The Supreme Court declined to block a new digital video recording system that could make it easier for viewers to bypass commercials.
(From The New York Times)
The story "Supreme Court allows wider DVR use" published June 30, 2009 at 4:33 AM is no longer available on CNET News.
Content from The New York Times expires after 7 days.
November 9, 2009 5:08 PM PST
November 9, 2009 4:37 PM PST
November 9, 2009 4:20 PM PST
Add headlines from CNET News to your homepage or feedreader.
More feeds available in our RSS feed index.
Related quotes
The Web Services Report
Microsoft releases SDK for FacebookThe software giant releases a software development kit for Facebook, allowing developers to make applications for the social-networking site with Silverlight and WPF.
Gallery
Images: Firefox through the ages
Apple
Apple updates Mac OS X Snow LeopardApple fixes a number of issues in Snow Leopard, including a bug that caused the loss of data when logged in as a guest.
Beyond Binary
Microsoft releases Exchange 2010, acquires TeampriseAt TechEd Europe, Redmond offers the latest on its e-mail and calendar server. Meanwhile, it also scoops up a developer tool for creating code in multiple OSes.
Video
Exploratorium's shocking 40th anniversary kicks off
Signal Strength
Initial Motorola Droid sales look goodAnalysts believe that sales of the new Motorola Droid on Verizon Wireless' network have been strong and steady through the first weekend the device was on sale.
Video
A new workout for the Wii
Deep Tech
EC formally objects to Oracle buying SunEuropean regulators have formally objected to Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems. Oracle vows to fight the conclusion.
Cutting Edge
Winner declared in space elevator raceLaserMotive wins $900,000 in NASA's Space Elevator challenge, where teams compete to see who could drive their space elevator the fastest.
Gallery
Photos: Top-rated reviews of the week
The Download Blog
Sneak peek: Xobni e-mail app for BlackBerryXobni demoed its upcoming e-mail app at BlackBerry Developer Conference.
Green Tech
Autodesk open-sources carbon accounting methodThe software maker is encouraging other companies to track and reduce greenhouse gas emissions based on long-term global targets and contribution to GDP.
KieranMullen
Portland, Oregon
I was using the internet before it was available to the general public, and I have also watched it change over all the years. I agree, I have never clicked on an ad either, and I also wonder just who the people are who have so little do to that they actually click on ads. After all, you can learn more by looking through websites than most ads wil tell you.
Same with electronic distribution. If that doesn't turn out to be economically viable, don't use the channel. You're in business to compete, not legislate more corporate welfare, right? Right?
I'll keep Netflixing DVD on TV or buying the shows, if I really want it, on iTunes or Xbox 360. So what if the show's a little late. Nobody "stands around the water cooler" at my jobs anymore. That's a 1950s thing, where three networks controlled the content and Lucky Strikes promoted the whole show.
A few other observations about commercials...
Low priced cars have louder commercials than high priced cars (in general).
Most medicine is aimed at women.
Commercials do not have higher Volume, but they do have a different frequency distribution and a much higher energy density. The energy density is what ought to be regulated. Set the energy in a commercial at the same level as the prior program for the same length of time.
I don't mind a few commercials, but when you start getting 5 minutes of programming and 4 minutes or more of commercials, I change the channel or go find it online.
People have been skipping commercials ever since VCRs came out. To start whining about it now is just misleading us from what they actually want (whatever that is, control?).
I have a DVR at home, so I don't need one from a cable company. And mine also has a DVD burner in it. It's odd that the industry would object to a cable DVR but not to the home DVRs with DVD burners.
Oh, and I have a button on my DVR remote just for skipping commercials, so I don't need one from the cable company to do that.
The real problem is that there's very little on TV these days worth recording anyway. My DVR doesn't even get as much use as my VCR used to. Maybe that's what they're trying to distract us from.
- by June 30, 2009 1:30 PM PDT
- I have had DVRs since I was introduced to the concept by the first TiVo generation. Then got ReplayTVs, then tried the DirecTiVo then tried the DishDVR to finally end up with a Vista Media Center with 6 tuners (2 analog, 2 ATSC, 2 QAM). I would only replace this with a CableCard capable Media Center. I use LifeExtender to get rid of the commercials. I am also a Netflix subscriber and we watch a lot of TV series from their online library. I can't stand watching Live TV as you get sucked into the channel surfing to avoid the commercial breaks and end up wasting a ton of time to consume the content in between the commercials. One other thing that I have noticed with my kids is that they watch a lot less TV than other kids we know that rely on live TV because their TV shows END/STOP. If you watch the chain of shows that are on the kids channels with all the commercials about the NEXT/BEST show ever, you would never turn off the damn thing.
- Reply to this comment
-
(12 Comments)I posted the long background of how my kids were raised with DVRs to let you know that they actually mentioned this feature that I didn't know CableVision was fighting in court to enable. I remember one day I was browsing through the guide to find a show to be recorded when one of my kids said 'why don't you play this one and that one?' for shows I wasn?t recording at the time. I tried to talk about the limitations of disk capacity and number of tuners, but then they said why can't somebody get the biggest disk and 100s of tuners and record everything so that we can play it here. I thought it's a great idea, but left it at that. Well if this service does become available, I would definetly be intrigued to give it a try but commercials must be something short like Hulu commercials. Go CableVision!