The Secret Origins of TiVo

Davis Freeberg writes "TiVo is probably better known for their ad zapping technology than their television advertisements. In fact, other then a few lousy infomercials and a commercial that was rumored to be banned by the networks, TiVo has never really had much in the way of TV advertisements. Apparently though, one of TiVo's more rabid fans did some sleuthing and discovered a hidden easter egg video buried deep within TiVo's own website. The video itself exposes the true origins of TiVo's technology and how they got their hands on that ad zapping photon remote to begin with."

File format?

Were .mp4 files around back in 1997?

Ask Dan Rather

"Were .mp4 files around back in 1997?"

He has some MP4 files that Bush actually recorded with his Powerbook in 1972.

Don't like TiVo, huh?

Linking to a 40 meg file hosted on TiVo's servers on the front page of Slashdot? Not nice.

BitTorrent download

http://bittornado.com/torrents/bluemoon.mp4.torren t [bittornado.com]

Then then then... than?

"TiVo is probably better known for their ad zapping technology then their televison advertisements"

And then their television advertisements what? Did they do something after that? Oh, hehe, no, you're trying to make a comparison! For that we use "than". I know they've devolved to homophones in certain english dialects but that's still no excuse. This is such a commonly made and silly mistake that it bears pointing out when it appears on the front page of Slashdot, for heaven's sake.

Zap Ads?

Does TiVo 'Zap' Ads? Does it actually skip the whole section of ads with one click and no further interaction? I dont have a tivo, but I thought it ony fast fowarded them. I have a mythtv and that can skip the entire ads and detects the end of the advertising segment where the show starts again, but didnt think TiVo did this. - Anyone?

Re:Zap Ads?

In order to prevent a massive lawsuite storm from all the major networks, TiVo officially only allows you to fast-forward through commercials, not skip them (similar to using a VCR). Unofficially there is a feature you can enable through the remote (hitting a combo of buttons) that allows you to change the 'skip-to-the-end' button into a 30 second skip ahead button. Most of the time you only have to hit it 3-4 times to get through commercial breaks. But that's unofficial ;)

Re:Zap Ads?

Now that really depends what you mean by 'beat' TiVo. Will it have larger storage? Probably. Will it be able to convert to multiple video codecs? Probably not (not enough CPU power). Record multiple shows at once? Definately not (won't get two good TV cards in a $500 price cap). In the end, if you built a $500 MythTV box you'll get something more on par with TiVo, but with a significantly harder setup, less useful interface, and not many extra features. However, dump $1k+ into a MythTV box, and you get a laundry list of neat features that TiVo just can't touch. But I'll stick with TiVo until then.

Re:Zap Ads?

you can hack it to skip at 30sec increments, but it will NEVER zap commercials.

tivo's "bosses" (the entity higher up the food chain, that trickles down 'stuff') wouldn't dare allow that, of course. I'm very surprised they even 'allowed' any skipping at all! I consider that a fluke, actually; in the age of 'do not FF' (the icon that appears when you first insert a dvd and are FORCED to watch stuff that you don't want or need).

Overload

And the tivo.com goes down in 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ...

Wonder what this is promoting?

Great spoof - The file timestamp is actually a GIF =). Makes me wonder what this was meant to promote, or perhaps just a good piece of viral marketing. According to some of those rabid Tivo fans, "Bluemoon" was the codename for the original Tivo iteration.

Re:Wonder what this is promoting?

Of course it's viral marketiong -- it costs money and takes talent to make a movie like that, not to mention hosting a 40 MB file. Rather (deliberately) reminsicent of the Dharma Initiative training film found in the show Lost, as well as many other influences.

Mirror to MP4 file

Enjoy!

http://www.qcs-rf.com/slashdot/bluemoon.mp4 [qcs-rf.com]

Viral Ad

Don't bother discussing any implications or great ramifications, it's just another viral ad.

I love the smell...

You smell that? Do you smell that? Viral marketing, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of viral marketing in the morning. Smells like - market share.

1-frame watermark

There is a one frame at 3 minutes 58 seconds that flashes the link www.tivo.com/bluemoon. I think the reel is more of an entertainment than marketing project, that was meant to self-redistribute.

Youtube....

It's on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsXUPmWAfhY [youtube.com]

Pictures behind Waterman's shoulders

Are Nixon, as it should be, and what looks like GWB.

