Method and apparatus for reducing and restoring the effectiveness of a commercial skip system
First Claim
1. A method of processing a video signal to reduce or defeat the effectiveness of commercial skip systems incorporated in recorders, wherein the commercial skip systems detect a signal level in the video signal indicative of the beginning or end of a commercial, comprising:
- modifying said video signal in real time to provide a modified video signal which eliminates or attenuates the indication of the beginning or end of a commercial, to thereby reduce or defeat the effectiveness of commercial skip systems.
13 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method and apparatus is disclosed which reduces or removes the effectiveness of commercial skip systems such as presently found in VCRs, PVRs, etc. which are designed to delete commercials from signal material upon playback of a previously recorded version of the signal material. In an embodiment, the effectiveness of the commercial skip system is reduced or removed by adding a flat field of selected signal level to active line portions of video lines of the signal material. Other embodiments modify the normal fade to black signal indicative of a commercial to provide a fade to non-black signal. In further embodiments, a fade to non-black signal is inserted in an overscan area of the signal picture. Still further embodiments modify audio signals or selected signals in the horizontal blanking interval which may be used in commercial skip systems to detect the presence of commercials. Still other embodiments provide techniques for overcoming the commercial skip system altering effects of the previously mentioned embodiments to at least partially restore the commercial skip system, or to enhance the reliability or effectiveness of an existing commercial skip system which has not been altered.
49 Citations
72 Claims
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1. A method of processing a video signal to reduce or defeat the effectiveness of commercial skip systems incorporated in recorders, wherein the commercial skip systems detect a signal level in the video signal indicative of the beginning or end of a commercial, comprising:
modifying said video signal in real time to provide a modified video signal which eliminates or attenuates the indication of the beginning or end of a commercial, to thereby reduce or defeat the effectiveness of commercial skip systems. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A method of processing a video signal to reduce or defeat the effectiveness of commercial skip systems incorporated in recorders, wherein the commercial skip systems detect a signal level in the video signal indicative of the beginning or end of a commercial, comprising:
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providing said signal level in the form of a fade to black signal; and modifying said video signal by inserting in real time false fade to black signals from time to time in the video signal so as to simulate fading from the video signal to a black level indicative of the beginning of a commercial, thereby causing portions of the video signal to be skipped on playback to discourage use of the commercial skip system.
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26. A method of processing a video signal to reduce or defeat the effectiveness of commercial skip systems incorporated in recorders, wherein the commercial skip systems detect a signal level in active video lines of the video signal, which signal level is indicative of the beginning or end of a commercial, comprising:
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providing a selected signal of selected signal level; and modifying said signal level in real time with the selected signal in selected active video lines to provide a video signal which eliminates or attenuates said indication of the commercial, to thereby provide the reduction or defeat of the effectiveness of the commercial skip system. - View Dependent Claims (27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. A method of processing a video signal to reduce or defeat the effectiveness of commercial skip systems installed in recorders, wherein the commercial skip systems use a comparison of a normal signal level in. a selected portion of a horizontal blanking interval (IIBI) of the video signal with respect of the active video signal to provide a difference signal indicative of the presence of a commercial, comprising:
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generating a timing signal coincident with the selected portion of the HBI; and modifying said signal level in the selected portion in response to the timing signal so as to provide a second difference signal which fails to reliably indicate the presence of a commercial. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38)
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39. Apparatus for processing a video signal to reduce or defeat the effectiveness of a commercial skip systems incorporated in recorders, wherein the commercial skip systems detect a signal level in the video signal indicative of the beginning or end of a commercial,comprising:
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timing means receiving the video signal for providing timing signals indicative of selected active video lines, portions of lines and/or active video fields in the video signal; and modifier means receiving the video signal for modifying said signal level in real time in response to the timing signals, to provide a modified video signal which eliminates or attenuates the indication of the beginning or end of a commercial, to thereby reduce or defeat the effectiveness of the commercial skip system. - View Dependent Claims (40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
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48. A method of processing an audio signal of a respective video signal to reduce or defeat the effectiveness of commercial skip systems installed in recorders, wherein the commercial skip systems detect a higher than normal average audio signal level indicative of the beginning or end of a commercial, comprising:
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averaging the audio signal levels of both the video signal and the commercial; and modifying the average audio signal level in place of the higher than normal average audio signal level to reduce the presence of said higher than normal average audio signal level, thereby reducing or defeating the effectiveness of the commercial skip system. - View Dependent Claims (49, 50, 51)
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52. A method of processing a video signal in real time to reduce or defeat the effectiveness of commercial skip systems incorporated in recorders, wherein the commercial skip systems detect an existing signal level in the video signal indicative of the presence of a commercial therein, comprising:
applying selected portions of the video signal to a non-linear transfer function to alter said signal level so that the commercial skip system fails to reliably detect the presence of a commercial. - View Dependent Claims (53)
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54. A method of processing a video signal to reduce or defeat the effectiveness of commercial skip systems incorporated in recorders, wherein the commercial skip systems detect a signal level in the video signal indicative of the beginning or end of a commercial, comprising:
modifying said video signal by adding in real time a selected signal to an active video portion of the video signal to correspondingly raise the level of the video signal to reduce the effectiveness of the commercial skip system.
