Commercial Skipping with Roku

I’m wondering if anyone was a better way to skip commercials with the Roku. I read that if I hit right arrow it advances 10 seconds so I just guess how may clicks to do and by trail and error skip the commercials. Does anyone have a better method?

@a9erfan - This is something we’re working on. We’d like the arrow buttons on all models to advance 30 seconds. Stay tuned for this! 

Well not so sure that helps all that much. Basically all you are doing is make it so you click less times. That does not address anyway to know when the commercials are over. It is still trial and error. I hated how the cable company handled this. It was basically a fast forward. But at least with the Cable company solution you had some idea when commercial ended in that you could see it. I wonder if by changing to 30 seconds it make it harder to get to the spot where the commercials end? Currently worse case if I just undershoot when a commercial ends I see 10 seconds of commercial. If I’ve just undershoot often you can tell the commercial has been running for a while. What would be better is when I click no mater if 10 or 30 seconds where I stop clicking would give some indicator of what is at that spot like a screen shot or sound.

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Are you talking about having a screen preview on the scrubber? If so, this is quite difficult to do. 


We realize that this is a pain point though and are looking at different ways to resolve ‘commercial skipping’. 

This is a problem with all DVRs.  Now some are preset to do 30 sec “slips”, where you see the screen move really fast as you move ahead instead of a pure skip, but I like skips better.  Commercial breaks are usually about 2-3 minutes long, so you should be able to estimate the length fairly easily.  



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 Commercial breaks are usually about 2-3 minutes long, so you should be able to estimate the length fairly easily.  


Agreed. When I use Tablo I hit skip a couple of times until I come to what I know is a ‘network’ commercial. (Usually plugging some upcoming show.) This will always be the ‘bumper’ after the regular commercial break and before the show you’re watching starts again.

Snowcat yes the screen moving really fast was what I hated about the Cable solution and sometimes it got confused and just did not stop or said going forward when actually in reverse. I’ll take your advice and experiment  on an hour show will click enough for 2 minutes except at the half way point and will try 4 since it really seams longer. Since the Roku is currently 10 sec I will be able to tell what I get in 30 second increments compared to just leaving at 10. 

@a9erfan - you can also use the lower fwd/rew buttons on the Roku controller.  There are 3 fwd/rew “speeds”, depending on how many time you hit the button.  Drawback with these buttons is that it will keep forwarding until you hit the play button again (have to watch the minute bar closely).  Took a little getting used to, but I can use these to jump over commercials reasonably well now.  A slow count to 3 while on the 2nd fwd speed is usually pretty close.

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I am glad to see this is a top priority for Tablo.   I have found the lower buttons on ROKU controller work best for now.

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mbellaire and wkufan92,

   That was exactly what i was looking for.  I figured this out  and went to post here and saw your comments. I like this much better when cable. I find I spend much less time skipping now. 

I would love to see a visual representation on the timeline as to where commercial breaks are… like this


http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4128/4972181243_fe0c711e71.jpg

Even if it won’t auto skip and i have to skip through it myself is fine, But a visual cue would be awesome!

Good feedback guys!  We’re a bit limited with the onboard processing power with Tablo, but we’re always on the hunt for ways to improve the experience and nobody likes commericals so it’s a prime target for upgrades.



PS. LOVED FlashForward. I’m still cranky they cancelled that. 

:slight_smile:  indeed!


I am a little miffed that they are cancelling Revolution :-/  Everytime we get into a new show BAM! the networks pull em
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@tablotv - suggest looking at what Aereo does.  When forwarding they don’t show screen snipets, but they have replaced the standard Roku progress bar with a graphic in the lower left corner of the screen which shows a count of how many mins/secs you’ve forwarded (or rewound), and your total progress (mins into the show and mins left to go).

Oooh - never seen Revolution but it sounds neat. Maybe I’ll see if I can ‘borrow’ it from the interweb.

You don’t get that show up in canada eh?

We do but it’s on a network I can’t get OTA at my place. 

Record on dev unit at office and watch during your work day? i mean Lunch?

Ha - you caught me. I’ve totally been using Tablo Connect to watch stuff on the ‘demo’ Tablo at the office :)) 

:-c