It's worse than that, because these inserted pre-roll ads are CRASHING people's boxes. And it's been happening for a year now! That they didn't immediately remove the pre-roll ads and FIX the issue, instead only allowing people to contact support to temporarily remove them, is absurd.

This whole move is user-hostile and it shows where TiVo's priorities are. The best thing I did for my home's A/V setup this year was leave TiVo for good. I'm now using Channels DVR with my AppleTV's and it's so much better, elegant and expandable than TiVo, in every way that matters to me most. It's developed by a small, dedicated team, that puts the user experience first. My only regret is that I didn't make this move many years ago.

I miss TiVo Inc. I had TiVo for about a year when Rovi bought them and became TiVo Corporation. Their phone service was excellent. The guide data was acceptable. I miss them.

 

Now they are part of Xperi. It hasn't helped.

 

I updated to TE4 a couple of weeks ago and no ads before shows or TiVo Plus in the guide—does it take a while before this happens?

 

I updated to TE4 a couple of weeks ago and no ads before shows or TiVo Plus in the guide-does it take a while before this happens?

No, but they come and go. Recently there have been non-TiVo+ ads being place both in the guide and on the suggestion bar. I noticed that the gold star ads that at the bottom of TiVo Central with TE3 are the same as the ads on TE4. Both are missing at times. At least their marketing people keep busy.

 

There's so many "TiVo is dying" threads I didn't know where to post this. One of those listicle thingies that are popular these days. It comes out and says TiVo is already dead and has been so for a while...

Top 10 Successful Inventions That Just Up And Died - Listverse

 

The Guide Ads are really annoying.
Dying Networks advertising on a dying platform.

 

Those ads don't really bother me. Had to chuckle at the irony of a recent one promoting a TBS program, on my Roamio OTA, though.

I continue to block the pre-roll ads at the router, however that no longer seems to cause a lag in playback starting, or failing altogether.

 

Watched "The Comey Rule" on my Bolt . No hint of pre roll ads. Could that be because it was a Showtime show? Do they do pre rolls on premium channels? I dont usually subscribe so I dont know.

 

You’re blocking the pre-roll ads?
Did TiVo stop honoring requests to op-out of preroll ads?

 

You're blocking the pre-roll ads?
Did TiVo stop honoring requests to op-out of preroll ads?

Yes, I block them. Never tried calling TiVo about opting out.

 

TIVO just honored my request to opt out - I had to replace my BOLT and they re-appeared. Messaged with agent and they were removed. On my service record on TIVO.COM the request is listed

 

It's ridiculous that you have to call to opt out. It wastes customer reps time having to deal with this, but maybe if more people did this, they'd get the hint to get rid of them.

It's even more ridiculous they do this in the first place. There is no logic in adding pre-rolls before RECORDINGS! The service has been paid for either by monthly, annual, or lifetime subscriptions. It'd be like going to a streaming service, paying for the ad-free experience, and still getting ads, sort of. (There is better example I could use, but I'm worried someone would try patenting it, if it isn't done already.)

 

Yeah, my “chat” to opt-out of the pre-roll ads took almost 2 minutes
(Maybe even less time than it took for my response here)

Too bad TiVo doesn’t do opt-outs for the Guide Ads.

 

Yeah, my "chat" to opt-out of the pre-roll ads took almost 2 minutes
(Maybe even less time than it took for my response here)

Too bad TiVo doesn't do opt-outs for the Guide Ads.

Thankfully, those of us on TE3, like myself, don't have to worry about this. Just glad they're not doing ads in the Pause Screen, Delete Screen, or in the Episode Folders anymore on TE3. Hopefully, they won't come back.

Now, if only they'd get it through their heads that they could offer an option in addition to current plans, where we could pay a little extra per month, per year, or just a one-time fee, and be done with any and all sponsored content.

 

Now, if only they'd get it through their heads that they could offer an option in addition to current plans, where we could pay a little extra per month, per year, or just a one-time fee, and be done with any and all sponsored content.

That's what the lifetime fee should have been for. Come to think of it, that's what the subscription fee should have been for, too.

This is a company that's lost its way.

 

It's ridiculous that you have to call to opt out. It wastes customer reps time having to deal with this, but maybe if more people did this, they'd get the hint to get rid of them.

