I got some feedback from a longtime reader a few weeks ago. This person told me that they weren’t able to fast-forward through one of their recordings. They also said that a DIRECTV customer service rep said this is normal and legal. Let’s dig in a bit.
First, the important news
So far in my research I have been unable to find any recording that doesn’t allow you to fast forward. I even recorded the show this reader had a problem with and I didn’t have a problem with it.
You should be able to fast forward through all your recordings, as long as they came from the satellite and not from on-demand sources.
It’s harder and harder to know what’s satellite and what’s on-demand, I’ll give you that. Both show up in search results. Both will let you record to the playlist. A lot of thought has gone into giving you a seamless experience. Sometimes, though, it’s just a little too seamless.
If you play a recorded program that came from an on-demand source, you may not be able to fast forward through it. This hasn’t changed since day 1.
What could be causing the problem?
First of all it’s very possible that this was an isolated case where the customer’s DVR just read the recording wrong and thought it was from on-demand not from satellite. It’s also possible that the customer just didn’t see that it was an on-demand title
How can you tell an on-demand title in the playlist?
There are two signs that will show you that a title was recorded on-demand instead of from satellite. First, you will see an expiration date. Programs recorded from satellite have no expiration date. Second, the channel it’s recorded from will be four digits starting with a “1.” In other words if it records from channel 280, that’s satellite. If it records from channel 1280, that’s on-demand.
One exception…
If you are watching live TV and you rewind to the beginning of a program after you started in the middle, you usually can’t fast forward either. This is because on-demand is used to provide that function. When you restart a program after coming in mid-show, you’re actually getting the on-demand version.
Why can’t you forward through on-demand programs?
Usually this is driven by content provider contracts that say, yes, AT&T can store the program on its servers and redistribute it, but they can’t make any change to it. That means the customer must see the program exactly as supplied. No fast-forwarding or rewinding.
You’re not wrong if you think that’s kind of stupid. Other on-demand providers like Hulu let you fast forward or rewind, they just don’t let you fast forward through the commercials. That’s probably a better way to deal with this sort of thing, but it hasn’t been implemented on AT&T equipment yet.
Can you prove me wrong?
If you have some evidence of satellite-delivered programs that you can’t fast forward through, leave a comment below. I’m interested to see if anyone else has had this issue.
I’m watching my soap Young and The Restless it’s on every day from 12:30 to 1:30 on CBS programmed to record this is number 76 and it recorded on 1002 instead of 46 …. not allowing me to fast forward !!??
That’s right, if it records off 1002 you won’t be able to fast forward or rewind. Find it in the guide and press RECORD twice to make it record on the right station.
Try Anthony Bourdain on CNN the recordi
ngs from CNN they won’t fast forward they won’t rewind
I’m having this problem right now. I chose a program from the guide (not the OnDemand menu) and it gave me the option to record the series. I chose this option, and instead of recording the series from live TV, it’s pulling those shows from the OnDemand menu and won’t let me fast forward.
Generally it will only pull on-demand versions of the programs if the same episodes aren’t available on broadcast for at least two weeks.
Same thing happening to me! I didn’t realize it was recording until I read your explanation and went back and looked at the channel number it was recorded from. Thanks!!!
I have the exact same problems when I’m not on my home network and trying to watch what I recorded on my DVR. It won’t let me fast forward through the programs when I try watching from a mobile app.
In fact, I’ve been having lots of problems even accessing my DVR programs
when I’m out of town. I didn’t used to have these problems but ever since AT&T took over DirecTV, I’ve had numerous problems! Enough to consider changing my service to another Satellite company!
As of yesterday 4-13-21 we cannot fast forward our shows recorded.. on 4-12 it was working. Called direct tv says was our box, now waiting 3-5 days for delivery..
I never record on demand shows, just regular TV. As of this afternoon I can no longer fast forward or rewind these shows. It worked just fine this morning.
07/19/21
I have recorded on the same channels since day one. Now all of a sudden I can’t fast forward through commercials. What’s going on???
Generally this happens when you recorded something that was only available on demand.