The State of Automated Commercial Skipping

iskqy writes "Even though attention to commerical skipping has gone down since the motion picture studios sued replaytv for it, I've noticed that it appears to be alive and well in some PVR products on the market. ReplayTV PVRs have it (though different from what they got sued for) in what they call Show|Nav (what a terrible feature name!) and SnapStream's Beyond TV has it in a feature they call SmartSkip. In both cases, the user has to press a button to automagically skip a commercial (vs. the original ReplayTV feature which skipped them without any user intervention) but it's basically the same thing. ReplayTV plays down commercial skipping ("jump forward and back between scenes in a show") but SnapStream is more open about the feature ("Skip commercials and other parts of TV shows"). "

automagic skipping

[cerenyx]

I wish I could 'automagically' skip parts of my life I got bored with/didn't want to endure.

And now for a brief Commercial Interruption

[Anonymous Coward]

You got the Green Light...
Penis This, Penis That.
Paris Hilton This, Paris Hilton That.
Interest Rates This, Interest Rates That.

Wish I could add Sound For a memorable Jingle.

Re:maybe im missing something...

[TCaptain]

Don't give the lawyers any ideas :)

You can - just smoke a bowl ;-)

[citizenc]

You can -- smoke a bowl. :)

420. :P

Commercial skipping?

[Darth RadaR]

Yeah, but what does it do when you're watching an info-mercial? ;)

So change the model.

[Koatdus]

Perhaps if everyone starts skipping over the commericals television will change.

I can see it now. A form of television where you pay a monthly fee to watch and get commerical free tv. Wonderful, high quality programing, both educational and entertaining. Our minds will be expanded, our horizons broadened. Our children will be enlightened. The level of "culture" in our society will rise to new highs. There will be a great renewal in the arts.

Dare we say another Renaissance?

No longer will the programing be dictated by Madison Avenue. No longer will we be forced to wade through the sewage spewing out into our living rooms. Garbage aimed at the lowest comon denominator because there have to be a certain number of the right kind of people watching who will buy product-X.

Mindless.
Boring.
Crap.

I can see it now, a reliable, high quality signal that never fails. That carries content on demand. A beautiful picture, high definition, perfect concert quality sound.

Perhaps instead of being broadcast the signal will even come into your house on some kind of cable ... oh, wait...