipping commercials used to be a real quick pitch, tap the 30 second jump button six times. Roughly six months ago, AT&T changed this so now it is a 29 second skip, and I have to wait for one skip to complete before I can start the next skip.

Being a new subscriber and coming from Dish Network where this type of jump is possible it is mildly annoying that I have to wait a few seconds for the 29 second skip to stop before I can start the next one. Commercials are typically 2mins so I was used to giving a 4 quick taps on the Dish Network remote to jump 2mins in one shot and I can't do that with the U-verse system. Oh well, a 1-2s wait time is better than having to press the fast forward button and then stop it when you see the commercials are over, which means going back to catch the start of the show after the commercial.