Is there any way to avoid TV commercials real time as you watch?

[Mr Wizard]

Most of us that live here have been watching TV commercials all our lives. In that time we've sent people to the moon, conquered some diseases, developed nuclear power, personal computers, the Internet and the list goes on. Can't somebody develop a device to eliminate TV commercials WHILE YOU WATCH that does not depend on time shifting methods (DVR)? I've seen many devices that mute the sound and I seem to remember one that substituted music during the commercials. Using your smartphone during the commercials is only a distraction and not a real solution. I notice some sports bars have a service called TAIV that apparently replaces commercials with something else. Please make some comments!

[Rainger99]

Most of us that live here have been watching TV commercials all our lives. In that time we've sent people to the moon, conquered some diseases, developed nuclear power, personal computers, the Internet and the list goes on. Can't somebody develop a device to eliminate TV commercials WHILE YOU WATCH that does not depend on time shifting methods (DVR)? I've seen many devices that mute the sound and I seem to remember one that substituted music during the commercials. Using your smartphone during the commercials is only a distraction and not a real solution. I notice some sports bars have a service called TAIV that apparently replaces commercials with something else. Please make some comments!

I don't think you can do it. Even if you could, there is still a gap until the show starts so you have a choice of watching a commercial or a blank screen. I usually DVR most shows - including sport shows - and start watching about 1/3 of the way through. That way, you can fast forward through commercials and you should be live late in the third quarter.

[Two Bills]

My dear wife mutes television, and reads her book during commercial breaks.
I usually get to the first commercial break, fall asleep, and miss the rest of the program.
Works for us.

[Mr Wizard]

I don't think you can do it. Even if you could, there is still a gap until the show starts so you have a choice of watching a commercial or a blank screen. I usually DVR most shows - including sport shows - and start watching about 1/3 of the way through. That way, you can fast forward through commercials and you should be live late in the third quarter.

I tried that approach too. The problem was that if you didn't get the DVR timing just right you wouldn't be able to watch the start of the new (next hour) shows when they began if the the DVR'ed show wasn't over.

[Kelevision]

Most of us that live here have been watching TV commercials all our lives. In that time we've sent people to the moon, conquered some diseases, developed nuclear power, personal computers, the Internet and the list goes on. Can't somebody develop a device to eliminate TV commercials WHILE YOU WATCH that does not depend on time shifting methods (DVR)? I've seen many devices that mute the sound and I seem to remember one that substituted music during the commercials. Using your smartphone during the commercials is only a distraction and not a real solution. I notice some sports bars have a service called TAIV that apparently replaces commercials with something else. Please make some comments!

Commercials are what pay to make the tv shows, which is why there aren’t many new shows on actual tv anymore. You’d do better just getting a streaming service and viola!! No more commercials.

[Mr Wizard]

My dear wife mutes television, and reads her book during commercial breaks.
I usually get to the first commercial break, fall asleep, and miss the rest of the program.
Works for us.

Ha Ha, that happens to us also ... it's great to be retired ( ;>)

[Ecuadog]

My dear wife mutes television, and reads her book during commercial breaks.
I usually get to the first commercial break, fall asleep, and miss the rest of the program.
Works for us.

I think my wife has seen only the first 95% of every movie that she has ever watched.

[TCULBERSON]

Commercials are what pay to make the tv shows, which is why there aren’t many new shows on actual tv anymore. You’d do better just getting a streaming service and viola!! No more commercials.

Yep. Pay the extra few bucks per app and no commercials.

[RoadToad]

Unfortunatley many Streaming services have begun forcing commercials also.
It's the business model that pays the best for them.

[Sabella]

Have you noticed that TV stations that used to be free are slowly, disappearing, and being entered into some package that you have to pay for now what’s going on? You have to pay your monthly fee and then you subjected to watching the commercials. as far as TV commercials go big business and big companies get to do what they want -doing anything to help we the people has gone out the window .

[mntlblok]

My dear wife mutes television, and reads her book during commercial breaks.
I usually get to the first commercial break, fall asleep, and miss the rest of the program.
Works for us.
I may be slightly less weird than I'd presumed!

