For years we have been promoting the 30-second skip built into the TiVo through a backdoor. Not to be outdone, DIRECTV also tucked a similar trick into it’s HD DVRs. The 30-second skip is great for skipping through commercials. It is also fantastic for blitzing through football games. From the end of one down to the next snap, it’s often remarkably close to 30 seconds. Watching football with your finger on the skip button gets you through games pretty darned quickly.
With the rise of the hurry-up offense, though, the 30-second skip is essentially useless (unless you don’t mind missing every other play). I personally don’t watch much pro football, but I do watch a decent amount of Pac-12 games (and am NOT happy with DIRECTV and the Pac-12 Network, but that’s another story). Washington, Cal and others are jamming plays in every 12-18 seconds, making the 30-second skip useless.
I’m not saying I have a miracle cure for this situation, and my solution isn’t all that earth-shattering, but it does work. I use a combination of the instant-replay button and the 30-second skip to create my own 18-second skip and, if necessary, 12-second skip. Instant Replay (IR) is a 6-second rewind, so IR+IR+30-second skip=18-second skip, and obviously IR+IR+IR+30=12-second skip. It takes a bit of extra time to go back 6+6+6, but it’s less than watching 12 seconds on annoying commentary.
Go Bears!
