Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Secret Origins of TiVo

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the trust-no-one dept.

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."

7 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Zap Ads? by russ1337 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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?

    1. Re:Zap Ads? by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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).

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
  2. 1-frame watermark by slidersv · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

    --
    there is no issue with my network
  3. Re:File format? by gwiner · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The unit in the video demonstrates features that were not available until the Series II units w/ LAN capability were introduced (photos, music), so I'm thinking this was meant to promote the series II, or perhaps the forthcoming Cable Card models.

  4. Also known for tivoisation by H4x0r+Jim+Duggan · · Score: 1, Interesting

    TiVo's are also known for tivoisatin. 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.

    --
    Please help publicise swpat.org - the software patents wiki
  5. fake timestamp by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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

    WTF?

  6. Rabid fan? by deblau · · Score: 2, Interesting

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

    --
    This post expresses my opinion, not that of my employer. And yes, IAAL.