[mythtv-users] Tivo has Commercial Skip in US

[Joseph Fry]

On Mon, Oct 12, 2015 at 3:12 PM, Kirk Bocek <t004 at kbocek.com> wrote:

>
>
> On 10/12/2015 12:03 PM, Gary Buhrmaster wrote:
>
>> due to the constant back-and-forth between those that want to detect (and
>> skip) and those that want to block detection (and skipping).
>>
>
> And why my 30-sec forward and 5-sec back buttons will never go away.


What I have always thought would be worthwhile as an add-in for the
commercial scanner, perhaps only for SD subscribers (to ensure common
program identification) would be a system that uploads your manual skips in
such a way that they can be of value to the next person who watches a show.

For example:

   - Person A watches The Simpsons Season 100 Episode 12, while watching
   they skip the segment 3:40 to 5:20 before resuming normal playback for
   another 5:15 and skipping another segment.  This "cutlist" is uploaded to a
   internet database.
   - Person B, C, D, E all watch the same episode, adding their data to the
   database.
   - Some system processes each of these submissions eliminating outliers,
   and when it feels that the data is statistically significant it puts the
   valuable data into a seperate database for consumption
   - Person Z's system begins commflagging the same episode, and checks the
   database of estimated cuts... it uses these estimates to quickly hone in on
   the start and end of any commercial breaks.

This could work really well for several reasons:


   1. Almost all shows have the commercial breaks defined by the show
   producers, ensuring that the amount of time between commercial breaks will
   be consistent regardless of the network broadcasting the show.
   2. Most major networks define the duration of the commercial breaks,
   such that even if your watching at opposite ends of the country, your
   commercial breaks will be the same length.


There are obviously some caveats that would need to be accounted for:

   1. Time synchronization
   2. Additional time added to the start and end of recordings
   3. Privacy and ensuring that viewing habits aren't used for nefarious
   purposes.  However perhaps selling aggregate data could be used to fund the
   cost of the servers? (In fact, if you could convince other DVR
   manufacturers to use this service, the data may be valuable enough for
   marketing companies as it would show how many people are watching a show,
   and which commercials they skip and which they don't)
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