"The NTSC TV system uses signals transmitted during the retrace interval at the end of several scan lines to signal TV stations on signal equalization and among other things, commercial cueing. I always wondered why no one built a TV that could read the cues and mute during commercials, or a video recorder that could use this info to skip commercials."
Toshiba made a VCR that did this, I had an RCA version of it, called "Commercial Advance". It actually worked pretty well. After it was done recording, it went back and marked all the commercials. Then during playback it automatically fast-forwarded through them. I would estimate it worked on 90% or better of the commercials.
Toshiba made a VCR that did this, I had an RCA version of it, called "Commercial Advance". It actually worked pretty well. After it was done recording, it went back and marked all the commercials. Then during playback it automatically fast-forwarded through them. I would estimate it worked on 90% or better of the commercials.