Tivo To Also Offer Ads Your Way
FangVT writes "InfoWorld is reporting that in mid-2006 Tivo will begin allowing subscribers use keyword searches to look for information on specific products or services. The article does not contain much information but ultimately says 'Throwing in lots of hedge words to soften the idea of advertising once again mingling with TV content, TiVo described the service as non-intrusive, relevant, interactive advertising on an opt-in basis.' Tivo's own press release says, 'For the first time, advertisers will have the ability to deliver television advertising, on demand and targeted to consumers, without the limitations of traditional television media placement.'"
Mythtv already has this feature. It is called time stretch and has been around since 0.17, nearly 1 year. I can generally watch a "1 hour" show in a little over 30 minutes with Timestretch set to 1.1, and using commercial skipping.
From the 0.17 release notes at http://www.mythtv.org/:
# "Timestretch". Though, it's really 'time-compression'. This allows the user to adjust the playback speed slightly, but keeps the audio at the same pitch. If you're recording a lot of shows, timestretch lets you get through them faster. =)