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Cable TV has been around in the U.S. forever.

Or about 1948, if you believe Wikipedia.

As a result, everyone is accustomed to saying things like “cable channel” or “cable TV network” when referring to networks appearing on cable. But with the rise of IPTV, the notion of calling networks “cable TV” needs to change.

First of all, it’s inaccurate. For example, last year, the NY Times had a headline that read “NBC Purchases Oxygen Cable TV Network for Women“.  The addition of “cable” was unnecessary and not quite accurate since it’s also available to cable, satellite and IPTV providers. So why call it a cable network? It’s an outdated term for an age with multiple TV providers.

I don’t have anything against cable providers (although I am an IPTV analyst and editor of the IPTV Bulletin), but I’m just tired of seeing writers and editors still using that outdated term. Lots of industry folk say “multichannel service provider” when they refer to cable, satellite or IPTV providers. But, um, I don’t think that’s the right term for everyone.

Even regular folk not in the TV or media industries, tend to still say things like “I was watching cable TV” or “it’s on cable”. More often than not, people are subscribing to cable, over satelltie or IPTV. Cable is still the most popular way consumers get their TV content.

Old habits die hard, but I think it’s time for a change.

ландшафт
• rent a car bulgariaInstead of cable TV, say just TV.
• Instead of cable TV network, just say TV network.

But maybe I’m just being a stickler.

Tom Keating over at TMCnet writes that his DirecTV DVR has a new firmware that has introduced a bug in his fast forward feature. He says that after the update, his DVR does not stop accurately when he is fast forwarding through commercials. In fact, he said it even puts him back to a point before he started the fast forwarding.

I don’t use or know much about the DirecTV DVR (with the DVD receiver), but the fast forwarding appears to work much like Tivo’s. If you’re fast forwarding, and stop after the commercials are over, Tivo backs up a few seconds so that you reach the correct stop point. It looks like the DirecTV DVR is taking this fast forwarding correction to the extreme and going back too far.

In order to avoid this problem, Keating said he has to slow down and use the slower 2x or 3x fast-forward now since the 4x doesn’t work correctly anymore.

DirecTV “espouses” this feature on their website when they write, “Fast-forwarded too far? Fast Forward Correction takes you to where you really wanted to stop”. Yeah, right. Can I sue for false advertising? Losing the ability to FFW is really starting to tick me off.

Although Keating admits that he can use the 30 second skip button, an over-sensitive correction feature can definitely frustrate veteran DirecTV DVR users. I wonder if DirecTV will fix this or if users will have to have a work around.

Are you a DirecTV user and are experiencing this problem? Write a comment so we can track this and see if there’s a fix available.

[tags] DirecTV, DVR, fast forwarding, digital video recover, DirecTV DVR, Tivo [/tags]