<![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials - io9 Comments]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials]]> My folks had a Space Command tv and remote, but at one point lost the remote. Fortunately they had accidentally discovered previously that jingling your house/car keys would change the channel just fine, so they didn't really miss it.

FastLearner

]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials]]> @Klappstuhl: No one is interested in producing anything that would limit the amount of other shit you have to buy to make it work.

JohnnyZito

]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials]]> @Lynn Peril: Isn't that more of a step in the other direction of evolution?

Is anyone interested in producing a remote that doesn't need batteries? Anyone?

Klappstuhl

]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials]]> If my wife and I are watching tube and I don't hit the mute quickly enough when a commercial comes on, she dives for the remote, with talons extended. Conditioning works.

Media companies hate the ability to zap commercials. It's why we have promos popping up all over our entertainment.

Maybe we should lobby for a federal subsidy to support Tivo's legal team.

Moeskido

]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials]]> My father had one of the first home VCR systems, and it had a wired controller. You could just pause/play it. It was rather awesome.

guibom

]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials]]> looking at the picture kinda reminded me ot Videodrome. Io9 should give some shout-outs to Videodrome for sure.

PVIII

]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials]]> a mute button designed to kill ad revenue completely ignores the fact that american families are deathly afraid of long periods of silence that might force them to actually interact.

tetracycloide

]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials]]> I was doing research for a paper at school last fall and reading old issues of the weekly Variety. In a small item, a competing set manufacturer warned that remote controls with a mute button would threaten the entire "free to air" television model, and implied McDonald was "un-American" -- no small accusation during McCarthy's red scare.

Could this battle have signalled the start of the entertainment industry versus consumer electronics manufacturer war that is still waged today?

Jackson West

]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials]]> @Oxfordian: That's correct regarding the early models (at least as I understand it). Transistors later made it possible to generate the tones electronically and that's where the batteries came in.

Lynn Peril

]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials]]> @BloggyMcBlogBlog: Yes, Adler is the man behind the Space Command. Eugene Polley invented the Flashmatic. And apparently there was at least some ill-will between the two of them over who "invented the remote control," though Adler's technology lasted much longer.

Lynn Peril

]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials]]> I assume the mechanical energy created by the "clicking" generated the sound waves neccessary to control the TV?

Oxfordian

]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials]]> @Rusty626: Except when your dog barked and changed the channel.

BloggyMcBlogBlog

]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials]]> What happened to the part about not needing batteries? We could use that today.

Rusty626

]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials]]> My grandparents had one of those boxes attached by wire to the television to control the TV well into the late 90s.

braak

]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials]]> I still remember the little TV set my Grandmother had in her bedroom. It litteraly used a clicker, or what they call the Space Command above. It had one button on the center of the remote, which you pulled down until it clicked. It would turn the TV on, and then cycle through the channels in order, until you hit the last channel, which would then turn the TV off. I took it apart once, and tried for hours to figure how it worked w/o batteries or an LED.

Git Em SteveDave loves this guy->★

]]> ★]]> <![CDATA[TV Remotes Were Originally Invented to Zap Out Commercials]]> Really need to mention Robert Adler. He pretty much invented the modern remote control:
[en.wikipedia.org]

BloggyMcBlogBlog

]]>