Auto Hop Explained

[Scherrman]

Hope you can read it

 

[Scherrman]

Back side of it.

 

[dfergie]

Split these posts off from the Team Summit General Assembly thread for easier access...

 

[sparc]

my guess is that this is an s211/s263 feature. Apparently it is active right now, but you need PTAT enabled for the feature to show up on the older recordings.

As soon as you turn off PTAT, the AutoHop option disappears on the recording.

 

[Rinker97]

Very nice feature. The skip ahead is great and much better than what my cable company had but this will be even better.

 

[upsss]

What are the technical reasons for Auto Hop only after 1:00am?

 

[king3pj]

What are the technical reasons for Auto Hop only after 1:00am?

My guess is someone from Dish has to watch these shows and put some kind of marker at the beginning and end of all commercial breaks. 1:00am is the time the hopper checks for updates each night so the commercial info could be downloaded then. I doubt the software is smart enough to know a commercial is on without some kind of human intervention from Dish.

 

[dfergie]

My guess is someone from Dish has to watch these shows and put some kind of marker at the beginning and end of all commercial breaks. 1:00am is the time the hopper checks for updates each night so the commercial info could be downloaded then. I doubt the software is smart enough to know a commercial is on without some kind of human intervention from Dish.

Actually there are flags that let the dvr's know the difference between commercials & programming... my Replay skips commercials perfectly, and the Directv dvrs when using slip are pretty good at finding the start of program / end of commercials.

 

[king3pj]

Actually there are flags that let the dvr's know the difference between commercials & programming... my Replay skips commercials perfectly, and the Directv dvrs when using slip are pretty good at finding the start of program / end of commercials.

If that's the case I don't see the reason for waiting until 1:00am either. They are going to piss off the advertisers with this anyways and I don't think waiting until 1:00 will solve that. It doesn't bother me because I don't watch most recorded shows the day they air anyways. If it is completely automated why wait though?

 

[dfergie]

Actually there are flags that let the dvr's know the difference between commercials & programming... my Replay skips commercials perfectly, and the Directv dvrs when using slip are pretty good at finding the start of program / end of commercials.

It's either flags or the blank spots that Replay & DIRECTV dvr's find (sometimes just a few frames).

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I just played with it, and it works... and surprisingly all the PTAT content is already coded for AutoHop!

 

[goober]

So it only works on SELECT shows?

 

[Ilya]

So it only works on SELECT shows?

Yes. Some shows from yesterday have the hopper icon, but not all of them.
For example, American Idol, Survivor - yes; Law&Order, Revenge - no.

Sent from my iPad 3 using SatelliteGuys

 

[Character Zero]

So does it work only if you go to the PTAT screen or does it also work for shows that are saved from PTAT?

 

[sparc]

So does it work only if you go to the PTAT screen or does it also work for shows that are saved from PTAT?

i have a recording that i made when PTAT was turned off last night. I turned on PTAT and it shows the AutoHop icon on the recording.

so it should show the AutoHop with your saved recordings.

 

[Ilya]

Note that Rewind, FastForward and SkipBack buttons do not hop over commercials. You can still see commercials if you rewind or skip back after the hop.

Sent from my iPad 3 using SatelliteGuys

 

[Brodieb]

I am betting the after 1 PM thing is an agreement with the networks for advertising purposes. Advertisers pay BIG money to runs ads in Primetime, and for Dish to skip them automatically is a big deal.

 

[Hall]

Actually there are flags that let the dvr's know the difference between commercials & programming... my Replay skips commercials perfectly, and the Directv dvrs when using slip are pretty good at finding the start of program / end of commercials.

I was wondering if there were markers and actually the more you think about it, there certainly has to be, but for other reasons. Local stations are allowed to insert "local" commercials, even during primetime hours, correct ? I'll bet that's the real reason for the markers and TiVo, errr, sorry, Dish is taking advantage of them.

People have to remember, it's not as simple as skipping ahead 60 seconds or 120 seconds or in the case of networks like Spike or USA, skipping ahead 360 seconds (6 minutes ! Okay, I might be exaggerating a bit !). Commercial breaks are always in 30 second increments, but the total time varies.

 

[dfergie]

I was wondering if there were markers and actually the more you think about it, there certainly has to be, but for other reasons. Local stations are allowed to insert "local" commercials, even during primetime hours, correct ? I'll bet that's the real reason for the markers and TiVo, errr, sorry, Dish is taking advantage of them.

People have to remember, it's not as simple as skipping ahead 60 seconds or 120 seconds or in the case of networks like Spike or USA, skipping ahead 360 seconds (6 minutes ! Okay, I might be exaggerating a bit !). Commercial breaks are always in 30 second increments, but the total time varies.

This is probably more like it as some locals "push" their time on their spots more than others... (I get locals & distants and can compare).

 

[tomcrown1]

The reason for 1am delay is that it gives Dish a very strong legal grounds if the locals should try to sue. Consider Comcast on demand, they show
network programming 24 hours after they air. Comcast makes money by running their own ads. You do not see any of the local or network ads.

Dish can claim in a court of law that they at least give the viewers a chance to view netork ads while Comcat does not, so if Dish hop skip is not legal then comcast on demand offer is not legal, thus this feature is legal the way dish has it set up.