It was also listed on the TV Guide Data Service page as a beta feature:
Sorry you missed this detail and this change came as a bit of a surprise.
As mentioned, we weren’t sure when we introduced this feature whether or not it would need to become a paid option. We were hopeful that we’d be able to include it in the base TV Guide Subscription but it just wasn’t possible.
You can always choose to continue without Automatic Commercial Skip and use the fast-forward preview frames to identify commercial breaks while fast-forwarding through recordings.
Thanks for that info, it answers the question and it does make sense. As for me, I have a strong “need” for OTA and its DVR to be completely cost free after the initial expenditure, so I’ll reluctantly take a pass on CS.
Yes, and since the cable co’s own the pipe they win; they’ll just keep raising the internet only price. But I at least want my over the air content and to be cost free after my initial expenditure.
Tablo is assuming a risk by offering “lifetime” access to the guide for a fixed price, why not try the same with CS? Bandwidth costs and cloud computing costs tend to go down, not up. I think Tablo could do well to offer lifetime CS at a ridiculously high price and see if there are any takers.
Why? I presume, as you state, they assume a risk they’re not willing or able to absorb any more. They have a business to run with inherent risks.
btw: the “lifetime” refers to the life of the current guide program, not necessarily yours. If they decide to end the current program… it’s life is over. (it’s unlikely, but that’s how it works)
There seems to be a consensus among the “members” with a lifetime subscription - an annual payment to too much to deal with… FF though commercials through 100s of shows is much more convenient or less hassle than keeping track of an automated payment once each year?
So is thumbing the [>] button used for the special handshake?
Not criticizing Tablo, and the annual payment of around 1.65 a month accomplished by one click is not too much to deal with, but some of us just don’t roll that way. Ask me how many Hulus or Apple pluses or Netflixes I subscribe to and see what number I’ll give you. I’m just saying that there is a subset of Tablo users that would be willing to pay a high price to get CS forever, just as we paid $200 up front for the guide and perhaps another $150 for a hard drive. I still hope Tablo finds a viable way to get to “yes.“
Let’s say I postpone my day of reckoning by coughing up $20 for a 1-year subscription. Fast forward (as it were) to next year at this time and I decide to cancel the service. Will the CS’s that already processed throughout the year remain, or will they vanish?
There are two elements to commercial skip. One is the processing of the shows in the cloud, and the other is playing back the show with commercial skip enabled.
If you don’t subscribe now or choose to stop subscribing in a year, any shows that had been processed will just not skip commercials. But if you then decide to pay, those shows will skip again. However, any new shows that are recorded when you aren’t subscribed just won’t process at all and can never be processed.
Thanks, that’s what I thought. It keeps the metadata file (what some of us call the Edit Decision List file) on my drive permanently. This is good, because I’ve paid for that metadata and for the cloud server processing costs, along with my internet usage. But when my subscription ends, not only do I lose the processing service from that point forward, but Nuvyyo reaches out to my unit with their gorilla-esque hand and disables player functionality. Not so good.
In my mind if you stop paying for the paid service then the associated functionality stops working.
I guess to me it doesn’t matter that the content was previously recorded, you are paying for commercial skip functionality that in reality requires 2 pieces, the cloud piece that processes the file and the player that uses the associated skip playlist. If you are no longer paying for the commercial skip functionality why should you be allowed to use it?
I can understand that point of view, but that gets to the whole “Software As a Service” thing that some of us old timers are still pushing back against.
I’m a bit of an old timer myself, at least as far as my desire to have one-time, lifetime purchasing options available. And I will say I don’t necessarily agree with the decision that previously recorded and processed content won’t allow commercial skip, but I do understand the angle they are coming from, it’s as simple as the landscape has changed.
I periodically review the options that are out there that I have as a cord-cutter. Right now, Tablo is still the best solution for me. That could easily change in the future. There is a reason I purchased a lifetime Plex Pass a while back when they were having one of their rare discounts on it.
Seems a lot of this debate is based on a $20 per year cost. I can spend that on bait for one outing. I think, personally, the cost is trivial.
As to whether or not it works if you stop subscribing… it’s a SERVICE. If you stop subscribing to it… it stops! I see no big mystery there.
I agree. I spend more than that on a single tank of gas, and that $20 gets you a whole year of what is a totally optional service.
I need the guide to use the Tablo effectively, and the subscription has totally been worth it. But I went over 5 years without commercial skip, and it is a nice feature but not needed for me.
I’d just point out that auto manufactures have software updates all the time for all sort of things. Unless it’s related to a recall, they don’t announce updates, post them on any blog, or use any other means of communication. You find out about the them only when you take it to the dealer for an issue. And then you pay for the update. Handsomely I might add.
SaaS ShmaaS I remember lining up outside the Egghead store at midnight to snag that first copy of DOS 6 or WordPerfect 5. Even though we’ve always had to click on the license acceptance verbiage (albeit without being forced to scroll to the end first) the software, and all of its functionality really was ours for keeps.
handshake? 
I remember lining up outside the Egghead store at midnight to snag that first copy of DOS 6 or WordPerfect 5. Even though we’ve always had to click on the license acceptance verbiage (albeit without being forced to scroll to the end first) the software, and all of its functionality really was ours for keeps.