That shouldn't happen with the RTV4000 - it either identifies a commercial break or it doesn't, it won't fast forward ad infinitum like a VCR.

But... that's the problem. There are two aspects to identifying a commercial break: Finding the beginning of it, and finding the end of it.

Unfortunately, the networks don't send a digital signal down the line, saying "HERE is the beginning of a commercial break that will last for 3:30" To find the beginning of the commercial break, the machine attempts to parse the difference between commercial programming and entertainment programming. This is traditionally done by watching for several black frames in a row to denote the beginning of the break, and similarly for the end of the break. If the black frames are not there at the beginning (for instance, if the person doing the switching at the TV studio changes to the commercial source very quickly, anticipating the beginning of the commercial break) then the machine (be it Replay or VCR) won't skip the break. If the black frames are present at the end of that break, the machine will then think that is where the commercials start -- and will start skipping entertainment programming instead, and may well continue to do so until it finds some more black frames, although I believe there is circuitry or programming that prevents it from ever skipping more than about five minutes in one session. Similarly, if the entertainment programming contains scenes that are dark enough (X-Files is notorious for this) the machine will think it is the beginning of a commercial break, and will begin skipping.

80% accuracy just isn't enough under these circumstances. It means that about once an hour the machine will either fail to skip a commercial break, or will improperly skip entertainment programming.

tanstaafl.