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55. A method of processing a video signal to reduce or defeat the effectiveness of commercial skip systems incorporated in recorders, wherein the commercial skip systems detect a signal level in the video signal indicative of the beginning or end of a commercial, comprising:
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normally clamping selected active video portions of said video signal; and modifying said normally clamped selected active video portions of the video signal in real time by at least partially AC coupling, or partially DC restoring, the video signal to reduce the effectiveness of the commercial skip system.
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56. A method of processing a video signal to reduce or defeat the effectiveness of commercial skip systems incorporated in recorders, wherein the commercial skip systems detect a signal level in the video signal indicative of the beginning or end of a commercial, comprising:
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detecting a selected minimum video signal threshold; and adding a selected signal to the video signal in real time in response to the detection of the selected minimum video signal threshold, to reduce the effectiveness of the commercial skip system. - View Dependent Claims (57)
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58. A method of modifying a video signal to reduce or defeat the effectiveness of commercial skip systems incorporated in recorders, wherein the commercial skip systems detect a signal level in the video signal indicative of the beginning or end of a commercial, comprising:
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normally clamping the video signal; supplying a selected clipping level signal; and applying the clamped video signal to a negative peak clipping circuit responsive to the selected clipping level signal, whereby the level of the video signal is raised by the amount of the clipping level to thereby reduce the effectiveness of the commercial skip system.
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59. A method of at least partially restoring or of enhancing the effectiveness of a commercial skip system incorporated in video recorders, wherein the commercial skip system effectiveness has been reduced or defeated by a system which partially or totally disables the commercial skip system by modifying an existing signal level indicative of a commercial, or by a system which provides less than an ideal transmission or delivery of the video signal to an existing commercial skip system, the method comprising:
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detecting the modified signal level which reduces or defeats the existing signal level used by the commercial skip system, or the less than ideal transmission or delivery of the video signal to the existing commercial skip system, which cause the skipping of commercials; and modifying the detected previously modified signal level to partially or totally restore the presence of the original existing signal level to similarly restore the effectiveness of the commercial skip system. - View Dependent Claims (60, 61, 62, 63, 64)
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65. A method of partially or fully restoring the effectiveness of commercial skip systems incorporated in recorders, wherein said effectiveness has been reduced or defeated by techniques which alter or otherwise mask in a respective video signal an existing signal level which is indicative of a commercial, whereby the techniques cause the reduction or defeat of the commercial skip systems, the method comprising:
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providing the video signal with the altered version of the existing signal level, which altered signal level eliminates or attenuates the indication of a commercial; and modifying the altered signal level so as to at least partially restore in the original existing signal level which is indicative of a commercial to thereby at least partially or fully restore the effectiveness of the commercial skip system. - View Dependent Claims (66, 67, 68, 69, 70)
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71. Apparatus for at least partially restoring the effectiveness of commercial skip systems incorporated in video recorders wherein the effectiveness of the commercial skip systems has been reduced or degraded by modifying an existing signal level in the video signal which is indicative of a commercial, or for enhancing the effectiveness of existing commercial skip systems in which the normal effectiveness has not been reduced or degraded, comprising:
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a timing circuit receiving the video signal for providing a timing signal indicative of selected active video lines; means for supplying a DC restored video signal; circuit means including detector means for determining a minimum luminance signal value of the DC restored video signal; and summing means coupled to the circuit means and responsive to the timing circuit for adding to the video signal a negative level shifting voltage corresponding to the minimum luminance signal value, to alter the video signal so as to at least partially restore the degraded commercial skip system or to enhance the effectiveness of the existing commercial skip system.
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72. Apparatus for at least partially restoring the effectiveness of commercial skip systems incorporated in video recorders wherein the effectiveness of the commercial skip systems has been reduced or degraded by modifying an existing signal level in the video signal which is indicative of a commercial, or for enhancing the effectiveness of an existing commercial skip system in which the normal effectiveness has not been reduced or degraded, comprising:
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a timing circuit receiving the video signal for providing a timing signal indicative of a selected portion of an active video field; detection means responsive to the timing circuit for measuring and storing a lowest signal level value of the video portion to correspondingly determine a new black level reference; and means for applying the new black level reference as a normal black level to thereby at least partially restore or enhance the effectiveness of the degraded or of the existing commercial skip system.
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Specification