h a l f b a k e r yWarm and Fussy
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Imagine a service you subscribe to - it'd cost a few quid/euros/dollars/whatever a month - and it works with one of those replaytv/tivo boxes. Or even a computer with a video capture box.
At the moment if you have one of those, you can tell it to start recording a program, go away for a few minutes
then start watching the program delayed. You can then press a button to advance 30 seconds or so to quickly go through the ads. But here's the difference (and genius) of this idea:
you also have a modem/net connection attached to your tivo/replaytv. And at the other end of the net connection is a room somewhere where a bunch of poorly paid people are watching tv also. When the ads come on, they quickly press a button, which sends a message to your box saying "you should pause the recording from a couple of seconds ago". When the ads finish they send another message to start your recorder up again. If something like a movie is on they could even take their time and send really accurate information by getting the exact time code of the start of the ads.
Thus when you come to watch the program, hey presto all the ads will be edited out already.
(and yes I know the box wouldn't actually pause the recording, or you'd lose the first few seconds of the program after the ad break. Instead it'd receive a couple of "edit points" soon after, and would delete the adverts bit of the recording. But that's a detail)
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It's not consumer advice as far as I know - I'm pretty sure such a service doesn't exist. It's also possible it couldn't exist :-) |
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Lose commercials and start having to pay for all content. Nobody rides for free. |
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Baked. BBC1 & BBC2 don't show adverts, instead you pay for a TV licence. And you don't need Tivo or any other fiddly modem connections to worry about. |
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I'd prefer to have commercials (which I can ignore/mute/FF) than a charge (which I can't). |
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In which case you wouldn't buy the tivo/replaytv unit and could enjoy your ads in peace. Personally I fear the day that TV companies ralise that showing programs in letterbox format leaves a good 4-5cm of advert space at the top and bottom of the screen. |
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At the risk of degenerating into chat, have any other UK-based folk here seen an ad recently featuring a man dressed in a suit singing a sort of calypso/reggae song about personal finance, and flying around on the back of a giant goose? Or did I imagine it? |
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There was a whole bunch of Halifax adverts with seemingly normal looking (ie not Golden Beautiful People) doing the singing/acting etc. It makes me think there was some internal competition in The Halifax and these are the winners. Did they know what they were getting themselves into !? |
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