to keep that old TV set. I suspect this new functionality will require some hook in the TV's circuitry (which in computer-dom is called firmware...). As they have in the past, Hollywood will bamboozle Washington into requiring set manufacturers to build all new sets with this in it. Old sets however, lacking the firmware hook, probably won't respond to the broadcast flag preventing a channel change. So get your new set now before the trick goes in.
dw
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General discussion
We OWN your eyeballs. Sit down and watch OR ELSE!
Yes, according to Royal Philips Electronics. A patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says researchers of the Netherland-based consumer electronics company have created a technology that could let broadcasters freeze a channel during a commercial, so viewers wouldn't be able to avoid it.
All attempts are resistance are futile. You agreed to these terms when you turned the television on for the very first time.
Discussion is locked
11 Posts
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changing 10 channels every 20 minutes, and she suspects it's all males. 
Seriously, it'll be bad enough when all recorders won't let you fast forward, but when they interfere at all with channel selection, they'll just lose customers to rental video.
It may even kill broadcast TV. Oh well, at least maybe we can still go to the bathroom during commercials, then get another drink before we sit back down.
Hey who knows, this may help America's obesity problem, we may actually do something besides sit around. Or if we don't want to get physical maybe (dare I say it) read a book?
Roger
click here to email semods4@yahoo.com
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That's what we did when there were only network programs.
Though, I admit that sometimes I watched those commercials, like Betty Furness showing those cool kitchen appliances. Or, some commercials were so bad that they drew you like a bonfire...."Tension! Pressure! Pain!"
And some of the new ones are better than the program. 
I won't really care about not switching channels during a commercial. (Notice how sometimes the same one is on a different channel?) I'll just switch when it's over.
Angeline
Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email
semods4@yahoo.com
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furniture to be sure that all are present and accounted for.
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and if it IS implemented someone will come up with a way to defeat it.
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... doesn't necessarily mean they will market it, either. They denied they would use it in their own products.
Angeline
Speakeasy Moderator
click here to email
semods4@yahoo.com
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an old VCR or something and keep the TV on channel 3/4. It's sickening to thing of the research money they're spending on crap like this, they'll never win.
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I'll bet in just a few years, you'll have to have a digital tuner to receive and decode signals.
I could be wrong, but I could be right.
Roger
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We spend more time with the TV off than on. Why do these manipulators think so many people go to the internet for entertainment or just to pass the time now instead of wasting in front of their brain sapping programs backed up by ever more ridiculous adverts? As I've aged I've learned the joys of peace and quiet over a wall of noise that is continually distracting.
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