After months of rumors and the slow trickle of details, the day has finally come: Hulu launched its live-TV streaming service, aptly named “Hulu with Live TV.” [More]
dvr
New TiVo Bolt Will Let You Skip Some Ad Breaks With Push Of A Button (For $150/Year)
By 9.30.15
TiVo’s new Bolt DVR has some neat-sounding functions — the ability to skip ad breaks at the press of a button [big asterisk] or speed up what you’re watching by 30% without screwing with the audio — and it’s also 4K compatible and provides an all-in-one portal for access to streaming services like Netflix and Amazon. But it does so, not just at a hefty retail price, but with a subscription requirement that might turn potential customers away. [More]
Microsoft Reportedly Adding DVR Feature To Xbox One Over-The-Air Broadcasts
By 5.6.15
When Microsoft announced last month that its Xbox One would have the ability to provide users with live over-the-air content from local broadcast networks, the company said the new feature would allow viewers to pause the action for up to 30 minutes. But a half-hour just isn’t a lot of time for today’s busy TV watcher, which is probably why the company is reportedly looking to add a DVR feature to the console [More]
Dish & Disney Jump Into Bed Together With Deal That Limits DVR Ad Skipping On ABC Shows
By 3.4.14
While broadcasters have been grumbling over and fighting against Dish Network’s ad-skipping DVR in court, at least one company is getting awfully cozy with Dish. Walt Disney Co. signed a long-term deal with Dish to curtail the use of Hopper for ABC shows, the two companies confirmed last night. [More]
Verizon’s Proposed DVR Would Know You’re Still Sitting In Your Pajamas, Air Ads For Real Pants
By 12.4.12
You won’t have to worry if Verizon can hear — or see — you now, if the company’s dream of a set-top box that could monitor all the activities inside your home becomes a reality. The company has filed a patent for a DVR system that would be used as a tool to then target customers with ads based on their daily doings. Which means I’d get a lot of ads for pajama jeans. [More]
Charter Gives Me Free DVR, Won’t Let Me Use It Anymore
By 11.8.12
Donald found himself in a strange dilemma with his cable company, Charter. He got a deal that included a free DVR when he signed up with them through his apartment complex. When the owner’s bulk deal ended, he had to contract directly with Charter for his cable. No big deal. Except the company told him that he had to start paying for his DVR. Well, paying to have a TV signal fed into it: he could just keep it on his shelf if he really wanted to. He just couldn’t have a TV signal running to it. That’s nice if he has a cat that likes to sleep on electronics, but otherwise makes him kind of sad. [More]
Dish Tweaks Ad-Skipping DVR Service To Be More Broadcaster-Friendly
By 7.27.12
Back when Dish Network first released its AutoHop ad-skipping DVR feature, the service automatically recorded prime-time network broadcasts so that viewers could watch all their favorite NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox shows at a later date without having to fast-forward through commercial breaks. But now that Dish has been sued by those same broadcasters, AutoHop is slightly less “auto.” [More]
The Legal Battle Begins Over Dish's Ad-Skipping DVR
By 5.25.12
As was predicted when Dish Network announced its Hopper DVR would allow users to skip commercials on recorded prime-time network TV shows, the so-called “holy grail for TV viewers” has ended up in court, with both sides racing to sue each other. [More]
A Workaround For DirecTV's 50 Show DVR Limit
By 10.3.11
Reader Paul is pissed because he found out that DirecTV’s DVR will only let you schedule 50 shows to record and watched. Having more than one person in his house, he hit this limit pretty fast. So how can you record more than 50 shows on the DirecTV in-house brand DVR? One thing you can do is use the enhanced search function with “boolean operations.” [More]
Cablevision Delivers New, Unfathomably Slow DVR To New Customer
By 9.23.11
Cloud storage is the way of the future, it seems. But right now, there are some bugs to work out and devices that don’t quite work as planned. Todd just had Cablevision installed last week, and he has a new kind of DVR, called DVR+, that has no hard drive and stores his recorded programs remotely. Pro: No large hard drive that will inevitably fail inside the set-top box. Con: This new type of DVR is slow and crappy. [More]
Watching Shows On DVR Might Save Them From Being Canceled
By 4.27.11
Stop feeling guilty for watching network TV on your DVR — you might not be contributing to the threat of low ratings, as the programming world is starting to take notice of shows that perform well up to a week after airing. [More]
Oops, My Time Warner Installer Accidentally Upsold Me!
By 12.29.10
Alex has a Time Warner DVR, but never asked for one. He tells Consumerist that the installer brought one to his home and connected it to the main TV instead of a cable box, but without installing DVR service. Because Alex and his roommate never asked for it. He’d be inclined to write this off as a simple error on the installer’s part, but he knows three other households in different parts of New York state that have had strangely forgetful cable installers. [More]
Xbox 360s Will Become AT&T U-Verse Receivers
By 10.13.10
Starting Friday, Xbox 360 owners who watch TV through AT&T U-Verse will be able to consolidate their “set-top boxes” into one, because the Xbox 360 will act as a TV receiver and DVR. [More]
This Ad Was Built To Be DVR-Proof
By 1.20.10
This commercial, for virtual phone system grasshopper.com, is meant to resist being zapped away by your DVR fast-forward button. [More]
Hey Verizon, My 5th FiOS DVR Sucks As Much As The Last 4
By 9.15.09
Reader David’s FiOS DVR really sucks. Since it’s his 5th one — he’s starting to suspect that they all suck.
Comcast Spends 3 Months, 26 Days Trying To Fix Your Cable, Fails
By 3.17.09
After spending almost 4 months trying to get Comcast to fix the signal problems with his cable, reader William, who lives in an apartment building that only allows Comcast, has decided to just cancel his his account and go without.
Subscriber Sues Comcast For Requiring Customers To Rent Cable Boxes
By 2.13.09
Hate renting set-top boxes from Comcast? So does one San Francisco Comcast subscriber. He’s suing, claiming that the rental fees are far in excess of what the boxes would be worth on the open market.
DirecTV Force-Feeds You Movies
By 8.8.08
DirecTV customers are complaining that a software upgrade is shoving pay-per-view movies onto their DVR hard-drives, eating up disc-space and causing headaches. Tipster Buzwardo says, “I find it pretty darn annoying that DirecTV is sending me PPV content that I now have to make sure my kids don’t play.” More complaints can be found in the DirecTV Forums.
