TiVo tests pop-up-style ads anyone get it yet? (merged)

[johnmacd]

TiVo pop-ups (http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5644197.html)

Has anyone seen the pop-ups yet? I'm actually a little curious to see what they look like. I wonder if they still appear if you use the 30 second skip. I rarely use the ff button, since I usually just 30 second skip the commercials.

[alldeadhomiez]

Has anyone seen the pop-ups yet?

Looks like they were quite a hit at TCF. :rolleyes:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=232067
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=2724391&&#post2724391

[nydoofus]

TiVo pop-ups (http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1040_22-5644197.html)

Has anyone seen the pop-ups yet? I'm actually a little curious to see what they look like. I wonder if they still appear if you use the 30 second skip. I rarely use the ff button, since I usually just 30 second skip the commercials.

I haven't seen them yet personally but here they are. The first is the actual ad, for the movie Interpreter, the second is the transparent ad they replaced it with due to the bugs.

320x240 PNG's which are centered on the screen. Kind of annoying if you have a regular TV set as it covers a quarter of the screen, but less annoying than a full screen ad.

[mrpenguin]

hmmm. I wonder if these are stored in mfs somewhere, like the showcases. could you have a nightly script that runs & clears that dir? wonder how these would work if the image to display does not exist? Is this an ok topic to discuss? I would think ok, since not stealing service or anything, but wonder. If not, please remove & tell me. thanks.

[mbellot]

hmmm. I wonder if these are stored in mfs somewhere, like the showcases. could you have a nightly script that runs & clears that dir? wonder how these would work if the image to display does not exist? Is this an ok topic to discuss? I would think ok, since not stealing service or anything, but wonder. If not, please remove & tell me. thanks.

I would think it depends on how anal you are about reading the Terms of Service.

12. Advertising and Promotions.
The TiVo service is advertiser supported. The hard disk drive of your TiVo DVR contains reserved space in addition to the advertised recording capacity. TiVo reserves the right to send content (including advertising and promotional material) to such reserved portions of your TiVo DVR's hard disk drive as part of the TiVo service. In order to send such content, you agree that TiVo may tune your TiVo DVR to a particular channel at a particular time.

One could argue that since Tivo claims to be "advertiser supported", removing or otherwise disabling the pop-ups would be a violation of the TOS.

All I can say is thank god I have an un-subbed S1. Living without guide data is a small price to pay to keep this junk off my TV. :D

[AlphaWolf]

hmmm. I wonder if these are stored in mfs somewhere, like the showcases. could you have a nightly script that runs & clears that dir? wonder how these would work if the image to display does not exist? Is this an ok topic to discuss? I would think ok, since not stealing service or anything, but wonder. If not, please remove & tell me. thanks.

It is perfectly fine to discuss that here. If I had a standalone tivo (which I am not terribly interested in owning one as I tend to prefer directivos) I would probably have posted a script to do just that by now.

In fact, if you look around here you can already find scripts and patches that disable the yellow star ads that have existed for a while.

Just so long as you are paying for the tivo and/or directv service, we really don't care at all what you do here.

[mrpenguin]

ok, then hopefully I will get the ads soon so I can figure out how to disable them! didn't want to offend anyone here. didn't realize the yellow star was an ad. I would not doubt it that these will be disabled soon.

[shawn]

Its a message to all Tivo users to cut that phoneline.

Long live fixsub!

[singe606]

Yellow Stars don't bother me. In fact, sometimes I like them- like the new PSP one? The difference is that showcases don't bother you when you're in the middle of watching TV. Pull, not push.

[rc3105]

Its a message to all Tivo users to cut that phoneline.

Long live fixsub!
uh, right. be sure to let us know when fixsub can produce valid spigotkeys for 6.x/7x...

[shawn]

Uh,oh
are you saying non dial in units will see these too.

[shawn]

Im guessing you are saying baner ads are a part of 6.2 and 7.1 and soon we will be forced to be running those software versions.

