AutoHop secrets revealed??

[cosmo_kramer]

Found a couple recent patent applications for what looks like the AutoHop feature. It looks like a pretty slick idea, apparently utilizing Closed Captioning data and other metadata to break up the desired video and interstitials (today's Word of the Day):

Abstract:
Various embodiments of apparatus and/or methods are described for skipping and/or filtering content from a video stream using closed captioning data associated with the video stream. The closed captioning data is parsed using metadata to identify portions of the video stream to skip during presentation, and/or to identify portions of the video stream to output to a user. The portions of the video stream that are to be skipped are filtered from the video stream, and the filtered video stream is presented to a user.
Claims:
1. A method for filtering a video stream, the method comprising: receiving a video stream including at least one segment of a show, at least one interstitial of the show, and closed captioning data associated with the video stream; receiving metadata referencing the closed captioning data to identify at least one anchor frame within the video stream, the metadata comprising a displayable text string included within the closed captioning data as originally transmitted by a content provider, a first offset, relative to the anchor frame, that identifies a beginning of the at least one segment, a second offset, relative to the anchor frame, that identifies an ending of the at least one segment; parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the anchor frame corresponding with the presentation of the displayable text string located in the closed captioning data recorded; identifying the boundaries of the at least one segment of the show based on the anchor frame and the first and second offsets; filtering the at least one interstitial from the video stream based on the identified boundaries to generate a filtered video stream; and outputting the filtered video stream for presentation to a user.

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR FILTERING CONTENT IN A VIDEO STREAM USING CLOSED CAPTIONING DATA - Patent application

Abstract:

Various embodiments of apparatus and/or methods are described for presenting information regarding interstitials of a video stream. A recording of a television show may include segments of the show interspersed with interstitials (e.g., commercials). The location of the interstitials within the recording is identified, and the locations of the interstitials are presented in progress bar during presentation of the video stream. The location of the interstitials may also be utilized to determine durations of the interstitials, and provide a user with information regarding the lengths of the interstitials of a recording, and/or the length of the other content of a recording (e.g., segments of a television show).
Claims:

1. A method for providing a user with locations of interstitials in a video stream of a show, the method comprising: receiving a video stream including at least one segment of a show, at least one interstitial of the show, and closed captioning data associated with the video stream; receiving metadata referencing the closed captioning data to identify at least one anchor frame within the video stream, the metadata comprising a displayable text string included within the closed captioning data as originally transmitted by a content provider, a first offset, relative to the anchor frame, that identifies a beginning of the at least one segment, a second offset, relative to the anchor frame, that identifies an ending of the at least one segment; parsing the closed captioning data associated with the video stream to locate the anchor frame corresponding with the presentation of the displayable text string located in the closed captioning data recorded; identifying the boundaries of the at least one segment of the show based on the anchor frame and the first and second offsets; identifying a location of the at least one interstitial based on the boundaries; outputting the video stream for presentation to a user; and outputting a progress bar during output of the video stream that indicates the location of the at least one interstitial within the recording and a duration of the at least one interstitial.

METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR DISPLAYING INTERSTITIAL BREAKS IN A PROGRESS BAR OF A VIDEO STREAM - Patent application

 

[jimdandyvi]

Interesting. If this is Dish, I wonder how they are handling live events, sports, etc. that might not be closed captioned on the fly?

 

[cosmo_kramer]

Probably why it's currently limited to prime-time and the four major networks for now...

 

[3HaloODST]

Interesting. If this is Dish, I wonder how they are handling live events, sports, etc. that might not be closed captioned on the fly?

They aren't.


If this is true, I expect that the content providers will do something to mess this up somehow. That is, if they find documentation of this nature (which I'm sure they did/will.)

 

[cosmo_kramer]

They aren't.


If this is true, I expect that the content providers will do something to mess this up somehow. That is, if they find documentation of this nature (which I'm sure they did/will.)

I seriously doubt they would mess with the CC data...

 

[dare2be]

I've seen CC being displayed for a commercial at times, so I'm not sure how that would work.

 

[digiblur]

Don't think for one minute that when the execs found out about the autohoppa they didn't call a meeting with the tech guys on their payroll to figure out how to mess with it.

 

[3HaloODST]

I seriously doubt they would mess with the CC data...

I don't.

 

[cosmo_kramer]

Don't think for one minute that when the execs found out about the autohoppa they didn't call a meeting with the tech guys on their payroll to figure out how to mess with it.

As long as they stay within the guidelines and standards defined by the FCC, sure...

 

[3HaloODST]

Where there's a will, there's a way.