[Two Bills]

I may be slightly less weird than I'd presumed!

I always believed the happiness and contentment in my life, was in direct relation to my weirdness.
My family and friends, however, are convinced I'm nuts.

[mntlblok]

I always believed the happiness and contentment in my life, was in direct relation to my weirdness.
My family and friends, however, are convinced I'm nuts.

Oh, understood. *Way* past caring what others are convinced of. :-)

[Two Bills]

Oh, understood. *Way* past caring what others are convinced of. :-)

Prexactly.

[Ignatz]

I usually get to the first commercial break, fall asleep, and miss the rest of the program.

Pretty much sums up how I see EVERY episode of Dateline. I’ve seen all the crimes but they’re all unsolved in my book. LOL

[Janie123]

Most of us that live here have been watching TV commercials all our lives. In that time we've sent people to the moon, conquered some diseases, developed nuclear power, personal computers, the Internet and the list goes on. Can't somebody develop a device to eliminate TV commercials WHILE YOU WATCH that does not depend on time shifting methods (DVR)? I've seen many devices that mute the sound and I seem to remember one that substituted music during the commercials. Using your smartphone during the commercials is only a distraction and not a real solution. I notice some sports bars have a service called TAIV that apparently replaces commercials with something else. Please make some comments!
You can’t skip commercials on something that has not aired yet, plus I think it’s illegal to automatically leave out commercials as that is how everyone gets paid.

Out YouTube TV will record every show every time. I put in my favorite teams and it finds them wherever. It even seems smart enough that when a sporting event goes base the normal end time I.e. overtime in football, it keeps saving it. Now with YouTube TV, the show is not reallly DVR’d on a local HD, I think there is a pointer at the show in the cloud just for you and then it streams it down. I probably have a 1000 shows “saved” and have probably only seen 5% of commercials in the last 10 years by skipping thru. YouTube TV has a 10 second skip option… so click the remote about 15 times and you are at the very end, go to far, click back button for 10 seconds. I did watch the 2nd half of the MNF with commercials last night as I was not waiting for the 1.5 hours of commercials to end to start watching at 10:30PM.

[raananh]

Most of us that live here have been watching TV commercials all our lives. In that time we've sent people to the moon, conquered some diseases, developed nuclear power, personal computers, the Internet and the list goes on. Can't somebody develop a device to eliminate TV commercials WHILE YOU WATCH that does not depend on time shifting methods (DVR)? I've seen many devices that mute the sound and I seem to remember one that substituted music during the commercials. Using your smartphone during the commercials is only a distraction and not a real solution. I notice some sports bars have a service called TAIV that apparently replaces commercials with something else. Please make some comments!

We watch a lot of things on YouTube and with the free "Brave" browser, you see no commercials.

As for TV, which we use a Roku TV, as I will not pay cable and give my money for junk like CNN. With Roku, I simply mute when commercials play and do other things. If I forgot to unmute on-time, I can rewind and see what I missed.

As for commercials: Dear advertisers, showing the same commercials 5,000 times in every commercial break, about women pads (I am a man) is a total waste of your time and your effort. I miss the days when commercials were very varied about many common day-to-day items and services, from different foods, fashion, to vacation places, etc. It was actually informative and interesting. Today, commercials, over and over and over and over are for 5 things: cars, gambling, some medicine I do not need, diapers and 1-2 other things I do not need.

[opinionist]

I watch videos online with an ad blocker. Once in a while, YouTube posts a message to complain, but it works, and I find alternative media content to be more informative. Commercial TV comes with commercials.

[phylt]

We have DirecTV for general watching. We tend to DVR shows and watch ffwding thru commercials. LiveTV, like News - switch to another channel for a while. We HATE commercials - most are SO inane, and the woke crowd has consumed product commercials - insuring the one of 'every color' 'mixed couple' etc are covered...

Also have Netflix to watch some movies or special programs there. Ad free

YouTube - odds & ends watching but do not subscribe for ad free.