It's even more ridiculous they do this in the first place. There is no logic in adding pre-rolls before RECORDINGS! The service has been paid for either by monthly, annual, or lifetime subscriptions. It'd be like going to a streaming service, paying for the ad-free experience, and still getting ads, sort of. (There is better example I could use, but I'm worried someone would try patenting it, if it isn't done already.)

It's like there are competing factions at TIVO who are at loggerheads with each other.

 

Yeah, and I'll bet the customer service reps can't be happy fielding calls from all the customers whose TiVo boxes are crashing from these pre-roll ads. For over a year.

 

Well this is annoying. My new bolt has been sitting idle for a few months, never really used it much and I just started transferring shows to it from my Roamio and Premiere and noticed today Political ads of all things before checking if shows transferred OK. Guess I need to do the opt out thing. Getting ready to upgrade the drive on the Roamio. Thanks to everyone for flushing this out.

 

Is my old OTA Roamio supposed to get these adverts? Haven't been here in a while, and haven't read this thread, but what brought me here is that I just now got an email notification about jff6791's immediately preceding post, and noticed the "TiVo inserting short advert," but I've never seen an ad. If Roamios are indeed afflicted, then it must be because of my AdGuard DNS IP addresses I put in my router. That would be an answer to the above question about what to block, too. (I noticed that it now causes this board to put up a nag screen every page load to please turn-off my ad blocker.)

AdGuard DNS - block ads, tracking, and phishing
94.140.14.14
94.140.15.15

 

That seems to be only early on when the ads first were rolled out. Since that initial time, I've not seen any messages posted where the ads have returned when someone has opted out.

My own experience is that I've not had any ads since opting out back in March and all it took was a two minute chat session with a TiVo rep.

I only just realized I have not see any ads in a long time. I remember having to contact them in the past, multiple times, to remove the ads. But I can't even remember the last time I contacted TiVo. Just like I can't remember the last time I saw a pre roll ad.

Sent from my Tab A 10.1

 

My pre roll ads did come back recently after an update. I had to call Tivo on November 21 to get them to remove the pre roll ads again.

 

Because some have reported the requests don't always stick for whatever reason and need to be repeated. The domain block should be one and done - unless they move it of course.

If everyone who is annoyed by these ads calls up and requests to be removed every single time they reappear, hopefully they'd get it through their heads that this was a very bad idea.

 

Appeared once a long time ago, 2 minute chat to opt-out, haven't appeared since.

…now if there were only a way to get rid of the Guide Ads (w/o also losing the channel icons)

 

Appeared once a long time ago, 2 minute chat to opt-out, haven't appeared since.

I keep seeing this. And yes, it's as easy as getting a support chat going and making the opt-out request to get it to stop.

However, just to make sure people's expectations are properly set, I should point out that after the request is made, it's another 2-3 business days before the ads actually go away. And in the 3 times I've had to do this (twice for my Bolt, once for my Roamio), it did take the full 3 business days for the ads to stop showing. In one of those cases, I made the request on a Thursday night, and I kept seeing the ads until Tuesday evening. Maybe others have seen it take effect more immediately, but I have not.

 

Appeared once a long time ago, 2 minute chat to opt-out, haven't appeared since.

…now if there were only a way to get rid of the Guide Ads (w/o also losing the channel icons)

Don't stand for the guide ads. It wasn't there when you started paying for your subscription. Complain over the phone. Let them know you aren't okay with this.

 

*knock on wood* Mine have never come back since i emailed them when i first got them very early this year.

 

prod.adgwy.tivo.com is what I have blocked. My Linksys router does this on a per device basis, so I added for both my Roamio and the Mini.

ETA: That blocks the pre-roll ads. I forget the address to block the guide ads. I stopped blocking those as it also blocks channel icons, and I like having those.

Thanks!
So, just to confirm, if I upgrade my Roamio to TE4 and just block the above URL / domain at the router level (I have a Netgear Orbi - see attached photo of the setting I am changing to try to block ads), this will prevent 'pre-roll ads'?

 

Appeared once a long time ago, 2 minute chat to opt-out, haven't appeared since.

…now if there were only a way to get rid of the Guide Ads (w/o also losing the channel icons)

Since I rolled back my TiVo's, I haven't paid attention to this, but wasn't there a way to block a site(mm1.TiVo.com or something like that) when rebooting the TiVo, which would block both the ads and icons, but as soon as you unblocked it, the icons would come back but not the ads?

Did they get wise to this?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk