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From: jeffj@pedsga.UUCP (Jeff Jonas)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: detecting TV commercials, is it possible?
Summary: I thought that sponsers had commercial counting block boxes
Message-ID: <980@pedsga.UUCP>
Date: 18 Sep 89 16:34:46 GMT
References: <4482@natinst.natinst.com> <78@uwm.edu> <3553@dgis.daitc.mil> <13675@well.UUCP>
Organization: Concurrent Computer Corp. Tinton Falls, N.J.
Lines: 38

In article <13675@well.UUCP>, nagle@well.UUCP (John Nagle) writes:
> 
>        About five years ago, I encountered a unit designed to eliminate
> commercials from VCR tapes recorded off the air.

I really wish that someone with the facts would speak up!
I am not a video technician, and I don't play one on t.v.

I read somewhere, sometime that there is some barcode in the
commercials so that sponsers can have 'black boxes' watching
the t.v. all day and verify that the commercials were actually broadcast.

I would further guess that the codes are at both the beginning and end
of the commercial in order to catch those times whan a commercial
is started but not played to the end.
After all, if you payed for air time, you'd want verification that
you got what you paid for!

Now, is this barcode a trade secret?
It's rather self defeating (for the commercial advertisers)
should a VCR manufacturer build-in a commercial deleter.

Do all commercials have this, or only those from those sponsers
who are auditing?
What about other annoyances, like "Editorials" and "Editorial replies"
and station identification and ads for TV shows?

I never claimed to have the answers, only pointers.


__________
	    What do electrical engineers do when capacitors fail?
	    They have Tantalum tantrums.
Jeffrey Jonas

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