TiVo Community Forums Archives - "Press Select"

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"Press Select" - how does it know?
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Posted by: foofoobunnies

How does the tivo know to pop up "Tivo press select" during certain show commercials? Is there some kind of trigger in the CC stream? I looked in TEXT1...TEXT4 and there does not seem to be any ATVEF.
What do you guys think?
http://www.avsforum.com/ubbtivo/confused.gif

Posted by: TivoTechie

I haven't done much research into this, but my guess would be they are using this patent to embed the trigger and any other information need information directly into one of the black frames that proceeds the clip.

WO028736A1: ANALOG VIDEO TAGGING AND ENCODING SYSTEM

Basically the above TiVo patent describes a of embeding digital information into a video frame.

-TivoTechie

Posted by: Spire

The TiVo information is embedded in the video, just like the CC data, but probably on a different overscan line.

I had originally thought that the TiVo simply used timing to determine when to display the "Press Select" message, and what show it's linked to. My theory was that TiVo had a database of promos with precise timing information, and that it simply popped up the pre-downloaded info whenever appropriate.

I was wrong. A few weeks ago I was watching a show that I had originally recorded on VHS and then transferred to the TiVo (by way of a Manual Recording), and... Press Select popped up, and worked 100% correctly! There was no way that the TiVo could have known what was on the videotape it was recording, so this was proof positive that all the information is embedded in the video signal itself -- and even survives the ravages of VHS recording and playback.