autohop - why does it work only with Prime time

[marklyn]

Curious to know if anyone knows what the logic is why autohop only works when you turn on Prime Time?
I don't intend to use PT since 95% of what's recorded on the "big" networks, I don't really watch.
It would be nice if autohop worked on any recorded shows, but I'm guessing there must be some type of licensing restriction in effect.

 

[HipKat]

Curious to know if anyone knows what the logic is why autohop only works when you turn on Prime Time?
I don't intend to use PT since 95% of what's recorded on the "big" networks, I don't really watch.
It would be nice if autohop worked on any recorded shows, but I'm guessing there must be some type of licensing restriction in effect.

Because Advertisors don't like when people can skip their commercials

 

[Bobby]

and of course we always have the skip button.

 

[marklyn]

Because Advertisors don't like when people can skip their commercials

Then, why do they not mind when PT is turned on?

 

[thomasjk]

Then, why do they not mind when PT is turned on?

They do. Depending on the network there is up to a one week delay before auto hop is active.

 

[celticpride17]

Can someone please name the 16 channels your suppose to be able to autohop with the hopper 3?

 

[n0qcu]

Can someone please name the 16 channels your suppose to be able to autohop with the hopper 3?

It’s FOUR
ABC CBS NBC & FOX

 

[thomasjk]

Can someone please name the 16 channels your suppose to be able to autohop with the hopper 3?

To the best of my knowledge it's only the big four networks. I've never heard of autohop on anything but.

 

[thomasjk]

Can someone please name the 16 channels your suppose to be able to autohop with the hopper 3?

Your confusing the 16 tuners of the Hopper 3 with PTAT that records 4 networks on one transponder. You can record 16 different programs simultaneously.

 

[sktrus]

In a perfect world Hopper would offer Autohop on every recording with commercial breaks. IMO, no fee based station will let that happen. Can you imagine how much we, the customers, will have to pay for that convenience?

 

[charlesrshell]

My have been posted before, don't rememember. How does AutoHop happen? Is it all automatically set up or does is take several technicians to manually to create AutoHop?

 

[marklyn]

My have been posted before, don't rememember. How does AutoHop happen? Is it all automatically set up or does is take several technicians to manually to create AutoHop?

You have to turn on Prime Time recording, which records several evening hours of "prime time" channels every day.

 

[charlesrshell]

You have to turn on Prime Time recording, which records several evening hours of "prime time" channels every day.

I realize that, but what does DISH do to make it available for us?

 

[sam_gordon]

I realize that, but what does DISH do to make it available for us?

I guess someone at the network (as part of the contract) gives the commercial information to Dish.... Break 1 will be at 8:13 from the start of the show and last 2:35. Break 2 will be at 14:53 and last 3:05. Etc. Once they have that information, it would be "easy" to program the skips.

 

[marklyn]

I guess someone at the network (as part of the contract) gives the commercial information to Dish.... Break 1 will be at 8:13 from the start of the show and last 2:35. Break 2 will be at 14:53 and last 3:05. Etc. Once they have that information, it would be "easy" to program the skips

Dunno. Before I switched to Dish I had the Tivo Roamio and used a software called KMTTG. This software pulled a recording from the Tivo, and with the right settings, stripped the commercials out before it re-wrote the .mpg file back out. In the 2 years that I used it, it seemed to work pretty flawlessly, so maybe Hopper has something similar that 'sees' a commercial and allows you to skip it?

 

[Bobby]

In a perfect world Hopper would offer Autohop on every recording with commercial breaks. IMO, no fee based station will let that happen. Can you imagine how much we, the customers, will have to pay for that convenience?

In a perfect world there would be no commercials at all and there would be no need for Autohop...

 

[n0qcu]

From what I remember it was posted on this site when autohop started that DISH has people who watch the prime time shows and then enter the information on the commercials.

 

[navychop]

The four are on a single transponder.

 

[Almighty1]

I realize that, but what does DISH do to make it available for us?

It could be they have some code or other type of signal in the broadcast for the commercials which DISH detects? It seems this was available even with a RCA ProScan VHS VCR. but maybe this explains it better...

Commercial Skipping

Learn, get started, and get help with Channels.

getchannels.com

 

[EatMyVolts]

I have no idea how it is happening as we tried prime time but the wife hated it and we turned it off, but some shows autohop. America's Funniest Home Videos for one.