[MandoMan]

Most of us that live here have been watching TV commercials all our lives. In that time we've sent people to the moon, conquered some diseases, developed nuclear power, personal computers, the Internet and the list goes on. Can't somebody develop a device to eliminate TV commercials WHILE YOU WATCH that does not depend on time shifting methods (DVR)? I've seen many devices that mute the sound and I seem to remember one that substituted music during the commercials. Using your smartphone during the commercials is only a distraction and not a real solution. I notice some sports bars have a service called TAIV that apparently replaces commercials with something else. Please make some comments!

There’s an easy way: give up watching television stations with advertising. I only watch Netflix and Amazon Prime. Yes, that means no sports and no news. Perhaps that’s why I am so calm. This also saves me a LOT of money. In this entire year, I’ve only seen two political ads on television: for and against legalizing marijuana in Florida, seen at a doctor’s office. I voted no.

[waterflower]

TV= tell a vision. The greatest marketing=mind control device. We will only change situations when we stop paying for it. The frequency, energy & sound of the tell a vision has many subtle technologies. Not good.

[mraines]

Commercials are what pay to make the tv shows, which is why there aren’t many new shows on actual tv anymore. You’d do better just getting a streaming service and viola!! No more commercials.

Years ago tv was free to us but we had commercials to pay for it. Then along came HBO and Showtime. We paid for those without commercials. Now we pay for services and still get commercials. Makes no sense.

[midiwiz]

Commercials are what pay to make the tv shows, which is why there aren’t many new shows on actual tv anymore. You’d do better just getting a streaming service and viola!! No more commercials.

Wrong on both counts. The reason there aren't many new shows is due to the fact that there is a large lack of creativity and dedication. The development of a new show takes months to get on TV and as long as 2 years to get accepted to get that far.

Next, getting a streaming service is not a viola! there are commercials also, the true answer is DVR. It will change the viewing schedule, but you can fast forward through the commercials. That is the only way to do it.

Last item to answer the OP - sorry no one is going to invent some amazing device to skip commercials as that would give each individual viewer control over the feed from the network, that will never happen. So just get over it and use the DVR method.

[USOTR]

Why not cut the cable and only watch internet TV. RUKU is our answer, as well as subscriptions to a few networks, like HULU.

[Jim1mack]

Most of us that live here have been watching TV commercials all our lives. In that time we've sent people to the moon, conquered some diseases, developed nuclear power, personal computers, the Internet and the list goes on. Can't somebody develop a device to eliminate TV commercials WHILE YOU WATCH that does not depend on time shifting methods (DVR)? I've seen many devices that mute the sound and I seem to remember one that substituted music during the commercials. Using your smartphone during the commercials is only a distraction and not a real solution. I notice some sports bars have a service called TAIV that apparently replaces commercials with something else. Please make some comments!

We stream everything except jeapordy which we record and fast forward through the commercials. The few time we have to endure a commercial it’s muted and we try to ignore it. Except the pharmaceutical commercials. We try to guess what the product is supposed to cure. Always a challenge.

[nn0wheremann]

Most of us that live here have been watching TV commercials all our lives. In that time we've sent people to the moon, conquered some diseases, developed nuclear power, personal computers, the Internet and the list goes on. Can't somebody develop a device to eliminate TV commercials WHILE YOU WATCH that does not depend on time shifting methods (DVR)? I've seen many devices that mute the sound and I seem to remember one that substituted music during the commercials. Using your smartphone during the commercials is only a distraction and not a real solution. I notice some sports bars have a service called TAIV that apparently replaces commercials with something else. Please make some comments!
Tivo. Even old former chief executives who were commander in chief know about Tivo.

[bowlingal]

taping a show on Comcast works great for me. breeze right thru the commercials

[nn0wheremann]

I tried that approach too. The problem was that if you didn't get the DVR timing just right you wouldn't be able to watch the start of the new (next hour) shows when they began if the the DVR'ed show wasn't over.
Most OTA TV has 18 minutes of content for every 30 minutes of broadcast. Tivo has four tuners. One can tune in four separate channels, or, for example, two channels, each duplicated. You can back up a broadcast to its beginning, FF through commercials (or use the one button 30 second advance) while the show continues to record. For the NBC evening news it is two bleeps for the first 60 second commercial break, then usually four or five for subsequent breaks. ABC presents a problem in that they usually have, after the first segment of content, only 10 or 15 seconds of content between commercial breaks. I let that show record entirely, then let the automated commercial deletion feature work its magic upon replay.

