Buzz Out Loud Lounge forum: On Philips...

...in so many ways. Was there really no one at phillips that had the guts to stand up and say "People, I know that this SEEMS like a good idea. But it's really gonna tick a lot of people off. It doesn't matter if TV and advertisers love it if consumers don't actually buy it"

Once again, the almighty dollar trumps common sense.

Scott

They don't buy TV's.

JUST KIDDING!!

i thought it was about. i read in the headlines something about flags and commercials and thought that it must be a little flag on the side of the tv so you can goto the bathroom and come back when the flag is going down.

Good or bad idea I'm sure they grabbed the patent so if anyone else wanted to be so bold they'd get their share.

Content companies are getting way too agressive and greedy.

Just like in "A Clockwork Orange" choice is the answer... the exercise of free-will.

Until and unless they strap us down in a chair and tape open our eyelids we will always have a choice.

I say let Phillips get their patent and even make such a device. It will be their loss as consumers will not buy it. The more time, effort, and money Phillips spends in pursuing this the better.... because that will be their punishment.... spending time, effort, and money on something no one will buy.

I have a question -- unless suddenly all TV manufacturers adopted this technology, no one would buy a TV that had this feature on it, so I think maybe we're safe. Unless they can sneak it in and the consumer wouldn't know it was there till they bought it.

But, then again, if I bought a TV that did this, I'd take it back as soon as I found out it did that.

Right?

. . . I really still don't think people would buy it. I mean, it's partly about getting people to adopt new technology. Sometimes people buy TVs because the one they have breaks, but they also buy them because of new technology. If they don't like the new technology and don't buy it in volume, won't that cause the manufacturers a problem?

Well, I went to Philip's web site and emailed them a letter complaining and saying that I would not buy a TV with technology that wouldn't let me change channels, and if I bought it without knowing it did that, I'd return it once I found out.

That's about what I thought when I read that article (haven't had a chance to listen to the podcast yet, so I'm sure I'm missing a monumental Molly rant).

After a full few seconds of thought on the subject, I've decided that taken face value this isn't too bad. It's just a patent, granted it's a patent for a "feature" that would quickly become one of the most revilled features of interactive TV.

There is however a few obstacles to this being implemented in the US, not the least of which is the sheer hatred it would cause if put into place... But if you read the article it says that this technology uses the Multimedia Home Platform to work... From reading the article MHP uses flags that allow viewers to call up extra features... We don't have this system in the US, and I haven't seen anything that indicates that any broadcaster or cable company in the US is looking to implement such a system...

However, this could affect folks in Europe, as some broadcasters there DO use MHP, SkyNews in England for one. While watching a SkyNews broadcast while in England last year messages popped up all the time on the screen that said something to the effect of "Press the Red Button on Your Remote For More Information." Being in a hotel, our remote didn't have the magical Red Button, so just what happened I don't know, but it's that capability that this patent is looking to leverage off of.

Doh! Looks like Philips is looking for ways to tick consumers off, while selling their souls and our time to the global prostitution ring known as: ADVERTISING. I am pretty positive that I do not want some company or the ad agencies it has sold it's soul to telling me what I am allowed to watch or not. The changing during live broadcast is bad enough, but preventing fast forward during playback of RECORDED MATERIAL???!!!!? I seem to remember seeing this level of control over people and their media outlets before. If I remember correctly, the film was black and white footage of men high stepping in uniform and the whole thing was in GERMAN. What is next? Scary to me..

Then no one would ever be able to watch any programming, because as they would flip the channel to a channel showing commercials, they would be locked in there until the program started back up.

Yikes.


-Terry

Considering how entertainment-related firms strive to horribly abuse their customers (Sony root-kits, Blu-ray restrictions, loony CinemaNow constraints, and Phillips' forced viewership), I believe it is time for a Consumer Digital Rights Act.

We need a law that can protect our rights to fair use, to content portability, and to control our own devices.

Like Tom has said, the concept of DRM is not bad, but the implementations to date are sinister and borderline evil. It's getting out of hand, and there does not seem to be a concerted effort to represent the poor, abused entertainment content consumers.

Perhaps we should chuck our digital devices and resurrenct the analog tape equipment of old.

At least you could use it on your own terms...

This is the worst patten I believe that it will be denied by the patten office. This is SO STUIPD I agree we need a right to let us change the channel if we want to what happens when you are watching two different shows and you want to go back to the other show when the show you are watching plays a commercial. Also what happens to the TVs that have Picture in Picture what you couldn't switch between them that is SO WRONG on So many levels that it is not funny at all. I understand about that the are up set that people ff though the commercials would that mean that you also couldn't ff though stuff that you don't like on the show either???

how about patenting a device that can TURN ON a TV when an infomercial comes on?
or one that turns off the set just before the climax if you don't call a 900#?
The possibilities for malvention are simply endless!
...btw, has anyone patented the rootkit yet?
Maybe Microsoft should patent the BSOD before someone else does & sues them for every 'infringement incident'. That could clean their coffers quickly

...is the skill &/or intent of the user.
Sure it could be used benignly, but I'm not banking on it.
Look at DVDs. It started with the FBI (or interpol) warning. It didn't take some marketing 'genius' too long to figure you could force people to sit through oceans of drek before getting to the feature.
Once the ability exists, the 'race to the bottom' seems inevitible.

Leo Laporte talked had a show last week introducing iPac, a political group to fight this sort of thing. One topic discussed was the Broadcast Flag. Hollywood wants the Broadcast Flag to be law. So to me it just sound like Phillips wants to the patent on something that they will be forced to implement.

If you really want to do something, I suggest goint to www.ipaction.org, and get involved in some form. You can complain all you want, but unless we do something, as a community, Congress will always favor Hollywood.

[TWiT show reference]
http://twit.tv/49a

[iPac site]
http://ipaction.org

[EFF on Broadcast Flag]
http://www.eff.org/broadcastflag/