AT&T starts showing pause ads with motion and sound on DirecTV, How Do We Stop These Ads?

30 second pause screen ads are so intrusive, inconvenient, and annoying.  I pause to see something on the screen and the ads pops up.  It takes 3 seconds to cancel it and then it comes back.  Let me change the timeout to 2 min at least.

You can disconnect the DirecTV box from the internet.  That solves it.

If you want to keep the internet connection and you know how to configure URL blocking in your router, see here for instructions that back the 30s pause ad.

Instruction Link

@thively 

I do like having the option to adjust the delay for the screen saver, be it the add based one or the basic logo (if not internet connected). That is a very reasonable suggestion.

Fair enough on disconnecting from internet, but understandably many people don't want to turn off additional content to avoid something they don't like.

As for the workaround to block them, interesting. I don't know anything about that so my only concerns would be causing other issues or a violation of the Terms of Service. But that is only reservations I have about it, I make no comment for or against it.

There is no violation of terms of service.  It’s simply blocking the internet connection.  You can’t be held liable for an ad failing to reach the internet.  If AT&T has a problem with it, I’ll be happy to cancel.  $150 per month for TV should be a good experience not cause such irritation.

I researched this workaround because I want to keep it internet connected.  It has restored my sanity.

It’s not the ads that are a problem, it’s the fact that with the ads it now takes 5 seconds for anything to happen when you click the Pause button to re-start the show.    

Yes ... Get rid of the ads or give us control to delay the time before they start.  With my setup (samsung q90r tv and yamaha avr) it causes a weird loop of resolution errors and black screens.  We pay way too much to have to deal with the obtrusive nature of these ads.

I agree, we need a way to opt out of these frustrating intrusions. My husband and I watch lots of home improvement shows and pause often to scrutinize something, sometimes for 5 minutes or so.  We'll say something like  "look at that painting in the upper right corner" and then poof! the show is no longer on the screen. 

If you won't allow an opt out, at least have it kick in much later than it currently does. 

And Brian Lesser's contention that "people would rather see immersive advertising than a freeze-frame of a screensaver of something else" is assuming that "people" means everyone. Why not give the people an option?

Increasing the delay on the screensaver kick in, or even a menu option to adjust up to a max amount, is a very good suggestion that I would like to see implemented.

Unfortunately there is not an option to opt out of advertisements, just like you cannot do so for any individual channel. You can disconnect from internet and the screen saver would eventually return to the default logo (except for what is already recorded). But that doesn't change the amount of time for it to start.

Attention John Stanley: How'd you get to be CEO? Obviously NOT due to your marketing genius! (Lesser was an idiot, you're apparently not much smarter! )

Why annoy the customers you already have just to send them intrusive ads? Whether Lesser thought so or not is immaterial! You're from the content side, you should have more sense!) It's not like I can buy MORE DirecTV!

When you switch to the ad, the signal is lost for a moment, this causes the TV to seek

the 4K  signal, blanking the screen. When the ad comes on, the screen I paused to watch has already been lost and is replaced with the ad I didn't ask to see in the first place! When I press play again, the 4K TV again has to seek the signal, further delaying the return once the ad drops.

Can't pause to watch a golf swing, a good hit on the quarterback, Luca's jump-shot, or even read Chuck Lorre's vanity card after Young Sheldon! I bought a top-of-the-line TV and I subscribe to watch the PGA, NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and CBS, and I pay more than $250 every damn month!  (DirecTV clients and TV's in nine rooms!) I'm getting sick and tired of having to watch ATT ads instead of the content I pay for! 

Reminds me of the idiots at Lowes who ask me at the register if I found what I was looking for. Asking me when I'm obviously buying something is stupid - if they really want to improve their service, ask me when I leave the store empty-handed! Wake up, Stanley - you're pissing off your best customers and soon you won't have us! (Maybe that's your brilliant plan?) Genius!

BTW: The Forum says I'm a "New Member." That's because the forum is new. I've been a DirecTV subscriber since 2002. when you were still at SBC!

"would rather see immersive advertising"? What a load!

@REM006 

With 9 rooms I hope your number of Clients is 3 or less. You can have HDDVRs (or even HD non-DVRs) instead of Clients. More tuners to go around, not all relying on the Genie just to work as they have independent processing, and certainly more recording space (500GB per HDDVR as of the more recent models). No difference in monthly cost. So if all you have is Genie and Clients, changing some of those out might help. Though the C61K (Client) is the only 4K box as there is no 4K receiver at this time.

And definitely make sure to avoid the Genie-2 (HS17) as it only allows Clients. With the built-in limits it cannot support a 9 TV home.

Not sure who he's been talking to but I find them very annoying too

@juniper

Genie plus 4 clients (2 std and 2 4k), 3 HDDVR, 1 non-DVR Receiver = nine TV's. Not planning to change equipment. Looking for ATT to stop with the ads.

I don't know why they think it's a drag on their systems for me to pause a playback from my own storage. If I were pausing streams, I get it. In the rooms without a DVR, I'm usually just playing back recordings from the genie or one of the HDDVRs. 

I suspect they 'updated' the firmware to play ads when streams are paused, but the changes affected locally stored recordings, too. They've never been known for fully assessing the impact of firmware changes before implementing them!

@REM006 

I would consider replacing at least one Client with a full receiver/DVR since the Genie can only use up to 3 Clients at the same time and they take capability away from it. Personally I would want no Clients and have receivers instead, but there is no 4K receiver (yet), only a Client option.

The screen saver based adds are downloaded from the internet. The only way to avoid it is to disconnect your setup from the internet, at which point it will revert back to the traditional logo screen saver.

@thively

Thanks for the helpful info, exactly what I was looking for! ;)