Hacker News Reader

TV shows may have the same intro sequence, but the overlaid credits are always a bit different.

Hence any compression applied will always produce different results between episodes of a show. This would make any de-duplication extremely difficult.

View on HN

I think it's a bit of a stretch to say the opening credits are "always a bit different". I can think of quite a few shows display the episode directors and any guest stars after the intro (ie during the first scene of the main episode). I presume they do this to save editing time and cost changing the intro - though there's also the convenient side effect of still having the credited names appear on screen even when viewers fast-forward through the intro.

I have to admit that I had not checked that, but I think Dexter's intro is really the same and the changing cast lists appear during the first scenes afterwards. But for most shows you're right, that would be another reason why it could never work.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com