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How Important is This to You?

  • It's so important that I'd pay extra for it.

    Votes: 132 25.7%
  • It's important but I wouldn't pay extra for it.

    Votes: 267 51.9%
  • Not important, but I'd probably use it if it was free.

    Votes: 79 15.4%
  • I'd probably never use it one way or the other.

    Votes: 36 7.0%

The Editing Thread

16K views 35 replies 32 participants last post by  heidismiles 
#1 ·
#27 ·
I am new to the Tivo forum, but not new to computers. I am expecting my first Tivo unit this holiday and can't wait to start trying out all the features (hidden and otherwise).

Of course I headed right to the requested features section to see what the big complaints are. I have to say not much to complain about really.

The editing feature was the first one that I felt strongly enough about to register, join and post about.

Here's my two cents. I don't think editing features are requested enough by the general public nor would they be used or understood. Can you imagine the orders of magnitude of problem-solving they would have to add to the help hotline? As it stands right now, your show is either going to be there or it's not. Imagine accidentally divided shows, kids joining all the shows together, etc.

Also, I don't think the Tivo would deal very well with file fragmentation. As it stands now, the typical Tivo users drive would be virtually fragmentation free. Editing introduces the problem of lots of tiny file fragments, lots of skipping around on the drive and ultimately a loss of playback speed.

It also wouldn't sit well with the MPAA.
 
#28 ·
I believe that much of this functionality could (more) easily implemented in the TiVoToGo software that is being release shortly. The downside is that, as with the ability to use Broadband connections to the Internet rather than being forced into relying on the internal modem for activation, configuration, and the 'daily calls' (e.g., keeping pace with current technology - something that TiVo does fairly well in general but that DirecTV refuses to keep such pace in their implementation of TiVo.) If you are not familiar with T2Go then you should visit TiVoToGo Transfers or, go to the top level of the Official Tivo Website . To get a better idea of what all TiVo and other home theater component manufacturers have in store in the coming year visit the Virtual Pavillion at the 2005 CES Show.

As for implementing the solution within the box and in a manner that should be consistent with any commercial agreements, I think that there should be a 2 part enhancement:
  • It seems that one aspect of the common goal in this thread is the ability to place User Defined Markers. There would be at least one kind of marker and, at most, three types:
    • The simplest would be a type of binary marker (call it a Skip marker), where the first one encountered is an 'In' point (start skipping) and the next one it encounters is an 'out' (stop skipping). Or, this type of marker could be used just to identify commercial breaks, scenes that you might deem offensive or unsuitable for your kids, etc.
    • Assuming that a skip marker is used to "cut out" some of the playback, then there still might be a need for two other types of markers. The first would be used to indicate a scene from which to begin playing the recorded material, an "In marker", in effect "cutting" the preceeding material.
    • The compliment to this would be a marker that would suppress the remainder of the output. This would be an "Out marker" that would have the effect of "trimming off" the remainder of the output.
  • Additionally, and this has been suggested in at least one other thread in this forum, would be a Batch Output or Archive Show(s) function, wherein the user could specify which show or shows were to be output, serially, to a VCR, recordable DVD (or, perhaps with T2Go, to the PC), or even to watch. The latter might even allow for looped output and/or random output, which would be a tremendous benefit for children's viewing.
I believe that what makes all of these workable, in some form or other, is that they are relatively simple to code, as they rely on the user placing the markers, and that they would appear to meet contractual obligations, because someone has to watch the whole show in order to know where they would like to place the markers. And, given the ability to Archive the shows off of the recorder frees up space to use the TiVo more effectively.

BTW: Your TiVo disk would become fragmented even if you started with a virgin box and never deleted a show: TiVo is constantly putting new data and removing old data from your system, i.e., Suggestions, Showcase, etc. It does eventually degrade performance (to wit, my 3 year old Sony SAT-T60) so that you encounter all sorts of odd behaviour. I would love to have the ability to force a defrag on these boxes. But, I guess that's for another thread.
DAD
 
#30 ·
I have a TiVo with a DVD burner. In order to capture entire programs from some networks I have to start the recording two minutes early and end two minutes late. I would like to be able to trim the unneed recorded material as part of the burn to DVD process. An option during the program selection process that would allow a start and stop marker to be set in the program would be great.
 
#31 ·
Looks like this thread has been inactive for quite a while... but I'm with saberman on this. 2 30 minutes episodes of a show recorded at best quality with 1 minute of padding on the beginning and end of the show has now kicked what should fit on 1 DVD to 2 DVDs. Sure, the ability to edit commercials would be nice... but trimming the padding is my personal wish :)
 
#32 ·
I would love the ability to edit out portions of recording that I don't want!

I like to record music bands playing on shows like David Letterman, Jay Leno, Conan, etc. To get around having to record the whole hour, I have noticed that the music in the shows is 99% of the time in the last 10 minutes of the show (sometimes the last 5 minutes). So what I do is a manual record for the channel, date and time for only the last 10-15 minutes of the show. This records more than I need or want , but it pays to be on the safe side, and it saves a lot of time and space. Of course this may not work for most people, but for anyone who's like me, you might want to try it.

John
 
#33 ·
Ok this thread has been abandoned for a while. I'd like to see the ability to edit commercials or any portion of the show. After all, with a VCR you can do this with ease and the MPAA isn't getting upset over that. Once you record the program you should be free to do what you want with it. What is the difference if you delete it, or just FF over it??
 
#34 ·
SuperRob said:
Personally, I'd settle for a "Delete From Here" feature while watching a program. Whereever the program is in the timeline, everything after is deleted.
I'd settle for this, especially on the S3, I could record movies on Universal HD and get rid of the 20-30 minutes of commercials at the end :)
 
#35 ·
So did this topic die?

This is something I really want. All the time my wife saves a 3 hour talk show just to show me a 3 minute snippet. It would be great to trim the before and after and just save 3 minutes of it.

Especially on my HD Tivo which really has limited recording time.

Jason
 
#36 ·
I think the "reverse padding" feature would be an important first step toward getting the content we want. If we can schedule our Season Passes to start late or end early, that takes care of many of the complaints here.
 
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