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Time Warner Cable Patents Method For Disabling Fast-Forward Function On DVRs
antdude writes in with a story about a patent that won't have DVR users skipping for joy. "Time Warner Cable has won a U.S. patent for a method for disabling fast-forward and other trick mode functions on digital video recorders. The patent, which lists Time Warner Cable principal architect Charles Hasek as the inventor, details how the nation's second largest cable MSO may be able prevent viewers from skipping TV commercials contained in programs stored on physical DVRs it deploys in subscriber homes, network-based DVRs and even recording devices subscribers purchase at retail outlets."
At least the damage will be restricted to one company, albeit a major one.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
...and I'll make sure to avoid any device that lists it in its manual.
worldmobilenet.com -- World Prepaid Wireless Internet plans
Disabling the fast-forward function on a DVR would likely spark a backlash from subscribers, and make it more difficult for Time Warner Cable to compete with DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV), Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and other multichannel providers that distribute DVRs that allow subscribers to skip commercials.
So... You're ROCKSTAR PR department lets THIS part slip but... I'm lost.
Next they'll be patenting eye clamps so you can't shut your eyes and a tongue strap so you can't go "la la la la la" during the commercials.
Peole.Do.Not.Want.To.Watch.Ads.
Find another way to make money, you morons.
They forgot to patent "driving legitimate users to bittorrent through adding techniques designed to irritate paying customers".
But I suppose there's lots of prior art there.
Half the time I forget I'm watching recorded TV and forget to fast forward through the commercials anyhow. This is one more reason to cut the cable and look at alternative entertainment solutions.
Doesn't Time Warner control the software on their DVRs? Can't they just disable that feature? It seems impossible to disable FF feature on all the different types of DVRs out there (like MythTV) through some magical embedded code. It must be some feature of the codec.
Half of writing history is hiding the truth.
this munges up the keyframes (I frames) in a stream when it detects a cue embedded by the network (ADS START HERE!!1!). therefore, if a device is designed to fast-forward by skipping over the predicted (P and B) frames, it cannot do this as it can't find the I frames needed to display anything at all.
this will fail on sane devices because fast-forward is usually implemented as skipping just the B-frames (that are predicted off both I and P frames), while decoding the I frames and P frames.
this will further fail because MPEG-2 decoders are fast enough that they can decode the stream in it's entirety fast enough for a practical fast-forward (my 5 yo computer can do it on CPU only, 1 core only at about 200fps).
this will fail even further because a trivial firmware hack could detect this "cue tone" and skip the ads _entirely_. they're basically implanting a trivially readable signal that usefully tells us what are the ads and what is the show.
At first I was surprised that there was a new posting with the DEC logo, but then it turns out it's a newbie who doesn't know what the symbol means.
It's summer, it's endless summer...
Let us start a discussion of VAX and Alpha to compensate.
I do not think d|i|g|i|t|a|l means what you think it means...
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
QUOTE: "By utilizing, for example, digital embedded cue-tones for advertisement insertion, a device in the network ⦠could use these points (i.e., the cue-tones) to selectively remove I-Frames/IDR-Frames to prevent trick modes during ads (or other portions) but not from the program being watched. Thus, consumers can be substantially prevented from skipping, fast forwarding and rewinding through video that the provider would like the consumer to view, such as advertisements, specific carriage agreement requirements, etc.," Time Warner Cable wrote in the patent.
Sounds like it would prevent ANY digital device from fast-forwarding, due to the deliverate introduction of errors.
If that's accurate the only device which would not be bothered by MPEG Iframe errors is on analog Super VHS VCR. (Not HD but neither's my tv, so I don't really care.)
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
I already own an HTPC. But I still have to buy/rent two STBs so it can record channels not available on analog cable (mostly all the interesting ones), and am stuck in SD as my provider won't rent/sell cable cards. Even then , about half the channels carry the do not record or do not copy flag (meaning can't record, or watch on another computer. If the motherboard dies, I'm unable to watch what's recorded or even archived on DVD).
Even if I buy two new HD STBs and remove their cable cards and put them in cablecard tuners, they won't allow the tuner's serial numbers to be added in their DB, Meaning some channels won't work at all (such as those using SDV).
By getting my content on torrent sites, I can do whatever the fuck I want with it (and it's in HD too)
I've got better things to do tonight than die.
Don't like their business practices? Stop giving them money.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
"Device to Keep Me From Using a Time-Warner DVR"
Any transcoder can put them back. If you can display a complete frame to the user, you can encode it into an I frame.
To post to which you're responding was mine. I guess I wasn't logged in.
ANYWAY...
I don't know what an HTPC or STB is but I built my main PC and included a Hauppauge tuner card (readily available at Fry's or anywhere else that sells internal hardware) and Media Center records whatever I want. Never had a problem.
I dropped my AT&T Uverse TV subscription and I have not looked back. I don't have to worry about dropped I frames because I don't have a DVR anymore. I don't have to worry about if I can fast forward through commercials or not because there isn't any to fast forward through.
If people would just get an ANTENNA and drop cable TV we'd have:
1) TV would cost nothing
2) All TV would be HD - there haven't been analog broadcasts for years now.
3) With limited channels there would be competition among shows and mostly good stuff would be on all channels
There is more local programming than you think with sub-channels on DTV. We only need to take this approach in the city to have a positive effect - that's where most the viewers are.
Assuming this is a signal that's embedded in the content during commercials, monitoring this will make it even easier for software to remove the commercials during/after recording. Thanks guys!
sig: sauer
No wonder their business model is in trouble. I think I'll patent not letting customers leave the restaurant until they've eaten their vegetables.
Are they nuts? They should be putting time and effort into technology that will KEEP their existing customers not investing in technology that will push their customers away. Blame Pirate Bay, torrents, pirates, etc all they want, at the end of the day THEY really are their own worst enemy.
This is actually quite interesting point because it would be quite difficult to send the key frames when a subscriber joins an already in-progress multicast stream... but I suppose new set top box firmware could overcome this by joining you onto solid "commercial only" stream while the STB is waiting for the key frames of the stream you wish to watch. Can you imagine channel surfing and all the channels which would be playing commercials are instead playing the SAME commercials in PERFECT SYNCHRONIZATION!
120 characters ought to be enough for anyone
You also get to enjoy endless grief. My parents have a real TiVO HD with a pair of CableCards & live in an affluent city where they're far from uncommon. It hasn't worked properly ONE SINGLE TIME since they bought the TiVO and had the Cablecards installed. There's ALWAYS two channels that show up as "unsubscribed" at any given time. They call Comcast, file a trouble ticket, and the problem eventually gets fixed... and two OTHER channels go away and become "unsubscribed".
My dad is CONVINCED they actually have some kind of rack with fixed card capacity and a card or port per channel, their rack is maxed out, they have two more channels than available ports/cards, and that they just keep unplugging and swapping around two channels at a time (disabling their reception by everyone with cablecards) hoping they'll eventually find two that nobody cares about so they can avoid spending a few thousand dollars buying another rack just to accommodate two more cards/ports..
The problem with TV advertising is that it's like firing a shotgun into a crowd. You know you're going to hit someone but whether it's the right someone is, literally, hit and miss. In the good old days (if they ever existed) the products advertised were relevant to a large fraction of the population and the hit to miss ratio was high. Now most of the advertising is for cars that I can't afford, investment banks (you have to have something to invest!), drugs with terrible side effects for diseases that I don't have etc etc. I'd have to view hours of advertising to see the one or two that are relevant to my lifestyle.
Ok, the cable companies make money from advertising, I get that, but forcing me to watch irrelevant advertising is a waste of everyone's time.