It works it out by things like black frames, silent audio, etc. It's spooky to see it in action!

Does it use the "Commercial Advance" (tm) technology, or is it something that Sonic Blue developed on its own? Commercial Advance works by sensing the black frames between the programming and the beginning of the commercial breaks. How it determines whether a subsequent black frame is another commercial or resumption of programming, I do not know.

I have found the Commercial Advance feature on my VCR to be only about 85% reliable. That is, about 15% of the time it will not catch the beginning of a commercial break or it will miss programming thinking it is still in commercial.

Of course, since I got TiVo, I don't think I've used m VCR more than once or twice. TiVo does not have Commercial Advance or equivalent, and when I asked them, they said they never would -- apparently as a result of an agreement they made with the commercial broadcasters.

tanstaafl.



"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"