Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!dgis!generous
From: generous@dgis.daitc.mil (Curtis Generous)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: detecting TV commercials, is it possible?
Message-ID: <3553@dgis.daitc.mil>
Date: 15 Sep 89 19:51:27 GMT
References: <4482@natinst.natinst.com> <78@uwm.edu>
Organization: DTIC Special Projects Office (DTIC-SPO), Alexandria VA
Lines: 21

In article <4482@natinst.natinst.com> (Jerry E. Sullivan) writes:
>Is it possible to detect impending commercials in TV broadcasts electronically?

There use to be a box on the market which allowed a VCR to pause automatically
during TV commercials.  Being curious on how this boxed worked, I read
through the user's guide and the principle that it used was that
the _only_ time that a total lack of video signal was present was during
the pause right before a commercial was to start.  The box would then put
the VCR on pause and trigger a 30 sec timer (standard length of a commercial).  
If another blank showed up during this time, the timer would reset.  When
the timer expired, it put back the VCR to run.  

At worse case, you could loose about 30 seconds of your show every commercial
break.

--curtis
-- 
Curtis C. Generous
DTIC Special Projects Office (DTIC-SPO)
ARPA: generous@daitc.mil
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