Fast Forward disabled by broadcaster message

[LB123]

I pause live TV then when I try to fast forward I get a message saying "fast forward disabled by broadcaster". Anyone else getting this message?  Also getting a message that I need to watch the show by a certain time etc.???

[Nighthawk · Accepted solution]

That is usually found on shows that give you the option to start watching from the beginning if you missed the start. The restrictions about fast forwarding are put in place by the broadcaster which is why you see that message on screen. It will tell you when you restart a program.

See: https://www.telus.com/en/bc/support/article/optik-restart

[Nighthawk · Accepted solution]

That is usually found on shows that give you the option to start watching from the beginning if you missed the start. The restrictions about fast forwarding are put in place by the broadcaster which is why you see that message on screen. It will tell you when you restart a program.

See: https://www.telus.com/en/bc/support/article/optik-restart

[Foonus]

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@LB123 wrote:

I pause live TV then when I try to fast forward I get a message saying "fast forward disabled by broadcaster"....

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Telus recently added this feature to select channels in several cities.

I expect that as they expand the service to include more channels that (smart) users would move from program to program and use the watch from start feature to skip the annoying commercials... who in their right mind wouldn't.

The broadcasters fear it would be too much revenue loss from commercials so find a way to force Telus to not let you do it or will not provide them with the content.

Typical profiteering, however ironic that you posted this today as YouTube is removing their forced 30 second advertisements as they have angered very many users.

Really does suck for Telus and other providers though, they try to give you new features and even they are restricted by these huge profit hungry companies. Even YouTube sees they are losing views there and did away with it, sadly Telus' providers don't allow them that option, so the "skip commercial" feature is left only to Kodi and Plex ... and that's terrible for telus Optic TV sales.

[Budlat]

Just ran up against this.  I've about had it with telus....

[NFtoBC]

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@Budlat wrote:

Just ran up against this.  I've about had it with telus....

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Why? It is the broadcaster -- the owner of the copyright that is deciding this process, not the delivery conduit (Telus).

While we as consumers might like to view advertising-free programming, someone has to pay for it. The lack of eyeballs on the ad lessens the value to the advertiser, dropping the rates which the broadcaster can charge, lessening the opportunity to bring the programming you want to watch. Vicious downward spiral.

[Red1]

Telus sold us the pvr saying we could pause rewind and fast forward live tv. In the commercials they even used sporting events. We where sold the rights to do that and that's been taken away right out from underneath us disguised as a restart feature. I'm not sure where this started, telus wanting too add this feature and broadcast companies imposing this as a provision. Or if broadcast companies where upset that a consumer could bypass advertisements. I pay for the channel I payed for the pvr. It's one of the two reasons I still pay for tv. The other is not too feel bad about a plex account and an internet tv box. I can get over the second real fast. This could be the finishing nail in a dieing technology. The real truth of the matter is I can build a better tv entertainment service with my home computer, my internet service and a 60 dollar raspberry pi and completely ad free.

[NFtoBC]

If you arrive late to a show, and re-start it from the beginning, you are not watching live TV. You are not forced to use this option; you can watch TV in the same fashion you did previously. This is just one further choice. You also can't skip the ads on live TV, as you can't move ahead of the programming.

[Red1]

That isn't what I'm referring too if I pause live tv with no restart I can't FAST FORWARD. That isn't the same at all. I've already cancelled my tv service I encourage everyone else too do the same. When it comes too 30 sec ads on YouTube i don't watch the video and others obviously have done the same that message was clearly sent as they've removed them. The same message should be sent here.
Here's a link too a fully built tv box for sale on Amazon for 82.99
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01MYXVZRV/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_RGN6ybXT874N9

If your more tech savvy you can build your own out of a raspberry pi for more info on that check out the subreddit r/raspberry_pi
https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/
Even with some digging on the internet one can find streams of sporting and other live events.
Telus tv sucks now and is almost all the way too obsolete thanks

[WestCoasterBC]

Let's compare apples to apples. Not pirated content...

[NFtoBC]

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@Red1 wrote:

If your more tech savvy you can build your own out of a raspberry pi for more info on that check out the subreddit r/raspberry_pi
https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/
Even with some digging on the internet one can find streams of sporting and other live events.

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There are few people who have the interest to build a TV player device using a Raspberry Pi. Most consumers want a simple to use product allowing them to watch what they want easily, and without lots of maintenance and contortions. For some cord cutters, OTA TV is fine. Some of us have no local OTA, since DTV came into being.  Further, just because one can do something, does not mean they will. I used to change my car oil; not so much anymore.

