[plug] [OT] Ad detection (was: Television)

[Leon Brooks]

On Mon, 2 Feb 2004 12:42, Lawrie Abbott wrote:
> I wonder how it can tell the difference between an advert and the
> 'show' at all?  As far as I am aware there is no difference in the
> tranmitted signal although adverts _usually_ are louder (overall) and
> the colors are much more saturated. But automatic detection of
> adverts based on these qualities would be extremely unreliable.

You could improve on MythTV's score by assuming that a blackout was an 
add, but keep storing the video long enough to check for loud colours 
and sounds. Alternatively, or in addition, you could store the whole 
lot and flag bits as "I think this is a section of adverts" which can 
then be toggled later (also useful if you *want* to see a particular 
advert). I wasn't at Tridge's long enough to find out how his 
Linux-based timeshifter worked.

Cheers; Leon