I want my full function DVR...

"I'm not so sure that the whole issue really is one of commercial avoidance," Shaw said. "It really is a matter of convenience -- so you don't miss your favorite show. And quite frankly, we're just training a new generation of viewers to skip commercials because they can. I'm not sure that the driving reason to get a DVR in the first place is just to skip commercials. I don't fundamentally believe that. People can understand in order to have convenience and on-demand (options), that you can't skip commercials."

I say NUTS to that. What did people do before DVRs? They bought VCRs and taped the shows. What did they do when they watched the taped shows? They would fast-forward through the commercials. So this is nothing new. It is just with the new technology, they might have a chance to stop it.

Is the ability to skip commercials the MAIN reason people get DVRs? I have to agree with Shaw that the answer is very likely no. But it is a very compelling reasons and I strongly suspect that if you ran a poll and asked all DVR users what their #2 reason is for getting a DVR, it would be skipping commercials.

I think that he is kidding himself that there would not be a citizen backlash. The entire media industry has shown that there are no lengths to which they won’t go to, to push ads at us. Buy any DVD movie now a days and there are ads in it and there are ads in theater movies. You mean to tell me I get to pay $12 to $24 for a DVD movie and get to have product ads in it too! Oh boy, lucky me! If there are any TV conflicts, I always watch the cable show and DVR the TV show. By taping the TV show, I can watch a 60 minute show in about 40 minutes. That is a big time and aggravation saver.

The ads, as they stand are fairly annoying. I am not sure which is more bothersome, the idiotic content or the mind-numbing repetition. It is bad enough to sit through an obnoxious commercial but then to have it run again within the same commercial break is just too much. The other HIGHLY annoying thing that they do is upping the volume. When I DVR, I just skip it but when I am not DVRing, I just mute the TV completely. It is much quicker then trying to turn down the volume to a reasonable level and then turn it back up to be able to hear the show when the commercials end.

Take away my fast-forward and I will just have to dig out my VCR from the closet or go get an open source DVR system. Hey, that would be a good business, black market DVRs that support FF if the mainstream take it away…