 

[Stargazer]

They could hire someone to go through the shows each day and figure out where the commercials started and ended then have it programmed for that event to skip those commercials.

 

[jimdandyvi]

They could hire someone to go through the shows each day and figure out where the commercials started and ended then have it programmed for that event to skip those commercials.

To make this approach difficult all a local station would have to do is delay by a few seconds or insert an extra local commercial in the rebroadcast of the network feed of the programming. If every station in every local market used variable timing/delays Dish would need a room full of people to view every show on every station insert the que marks and move on to the next commercial. Even using fast forward this would be a major under taking since it all has to be completed and uploaded by 1 AM.

 

[digitalblue]

To make this approach difficult all a local station would have to do is delay by a few seconds or insert an extra local commercial in the rebroadcast of the network feed of the programming. If every station in every local market used variable timing/delays Dish would need a room full of people to view every show on every station insert the que marks and move on to the next commercial. Even using fast forward this would be a major under taking since it all has to be completed and uploaded by 1 AM.

I actually commented, tongue-in-cheek, to a DISH techno geek at Team Summit "Please tell me DISH doesn't have a deep dark room somewhere with people reviewing every show and marking them somehow to enable Auto Hop." He kinda looked at me and smiled .. "Well ... you're not that far from the truth." I got the impression they have some sort of manual back stop, which wouldn't be all that hard with only 12 - 16 hours of programming per night to review.

Now, if the networks allowed some sort of local market manipulation it would be nightmarish, but the networks are on a strict schedule and it would be equally nightmarish for them to try and circumvent auto-hop since almost everything they do is automated and national advertisers pay a premium for specific spots and timing (seconds after the break, first in, first out, etc). I think once they balance out that PTAT actually increases the number of people viewing their content (it has in my household!) with the fact that nearly everyone skips through commercials on recorded content anyway, this issue should die a quiet death. FYI .. we now watch some network programming live because we can't wait to see what happens, whereas before we never even knew the show existed!

Who knows, I could be completely wrong, but I don't think it's going to change the economics as we know them especially since the networks have increasingly made their programming available the next day on their own websites without requiring a pay TV subscription. DISH has simply followed a natural progression in consumer technology while responding to the ongoing, and accelerating, erosion of the traditional pay TV model which is routinely aggravated by the networks themselves.

 

[mike123abc]

They could use a few methods... They could have the computer do the initial pass then have humans look at the result at high speed. The computer may as given above use closed caption but flag things like commercial breaks either too long or too short. Then humans could look and fine tune the results.

 

[dare2be]

They could use a few methods... They could have the computer do the initial pass then have humans look at the result at high speed. The computer may as given above use closed caption but flag things like commercial breaks either too long or too short. Then humans could look and fine tune the results.

This makes the most sense.

 

[jimdandyvi]

Remember it is not just four channels for four hours. Dish feeds the local networks for every market. Assuming 200 markets with PTAT you have a hell of a lot of recordings to review.

If the networks want to get cute they could add false flags and markers into there broadcast. How many calls to you think Dish would have to field if all of a sudden PTAT play backs started skipping portions of the show? It is easy to manually review a show on fast forward and look for commercials, but how easy would it be to notice that a small piece of the programming had been skipped?

Also building a delay into the broadcast of a network feed is fairly trivial. Just record the feed than after a few seconds start playing the recorded show. This is routinely done when a local station has a breaking story. They just delay the network feed
show you the approaching tornado and then when they are done go back to the network feed. If every station used a slightly diffrent

While NBC/Comcast are big enough to look at the big picture, Dish is also dealing TV station owners in every local market and not just the networks. Some of these owners could be jerks and just say the hell with you Dish and refuse to give Dish rights to retransmit their signal just because they think what Dish did was wrong and disrespectful. The fact that 50 -100 people in their market no longer can view their channel on satellite is not their problem.

One thing that the Auto Skip feature helps explain is why with the Hopper you can't change the time for updates. The file used to pinpoint commercials needs to be downloaded to the Hopper before the viewing of the PTAT without commercials can begin at 1 AM.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Remember it is not just four channels for four hours. Dish feeds the local networks for every market. Assuming 200 markets with PTAT you have a hell of a lot of recordings to review.

Nah there are only 4 Networks that run the same programming on all its affiliates at the same times (per time zone of course)

The break times should not really change between airings on other time zones.

 

[GaryPen]

I find it very hard to believe there is much manual intervention in this process. I would have to believe it's almost entirely automated.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I find it very hard to believe there is much manual intervention in this process. I would have to believe it's almost entirely automated.

I am under the impression that it's not.

 

[yaz96]

I am under the impression that it's not.

Wow, that is crazy.......