[SmokeJV]

I just tested it while watching the World Curling Championships. I was recording it but I started watching on another TSN feed. At 7:36pm is when I started at that channel, at around 7:40pm I was able to rewind and fast forward back to 7:36pm. Once you go further back then 7:36pm you get into the whole restart feature. 

So when you start watching a channel, it will save from that point forward in its memory for normal pausing/rewinding/fast forwarding. If you go further back it automatically goes to the restart feature which disables fast forwarding. Now it would be nice if on the progress bar it would show the starting point of the time you started watching that channel so you know how far you can go back. 

So I'm guessing the frustration is people are going too far back when rewinding. 

[Monte10]

I feel the same as the previous poster. This feature has got me tipping over to looking for a new provider and i have been a telus customer for many years. I wanted to rewind a few minutes and it automatically told me that this would restrict my fast fwd function. I DID NOT USE THE RESTART FUNCTION ALL I DID WAS REWIND...and to clarify i did not "rewind too far" it happens in the middle of a movie even if you rewind only 2 minutes BUT here's the kicker it only happens with movies or tv shows that have commercials. I have done this on purpose just to make sure and it happens everytime!!! it still took my functionality away. If i want to rewind a few minutes that i missed when the phone rang i sure don't want to have to go through watching commercials again. This is the worst feature i have seen so far and i have been a very long term telus customer. Why not give us the option to disable that feature. Not much point in having a pvr with the ability to pause rewind and fast forward live tv if its just been taken away.

[Red2]

Your right Monty the worst 'improvement' in 10 years of being a customer. After 3 hours over 3 days on the phone with technical support they finally decided it was my pvr not working so they sent a tech a new router and a new pvr replaced my entire system said I should be able too maintain my pvr functionality now However on certain channels i can not pause the tv return and fastforward. Its nice too hear an opinion not payed for by telus telling us this is what we wanted or that your problems are isolated . as it turns out if they don't like what you say here they ban you had too start another account lol everything starting too make sense now about the people here at telus

[NFtoBC]

@Red2

   Your behaviour would need to be outside the bounds of the Neighbourhood guidelines on multiple occasions, and you would receive warnings before being banned. You might be unceremoniously be banned if you spam the fora with completely unrelated material, but no one has ever been banned for posting contrary information to Telus' ideals.  There should be no need to create fresh credentials.

[das75]

Well Telus is truly awful. Just moved over from Shaw and this is my first night using the PVR and it's bizarre not being able to fast forward. 

With Shaw could toggle back and forth between multiple channels and rewind and fast-forward without issue.

[Calgary]

This is the worst feature ever. If I want to watch a show in the first place I am going to pvr it so I don't have watch **bleep** commercials. So why the hell would i want to use this option.. versus pvr and skipping through commercials. Once my contract expires with Telus I'm doing Netflix and nhl tv.

[Nighthawk]

You do realize that there is nothing forcing you to use that restart feature right? The PVR works like it's always worked. Nothing new there. Restart is designed for shows where you didn't set the PVR in advance and still want to watch it.

[Calgary]

Community power user you are incorrect. Once you hit rewind it disables your ability to fast forward. It's almost like this "option" was set up to make sure you would have to watch commercials. Bad if your trying to watch a sports game, rewind to watch a highlight and then get forced to turn to standard definition viewing to turn of this god forsaken feature. I've never had complaints about Telus. So if this is bad enough to annoy me, this is gonna piss off most of your customers

[NFtoBC]

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Calgary wrote:
Community power user you are incorrect. Once you hit rewind it disables your ability to fast forward. 

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This is NOT my experience. Today I selected a program, and let it run a while. I could rewind and fast-forward as much as I wanted, as long as I did not rewind past the time I started watching, at which point I received this notice:

As long as I did not go past this point, my ability was as before.

I was also able to pause live TV, and skip forward, skip backward, fast-forward and rewind, up to the point where the live broadcast is truly Live!

So my PVR works as before, and the rewind feature works as always, unless I either chose to watch from the beginning, OR rewind beyond where I started to watch.

