"Consumers are very distrustful of technologies that seize yet another opportunity to offer up advertising," said Mike Godwin, legal director of Public Knowledge, a public interest group. Whether the fears are founded or not, he said, "it feels like TiVo is taking away some of the prerogatives and flexibility that TiVo TV watchers have become accustomed to."

TiVo officials say that starting in March users will begin to see static images, such as a company logo, appear on their television screens as they fast-forward through commercials. The billboard-like ads -- which will last about four seconds for a fast-forwarded 30-second spot -- may offer giveaways or links to other ads.

URL Here
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/TECH/ptech/11/26/tivo.surrender.ap/index.html

Sounds like this is no different than living under Soviet Communism, where consumer products of all types were likewise made *their* (read: the State's) way, with no choice whatsoever for the consumer.

TiVo has two problems.

First is that they like all corporations want more money. The first place that is usually turned to is advertising. Advertising is one of those things no one has proved really works. If you are not shopping for a gizmo no amount of ads is going to make you go get one.

Second is that this may be a quick convert setup to get them out of a bind if some of the PIRATE act passes now or in the future. Part of the problem with fast forwarding through commercials is that major media wants you to believe you don't have a right to skip the commercials. They paid major bucks for those commericals and if you don't watch them then it is wasted money. Part of the Induce bill would have made it illegal to bypass or fast forward through them. Basically your fast forward button will not work while those commercials are playing. Same with movie trailers, fast forward won't work in the future and already doesn't work on some of the rental movies now.

With the errosion of your personal rights in the ability to do backup and home recordings on paid for broadcasts comes the additional requirement to watch the commercials. Movies and the like are becoming just another pest industry viaing to get you to spend your dollar for yet another throw away product you don't want and don't need.

honestly, if they spend money every year to get those ads on TV that's not our problem. But what's a better way to A) get your name out there if you're a company or B) get away from the advertising when you don't want it as a consumer?

I don't mind commercials, I even watch them. (some are very funny, like the Gieco ones.) I don't have to much of a problem with them. But then again, I have two ideas for getting rid of them.
1. Don't watch TV, wait for it to come out on DVD. (no commercials there.)
2. Just get over it, press fast forward see the little logo and go. Man, when did people become so lazy and picky.
Its TV people, its a modern technological feat. Just be happy we have it. Otherwise we would all have to go outside and live our lives.

PS. I do agree that our rights are being destroyed also and I am not happy about it. Just think that there are better things to be doing then arguing about TV when there are so many better things to do with life. (And argue about.)

Tivo can do this because there is little competition. How many companies are manufacturing DVRs? Two on a large scale, probably a few small ones. If consumers were offered a similar device with no adverts and no subscription, even for a substantially higher initial price, Tivo would lose sales.

"If consumers were offered a similar device with no adverts and no subscription, even for a substantially higher initial price, Tivo would lose sales."

yeah, look at sonicblue, that 'skipped' over 30-second blocks. got sued, among other things for signal theft.
MPAA people"if you skip over commercials on ad-supported television, you are stealing' when asked about going to the bathroom "as long as you dont do it too much"

MPAA points to sonicblue and says to tivo 'you're next' Tivo puts in ads.

just wait until the fast-forward button gets disabled.....

How the flip can you be stealing a DVD when you just bought the dang thing? God, these idiots.

Well, a book is always good. No commercials there either.

I would be happy to download movies and TV shows legally if they had a non-skippable 30 second advert at the beginning.

just get a cheap pc with large HD and mpeg capture/tuner card, software like SageTV and for the same price you have a box way better than TIVO. You also get schedules with SageTV. Plus you can do what you want with the recordings, burn them to DVD, plus you can record in much higher esolution. TiVo resolution sucks

Yea i use MythTv (www.mythtv.org) it's great... it even has features to auto detect and auto-skip commercials. If enabled, you wouldn't even know the commercial was there.

end of TiVo,

I use a winTV nova USB - it picks up those unencrypted digital TV transmissions so conveniently broadcast in this country, and records them directly.