The Problem

Commercial TV stations disregarding their programming schedule, causing missed PVR recordings and much frustration.

The Solution

A new PVR with minimal user interface, where users select the shows they watch from a list of what’s on, just like a regular PVR. Also provide a web interface similar to IceTV but with keyword and category support. For example, you could set it to record all action movies or record anything with “science” and “documentary” in the description or title.

Each PVR maintains a persistent connection to a server which provides semi-realtime programming corrections. The PVR starts recording the stream way before your show is scheduled to start (we’re talking hours here). When the corrected start time comes through, the PVR trims its recorded file at the timestamp (with a small margin for error, say 30 seconds) then trashes the pre-record safety buffer. It keeps recording until it recieves the corrected end time.

You could even go so far as to have, say 10 digital tuners in the one PVR, so that all streams are constantly recording. Think timeshift on steroids.

But how do we get the data for these programming corrections? That’s the easy part.

Get a few TVs, one set to each channel. Then stick an employee in front of each TV (on a nice comfy couch of course) and give them some big shiny buttons. Their job is to watch TV and click said big shiny buttons when each show starts and finishes. This data would go into the database and then be pushed out to all the PVRs. They would of course have to work in shifts but would be well looked after and fed etc. You may want some spare employees on hand to fill in during toilet breaks. The timecodes would then be reviewed by a second set of employees to ensure frame precision.

With this system in place, we could also have the employees push big shiny “Ad Break Start” and “Ad Break Stop” buttons. This data would also be pushed out to the PVRs who conveniently trim the ad breaks from recordings.

All the while in the background, toiling away in a datacentre, there is an A.I. learning from each employee’s button press. Feeding off those few precious frames, yearning to possess the inate ability that we humans so readily demonstrate while channel surfing: the ability to distinguish instantly between advertising and programming (it’s an evolutionary imperative).

The Future?

Would this finally see the death of TV advertising?  Or would advertisers start making ads that look more and more like TV programs to try and fool the A.I.? But the A.I. has a memory of every ad it’s ever seen, similar to humans. So this may work for the first airing, but not after that. Besides, the server could retrospectively push out timecodes for ads after they were identified, then the PVR would trim out those as well. Or would we just see more invasive pop-ups? To the point where we would have to write a new A.I. to remove pop-ups by interpolating the missing pixels?

Or would we just see an increased shift to watching TV on DVD, or downloading our shows?