[NotGolfer]

At our house, we record ALL of our favorite shows (TiVo is a great invention). We don't have any of the scribing links so many have these days...maybe will one day! We FF through all the inane commercials. Has anyone noticed how many there are now and how many minutes the actual shows last?? Yes, I know the commercials pay but it's gotten ridiculous! IF I'd subscribe to Acorn or any similar---think all my programming with be British or Australian/New Zealand shows.

[Alarmed]

You can’t skip commercials on something that has not aired yet, plus I think it’s illegal to automatically leave out commercials as that is how everyone gets paid.

Out YouTube TV will record every show every time. I put in my favorite teams and it finds them wherever. It even seems smart enough that when a sporting event goes base the normal end time I.e. overtime in football, it keeps saving it. Now with YouTube TV, the show is not reallly DVR’d on a local HD, I think there is a pointer at the show in the cloud just for you and then it streams it down. I probably have a 1000 shows “saved” and have probably only seen 5% of commercials in the last 10 years by skipping thru. YouTube TV has a 10 second skip option… so click the remote about 15 times and you are at the very end, go to far, click back button for 10 seconds. I did watch the 2nd half of the MNF with commercials last night as I was not waiting for the 1.5 hours of commercials to end to start watching at 10:30PM.

Go to live broadcast 0n the guide. Pick your show. Hit play then pause. Wait 20 minutes if it is a one hour show to start watching. Fast forward during commercials. Wala any hour show is now only forty minutes to watch.

[Heytubes]

Without commercials, how will tv stations pay their employees? TV weathermen, news anchors, sportscasters, receptionists, and the multitudes of people in the background. How do the actors and people behind the scenes on tv programs have to be paid. Of course, the government could take over the broadcasting companies, but then taxpayer dollars (you pay) would subsidize the stations. Public TV is one example, but even there, donations from businesses sponsoring programs even get recognized. So, we may not like them, but they are a necessary evil.

[Regorp]

Most of us that live here have been watching TV commercials all our lives. In that time we've sent people to the moon, conquered some diseases, developed nuclear power, personal computers, the Internet and the list goes on. Can't somebody develop a device to eliminate TV commercials WHILE YOU WATCH that does not depend on time shifting methods (DVR)? I've seen many devices that mute the sound and I seem to remember one that substituted music during the commercials. Using your smartphone during the commercials is only a distraction and not a real solution. I notice some sports bars have a service called TAIV that apparently replaces commercials with something else. Please make some comments!

Suck it up , buttercup. Kidding! You tube TV has zen moments to skip some ads which is better than watching ads for products whose side effects are worse than the problem being treated.

[SoCalGal]

While not a perfect solution for eliminating commercials in real-time, the Kommercial Killer offers a practical compromise:

It provides an easy way to quickly mute annoying ads without fumbling for a remote.

The automatic unmuting feature helps ensure users don't miss program content.

It's beneficial for live TV viewing where time-shifting methods aren't applicable.

Overall, the KK is an effective tool for reducing the nuisance of TV commercials, though it still requires some user interaction and doesn't eliminate the commercial viewing experience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOTiKMPiBuc&t=2s

[mikeycereal]

Omigosh don't we all hate those dumb commercials! Especially when they spam the same ones at you back to back. Just in case you were having a BR break... here it is again! My dad and I HATE commercials as much or more than any commercial hater. What he does is DVRs the show or game and FFs the commercials to spare his sanity. For me I just try to watch as much non-commercial TV as possible and even stream some games. Commercial TV like FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, TNT, WTBS etc are the worst commercial spammers and movie editors ever. They give you 5 min if commercials for every 3 minutes of show. AND they edit the crap out of movies, turning swearing into benign cartoony phrases. "Give me the keys you fairy godmother!" You're not even watching the same movie.

