I keep seeing this..

[Triple Zero]

soon I will have a TV again. cause my gf demands to have one (even though, you know, Internets, and I really want to buy a wide flatscreen TFT monitor and mount it to the wall in order to watch that instead) but she wants a TV.

I'm gonna demand that she will always mute it when commercials are on.

Aren't there devices already that do that shit for you? I mean how hard can it be to detect a constantly overcompressed signal that carries more energy than whatever you were watching before?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I haven't had TV for some time, but there is a Jack In The Box not too far from my house.

I haven't eaten at one for ages. Mmmm, crap food!

[Iason Ouabache]

And Chick-Fil-A...what I would do for waffle fries sometimes...

I always get cravings for Chick-Fil-A on Sundays. It is a very ironically cruel craving. 

[Suu]

And Chick-Fil-A...what I would do for waffle fries sometimes...

I always get cravings for Chick-Fil-A on Sundays. It is a very ironically cruel craving. 

Stupid Christian food chain. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Coincidentally, Eldest Female Offspring and The Boy One report that their dad took them to Jack In The Box for lunch today. 

[Reginald Ret]

Aren't there devices already that do that shit for you? I mean how hard can it be to detect a constantly overcompressed signal that carries more energy than whatever you were watching before?

I've been thinking about that too.
Isn't there a electronics savvy person around here?


i googled:
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/49499

Some have tried to do this, but there is no effective way to identify and mute commercials. They contain no consistent and reliable identifying features.

Many commercials are played at a higher volume level, but this is a very inaccurate way to identify a commercial, since the average volume of program material varies. The volume is highly variable within a program: chase scenes, gunshots, and explosions tend to be noisier than dialog.

Since commercials carry no identification tag embedded in the broadcast data, a television would need to identify a commercial by analyzing both the video and audio content and comparing this with known patterns generated by commercials. This would be extremely difficult to do reliably. Consumers would reject a monitoring system that had even a modest failure rate, particularly if it muted program material by accident.

If there was a way to reliably mute commercials, one or more manufacturers would already have offered such a feature in their televisions, either as an added-cost option or a premium feature.

(Imagine tryting to watch a show highlighting award-winning commercials: any system that tried to distinguish content from commercial would have a fit.)

I'm paranoid enough to think the bolded line is weak.

http://www.madeinusaforever.com/muautvmudema.html.


http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5708477/description.html

US Patent 5708477 - Video signal identifier for controlling a VCR and television based on the occurrence of commercials

[Triple Zero]

actually it should totally be possible. there is only a finite amount of different commercials in the commercial breaks. and judging from the accuracy in music-recognition (call a phone number, it picks up the sound in a noisy bar through the phone speaker and a few seconds later you get a text message with the title and artist from a database of all music ever) it should be dead easy to recognize commercials from the video+audio signal.

only thing you have to do is, just like spam is filtered from email, you need a bunch of signatures for the commercials of this month or week.

worst thing that happens is that a tv program that discusses commercials gets partially blocked out when they show a clip, but that's not too bad and you could manually turn it back on.

should add some sort of community thing to it, people marking TV timeslots as "spam", which are then analyzed at a central server and converted to signatures.

some TV channels have a jingle/clip at the start and end of every commercial block, that's easy. do they still have that in NL?

anyway, really this is totally possible if you want it. I should get a TV card on my new computer to play with this idea.

[Payne]

Years before, he had invented a module that, when a television commercial appeared, automatically muted the sound. It wasn't at first a context-recognition device. Instead it simply monitored the amplitude of the carrier wave. TV advertisers had taken to running their ads louder and with less audio clutter then the programs that were their nominal vehicles. News of Hadden's module spread by word of mouth. People reported a sense of relief, the lifting of a great burden, even a feeling of joy at being freed from the advertising barrage for the six to eight hours out of every day that the average American spent in front of a television set. Before there could be any coordinated response from the television advertising industry, Adnix had become wildly popular. It forced advertisers and networks into new choices of carrier-wave strategy, each of which Hadden countered with a new invention. Sometimes he invented circuits to defeat strategies that the agencies and the networks had not yet hit upon. He would say he was saving them the trouble of making inventions, at great cost to their shareholders, which were at any rate doomed to failure. As his sales volume increased, he kept cutting prices. It was a kind of electronic warfare. And he was wining.

They tried to sue him - something about a conspiracy in restraint of trade. They had sufficient political muscle that his motion for summary dismissal was denied, but insufficient influence to actually win the case. The trial had forced Hadden to investigate the relevant legal codes. Soon after, he applied, through a well-known Madison Avenue agency in which he was now a major silent partner, to advertise his own product on commercial television. After a few weeks of controversy his commercials were refused. He sued all three networks and in this trial was able to prove conspiracy in restraint of trade. He received a huge settlement that was, at the time, a record for cases of this sort, and which contributed in its modest way to the demise of the original networks.

There had always been people who enjoyed the commercials, of course, and they had no need for Adnix. But they were a dwindling minority. Hadden had made a great fortune by eviscerating broadcast advertising. He also made many enemies.

From Carl Sagan's Contact. The written one that doesn't have Matthew McConnacunt in it.

[Bruno]

Jack-In-The-Box has to be the worst fast food chain ever.

Hardee's or GTFO.

(AKA Carl's Jr. in some areas)

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

I've never had the displeasure of eating at one.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Jack-In-The-Box has to be the worst fast food chain ever.

Hardee's or GTFO.

(AKA Carl's Jr. in some areas)

WTF?  The horrible bacon thingie cheeseburger is what GOD eats.

I mean, when he isn't eating the souls of his worshippers.

[Suu]

We had Hardee's in FL, but I only went there for chicken, never burgers.

[Bruno]

Hardee's is a billion times better since they got bought out by Carl's jr.

They used to really suck except for breakfast. Several years ago I remember seeing the "sorry we used to suck, but now we're alot better" Hardee's commercials. Turns out they really meant it. Even McDonalds is copying them with their new 1/3 lb angus burgers, which, by the way, are not as good as Hardee's's 1/3 lb thickburger, also they cost more.


NOW YOU KNOW

Also, Jack-In-The-Box just isn't the same since they stopped serving the E-coli burgers.

[Suu]

Rhode Island isn't a state keen on fast food. Since there are laws here protecting local business from chains, only the big three are around: McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's. And then Pizza Hut, Domino's, and Papa John's for pizza. That's it. Fortunately where I live now is close enough to an Arby's in MA, since the local RI fast food roast beef chain, Walt's, sucks. I mean, Arby's can be disgusting, but Walt's is fucking horrific.

No Chick-Fil-A. I have to drive over an hour to get to one in a mall North of Boston. Sonic, White Castle, and anything of that caliber I have to go to New Jersey for.

We DO have an A&W, but it's seasonal.

[Sir Squid Diddimus]

fuck fast food!

that shit is horrible. anyone ever look at the nutritional information for hardees??
holy fucking shit. barf gag and barf again.

i haven't eaten any of that shit since... like the beginning of the year and i don't miss it at all. my mom brought burger king shit with her today when she dropped off the squidling (after taking him on a cruise, lucky little turd) and the sight of it alone made me want to puke. not to mention the smell.

i never thought i'd turn into one of those stuck up, smug, snobby finicky eaters but man, i can't believe the shit i was shoving down my gullet.

but those tiny cows make me giggle a little.