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- From: rmintz@ecst.csuchico.edu (Rich Mintz)
- Subject: Re: Filtering TV Commercials
- Message-ID: <1992Sep03.203241.17612@ecst.csuchico.edu>
- Sender: news@ecst.csuchico.edu (no news is good news)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: cscihp.ecst.csuchico.edu
- Organization: California State University, Chico
- References: <1992Sep03.042045.5095@ecst.csuchico.edu> <10574@sun13.scri.fsu.edu>
- Date: Thu, 03 Sep 1992 20:32:41 GMT
- Lines: 37
-
- John:
- I have a technique for blanking out the audio and
- video on commercials that works pretty well under the
- right circumstances if you have a VCR. Using the VCR
- remote control's INPUT SELECT button, where you select
- between normal tv, "simulcast" (where you see the picture
- but the audio is replaced with whatever you feed in the
- AUDIO IN connectors on the back of the VCR), or "line in"
- (where both the video and audio are coming from external
- sources connected up in the back of the vcr).
-
- By flipping into this "line-in" mode, you can kill the
- video of a commercial, as well as the audio, via remote
- control if your vcr has one and supports that feature.
-
- Starting immediately after the intro song of a program
- ends, I time how long the commercial break lasts. Usually
- it lasts around 2 to 2.5 minutes. With very few
- exceptions (however, I watch very little tv), every
- commercial break will last the same amount of time.
-
- So! I have a little batch file on my PC that I have set
- up to automatically delay for the number of seconds I
- specify and to then beep when the countdown reaches 0.
- Another press of the INPUT SELECT button, and *poof* my
- program's back on again and I only had to suffer through
- maybe 3 seconds of commercials 8-)
-
- Especially on non-broadcast (ie cable only) networks,
- where I'm PAYING them indirectly through my cable bill to
- watch a channel, it makes me really angry to have
- programming constantly interrupted by those insulting
- screams to "SAVE! SAVE! SAVE! BUY! BUY! BUY! BETTER
- HURRY! NOT MANY LEFT/SALE'S ALMOST OVER!!!!"
-
- Rich -> rmintz@cscihp.ecst.csuchico.edu
-
-