When you stream games (from a certain list of streamers channels) you get the floating logo and music during commercials which is much more tolerable than seeing the same commercial for the 5th time. If you're lucky they keep the game cameras on and you see fun crowd participating events (WNBA) or maybe a view of the venue with background stadium announcements like you were at the game.

Paying for no commercials is the scam, and I'm not giving in. Unfortunately there's no other way to skip them. Mute 'em or deal with 'em. As a huge commercial hater there are only a few that I actually like, for example the State Farm commercial where Reid is trying to sneak Mahome's "nuggies." I hit the back button when I see the same annoying ones come on again. It's like a video game...hit button quick!

[Ecuadog]

... better than watching ads for products whose side effects are worse than the problem being treated.

Products that warn of "oily anal discharge" are my favorites.

[jimjamuser]

I tried that approach too. The problem was that if you didn't get the DVR timing just right you wouldn't be able to watch the start of the new (next hour) shows when they began if the the DVR'ed show wasn't over.
I would never have a problem when I DVR'd both shows.

[jimjamuser]

Commercials are what pay to make the tv shows, which is why there aren’t many new shows on actual tv anymore. You’d do better just getting a streaming service and viola!! No more commercials.
The streaming services are starting to have commercials and some won't let you fast-forward through them. So, I just mute the commercials and wait for the main story to start. (sometimes I have time to do a few push-ups......just kidding)

[jimjamuser]

We watch a lot of things on YouTube and with the free "Brave" browser, you see no commercials.

As for TV, which we use a Roku TV, as I will not pay cable and give my money for junk like CNN. With Roku, I simply mute when commercials play and do other things. If I forgot to unmute on-time, I can rewind and see what I missed.

As for commercials: Dear advertisers, showing the same commercials 5,000 times in every commercial break, about women pads (I am a man) is a total waste of your time and your effort. I miss the days when commercials were very varied about many common day-to-day items and services, from different foods, fashion, to vacation places, etc. It was actually informative and interesting. Today, commercials, over and over and over and over are for 5 things: cars, gambling, some medicine I do not need, diapers and 1-2 other things I do not need.
A few, very few commercials are worth watching.........once.

[jimjamuser]

There’s an easy way: give up watching television stations with advertising. I only watch Netflix and Amazon Prime. Yes, that means no sports and no news. Perhaps that’s why I am so calm. This also saves me a LOT of money. In this entire year, I’ve only seen two political ads on television: for and against legalizing marijuana in Florida, seen at a doctor’s office. I voted no.
I went with yes, but I am on Netflix often in the evening. They have good Sci/Fy movies and series. I also like their "Black Sails'.

[jimjamuser]

Years ago tv was free to us but we had commercials to pay for it. Then along came HBO and Showtime. We paid for those without commercials. Now we pay for services and still get commercials. Makes no sense.
The streaming services say that the commercials keep your cost down.

[ThirdOfFive]

There are commercials, and then there are commercials. YouTube (which makes up the bulk of my TV watching, along with Amazon Prime) is replete with them, and they're getting longer and more obnoxious, or so it seems, by the day.

I for one will be VERY happy when this particular Silly Season finally ends on Nov. 5, and we get back to the commercials that aren't quite as insulting to my intelligence.

[GinaTalk]

Hulu has a subscription with no ads, so at least for programs available on the service, including many network shows that air the day after original air date, they are ad-free. Not free though $. What's nice is that an hour show is 43 minutes and a half hour show is 21 minutes.

[kcrazorbackfan]

Most of us that live here have been watching TV commercials all our lives. In that time we've sent people to the moon, conquered some diseases, developed nuclear power, personal computers, the Internet and the list goes on. Can't somebody develop a device to eliminate TV commercials WHILE YOU WATCH that does not depend on time shifting methods (DVR)? I've seen many devices that mute the sound and I seem to remember one that substituted music during the commercials. Using your smartphone during the commercials is only a distraction and not a real solution. I notice some sports bars have a service called TAIV that apparently replaces commercials with something else. Please make some comments!

