[V7Goose]

To my knowledge, these pre-roll ads ONLY affect TE4. Probably one of the best arguments ever to dump that terrible software and roll-back to TE3 while we still can!

But they have already shown their dishonest intentions now, so I do not believe for a second that they will allow us to keep using TE3 much longer. One way or another they seem to be intent on screwing all of us.

Can't you just hear the discussions they have been having with potential advertisers?

Hey, we have given our customers the ability to automatically skip all of your commercials, so unless you start paying us money directly to shove your ads down their throats at the beginning of every show, they will NEVER see your commercials again! Bwahahaha!!!

Oh, and if you get in on the ground floor now, we won't raise your rates when we start forcing them to watch our commercials every 30 minutes, and then every 15 minutes, which we are planning to do as soon as the initial outrage dies down!​

 

[bob1000]

I use Pi-hole in a similar way and have not seen ads like these in TiVo or Roku.

PiHole is a great way to end up in the same place without installing and learning a new router.

I tried PiHole just for fun and liked it, but went back to pfSense pfBlockerNG because it was good enough and all in one box. Whitelisting is much easier with PiHole, as is finding a lot of useful lists. A cheap Raspberry Pi will do the job very well - recommended.

I used a Hyper-V virtual machine and Linux as the host. It was too much work and I had a lot of internet connection problems on that PC that took a lot of research to overcome.

 

[arglebargle2]

Dammit I just switched over to tivo from fios during the summer sale so I'm beyond the 30 day return period.

If this ends up being a full time thing, I guess I'll put the tivo on ebay and switch back.

I didn't buy a dvr with really nice ad skipping capabilities to have ads added to my recordings.

 

[JoeKustra]

I think it's time for @TiVo_Ted to step in and post something about this.

If the OP has Twitter, I would ask @TiVo_Support WTF?

 

[PSU_Sudzi]

I think it's time for @TiVo_Ted to step in and post something about this.

If the OP has Twitter, I would ask @TiVo_Support WTF?

I just tweeted Zatz's article to TiVo support on Twitter. Will see if they respond.

 

[andyf]

I think it's time for @TiVo_Ted to step in and post something about this.

If the OP has Twitter, I would ask @TiVo_Support WTF?

I don't have Twitter, sorry. Maybe someone else could.

 

[Jonathan_S]

But they have already shown their dishonest intentions now, so I do not believe for a second that they will allow us to keep using TE3 much longer. One way or another they seem to be intent on screwing all of us.

I'm not in the beta program, but I heard second hand that they recently asked beta program participants if they still had TE3 units they'd be willing to beta updated TE3 software on.

That hints that they're keeping it for the moment. (Of course it doesn't mean the new update wouldn't contain its own nastiness)

 

[DeltaOne]

My pfSense router has an add on package called pfBlockerNG. It blocks as many ads as I can find lists for. This is blocking over the entire household.

We run pfSense here too, but have used Pi-hole for LAN-wide ad blocking. Pi-hole works great. Every so often I check the Pi-hole dashboard and see that 25 to 30% of our LAN traffic was ads and was blocked. 30% !!!

About a month ago we created VLANs (wired and wireless) for our IOT stuff. We put our Roamio and Minis on the IOT network. But if ads start showing up on our TiVo's I'll move them back to the "good" network that is protected by Pi-hole.

 

[Charles R]

My take... since virtually the rest of the world is doing such I can't logically get upset. And in reality I'm saving more time with AutoSkip - as in if I had to pick both or neither I'd pick both. Although I don't think it will be implemented in all devices. As an example with Amazon's Kindle you can purchase the same tablet with ads (you pay less) or without ads.

If they were to show up illogically I might run out (next decent sale) and purchase a Recast to see how happy I could be with it. Logically even the reduced image quality would be enough to prevent me from switching... but often logical doesn't win out.

PS: I run pi-hole on an ODROID XU4 (Raspberry Pi Killer) along with many other apps (Plex Media Server / MySQL Server / Print Server / Media Server / Etc) and it blocks roughly 27% of my DNS requests (ads and or tracking sites).

 

[Adam C.]

My Tivo is heading for the trash heap if I start getting these ads. Right on queue, the Recast is back on sale today for Prime members.

 

[nrc]

Curious if everyone who is seeing these is a current or past beta tester with their account in beta status.

If this were completely seamless and you can skip it exactly like a regular commercial, it wouldn't bother me that much. Treating their own commercials differently than the content providers' would be pretty heinous.

 

[foghorn2]

What the f*ck! No way! If they start doing this to me I'm out. No way they're forcing me to watch ads on a device I paid almost $1,000 for with lifetime service.

I dont think Tivo would care, they would just tell you you Flock Off , theyve already made money off all these flockers.

 

[Joe3]

Here is another publication on this topic.
From The Verge

TiVo tests running pre-roll ads before DVR recordings

I only post it to show, unfortunately, this disgusting disgrace of a money mugging is beginning to have legs and is running. TiVo is going to have to issue some response to theses stories.
No?

 

[foghorn2]

Here's a video of what happens with Young Sheldon on CBS

www.andyf.com/IMG_0950.MOV

Ironically the Windows store wants 99 cents to watch your MOV file, itunes plays just the audio, I have to load it onto Kodi which played it fine. Insulting.

The commercial itself was not annoying, unlike most streaming ads as the chick was hot.

I could see this working for new TiVo users who do not pay for lifetime or a low MRC.

Lifetime or full MRC: no TiVo ads.

Lower MRC or none: TiVO ads.

I wont have a problem with that. but the Ads need to not be annoying, actually I wish there was a way to insert old tv ads from the 70's and 80's and some 90's- I dont mind watching those. I can spend a whole evening just watching old commercials on youtube.

 

[Dan203]

If they want to do this for new customers who pay less for their TiVo service then so be it. But don’t force it on those of us that paid $600 for lifetime.

 

[steinbch]

I have been a beta tester from 2000 through 2010. Nothing since, but my status on my account is Beta.

If the status on his box is listed as Beta, then most likely it sounds like he has beta software mapped to his TiVo (inadvertantly or purposefully). This will sometimes happen if beta hardware is handed out in a previous beta and not officially enrolled in whatever the latest beta program is. I would put down the pitchforks until more information is shared.

 

[BobCamp1]

My Tivo is heading for the trash heap if I start getting these ads. Right on queue, the Recast is back on sale today for Prime members.

Um... Amazon already does this with their streamed content. Pretty trivial for them to add it to the Recast as well.

As somebody else said, everyone else it doing it because that's where the money is made. At least you can skip it (for now).

 

[krkaufman]

Here's a video of what happens with Young Sheldon on CBS

www.andyf.com/IMG_0950.MOV

22 seconds from launch to content. This will be unacceptable except where employed in lieu of paid service plans. (e.g. see VUDU "Free to Watch")

 

[ufo4sale]

If you elect me as TiVo ambassador I will pledge that this sort of thing NEVER happens to begin with.
A vote for me is a vote for your childrens future.

 

[Adam C.]

Um... Amazon already does this with their streamed content. Pretty trivial for them to add it to the Recast as well.

.

The ads that Amazon inserts are usually 20 second promos of other Prime shows, which I actually don't mind. Also the Recast is only a fraction of the cost of a Tivo and has no monthly fees.