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[GlobalSucks]

Seems that the problem is the "Shaw/Global" mind-control corporate strategy. Telus is a competitor to Shaw, so they're screwing with Telus customers. The solution is to NEVER watch anything on Global and let then know why you are not buying into their bullying behavior. Shaw/Global is stuck in the "punish the customer" era where there was no competition and they could pull this crap. The Shaw brothers, among the highest-paid executives in Canada, have always had utter and complete contempt for their customers.  To them, your time has NO VALUE, so they're happy to waste it by making you watch their programming from the beginning and forcing you to miss something if you have to go to the bathroom or want to go back to clarify if someone said something or not.  They're disdain for their customers is why you can't simply rewind a bit and re-watch something that may be interesting or unclear. Blame them, NOT Telus.  Most decent programs that air on Global are available "elsewhere", in a format that values your time and interest.

I don't watch ANYTHING Global anymore because of this and their advertisers are the losers.  The Shaw brothers will only pay attention when their numbers begin to fall due to their contemptible behaviour.

[GlobalSucks]

You must be watching Global, the Shaw brothers personal propaganda channel. Because Shaw is a competitor with Telus, they are using this "Fast Forward Disabled" device to punish you for not being a Shaw Cable customer.

The Shaw brothers are perfectly happy to deny you the choice of controlling what you watch as part of their "pissing match" with Telus.  

After many years of being abused as a Shaw cable customer,I dumped them and am enjoying the quality of my Telus experience.

The Shaw family cabal have learned nothing about customer service and persist in abusing their power to control the lives of their customers. 

[GlobalSucks]

It's not Telus, but the "Shaw Family Cabal" who own their cable business and Global TV.

They're trying to punish Telus customers by disabling this feature.

Maybe it's time to reconsider your addiction to the "Global/Shaw" Koolaid habit.

[GlobalSucks]

If the ads are well-made and entertaining, viewers will watch, but the vast majority are annoying and aimed at a very narrow target audience. 

In other countries, ads are clustered between programs and at appropriate times within the program.

Here, we're continuously assaulted with poorly produced, unimaginative ads from companies that show contempt for our time and attention.

[Alberta11]

This feature is going to make me cancel my Telus cable. Absolutely deceptive marketing by Telus on PVR stop, pause, rewind live TV. They will lose many customers over this!

[Nighthawk]

A warning will pop up on the screen before Restart kicks in, and only when it's rewound further back you'll enable the Restart feature. The viewer is given the choice of whether or not to proceed.

[killrazor]

A warning does not pop up on a channel with the restart feature telling you that you cannot fast forward. The warning only pop ups for channels that do not have the restart feature. Any channel, whether it have the restart feature or not, should provide a warning. 

Part of the issue has been corrected, but a warning needs to be applied to channels that have a restart feature advising you that you cannot fast forward.  The restart feature is a wonderful feature, and I am sure any additional kinks or warning messages will be fixed.

Telus TV is far superior to others and like all companies people will complain just for the sake of complaining without actually doing some research or providing proper feedback to new features.  It seems telus has listened and provided a warning, but just not for all situations, yet..

[kvwah]

This is a miserable feature that is tricky to avoid inadvertent use. Heaven forbid that you see something you want to watch again and you make the mistake of rewinding too far... you'll be cursed with not being able to get back to where you were (or to live TV) other than by changing channels and changing back to get to a live feed!

Shaw Gateway does not disable your ffwd or rewind. It allows you switch back and forth between up to 6 live feeds with full, non-punitive, rewind/ffwd capabilities on ANY of your TVs.  A much more pleasant way to use the full capabilities of your PVR.

[NFtoBC]

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@kvwah wrote:

Shaw Gateway does not disable your ffwd or rewind. It allows you switch back and forth between up to 6 live feeds with full, non-punitive, rewind/ffwd capabilities on ANY of your TVs.  A much more pleasant way to use the full capabilities of your PVR.

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But does it allow you to watch any of those feeds back to the beginning of the show even if you came 45 minutes late?

Similarly does it allow you to choose a seventh feed and watch it from the beginning even though you came large to the show?

[SmokeJV]

I agree, I wish the bar would be a different colour depending on when you joined the channel and it's being stored locally to rewind too.
Right now it's just one green bar where you have no idea how far back you can go unless you know of exactly when you joined live. If say green section of the bar would be the part you joined forward so you know how far you can go back then red part of the bar would be where once you rewind to that point you'll go into this restart functionality.

[Saltyhater]

This is honestly. The. Most. Usless. Stupid. Comment iv ever heard. The message LITERALLY says what just summerized but with a longer paragraph. Why?