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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."

13 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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  2. 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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    3. 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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  3. 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.

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

    Enjoy!

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

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  5. 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.

  6. 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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  7. Youtube.... by Kunta+Kinte · · Score: 5, Informative

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

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  8. 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.

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

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