Comcast Remote 30 Second Skip

There are two features I missed when I switched from my dish network DVR to Tivo. Surprisingly, Tivo didn’t have a dual tuner for years after it was available from satellite providers.  The second feature I missed was the 30-second skip feature which allows you to immediately  jump +30 seconds (the length of most commercials), forcing you to use a clunky VCR-like fast-forward mechanism.

I recently switched to Comcast (dual tuner! digital! HD ready!) and found out that you can enable the 30 second skip for their system too. 

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

Special thanks to the posting on Damon Cortesi’s blog for this tip.

As it turns out, TiVo can do a 30 second skip as well -

Here's how you do it for Tivo:

1) Start playing any recording.
2) During playback press:

Select - Play - Select - 3 - 0 - Select

3) You should hear three bongs (if you don't have the TiVo sounds disabled), and you're done.

Your "skip to beginning/end" button (the arrow pointing to a line) is now a 30 second skip button. During fast-forwarding or rewinding, the button will still "skip to tick."