PHILIPS

Anybody know if the below is for real ? .





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Philips Attempts to Patent Advertisement Enforcing
Posted by Tim Davis 4 hours ago | 77 comments

If Philips has their way you may not be skipping through TV commercials
much longer. In fact, you might not even be able to change the channel
on your TV during a commercial.

Philips has filed a patent application to stop people from changing
channels during commercials or fast forward commercials for pre-recorded
shows. According the patent application, Philips solution is to use MHP
(Multimedia Home Platform) to read flags in broadcasts. If an
advertisement is marked as such, your STB (Set-Top Box), DVR or even
your TV could stop you from changing the channel or skipping past
commercials. MHP software is already built into most digital TV
receivers and recorders available today.

Philips knows that the patent would be "greatly resented by viewers" and
could even cause end users to believe their equipment is broken. To
remedy this, Philips suggests that the flag also trigger a notice on the
screen to notify users of what is going on.

The patent application also suggests that end users be able to pay a fee
to be allowed to skip commercials. The fee would probably be set by your
cable or satellite provider.

As we move into the digital age, it seems more and more that we as
consumers are at the mercy of these big companies. This is starting to
look like the Telco business. First we have Caller ID, then Caller ID
blocking, and now Anti-Caller ID blocking. What=3Fs next, anti-commercial
forwarding blocking?
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Can sony really be THIS stupid?
    ... in MHP that Philips could use to control the channel switching function. ... There's no current technology available ... If a consumer wanted to watch TV without the ads, ... Third, if this patent has been applied for in the US, that does not mean ...
    (alt.games.video.xbox)
  • Re: PHILIPS
    ... Philips Attempts to Patent Advertisement Enforcing ... If Philips has their way you may not be skipping through TV commercials much longer. ... Philips has filed a patent application to stop people from changing channels during commercials or fast forward commercials for pre-recorded shows. ...
    (uk.media.tv.misc)
  • Re: [RFC] Should we create a raw input interface for IRs ? - Was: Re: [PATCH 1/3 v2] lirc core d
    ... I don't know if is there any US patent pending about it (AFAIK, ... with a licensed software, the user has already the license for using it. ... The US Philips RC-6 patent is US Patent 5,877,702 ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • Re: [RFC] Should we create a raw input interface for IRs ? - Was: Re: [PATCH 1/3 v2] lirc core d
    ... I don't know if is there any US patent pending about it (AFAIK, ... with a licensed software, the user has already the license for using it. ... The US Philips RC-6 patent is US Patent 5,877,702 ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • Re: PHILIPS
    ... Philips Attempts to Patent Advertisement Enforcing ... If Philips has their way you may not be skipping through TV commercials ...
    (uk.media.tv.misc)