• New here? Register here now for access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Plus, stay connected and follow BP on Instagram @buckeyeplanet and Facebook.

Philips makes best effort to piss off people with it's newest patent. (TV watchers)

Jump to latest Follow Reply
plum diamonds buckeye planet
Sort by date Sort by votes
BuckWrestler141

BuckWrestler141

Legend
'18 Bowl Mania Champ
There is no way that this could go through, it has to violate something but here it is.....
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn9011-invention-the-tvadvert-enforcer.html?

The advert enforcer

If a new idea from Philips catches on, the company may not be very popular with TV viewers. The company's labs in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, has been cooking up a way to stop people changing channels to avoid adverts or fast forwarding through ads they have recorded along with their target programme.
The secret, according to a new patent filing, is to take advantage of Multimedia Home Platform - the technology behind interactive television in many countries around the world. MHP software now comes built into most modern digital TV receivers and recorders. It looks for digital flags buried in a broadcast, and displays messages on screen that let the viewer call up extra features, such as additional footage or information about a programme.
Philips suggests adding flags to commercial breaks to stop a viewer from changing channels until the adverts are over. The flags could also be recognised by digital video recorders, which would then disable the fast forward control while the ads are playing.
Philips' patent acknowledges that this may be "greatly resented by viewers" who could initially think their equipment has gone wrong. So it suggests the new system could throw up a warning on screen when it is enforcing advert viewing. The patent also suggests that the system could offer viewers the chance to pay a fee interactively to go back to skipping adverts.
Click to expand...
I think I'll boycott all Philip's products simply for trying to make this happen.

Edit: If need be, move this to technology, I just figured it'd be too overlooked in there.
 
Upvote 0
BuckWrestler141 said:
There is no way that this could go through, it has to violate something but here it is.....
Click to expand...

Anti-hacking laws, maybe? They're basically sending a signal that interferes with the operation of your DVR. Of course, they have a strong lobby that the hackers don't have.

I'm sure someone will come up with a way around this. Something that will ignore those flags
 
Upvote 0
Sounds like a relative of these techniques

A - The disabling of the TiVO commercial skip which happened when DirecTV built their own DVRs - largely unpopular, though not AS unpopular as DirecTV neutering the ability to off-load recorded programs via USB to other platforms for archiving.
B - The embedded adverts users of Disney/ABC's new service to view TV over the Internet - level of irksomeness yet to be determined, but my first thought would be very irksome.

And I agree with methomps - if this is implemented - which certainly is far from certain, then it will be a year or less before it is cracked.

Lastly, one thing to ease our minds, the vast majority of Patents never amount to one red cent in commercial sales. In other words most inventions are completely useless or (like this one) dysfunctional in fact or in commercial practice. Here, Philips will have to license a technology to others - and not everyone plays nice in the field of HDTV, DVR, TiVO etc.
 
Upvote 0
this makes absolutely no sense. Phillips invents something to prevent you from fastforwarding commercials and then sells it to direct tv. Everyone at direct tv gets pissed and will then move to a company that doesn't use it. Why would direct tv by a product from Phillips that will make its customers leave them?
 
Upvote 0
The thing here is that they want broadcasters to put the flags in their broadcasts. The only way that will happen is if it stops people from skipping commercials. This technology could also be turned around to allow your DVR to automatically skip the commercials. That is what it sounds like Phillips was working on when they started this whole thing. There is no way that broadcasters would do anything to make it easier to skip commercials unless they get something in return. The real question is how much would you be willing to pay per month to not see any commercials?
 
Upvote 0
Tlangs said:
this makes absolutely no sense. Phillips invents something to prevent you from fastforwarding commercials and then sells it to direct tv. Everyone at direct tv gets pissed and will then move to a company that doesn't use it. Why would direct tv by a product from Phillips that will make its customers leave them?
Click to expand...
I don't believe direcTV bought anything of the sort from Philips. DirecTV simply did not pay TiVO for that company's patented technology to skip commercials in a DVR.

Sorry if that was not originally clear.
 
Upvote 0
sandgk said:
I don't believe direcTV bought anything of the sort from Philips. DirecTV simply did not pay TiVO for that company's patented technology to skip commercials in a DVR.

Sorry if that was not originally clear.
Click to expand...


I understand. I was just using Direct TV as an example. Lets say the broadcasters encode the signal...the company that produces the DVR (Tivo for Direct TV) would still have to program their boxes to not fast forward when the box receives the signal. I don't see direct TV wanting their hardware to not be able to skip commercials since they make their money from the viewer with subscriptions. Whereas the broadcaster makes there money from adds. it is an interesting balancing act.
 
Upvote 0
not going to happen... it would piss people off, and those pissed off people would purchase equipment that didn't block their ability to change the channel during a commercial.

That would be horrible for football Sat... I use the commercials to keep up with the other games :wink2:
 
Upvote 0
Tlangs said:
I understand. I was just using Direct TV as an example. Lets say the broadcasters encode the signal...the company that produces the DVR (Tivo for Direct TV) would still have to program their boxes to not fast forward when the box receives the signal. I don't see direct TV wanting their hardware to not be able to skip commercials since they make their money from the viewer with subscriptions. Whereas the broadcaster makes there money from adds. it is an interesting balancing act.
Click to expand...

I guess it depends on who is capable of putting the flag in: Directv or somebody like ABC. Directv doesn't give a crap about commercials because they generally don't get their revenue that way. ABC, on the other hand, would be much more interested in this. If the networks can add the flags to the signal, then Philips has something. You can always leave Directv for Dish, but you can only find the Ohio State game (or 24) on one channel. And if ABC adds flags to their commercials that disable fast-forwarding, you're going to be watching the commercials until someone comes out with a hack of some kind.

The thing here is that they want broadcasters to put the flags in their broadcasts. The only way that will happen is if it stops people from skipping commercials. This technology could also be turned around to allow your DVR to automatically skip the commercials.
Click to expand...

Excellent point. However, the broadcasters could potentially thwart this by putting flags every second during commercials and having them confuse the skipping technology.
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top