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9th
October
2006
 I found a code online that lets me add this feature to my Comcast remote. What I liked most about my Dish DVR was the ability to press a button and skip forward 30 seconds in a recorded program. This feature allowed me to skip commercials, which was the main benefit to recording TV programs in the first place. That’s why I was so surprised last week when we switched to Comcast that the feature was missing. Oh sure, I could speed up the commercials by 4x or so, then have to reverse again when I passed the return of the show, but there was no measured way to skip commercials. Very disappointed, I casually mentioned it to Comcast on the phone during a call about another issue. After confirming with him that there was no “pre-programmed” feature on the remote to do that, I told him that I really hated it, and was considering switching back. That’s when he told me that some industrious people had posted a hack for the remote online, and with “a little effort” if I “knew how to use a search engine well” I could possibly find it out. Well, it actually took me nearly 15 minutes, but I found it, and here it is, for your TV commercial skipping pleasure (with a silver remote and a Motorola DCT3412 box)…
That’s it…you’re done! The Comcast guy on the phone claimed that they were “pressured” by Motorola to leave that off, but i have a hard time understanding why. It’s obvious why the networks and TV stations don’t like this feature, but why Motorola? Are they owned by (or own) a major media company? Anyway, I’m happy again, and can now watch 2 hours of TV in an hour and 40 minutes, leaving me extra time to search the web for stuff I think I need…
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Copyright 2008; Search Commander, Inc.; SEO Consultant Scott Hendison; All Rights Reserved.
October 9th, 2006 at 11:10 pm
Give the Comcast rep credit for telling you the “secret” but the dispute is between the networks and cable ops…not the manufacturers like Motorola.
You’re not alone in loving this feature, of course. In early trials of TiVo users, 88% skipped thru the ads. Hence, when DVRs expanded into the cable universe, the pressure was really on. Of course, given the amount of advertising that Comcast sells directly on their cable systems, you might say that they put the pressure on themselves!
October 11th, 2006 at 5:52 am
Yes, I do give him credit for mentioning the hack in the first place, even if he wasn’t allowed to give me a URL.
Also a good point about them selling advertising too, on their own channels. I hadn’t even thought of that…
October 14th, 2006 at 5:07 pm
Not so new a development.
That and oh, so much more here:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR
I have 2 Comcast Moto 6412’s and have had the skip hack on them for quite some time.
October 14th, 2006 at 9:27 pm
Also, its hard to take seriously the Comcast reps charge that Motorola asked that their product be defeatured by Comcast. Almost certainly, it was advertisers or networks asking Comcast to do it.
October 15th, 2006 at 6:33 am
Thanks Bill G for the Wiki link - good stuff there for sure.
November 20th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
Awesome Tip Man! I actually had this feature when a very “cool” cable came to correct a DVR problem I was having. He hooked me up by programming the “A” button for the 30 second jump. He didn’t tell me how, he just casually said “..here I added a feature for you”. We just got a second DVR & the cableguy that installed that one was clueless when I asked him to set up the 30 second button??? SO… I started searching & found your blog! Cool man! Thanks Again!
May 26th, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Thanks so much! Love the 30 sec skip!!
June 9th, 2007 at 9:05 am
I have comcast digital cable with HD and cable, and the program doesn’t work on my remote. the buttons blink like it received the command, but when I try to skip 30 seconds, it freezes for a second and then resumes play in the same place. I read something about the seattle area having the microsoft software that is not programmable, anyone can confirm/deny that claim?
September 16th, 2007 at 6:53 am
[...] my blog to the “technology category”. Since my single most popular blog post is still how to reprogram your Comcast remote to skip commercials on your DVR, this made the most sense to [...]
September 19th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Just a hint, try linking the 30 second skip to the “c” button. That way you can still use the lock button. I’m not sure if there is any use for the “c” button anyways.
October 25th, 2007 at 6:39 pm
I followed the instructions and it all went well until the last step, since then my remote had done nothing but blink and it will not transfer any commands. Have taken out batteries, unplugged everything, nothing is making it work. Any thoughts?
October 25th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Hmm, well I guess I’d try it again, Jimmy, and see if it works a second time? I did end up having to do one of my remotes twice…
October 28th, 2007 at 10:03 am
DO NOT use the “C” button!!!!!
The “B” and “C” buttons are very useful when you have the on-screen guide up!
The “C” button moves you forward ONE DAY
and likewise
the “B” button moves you back ONE DAY
That makes it very easy to look one or two weeks
ahead to search for something.
November 7th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Does anyone know how to make the Motorola DVR fast forward faster while viewing on-demand programming? I have the 30 sec skip, but it doesn’t work for on-demand.
November 7th, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Wow, how awesome would that be?
December 11th, 2007 at 12:36 am
Scott,
How funny is this! I was searching for a hack do just what you wrote about here. The funny part is that I landed on your site after we spent several hours talking with each other at pubcon last week.
This site looks good, I will take a longer look at it this week.
Thx for the tip!
Monte
December 11th, 2007 at 8:09 am
Monte - Ha! Small world!
too funny…
January 10th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Well, I feel stupid and I’ve screwed up my remote.
My brother gave me this info but I wasn’t aware that I should have used a “lettered” button. In the instruction I got was to use “any button” on the remote.
Well, for whatever stupid reason I used three. Now I can’t use the three button to put in a channel.
HOW THE HELL DO I DELETE THIS FUNCTION and start over again ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
January 10th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Hmm, I’m sorry to hear that -
I’d post your question here…
here to get a fix recommended.
January 29th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
I love you. One quick Google search and I am whole again. Thanks for the post!
January 30th, 2008 at 8:02 am
I’m happy it helped!
