Does anyone know how cable TV works? I would think each show and commercial must have some kind of digital signature. If that’s the case, shouldn’t it be pretty easy for a TV set manufacturer (or cable company?) to offer a feature that allows you to block or blacklist commercials from certain companies.  I’d envision them even being able to transmit blacklisting data back to TV and commercial producers as a form of instant feedback.

I suppose it’s possible, but I’d think you need a lot of information about how the data is streamed. It’s most definitely encrypted. And without decrypting it, you wouldn’t be able to ‘detect’ the commercials. Not to mention, the lawsuits from the providers, content producers and advertisers against the TV manufacturer would be swift and furious. 

Take care,

Derek

Those are technicalities that a cable company would handle, since it’s their data.  You’re right about the lawsuits, though to make this happen there’d have to be a monetary incentive for the content producers. I’d think the instant feedback would act as an instant and much more accurate Nielsen type service.  I could even see paying the cable provider a small fee for a certain number of blacklistings. And if an advertiser wants me to not blacklist them, then they can pay ME to not do it.

Damn, that’s a hell of a good idea.

Does anybody still have tivo?  With tivo, can’t (or couldn’t) you just record a show and omit the commercials altogether?  Although, it would be nice to be able to selectively block commercials.

Back when I had cable (I’ve since switched to just Hulu/Netflix/Amazon), I had a CableCARD reader built into my PC and I had a program that ran in the backgroup (DVRMS Toolbox, I think) that would scan my recorded shows, remove the commercials, and rewrite the files.  It usually left about 2 seconds on either side extra, but it was still pretty good.

Dont like cable..hahha