Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2009 > April > 24 > Entry
Glitch, not new policy, stifles ‘American Idol’ U-verse commercial skipping
A reader e-mailed me yesterday about a problem they were having with their U-verse TV service. They had recorded “American Idol” in HD Wednesday night, but when they viewed the recording they found they weren’t able to fast forward or skip past commercials. Given how much filler is in a results episode of “AI,” this is a technological tragedy.
The reader, Kyle Poole, wrote, “Everyone I know that recorded it in HD on UVerse is prevented from fast forwarding or skipping commercials. AT&T tech support claim it’s an issue with KTBC, but using other devices to record KTBC don’t result in this restriction.”
Worrisome indeed, but the official word from AT&T is that it was a glitch and not a new policy or restriction on recordings. Mike Barger, an AT&T spokesman, sent this short statement via e-mail: “Some of our customers have been unable to fast-forward through Wednesday’s (4/22) recording of American Idol. Our network specialists are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
Given the outcry over Time Warner Cable’s recent tiered billing test, it wouldn’t surprise me if people are monitoring their Internet, TV and phone services more closely for any changes in service or billing. It’s probably a good idea to keep an eye on those things, regardless.
Permalink | Comments (7) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Internet, TV
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By Kyle
April 27, 2009 8:52 PM | Link to this
Same problem on '24' tonight.
By Jennifer Bland
April 27, 2009 6:23 PM | Link to this
Hopefully they resolve this soon. We tried to record the Nascar race yesterday and had the same issue. It's been ongoing for about 2 weeks now. Hopefully AT&T is *really* trying to get this fixed and not just saying they are.
Thanks for posting this though! Nice to hear others are concerned and that I'm not alone in this issue.
By stu
April 27, 2009 4:51 PM | Link to this
This did indeed happen to me on our U-Verse....it was indeed tragic, I actually had to do chores around the house while the show was on waiting for the final results.
By Scott Shively
April 27, 2009 1:31 PM | Link to this
This is not just a problem with AI. It happened to me with Lie to Me and Bones. I thought my DVR was shot. In a perverse way, I'm glad to know that it's not just me.
By Scott Shively
April 27, 2009 1:27 PM | Link to this
The same thing happened to me on Lie to Me and Bones. I thought that me DVR was shot. In a perverse way, I'm glad to know that it's not just me.
By Kyle
April 27, 2009 12:05 PM | Link to this
Omar - Great - thanks for following up on this. FWIW - I saw reports from other folks who had the same issue this weekend on recording of racing on KTBC-HD. Seems to be specific to the Austin/KTBC, though - other Uverse users in other parts of the country don't have this issue.
And I agree with the previous poster that this seems the be very similar issues to what Microsoft experienced with Media Center.
It is scary they have that level of control. It's a great example of technology being regressed to protect a business model. It'd be like horse buggy makers getting a law passed that cars could not exceed 10 mph to ensure there was still a market for buggies. Luckily, history has shown that progress usually wins, but having to watch an entire episode of AI is just too much punishment to take!
By Lex loves Clark
April 24, 2009 4:15 PM | Link to this
I can guarantee this was a Microsoft issue. Uverse portal is based on Microsoft Mediaroom platform. It looks (by sight) to be very similar to Microsoft XP and Vista Media Center. As a user of Media Center I can tell you things like this have happened before. Google "microsoft broadcast flag american gladiators".
Twice before Microsoft had to issue updates to Media Center to fix issues related to recording basically being messed up. When I first read about this last night my first thought was that MS and ATT were going to have to push out an update. Of course this wouldn't be an issue if Microsoft didn't have their platform honor the broadcast flag. Something the don't _have_ to do.