February 14th, 2008 at 10:31 pm
The pressure to not “discuss” this wonderful feature comes directly from programmers. Go figure. We are told to not even talk about it with new hires.
As for those having issues with programming the remote with this, here is a hint. Look for the “ok” button in the center. If is colored red, you have a 5 number code remote, meaning you need 5 numbers to program various devices. These seem to have no trouble with the 30 second skip (I cannot speak for every single remote out there, every one I have seen has been fine) If the center “ok” button is grey, that is a 4 number code remote. A older remote that works just fine, but seems to have a issue taking the 30 second skip code. Probably half of the 4 number code remotes I have messed with would not take the code. A factory programming problem maybe
February 15th, 2008 at 8:13 am
Wow, thanks for the input I.M. Your secret is safe with us
April 14th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Ahhh! This is great! I had that feature before I switched back to cable. Wow, didnt realize how much I missed it. Thank you so much!
April 17th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
[...] programming the ability into the remote control for the Motorola DCT3412 DVR, and shares it here.http://www.pdxtc.com/wpblog/archives/289GE Universal Remote Codes3-Digits Universal remote codes purchased before August of 2002, [...]
April 28th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
I stumbled on this link while searching for how to program an older tv to work with the Comcast Cable Remote.
I’ve been wanting this “feature” ever since I say a friend do this “skip” routine with a Dishnet remote. I’ve been told that Comcast just didn’t offer this feature.
For some reason it took me 3 times before this hack worked. I GLAD I tried it on more time. I don’t know what DVR I have although it’s a new one and I think the latest model. My “OK” button is grey. I uses the “FAV” button for the skip since I don’t use it for favorites.
My advise is for anyone having trouble making this hack work, give it at least 3 attempts before giving up.
My advise
August 6th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Note this tip also works on the later model Motorol DVRs, at least it did on my Motorola DCH3416. This is the second time I have had to locate this tip, I LOVE the 30 second skip! We had to get a new remote and needed to reprogram this feature. THANKS a million times over for the post.
September 20th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Thanks, Worked like a charm!
September 20th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
I have tried these steps on both DCH3416 units (with Comcast remotes) and it does not work. I have tried to map over the B , C , PG UP , PG DOWN , and some of the unused pic-n-pic buttons. no affect. Doesnt matter if I do try on a DVR’d program or pause TV for 5min and try it. I have found that PG UP will skip 5min forward and PG DOWN will skip back 15sec.
September 21st, 2008 at 10:12 am
I’ve been looking for this hack since switching from DirecTV, sweet!
September 21st, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Huh - sorry it didn’t work for you Ethan - others all seem to be having success though, and I’m glad you guys seem to like it. I would have likely gone back to Dish if I couldn’t find this…
September 22nd, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Actually, I got it fixed. I must have had an odd case of dyslexia… twice our found these steps on a different page. Where your instructions say “994″, I was pressing “944″. I did this on 2 different units with 2 different remotes. After I actually tried “994″, it works perfectly… twice I might add.
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:23 am
You forgot a step…
1) Press the “Cable” button at the top of the remote to put it into Cable Box control mode.
2) Press and hold the “Setup” button until the “Cable” button blinks twice.
3) Type in the code 994. The “Cable” button will blink twice
4) Press (do not hold) the “Setup” button
5) Type in the code 00173 (for 30 second Skip)
6) Press whatever button you want to map the skip
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:25 am
Never mind, I missed it in your original post. Damn beer.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
My page up buttons were 30 sec skip buttons they went forward and backward, but all of a sudden they were skipping 5 min - useless. I reprogramed one of them your codes for 30 sec works great, but only forward - any way to skip back 30 secs
September 30th, 2008 at 9:05 pm
I found my answer on http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR/Programming_the_Remote
I put 30 sec skip on fast forard and 15 sec rewind on fast rewind
It worked great with dvr and tv havent tried it with on demand but you can use other arrows
October 1st, 2008 at 8:09 pm
This also works with the remote supplied for this box by Armstrong Cable (Ohio, Pennsylvania…). I mapped it to the “F2″ button right above the “live” button. No idea what F1 and F2 do, but now at least one does something…
THANKS for the tip! I, too miss Dish Network…
October 5th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Maxx and Ethan - were you guys drinking together?
You’re welcome Mike - Glad to hear it’s not just good for Comcast!
October 11th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Having a problem with the 30 second hack. It works okay by itself but not if I try to use fast forward or reverse afterwards. The DVR resets to the beginning of the program. Since the commercial breaks vary in length, I use several 30 second skips to go through most of the break, then try to use fast forward to finish out the break. Or if I used one too many 30 second skips you have to use fast reverse. I used the A button and the DVR is the DCH3416.
Anyone else having this problem? Anyone find a fix?
October 13th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
thanks for the info!!!!
October 13th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Ya…I work for comcast tech support as well and we were told about this but told that we were not uspposed to let people know about it but if they were pretty “concerned” to let them know that if they search they can find what they want…
There is a skip forward and skip back…and can program these remotes for ALLLLLL kinds of stuff…just look up JP1 codes, its a bit techy, and a bit complicated, but lets you program these for ANYTHING you want!
October 30th, 2008 at 11:20 am
After 2 years of using the awesome “secret skip 30 seconds forward” feature, my remote finally broke and I had to get a new one. I asked The Comcast guys about it and they told me in no uncertain terms that “the new remotes don’t allow that feature”. Stubbornly, I searched the internet and followed the directions on my new remote, and it still works! Thanks again for posting this!
But yeah, there’s definitely some strange politics going on about this feature.
November 2nd, 2008 at 2:36 pm
[...] i spend Sunday trying to figure out more about how the stupid Comcast DVR works, I found this 30-second skip hack. It does not achieve my original challenge of figuring out if I can stream YouTube to the device, [...]