Home cinema - 30 second skip questions

In article . net,
Nikko wrote:
I know about the 30 second skip tweak/hack/whatever. What I don't know is
whether you can plug in different times. i.e. can you make it a 60 second
or 120 second skip?

No, AFAIK.

I guess I'm not sure what the point of a 30 second skip
button is since commercials rarely are one at a time. Usually it's at least
2 full of minutes of commercials during the breaks. What's the thinking
behind making it 30 seconds and not 2 minutes?

(My guess, which I think is reasonable..)

Umm, because commercial *breaks* are roughly divisible by 30 seconds, but
not by 2 minutes? If you go ~2 minutes too far into the break, you'll
have to back way up.

Plus, you can just pound the 30 second skip a bunch of times, then 8 sec skip
back.. i.e. I think I do this without thinking now, but I hit the 30 sec
skip probably 4 times immediately.. then with slightly bigger gaps,
keep hitting 30 sec skip until I'm back in the show, and 8 sec skip back
to the beginning.

It *sounds* tedious, but it at least _seems_ much faster to me. So even
if it is just perceived performance, I like it better.

(I had to live without 30 sec skip for the past few days.. my tivo remote
died(*) and I went and got a cheapo universal that would work on the Tivo
until the replacement from tivo.com arrived.. I got the Sony RMV302 because
it was the cheapest one that said it would work with a Tivo, and because I'll
end up using some of my soon-to-expire Sony points to get it free anyhow..
It was about $15 at Good Guys.. unfortunately when I went to Fry's the next
day, I saw it was $13 there... so I think I'll go back to Good Guys and get
them to price match it, just out of principle.. The same remote was $10 on
amazon.)

The biggest problem was that it wouldn't handle MULTIPLE Tivos, so I had to
cover the front of each of my Tivos as I used the other. (Both are near full
so I was trying to watch some stuff on each over the weekend.)

(*) Yes I tried new batteries, several sets (both some freshly charged
rechargeables and alkalines). It was completely dead for a few days.. then
today I happened to try yet again and it worked at least a few times this
morning. But I didn't even try to cancel the order since I now realize I
will keep the one I ordered so I have a new one ready when I do need it.
I didn't spill anything on it, I just think it's on its way out, and happens
to be working again.