The only ads on Tivo that I can remember is a single line item on the home screen, and this was almost always for some VOD service.
There was also the thumb integration (you could thumbs-up some ads from either live tv or your recordings, which would pull up a new page with info about whatever was being advertised, occasionally a video), but this is about as unintrusive as it gets (a small icon on the top right whenever a compatible ad is played).
Has this changed in the newer revs? I'm honestly curious.
Yep. Here's the ad sales page which goes through all the various options, including showing ads on the pause screen and including ads when you delete a show and in the menu that lists your episodes of a show. It's gross.
Auugh.. thanks for the heads up. I can cross a new Tivo off the list of things I want, then. Part of the reason I bought that device was to skip ads...
I've had TiVos for as long as I can remember (> 10 years). I've always bought the lifetime subscriptions - beating the monthly fee many times over, and the ads are extremely minimal and unobtrusive.
As far as DVRs go - I'm still convinced they're the best I've seen.
