Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

If I record a television show, will it have the commercials on it with
Tivo? Thanks. I just didn't know.

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

On 2005-09-17, needin4mation@gmail.com <needin4mation@gmail.com> wrote:
> If I record a television show, will it have the commercials on it with
> Tivo?

Yes. It records everything.

--
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Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

Then is there something on tivo that gets rid of them or something?
Some benefit to getting rid of commercials with tivo?

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

On 16 Sep 2005 21:20:41 -0700, needin4mation@gmail.com wrote:

>Then is there something on tivo that gets rid of them or something?
>Some benefit to getting rid of commercials with tivo?

No, except that it's very easy to fast forward past them while viewing
the program. In fact, we hardly ever watch any commercial TV program
"live" any more.
Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

Is there a signature one could look for programmatically for their
inhouse commercial skip (say that person was a programmer)? Maybe
that's legal?

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

On 16 Sep 2005 22:23:21 -0700, needin4mation@gmail.com wrote:

> Is there a signature one could look for programmatically for their
> inhouse commercial skip (say that person was a programmer)? Maybe
> that's legal?

No. ReplayTV used heuristics to guess where commercials are and got pretty
accurate, but it's never 100%. But as previously pointed out, anyone who
develops this kind of technology gets sued, and then you have a really
smart and totally useless box. You'll just have to settle for not watching
the commercials by pressing a button a few times, like the rest of us.
Really, it's not that bad.
--
"It is more uplifting to find the beauty, wonder, spirituality, and
reverence in what we can see, than to imagine they only exist in what we
can't see." - hawthorn@sover.net http://www.sover.net/~hawthorn/

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

needin4mation@gmail.com wrote:

> If I record a television show, will it have the commercials on it with
> Tivo? Thanks. I just didn't know.
>

No, only ReplayTV 40XX and 50XX have CA. It works about 85-90% of the
time. All replays allow you extensive navigation within menus and
programs though. For instance, if a commercial block starts, you can hit
3 QuickSkip and the show will jump 3 min ahead. You can navigate forward
or ahead like this instantly. You can also hit XX and either of 2
buttons to go XX from the beginning of a show or XX from the end.
Dramtically better than hitting a skip button 10-20 times or having to
FF to a spot in a show.

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

"Randy S." <rswitt@NOSPAM.com> shaped the electrons to say:
>It's not worth it for the media conglomerates to go after VCRs, it's
>DVRs that are popular right now.

Plus jumping over ads on a VCR isn't seamless, it has to fast
forward. DVRs can seamlessly jump - the media companies don't like
that.

-MZ
--
<URL:mailto:megazoneatmegazone.org> Gweep, Discordian, Author, Engineer, me.
"A little nonsense now and then, is relished by the wisest men" 508-852-2171
<URL:http://www.megazone.org/> <URL:http://www.eyrie-productions.com/> Eris

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

MegaZone wrote:
> "Randy S." <rswitt@NOSPAM.com> shaped the electrons to say:
>
>>It's not worth it for the media conglomerates to go after VCRs, it's
>>DVRs that are popular right now.
>
>
> Plus jumping over ads on a VCR isn't seamless, it has to fast
> forward. DVRs can seamlessly jump - the media companies don't like
> that.
>
> -MZ

If the VCR stopped recording when it detected a commercial it would be
relatively seamless. But a) you're still correct it will never be as
seamless, and b) VCR's have no future, so why should they waste time
over it. It's a digital future, not analog ;-).

Randy S.

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

Randy S. wrote:
> needin4mation@gmail.com wrote:
> > Is there a signature one could look for programmatically for their
> > inhouse commercial skip (say that person was a programmer)? Maybe
> > that's legal?
> >
>
> There is a signature that indicates when commercial breaks begin. There
> isn't one for when they end, so you'd have to use another method. It
> could technically be done.
>

There actually isn't a signature at either end of a commercial break,
but a broadcast tape is delivered with "open blacks," meaning the show
has a section of black in between acts that is as long as the
commercials are supposed to be.

(Aside - master recordings are "closed black," meaning the show dips to
black, then comes back up again 1 frame later, so the running time is
shorter than 1 hour (for a 60 minute show) because the space for
commercials is missing. Broadcast masters are created from the archive
master by "opening up" the blacks - inserting zero black (as in zero on
a scope), the length of which is determined by the broadcaster (it
could change) into the act breaks.)

So - the broadcaster plays the tape, and at the exact moment the show
drops to zero black another tape, already cued up, is switched to.
This tape has the commercials on it. The show tape, running zero
black, is still spinning, and as the last commercial ends the signal
switches back to the master, where the black is ending and the show
continues.

(of course some bigger broadcasters are using disc storage now, but the
shows are put together the same way.)

The important thing here is zero black. In NTSC zero black is
considered illegal, although there are no technical limitations to
broadcasting it. Assuming a decent signal, a device can easily detect
zero black and assume that it's the start, or end, of a commercial
break.

Unfortunately, some shows (or some show editors) will have their AVID
set incorrectly and, if there's a dip to black in the body of the show,
they will dip to zero instead of 10 units. Nobody is going to reject a
master produced this way, but it will trigger any commercial detection
device into thinking an ad has started.

And, of course, some networks now cut out of shows to a bumper, then
cut to a commercial. No zero black.

So it's tricky. I'd rather just use a 30 second skip.

Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)

"Tony D." <nospam@nospam.com> wrote in news:W_Kdnb-lD53Oi67eRVn-
hw@giganews.com:

> And CA was not removed, it was made manual

Yes, that's generally understood when someone says "AUTOMATIC commercial
advance was removed"

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