The Secret Origins of TiVo 151
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? (Score:2)
Ask Dan Rather (Score:5, Funny)
He has some MP4 files that Bush actually recorded with his Powerbook in 1972.
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Now if only Tivo boxes would be able to play back MPEG-4, then we'd have some news here.
~jeff
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mirror, youtube (Score:1, Informative)
Mirror1: http://www.qcs-rf.com/slashdot/bluemoon.mp4 [qcs-rf.com] (faster than the original site)
Mirror2: http://wakkah.net/pub/bluemoon.mp4 [wakkah.net] (uploading as I post)
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsXUPmWAfhY [youtube.com]
Posting AC for no karma whoring
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Don't like TiVo, huh? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Not nice, like sueing companies for having the gall to implement playback and recording at the same time? Or sueing companies for making it so that pressing "play" after fast forwarding/rewinding causes playback to resume slightly before the button was pressed?
Not nice, like removing the commercial skip feature due to pressure from TV studios?
I wonder what TiVo could possibly have done to make peop
Patented Technology (Score:3, Funny)
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I've yet to encounter a functioning TiVo that didn't.
BTW, it is Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select (you have an extra Play there), and best done while playing a recording from Now Playing/Now Showing, not Live TV (to avoid tuning to channel 30).
The latest version of the software on Series2 units gives less audio feedback when entering the above code (no noises for the first two Selects, 3, or 0), and seems to have some
40 MB? (Score:2)
BitTorrent download (Score:5, Informative)
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Any other ex tivo employee's laughing at that?
td
Cómo se dice "Viral Marketing?" (Score:3, Insightful)
When it's been on
Then then then... than? (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
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Well, better on Slashdot front page then New York Times.
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"is probably better known for their ad zapping technology, then their televison advertisements, then their funny little SOS signals they send out"...
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2) I don't believe in God.
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Using "then" instead of "than" is a very jarring mistake that no one with a primary school education should make. It also changes the meaning of the sentence.
Not capitalising a proper noun is most likely either a typo or just simple laziness, and doesn't really change the meaning.
As for the placement of the full stop, even if it should be within the quote marks, I'd personally put it outside simply because that makes far more sense in this context.
I have heard of the rule
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The unification of church and state I'd guess. Or it's part of the standard spelling troll to make one obvious error.
Using "then" instead of "than" is a very jarring mistake that no one with a primary school education should make. It also changes the meaning of the sentence.
Then it's a good thing he used the right one. (It could also be a dyslexic problem, as the typewritten-style "a" is almost schwa-like and could be misperceived as an "e".)
Not capitalising a proper nou
Zap Ads? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Zap Ads? (Score:5, Informative)
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Or you can just use MythTV [mythtv.org], where you can automatically skip them without pressing anything.
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Wouldn't a sub-par MythTV box be TiVo?
I haven't priced it all out, but I'd imagine you could build a MythTV box for under $500 that would still beat TiVo. That's about the cost of 3 years of TiVo prepaid.
Re:Zap Ads? (Score:4, Informative)
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And is the MythTV interface that bad? I thought it had won all sorts of awards...
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Tivo + livetime subscription: $500, $400 after rebate
Computer capable of running MythTV halfway decently: $1000
I like openness, but not costs-twice-as-much more.
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I don't know quite where you got your prices. At least a year ago I picked up a TV card with remote for $50, and a spare 160 GB HD to dedicate to MythTV for around $100, and was able to add MythTV functionality to an existing Linux server for no more cost than this (the prices should now be lower). If you don't have an existing Lin
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Second, I didn't havethe luxury of being able to just upgrade an existing 'puter, I tend to use outdated laptops.
I didn't realize that Tivo no longer does the lifetime sub. I was just pointing out that for a lot of folks out there MythTV is not the lower-cost option. I'd say if it weren't for that this would still be the case - most folks I know use laptops that they cart around fairly often, and I'd assume that
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The real reason is because originally Tivo had partner agreements with the networks. Like NBC paid Tivo to have a section in the menus (the Tivo Showcase) that highlighted what NBC wanted to promote that week. Also, NBC put markers in their show promos that made it so you could press thumbs up to record the show easily.
