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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."

36 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Don't like TiVo, huh? by sdo1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Linking to a 40 meg file hosted on TiVo's servers on the front page of Slashdot? Not nice.

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    --- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
    1. Re:Don't like TiVo, huh? by Hassman · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Uhhh... Wha? This isn't a real ftp link. Something tells me this is a bit planned for.

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      -Mark
      Dovie'andi se tovya sagain.
    2. Re:Don't like TiVo, huh? by Gonzotek · · Score: 2, Informative

      What about YouTube? TiVo Bluemoon Video posted by (Dave Zatz

    3. Re:Don't like TiVo, huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Not nice, like taking open source code and then locking it in hardware that prevents people from modifying it?

      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 people hate them. Other than acting like complete asshats, of course. The GPLv3 rewrite is, in part, to prevent other companies from closing up open source code in the same way TiVo did.

    4. Re:Don't like TiVo, huh? by Ph33r+th3+g(O)at · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What? TiVo is a commercial enterprise, and bandwidth is a cost of doing business. It's not as if they linked to a 40 MB file on the Dalai Lama's website-in-exile or something.

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      I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
  2. Then then then... than? by dsanfte · · Score: 2, Insightful
    "TiVo is probably better known for their ad zapping technology then their televison advertisements"


    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.
    --
    occultae nullus est respectus musicae - originally a Greek proverb
    1. Re:Then then then... than? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
      bears pointing out when it appears on the front page of Slashdot,


      Well, better on Slashdot front page then New York Times.

  3. 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 Aadain2001 · · Score: 5, Informative

      In order to prevent a massive lawsuite storm from all the major networks, TiVo officially only allows you to fast-forward through commercials, not skip them (similar to using a VCR). Unofficially there is a feature you can enable through the remote (hitting a combo of buttons) that allows you to change the 'skip-to-the-end' button into a 30 second skip ahead button. Most of the time you only have to hit it 3-4 times to get through commercial breaks. But that's unofficial ;)

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    2. 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).

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      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    3. Re:Zap Ads? by dthree · · Score: 2, Informative

      My ReplayTV box has a "commercial detection" feature that is pretty good at skipping commercials without any user intervention. They took it out of later models under pressure from the "entertainment" industry but at least they don't use software update to take features away from existing units the way Tivo does. Don't you love having features you bought and paid for disabled?

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      "I forgot my mantra."
    4. Re:Zap Ads? by zCyl · · Score: 2, Informative

      In order to prevent a massive lawsuite storm from all the major networks, TiVo officially only allows you to fast-forward through commercials, not skip them

      Or you can just use MythTV, where you can automatically skip them without pressing anything.

    5. Re:Zap Ads? by Aadain2001 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      MythTV can do that because they are not an entity that can be sued by TV networks (or at least not view as enough of a threat). I love OSS and Linux, but MythTV is not easy to setup. And don't forget the hardware cost. You don't want to do a sub-par MythTV box. Usually you'd want a very large hardrive (or four), a good TV tuner (or two), and enough processing power to encode a show or two and still watch TV. TiVo is a good option when you don't want to fork over $1k+ and want it to just work. Of course, once I get my hands on enough funds and time, I plan on making a kick-ass MythTV box. Until then, I'll enjoy my TiVo.

      --
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    6. Re:Zap Ads? by MegaZone · · Score: 2, Informative

      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.

    7. Re:Zap Ads? by Aadain2001 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Now that really depends what you mean by 'beat' TiVo. Will it have larger storage? Probably. Will it be able to convert to multiple video codecs? Probably not (not enough CPU power). Record multiple shows at once? Definately not (won't get two good TV cards in a $500 price cap). In the end, if you built a $500 MythTV box you'll get something more on par with TiVo, but with a significantly harder setup, less useful interface, and not many extra features. However, dump $1k+ into a MythTV box, and you get a laundry list of neat features that TiVo just can't touch. But I'll stick with TiVo until then.

      --
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    8. Re:Zap Ads? by Bastian · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, for one, I said years, as in plural. Computer hardware up to the task cost more in 2003.

      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 after you're done buying CPU, mobo, power supply, case, tuner card, RAM, hard drive, etc. to build a MythTV box from scratch, you're doing pretty good if you can keep the price down around $500.

  4. Wonder what this is promoting? by gwiner · · Score: 5, Informative

    Great spoof - The file timestamp is actually a GIF =). Makes me wonder what this was meant to promote, or perhaps just a good piece of viral marketing. According to some of those rabid Tivo fans, "Bluemoon" was the codename for the original Tivo iteration.

    1. Re:Wonder what this is promoting? by 1u3hr · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Of course it's viral marketiong -- it costs money and takes talent to make a movie like that, not to mention hosting a 40 MB file. Rather (deliberately) reminsicent of the Dharma Initiative training film found in the show Lost, as well as many other influences.

  5. Mirror to MP4 file by qcs-rf.com · · Score: 5, Informative

    Enjoy!

    http://www.qcs-rf.com/slashdot/bluemoon.mp4

    --
    There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
  6. Viral Ad by DrKyle · · Score: 2, Informative

    Don't bother discussing any implications or great ramifications, it's just another viral ad.

  7. I love the smell... by alienmole · · Score: 4, Funny

    You smell that? Do you smell that? Viral marketing, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I love the smell of viral marketing in the morning. Smells like - market share.

    1. Re:I love the smell... by MustardMan · · Score: 2, Informative

      Aren't viral marketing ads supposed to be, you know, entertaining? I watched it on youtube and it wasn't funny at all. If it wasn't for the slashvertisement posting of this video, I would never have seen it - people only send viral videos around to their friends if they are actually enjoyable to watch. This was just stupid, long, drawn-out, and boring.

  8. 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.

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    there is no issue with my network
  9. Ask Dan Rather by krell · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Were .mp4 files around back in 1997?"

    He has some MP4 files that Bush actually recorded with his Powerbook in 1972.

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    Where were you when the voynix came?
  10. Youtube.... by Kunta+Kinte · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsXUPmWAfhY

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  11. 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.

  12. Patented Technology by CustomDesigned · · Score: 2, Funny

    I noticed in the video that the box included a menu to select music by category and artist. Isn't this the patented tech that Apple just got sued for using in ipods? Another victim for the patent holder?

  13. MirrorDot by mapinguari · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://www.mirrordot.com/media/ccbff8e5d33f5022937 f6bdafcc7ae89/bluemoon.mp4

  14. BitTorrent download by TheSHAD0W · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://bittornado.com/torrents/bluemoon.mp4.torren t

  15. 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?

  16. Commercial Skip? by popeye44 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Did anyone here skip this particular commerical? I feel used. violated.. etc.

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    Inane Comments are Generously Disregarded
  17. about 3 minutes too long by Temsi · · Score: 2

    cool idea, but it stopped being funny very quickly... after that it was just more of the same.
    got pretty banal pretty quick.

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    -- This sig for rent.
  18. Re:mirror, youtube by Goaway · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Thank you for doing TiVo's marketing work for them, and turning friendly conversation into ad space little by little.

  19. 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)?

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    This post expresses my opinion, not that of my employer. And yes, IAAL.
  20. Re:'Masculine Itch Cream' golfing TiVo commercial? by MegaZone · · 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.

  21. Cómo se dice "Viral Marketing?" by C10H14N2 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    This is hardly an "easter egg" someone randomly found... this is an advertising campaign.

    When it's been on /. for 12 hours and I'm pulling 5.1Mb/s from their site...it ain't no accident.