[AlphaWolf]

No....with standalone units, the tivo doesn't care about the phone status in all versions 5.x and up. All it cares about is whether the certificates it downloads during the phone connection are valid. Unless you can just arbitrarily generate valid certificates (extremely highly doubtful,) your SOL unless you patch tivoapp.

[mateom199]

Tivo to Insert New Ads into Recordings (http://www.betanews.com/article/TiVo_to_Insert_New_Ads_into_Recordings/1112740020)

Doesn't Tivo want to INCREASE their subscriptions / sales?
Expensive hardware, expensive monthly fee, and now it seems like theres going to be a barrage of ads, with the popups, and now this. :confused:

Maybe its just me, but I not only want to keep the original ads in place, but I need the original ads, as I extract them and use them in a TV criticism class I'm currently in.

But this whole idea of replacing ads got me thinking...if Tivo knows exactly where theres a commercial break, and can replace those commercials with other video, how long before someone makes a script to replace commercials with like blank / black video, or better yet, somehow deletes commercials entirely on the Tivo with no extraction? :D

Edit: not entirely related to the tivo pop up ads, but close enough to jstify a topic merger I guess

[captain_video]

...if Tivo knows exactly where theres a commercial break, and can replace those commercials with other video,
I don't believe that's what is happening based on what's been posted. I don't have either 6.2 or 7.1 so I don't have any firsthand experience with it but I believe the ads pop up whenever you fast forward the Tivo, even when in the midst of program material, not just commercial breaks. The Tivo senses when you go into FF mode to insert the pop-up ad and doesn't detect where the commercial breaks are.

[The Only Druid]

I don't believe that's what is happening based on what's been posted. I don't have either 6.2 or 7.1 so I don't have any firsthand experience with it but I believe the ads pop up whenever you fast forward the Tivo, even when in the midst of program material, not just commercial breaks. The Tivo senses when you go into FF mode to insert the pop-up ad and doesn't detect where the commercial breaks are.
I have 6.2 running, and haven't seen this at all. In fact, I'm pretty sure (but not positive) that only the SA software versions have this right now. Of course, a deal was just announced between tivo/dtv to add their "advanced" advertising, so I wouldn't be shocked to see 6.3 pop up in a few months, adding only that.

Of course, if they also added HMO/MRV, I bet many of you would be willing to accept the pop-ups.

[mateom199]

ahh...I saw this line,
Roberts revealed that the system will replace commercials recorded in days or weeks past with newer, more relevant ads.
from the article, and guess I misunderstood...I thought it was something entirely different than the popups....my bad.

[Fugg]

... I believe the ads pop up whenever you fast forward the Tivo, even when in the midst of program material, not just commercial breaks. ...According to one of the tivo reps at tcf, the popups are triggered by tags in the commercials themselves, just like the "Press Thumbs Up To Record" icons.

They have also said that the new popups will only be in contracted commercials, not in the shows themselves. According to tivo, they will never show up while ff'ing through program material, only during the commercials.

gimmie a min... i'll find the link....

found it! (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=2726216#post2726216)

from a post by TivoBill at tcf:
Fast Forward Tags should only appear on a specially tagged commercial, which typically lasts 2-3 seconds depending on your fast-forward speed. They should never appear over a recorded or live program itself (only over the commercial).