So Tivo had to play nice
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Funny, I've had TiVo over 4.5 years and I don't recall ever losing any features in an update. More urban legends. Quite the contrary, my units keep getting new features.
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I can think of three unsupported "hack" features that were removed in TiVo software updates, and one futher from the DirecTV DVR with TiVo.
The hack features were:
TeachTiVo: With the backdoor code enabled (unsupported) there was an ability to directly view and modify the Thumbs Up/Down data for programs, show types, actors, directors, etc.
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Re:Zap Ads? (Score:5, Interesting)
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).
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Speaking of which, I do agree with you about Linux, but VLC is cross-platform and does anything any other Linux player will do, even for Windows users.
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Perhaps the term is being extended to include the behavior of consumers who fast foreward or skip through commercial breaks using TiVo.
Overload (Score:1, Funny)
Wonder what this is promoting? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Wonder what this is promoting? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Mirror to MP4 file (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.qcs-rf.com/slashdot/bluemoon.mp4 [qcs-rf.com]
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Viral Ad (Score:3, Informative)
I love the smell... (Score:5, Funny)
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Er... no... (Score:1)
1-frame watermark (Score:2, Interesting)
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Youtube.... (Score:5, Informative)
Pictures behind Waterman's shoulders (Score:2)
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*Sigh* Kids.
On the right is Gerald R. Ford, Nixon's VP after Agnew resigned, who became President when Nixon resigned.
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I'm old enough to remember watching the Watergate hearings on TV.
Since this is a viral marketing spoof, I see know reason why they would not put a grainy portrait of W up there as a bit of humor or political satire.
On the right is Gerald R. Ford, Nixon's VP after Agnew resigned
I know what Ford looks like. That's not Ford.
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If you need more proof than the picture (which was probably obtained by fast-forwarding the nightly news all the way to the present), Diebold [diebold.com] had just opened their electronic research, testing and development facility in Ohio...
Ohio! Think about it, people!
Clear Pictures are not Guaranteed (Score:2)
Trust/ Who? (Score:1)
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
On, Cowboy Neal, we trusted you to keep our beloved
Oh, damn. Never mind... it's the Tr
"Ad zapping?" (Score:2)
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First of all, TiVO never sold out to advertisers. They recognized, from the beginning, that TV is not free. Advertisters pay for your TV in order to get hits on you. If you remove their hits, they will come after you, big-time, and your cool little dot-com startup will be just another crash and burn. This is TV, the nature of the business is delivering targetting advertising.
Second of all, TiVO's future revenue stream is ALL about advertising revenue. Consider they can allow
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And I bet you could even skip the "pointing the remote" step. Just make sure you're in the same room.
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That right there is beyond the ken of most TiVo users. Which is exactly why they make you do it to begin with.
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MirrorDot (Score:3, Informative)
Also known for tivoisation (Score:1, Interesting)
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? (Score:2)
alien technology (Score:2)
fake timestamp (Score:2, Interesting)
WTF?
Commercial Skip? (Score:2, Funny)
Well Gollieee (Score:2)
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 (Score:3)
got pretty banal pretty quick.
TIVO deserves it! (Score:1, Funny)
TIVO deserves it! Those drm using bums!
http://www.fsf-europe.org/projects/gplv3/barcelon
than not then.. (Score:2)
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.
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'Masculine Itch Cream' golfing TiVo commercial?? (Score:1)
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?
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
Re:'Masculine Itch Cream' golfing TiVo commercial? (Score:2, Informative)
Yeah, that was one of TiVo's earliest TV spots. One of the guys was Joe Montana and the guy with the itch was Ronnie Lott - both retired from the SF 49ers.
Rabid fan? (Score:3, Interesting)
A cheezy attempt at viral marketing? (Score:2)