User_8bs01h's profile

Regular Visitor

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23 Messages

Saturday, July 11th, 2026 11:34 PM

Excessive ads on dvr recordings

In the run-up to the 3rd season of The Ark, I've been playing the previous programs, saved on my X1 DVR. They have become unwatchable! 

In the past, saved recordings have matched the broadcast that was recorded, including its ads. (So, they had political ads for elections in the past.) Now, current ads are being inserted. Were these mere replacements for the recorded ads, that would be no big deal. However,

I'm getting less than 10 min. of program and then a block of ads (up to 10 ads). In at least one case, when I carefully monitored the time, I got 10 ads, then 7 min. of program, and then 5 more ads.

What's going on?

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3.5K Messages

1 day ago

 

User_8bs01h. I'm sorry to hear that's been your experience. Recordings should be enjoyable to watch, especially when you're catching up on a series before a new season. The frequency of the ads you're describing certainly doesn't sound ideal. To better understand what's happening, can you let us know if this is occurring with all DVR recordings or only with The Ark? Also, are these recordings stored on your X1 DVR, or are you accessing them from On Demand? Any additional details you can provide will help us take a closer look and determine whether this is expected behavior or something that needs further investigation.

 

Regular Visitor

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23 Messages

7 hours ago

I don't have that much saved on the X1 DVR, but still at an hour each, it will take a while to test them all. So far, sampling shows the other recordings (one STTNG episode and episodes from the new "Matlock") are OK. There were several oddities with the Ark episodes, though. Usually, when I select an episode, a menu with "watch options" appears--with the DVR recording and the original network's broadcast among the options. Now, there is much inconsistency with this.

First, S1, ep.4 has excessive advertising. I took notes starting at approximately 38 minutes in: there were 7 minutes of program followed by 9 ads, followed by 7 more minutes of program, and 9 more ads. Unwatchable! 

Second, most of the season 1 episodes now have the same recording date, though they were recorded week-by-week. Something certainly changed.

Third, season 2 is quite messed up. Many (but, so far, not all) of the recordings are gone, replaced by Plex as the only watch option. Now, season 1 is 2 years back, so I could understand their being deleted. But season 2 should still be available as recorded. I read that the SYFY channel made a rebroadcast deal with one of the other services (Hulu? Paramount?). Is that why my recordings have been deleted?

Something strange is happening with X1 DVR recordings in the Cloud! If I find anomalies with any of my other recordings (Matlock, one STTNG, and a Tom Lehrer special), I'll let you know. The only other anomaly I spotted was one recording that I didn't schedule and that was for a program I don't watch. I deleted it as soon as I spotted it. I don't use the Cloud for storage, but my assumption had been that it is not unlike a hard disk, with files staying where placed and unaltered. It now appears much more fluid, with files being shuffled around--and occasionally getting misfiled. ?

Anyway, thank you for your reply. I don't know if this information will be helpful or not.

Yours, User_8bs01h

P.S. It's a long walk from my couch to the DVD player, but I do own the DVDs for both seasons of The Ark, and will watch them to get ready for Season 3. (It's the only decent science fiction on right now.) 

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