Contrary to what you asked, I dvr pretty much everything and zip right thru the shows, especially with all the political crap/lies going on now.

I feel more at peace ☮️! 😉

[justjim]

Consumer spending is what drives our economy. Without ads and commercials there would be few programs. The alternative is the DVR where you can “race” through the commercials. With our DVR we can watch a program and tape four other programs at the same time. I wonder how many of us have purchased something because of a television commercial. A lot of us I would bet. What a deal!

[mbene]

A few, very few commercials are worth watching.........once.

I can't help myself, whenever a Discover Card commercial with Jennifer Coolidge comes on I have to watch, she cracks my up, especially the one when she's in the grocery store.

[CybrSage]

Have you noticed that TV stations that used to be free are slowly, disappearing, and being entered into some package that you have to pay for now what’s going on? You have to pay your monthly fee and then you subjected to watching the commercials. as far as TV commercials go big business and big companies get to do what they want -doing anything to help we the people has gone out the window .

Start your own TV channel where everything is free. Let us know how to watch it.

[Wondering]

Most of us that live here have been watching TV commercials all our lives. In that time we've sent people to the moon, conquered some diseases, developed nuclear power, personal computers, the Internet and the list goes on. Can't somebody develop a device to eliminate TV commercials WHILE YOU WATCH that does not depend on time shifting methods (DVR)? I've seen many devices that mute the sound and I seem to remember one that substituted music during the commercials. Using your smartphone during the commercials is only a distraction and not a real solution. I notice some sports bars have a service called TAIV that apparently replaces commercials with something else. Please make some comments!
Record what you want to watch and then when you watch your recordings fast forward through the commercials.

[tedquick]

My dear wife mutes television, and reads her book during commercial breaks.
I usually get to the first commercial break, fall asleep, and miss the rest of the program.
Works for us.


Love your humor!!

[MplsPete]

Many many replies in this thread mention DVR. Not helpful. Which DVR? If you look for it on Amazon, you find Tablo and mostly security camera DVRs. Or are you talking about digital DVR included with streaming services?

Imagine a thread where someone was seeking recommendations on golf carts, and everyone said, we love our "golf cart." Not helpful.

[Maker]

Many local TV channels offer an online feed of things like the local news. No commercials, but the have to have some sort of filler video (and music) while those are playing on the OTA transmission.

[Salty Dog]

Way back when, there was a company that had a DVR that would automatically skip commercials during playback. They were sued for doing this and had to stop selling DVRs that would do it.

[Mr Wizard]

I've been using a device that doesn't skip them but actually REPLACES them while watching LIVE TV. When the commercials start I just push a button on my TV remote and watch ROKU streamer nature videos. When the commercials end I push the button again and return to the show I was watching.

[mntlblok]

IF I'd subscribe to Acorn or any similar---think all my programming with be British or Australian/New Zealand shows.
We've recently gone Acorn for those cool accents. Thank goodness for closed captioning. Interesting to learn that in New Zealand that both the first two 'E's in "detective" are pronounced as being of the "long E" variety. :-)

[Mr Wizard]

I've been using a device that doesn't skip them but actually REPLACES them while watching LIVE TV. When the commercials start I just push a button on my TV remote and watch ROKU streamer nature videos. When the commercials end I push the button again and return to the show I was watching.

[Sparky99]

I don't think you can do it. Even if you could, there is still a gap until the show starts so you have a choice of watching a commercial or a blank screen. I usually DVR most shows - including sport shows - and start watching about 1/3 of the way through. That way, you can fast forward through commercials and you should be live late in the third quarter.

TiVo!

[villagetinker]

I've been using a device that doesn't skip them but actually REPLACES them while watching LIVE TV. When the commercials start I just push a button on my TV remote and watch ROKU streamer nature videos. When the commercials end I push the button again and return to the show I was watching.

How do you know when the commercials are ending if you do not see them?

[Mr Wizard]

It's the magic of American ingenuity. ( ;>)
I'm looking to get this device into the marketplace. Anybody have some suggestions?