Putting ads in hardware through HDMI | Hacker News Reader

Putting ads in hardware through HDMI

patents.google.com

26 pointsmotbus322 comments

This might be defensive in a way? This is Roku, a maker of media players, patenting a method where a TV would detect the connected player stopped playing and inserts an ad.

Being that Roku makes the media device, it'd be trivial for them to insert an ad without any of this "detect a pause in content" hackery. So I'm going to guess that the point here is actually preventing TV manufacturers from playing ads over Roku's stuff by patenting this themselves first.

Also, sheesh, the patent system is a plague that should be done away with. This is a technically completely straightforward process. There's nothing innovative being done here.

Roku’s software is increasingly integrated into TV sets as the built-in smart TV stack, making Roku’s software the one to manage the HDMI connections and display of everything.

It all depends on the brand of the TV. Built-in Roku seems to be limited to TCL and a few other minor brands. In-fact, I just checked, and all top 4 recommended TVs on RTings with built-in Roku are TCL-made[0].

Sony has been going with Android TV, LG has been with their WebOS, and Samsung with their Tizen.

Given that the top 3 largest TV manufacturers don’t have a single TV model with built-in Roku, I wouldn’t be worried.

However, I still heavily prefer just sticking an Apple TV to whichever TV I have, connecting the smart TV to my wifi, blocking all internet access to it (all while it is connected to my home network), and go along my day without having to worry about any of their built-in “smart” features.

0. https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/roku

Damn, I can see it: basic cables with ads, mid-tier with pay-once-to-remove or a subscription model and "premium" cables without at first that will eventually introduce ads. And of course various influencers teaming up with shady manufacturers selling their gold plated cables that soon or later lead to some scam scandal.

I dreamed about future from Clarke's books and we got "drink a verification can" mixed with Brave New World and 1984 instead

A "soma in time, saves nine," Winston.

Your entertainment content doesnt lock me in.

I can choose not to watch your content, and that's that. You don't lock me in as if its that drug from Brave New World. Youre not the big scary corp, youre just a company trying to monetize, and if you fail, you're out.

I'm not scared of these practices, since, you know, I love books and going outside. Haven't read a book since I have youtube et al but that's out of laziness, nothing else. If it becomes to burdensome to consume that lazy content, I won't.

I don't know what to think about it.

I understand ads may be one source of income for companies, but I feel our lives are so littered with ads everywhere.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it"

  - Upton Sinclair

I have given two presentations to separate investment banks, on behalf of their wealthy clients knowing me, on some recent alternative investments (which I've been involved for 11 years).

Walking away from each of these experiences, my recollection always has been that one side of the table was massively gas-lighting the other... and I can't always remember which side of the table I sat.

My most-recent strategy has been to just STFU.

> our lives are so littered with ads everywhere

Because it's the only thing that works. As the old saying goes "zero is a special price on it's own fundamentally different from $1 and you can't compete with it"

Even services that aren’t free are now bundling ads as an extra revenue stream. There doesn’t seem to be a way to opt out of advertising.

Just like newspapers and magazines.

The only way to opt out of advertising is not to watch.

The difference with newspapers and magazines is that publishers cannot add more advertising to something that has already been published. But with electronic hardware that’s exactly what’s happening. A smart TV you purchased yesterday might suddenly start showing additional advertisements tomorrow. Or next month. Etc.

The fact that we’ve lost the ability to own the stuff we buy is pretty infuriating for people like myself who grew up owning stuff.

My cable box already disables the fast forward button for about 10s after muting, so that you have another hurdle when skipping ads. You need to skip first then mute, but still get that full volume ad jolt. I already pay for cable, there are ads in the broadcast, and ads when playing recorded programs.

Ironically, most ads inserted by the cable company are for their own competitors, Netflix and Prime Video.

Streaming TV services, like five.tv, somewhat recently started showing ads when one pauses. But often I pause because I'm trying to see something on screen, like 'what did she give him?', 'what did that sign say', you know. Now there's an advert instead of the show.

Also, I think it was Channel 4 (UK), I was vibing to the credits and it just closed them without seemingly offering way to go back.

The high-seas seem more attractive every day.

If that patent becomes a reality, I'll make sure to create a website to track which products do this, so we can all avoid buying them.

So you won't buy new devices once this becomes standard in all devices in 20 years?

The point of the website would be to avoid the future where this is standard.

It won't be able to get standard if nobody buys the products that has it.

Ah sweet, man made horrors beyond my comprehension

Maybe should file a patent to hide pause icons and overlaying noise on non-moving images to prevent displaying of Roku ads (and add "over Ethernet" to make it patentable). This patent thing is totally going nuts.

No thanks, we don't need more ads.

So, HDCP is going to make it impossible to remove these, right? Talk about treasonous computing...

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