Trust/ Who?

Trust? Trust Davis Freeberg to reject corporate viral propaganda...

Who Is Davis Freeberg? Is he(she?) as phoney as this story? Please, someone, run a D&B or google on this character quick. I for one demand the Truth!

Where are the /. skeptics when we need them - asleep on a Saturday morning? Do geeks really get Labor Day holidays?

On, Cowboy Neal, we trusted you to keep our beloved /. pure and uncontaminated by invitations to absorb another 40NB of corporate propaganda.

Oh, damn. Never mind... it's the Trust No One Department.

"Ad zapping?"

At no point in the movie is there any mention of either advertising or what can be done with it. Considering the way you now have to jury-rig the system to enable some sort of 30 s skip, I'm guessing the submitter has yet to come to terms with the fac that TiVo sold out to advertisers a long time ago.

MirrorDot

http://www.mirrordot.com/media/ccbff8e5d33f5022937 f6bdafcc7ae89/bluemoon.mp4 [mirrordot.com]

Also known for tivoisation

TiVo's are also known for tivoisatin [wikipedia.org]. They love receiving the freedom to add easter eggs, but are not big fans of passing that freedom on to others (or the freedom to remove their spyware, or the freedom to add features you want).

RMS gave a good explanation of this in his recent talk on GPLv3 [fsfeurope.org].

My home movies?

Did anyone else notice the "My home movies" feature it discussed and showed? I do not think that's a current feature to stream movies-- only music and photos. I wonder if an update is coming soon?

alien technology

so, does that mean that tivo just invalidated their patents? looks like alien prior art to me. good news for dish dvr customers! ;)

fake timestamp

As another poser pointed out, the timestamp for that file is a gif which is located at: http://a423.g.akamai.net/7/423/1788/00909b5e4f1ead /www.tivo.com/i/timestamp.gif [akamai.net]

WTF?

Commercial Skip?

Did anyone here skip this particular commerical? I feel used. violated.. etc.

Well Gollieee

So TiVo has a great story to tell, obviously intends for it to be seen since it's on their web-site to start with, then hides it as best they can? If this is TiVo Marketing at work, than it's no surprise to me why they can't gain traction in the marketplace except through lawsuits.

My personal rule is to avoid whenever possible companies who compete via lawsuit, rather than by price and/or quality.

about 3 minutes too long

cool idea, but it stopped being funny very quickly... after that it was just more of the same.
got pretty banal pretty quick.

TIVO deserves it!

"Linking to a 40 meg file hosted on TiVo's servers on the front page of Slashdot? Not nice."

TIVO deserves it! Those drm using bums!

http://www.fsf-europe.org/projects/gplv3/barcelona -rms-transcript.it.html#tivoisation [fsf-europe.org]

than not then..

damnit!

I'll never understand why people use then for than more then than for then, but than I guess the latter sounds weirder then then for than.

'Masculine Itch Cream' golfing TiVo commercial??

I saw a TiVo commercial on real TV once, it was one of the funniest commercials ever and I've never seen it again.

This was probably five years ago or so, but here's a recap:

(Three men on golf course, 1 of them T'ing off, we see his back)
Man A: (Swings and misses shot, shuffles at crotch)
Man B: What's the matter, Bill? ... Masculine Itch?
Man A: YES! How did you know??
Man B (Advertiser voice): Well, let me tell you about men's masculine itch cream!
(Scene cuts to 'flu-style' graph of man's crotch with lots of 'dots' focused on the crotch area)
Man B: You can see the affected area here ... (blah blah)
Man B then whips out a bottle of 'Masculine Itch Cream' and bends down towards Man A's crotch
Man B: And you just apply to the affected area! ...

(Scene cuts to a "There a some things on TV you don't want to see" style-ad w/ TiVo logo)

Everyone think's I'm some kinda of pervert when I try to explain that commercial...but it was hilarious.

Did anyone else ever see that?

Rabid fan?

Is that why he only has 6 posts on the TiVo forums? And joined in September 2006 (i.e., yesterday)?

A cheezy attempt at viral marketing?

The S3 HD TiVo is set to be released early this month (Sept 12). Est. Price $799.

subliminal message

did any of you catch the subliminal message around 3:58 where it shows this url for 1 frame:
www.tivo.com/bluemoon