[shawn]

Its a simple fix, When you see a banner ad for an advertiser boycott buying their product. If advertising doesnt work they wont pay to do it. Myself i pretty much dont buy anything with an annoying commercial like bahbahbahhhhh im loving it. I havent eaten at MickieD's in over 5 yrs.
Buy products that dont spam you with their garbage. Find a local pizza place and stop buying Domin0s and Pizza Shut. Buy from local companies for electronics and stop going to WorstBuy and C.City.
C'mon i bet 75% the people here bought their Tivo from one of those stores.
Thats why they spam, to get yer money. Stop giving it to them.
Where do ya think they get all the money for the ads they spam us with?
If ya dont like it dont buy it, its as simple as that and the ads will decrease.
In parting Dr Simomone or whatever with his Cortaslim fat pills has to be the most annoying guy on t.v.
I came close to putting a remote thru a 60" t.v. because of my hatred for his annoying ads on a bad day. And i aint fat. If ya dont want to see their ads dont keep giving them money to make them.
We can change the T.V. Tivo world.
Imagine if ads went away, we could watch American Idol in 25 mins rather then 1 hr. 4 hrs of Nascar coverage would be downsized to 45 mins.
Imagine the free time we could have to fight world hunger. hehe
And my fast forward thumb could finally get better.

P.S. Thanks to lightiv and his RID Tivo 4.0.1b hacks and guide.
Couldnt resist.

[captain_video]

The easiest way to get around this issue entirely is to go back to an older OS version and set up the Tivo to avoid any future updates. There's no reason to subject yourself to spamming on your Tivo.

P.S. Thanks to lightiv and his RID Tivo 4.0.1b hacks and guide.
I think you need to go back and see where credit is really due. lightiv's guide was so bad he was asked by the mods to remove it. Nothing he had in the guide was his own work and it was just a blatant rip-off of other bad guides that preceded his. You need to be thanking people like Riley, ADH, NutKase, and many others that actually developed the hacks.

[shawn]

If you read my signature you will see this was a joke about giving him credit. :D

I think the future will have a need to be running newer software or lose locals or guide like in Xtreme days. The more people Tivo can convince the advertisers are being forced to watch the ads the more they will pay.

[mrblack51]

Its a simple fix, When you see a banner ad for an advertiser boycott buying their product. If advertising doesnt work they wont pay to do it. Myself i pretty much dont buy anything with an annoying commercial like bahbahbahhhhh im loving it. I havent eaten at MickieD's in over 5 yrs.
Buy products that dont spam you with their garbage. Find a local pizza place and stop buying Domin0s and Pizza Shut. Buy from local companies for electronics and stop going to WorstBuy and C.City.
C'mon i bet 75% the people here bought their Tivo from one of those stores.
Thats why they spam, to get yer money. Stop giving it to them.
Where do ya think they get all the money for the ads they spam us with?
If ya dont like it dont buy it, its as simple as that and the ads will decrease.
In parting Dr Simomone or whatever with his Cortaslim fat pills has to be the most annoying guy on t.v.
I came close to putting a remote thru a 60" t.v. because of my hatred for his annoying ads on a bad day. And i aint fat. If ya dont want to see their ads dont keep giving them money to make them.
We can change the T.V. Tivo world.
Imagine if ads went away, we could watch American Idol in 25 mins rather then 1 hr. 4 hrs of Nascar coverage would be downsized to 45 mins.
Imagine the free time we could have to fight world hunger. hehe
And my fast forward thumb could finally get better.

P.S. Thanks to lightiv and his RID Tivo 4.0.1b hacks and guide.
Couldnt resist.

imagine the cost of obtaining programming if its not sponsored by commercials. imagine small ammount of content available when only a few remaining companies can afford to make tv shows.

i dont like advertising, but getting rid of it as a whole is not a good solution. i agree, vote with your dollars. however, we have a pretty sweet setup right now where regular folks subsidize tv via commercials, but those who are smart enough to skip them with tivos and such dont have to subject themselves to it if the so choose.

[AlphaWolf]

The easiest way to get around this issue entirely is to go back to an older OS version and set up the Tivo to avoid any future updates.

This is what we technically minded people call "the half-assed approach."

Throughout the history of this forum, some people have been recommending that and in all honesty its not a very well thought out idea used solely by those who'd rather not take the time to pick apart the software and remove whatever it is they don't want that might be included in the new version. With older versions you lose features, period. Why not just keep the good features, minus the bad ones?