Hang on to your VHS set
p2pnet.net News:- Recently, some major retailers started phasing out VHS sets and VHS movies. DVD sales have been steadily increasing and retailers are making more room available for DVD players and DVD flics.
Clearly, DVD is technologically superior to VHS and it was only a matter of time before the latter became extinct. However, it might be wise to start dusting off your old VHS if the trend towards a more corporate friendly Digital Video Recorder (DVR) continues.
Everyone loves TiVo. It revolutionized the way people watch television and, in many ways, has made it more enjoyable to watch. TiVo’s DVR not only allows people to record their favorite program, it also allows them to skip over commercials with ease.
But this doesn’t sit well with advertisers and the major television networks who believe people should be forced to watch commercials. Whether they like it or not. The companies have even gone so far as to try to use the politicians they have in their pockets to introduce laws aimed at banning any feature that would allow people to skip over commercials.
TiVo recently succumbed to the pressure and announced it will add banner ads that’ll flash when people fast forward through commercials.
Does this spell the end of the revolution”?
Possibly.
DirecTv announced it will release a new DVR in mid-2005 that will provide video on demand. BUT – it won’t have the ‘skip commercial’ feature.
NDS, controlled by News Corp, will develop the new DVR’s.
Rupert Murdoch runs News Corp, which also controls DirecTv. NDS was originally a separate entity that provided DirecTv with smart card technology, which would eventually defeat piracy on DirecTV. NDS is also working on a system called "secure video processor" which will encode programs so they can’t be shared on the Net.
Clearly, Murdoch is more interested in controlling content than providing television viewers with a more enjoyable experience. He also owns the British Sky Broadcasting Satellite service, and you can be sure it will also adopt NDS’s anti piracy technologies.
TiVo has shown that DVR’s can be incredibly useful. However, they won’t amount to much if corporations render their key features useless.
Television viewers may become frustrated in not being able to skip through commercials and revert back to their old, but trusty, VHS sets which will allow them to skip past banner ads.
And let’s not forget some VHS units have a handy 30-second commercial skip button that allows viewers to zip past commercials quickly.
New technology is supposed bring innovation, not stifle it.
Don’t throw away that VHS just yet.
Drake Zamanov – Toronto, Canada
December 7th, 2004 at 3:41 pm
Bah….toss the damn thing out. If you have that much of a problem with corporate TiVo’s get yourself a Video capture card or video in card and set your hard drive up like a personal TiVo…
December 7th, 2004 at 4:32 pm
Somebody didn’t do their homework.
1) Can’t use a VHS to forward past “banner” ads, because a VCR won’t see them.
2) There is no “30 second skip button” on Tivo remotes today nor does Tivo now (or has it ever) advertised this as a feature. There is a not-so-secret code easily entered to turn the “skip ahead” button into “skip ahead 30 seconds”, but it’s not a feature. Tivo has also publically said that the introduction of the billboard ad function (which will only be seen if an advertiser decides to pay for them) will not change any existing manipulation function available today. In English, that means if you use the code for 30-sec skip today, it’ll work next year too.
3) DirecTV didn’t announce the NDS DVR. NDS did. And the features NDS touts are the same as in the specifications given Tivo. The DirecTV Tivos will likely have any new features before anyone even sees an NDS DVR.
December 7th, 2004 at 4:47 pm
There seems to be some confusion…
1) The article doesn’t say that a VHS can fast-forward past banner ads. It says that some VHS units have a 30 second commercial skip feature.
2) Call it what you want, but it’s definitely not a bug. An unadvertised feature perhaps, but a feature nonetheless.
3). DirecTV Spokesman Bob Marsocci has said that that DirecTV plans to introduce an alternate DVR product and service in the first half of next year. There’s no doubt that NDS will be developing these DVR’s, everyone knows this.
Drake
December 7th, 2004 at 9:44 pm
Hell with the 30 second so-called “commercial skip”. Give me a VHS machine with COMMERCIAL ADVANCE that automatically detects and skips the commercials on playback.
December 8th, 2004 at 4:08 am
Every tool has its best use. I love my VHS because it is simple and fast to operate and it is a good economical way to watch stuff i’m not gonna archive ( watch once; too stupid to save, erase) and the real biggie, I already paid for it and it does the job just fine.