Morris Minor Owners Club

I think the advertising during a tv programme is irritating, and would like to think that a device could be built that detects the start and end of these interruptions, and switches the tv to off/standby until the watched programme resumes. Is this a possibility or just wishful thinking? I’ve got as far as thinking that the tv wiring circuit would need modification, as the different signal from tv programme to advert would need to be detected. I did think an external device detecting ‘silence’ might work but sometimes there are silent pauses during a programme. I also wondered if the signal from the aerial was an access point. Again I suppose if this idea was possible, a device would be on the market. Or maybe such a device is possible and the tv company have paid them off !
I don’t think I have ever seen an advert for something, and said ‘ Oh yes I must have that’

Any programs worth watching , I tend to record so I can watch at my leisure , fast forwarding through the dross..

A couple of hours on a Saturday morning with the TV guide well-spent.

John ;-)

That’s ok if you don’t watch a programme when it’s being broadcast. I often watch a programme at the time.

We never watch commercial TV live, even if we want to watch it as it is being broadcast. We always record it and then start watching the recording about 15-20 minutes after the programme has started, fast forwarding through the adverts. We usually finish about the same time as the live broadcast.

Thanks for your replies and I’m pleased you are happy with your solutions, however they don’t address the question!!

Just mute the sound from the remote.

Yes, I’m probably overthinking this issue !

Hi Les,

TVs these days are more akin to computers than the CRT devices of old. In very simple terms the TV signal as we used to think of it is now just a series of ones and zeroes which is translated inside the TV into pictures and sound. This happens so quickly that the multi-millions of 1s and 0s that arrive every second deliver the various programs that you can watch and record simultaneously.

It would certainly be possible for the tv providers (sky/itv/ch4/etc) to include an algorithm to differentiate between content and advert but it wouldn’t be in their financial interests to do so. It would be unlikely (or at least prohibitively expensive) for a tv to be programmed by a manufacturer to detect and mute adverts and almost impossible for an end user to hack the program to remove ads

Easiest as said above, watch commercial tv via record as we do but start watching a little later than the start time.

Thanks for that explanation of the modern TV ! I now see the impracticality of my query!!

JOWETTJAVELIN wrote: ↑Fri May 27, 2022 10:23 am Just mute the sound from the remote.

You'd still have to keep one eye on the gogglebox to know when to un-mute..

John ;-)

I often mute when the ads come on, in order to concentrate on a crossword I tend to do of an evening.

les wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 11:16 pm Thanks for your replies and I’m pleased you are happy with your solutions, however they don’t address the question!!

There WAS a device called ‘MuteMagic’ prior to it being squashed by the commercial TV lobbiests around 2015. It works on the principle that advert sound levels are higher, detects that and sends a signal to the TV to mute. There are circuit schematics online for those inclined to make their own.

Thanks for your reply, interesting possibility!

Just looked online about this, should have known there would be some info there ! Nothing conclusive but it seems it can be achieved, I’ll have to search further for maybe a circuit diagram, and see if it’s feasible to make something, without blowing up the TV.
I did once construct what was known, at the time, a ‘Luxembourg tuner’ as the name suggests it only received Luxembourg 208, I was quite chuffed with it, I still have the transformer that was part of the circuit, the rest long gone !

I may be wrong, but I thought a TIVO box was able to do something like that.

If you have cable e.g Virgin Media you can pause live TV. Then after waiting a few minutes you can fast forward through the adverts. I believe you can do the same thing with most smart TVs if you attach a memory stick. My TV can do that and it is not particularly new.

Stephen

My 'smart TV' only about 4 years old doesn't time delay, it just has a lot of streaming services which I can pause as required.
We also have a HUMAX TV recorder which we use for main terrestrial viewing and recording, which is probably 15 years old; we tend to record a fair bit series wise and that then allows us to FF the adverts on commercial channels, whereas watching the same thing on the streaming service doesn't let you skip them.