Bypassing commercials when streaming online

Anyone know of a work-around, exploit, or firefox extension that will allow the user to skip commercials when watching such shows as "Lost" on abc.com, or other such streamed tv-shows?

 

I doubt it is possible.
I mean, you can't fast forward commercials as far as I know either.

On another note:
Why bother? They are rarer than in real life TV, and the channel is bringin you the programme at no cost - so you can sit through a tad of advertising, can't you?

 

Can I? yes. Do I want to? no, which is why I asked the question in the first place... I think you're confusing wants with needs... Half the questions on this forum are asked about things people want to happen, how they can make A happen instead of B. If everyone went around saying "you can bear through it, can't you?" it would be pretty annoying I think.

Anyway, anyone else have a suggestion?

 

Bypassing commercials is basically the same as downloading illegally.


u r trying to stop someone from making money.

 

Wrong. If that were true, then me simply closing my eyes and ears during the commercials would be like downloading illegally, or fast-forwarding through commercials on a dvr would be like downloading illegally. Fortunately for me, you're wrong and bypassing commercials isn't anything like downloading illegally.

If I download illegally, I'm enjoying something that I should have had to pay for to enjoy. If I bypass the commercials, I still pay nothing, and the network gets paid just the same.

I'm doing something I would have done anyway - not watching FREE commercials. The difference is that I save myself time, and I don't interrupt the episode. If I'm not going to watch the commercial anyway (I just minimize it and mute the sound), then why not save myself time?

 

Yeah but quite frankly if advertisers find out no one is watching their advertisements they will not pay for the slot and websites will no longer run FREE streaming videos. just bear through them so we can all enjoy our favorite episodes/movies for FREE.

 

You're assuming that the mainstream will not only have the technological know-how, but also find out how, and then actually go through the effort of bypassing these commercials. And then you're assuming that the advertisers have any way of finding out that these people aren't watching their commercials from behind their computers (unlikely).

Besides, there's a big difference between me bypassing them and "no one" watching them.

What say you to the fact that DVR usage is growing and growing, where people can simply (and do) fast-forward through commercials? What about the fact that theres nifty little tricks called "minimize" and "mute," do the advertisers not know about those tricks? What about the fact that half the times my ad-blocking software disables the advertisement's video completely, and I'll only hear sound (until I mute it). Basically, the advertisers are losing NOTHING if the people who aren't going to watch or listen to their advertisements anyway... don't have to.


People, I'm not asking if I should do this or whether it is ok for me to do this. I'm asking, how do I do it?

 

I am with Jakamo5. As to the answer to your question, I have no idea about it. I'm with you because your opinion is the exact opposite of DetceLM or whatever, and that makes you right in my eyes.

 

it's fun because some advertising gets skipped by adblock. it's not the late late show, but a simliar show like that has adverts in between, and those get skippet thanks to adblock.

but it all depends on how the pagebuilder made the streaming. the ones on that tv show are quite stupid as even adblock can handle it

 

You sound pretty main stream to me, dude...

 

How do I sound main stream? Because I'm asking how to do it? That makes no sense. First, not only would the mainstream not even consider that it might be possible, but they wouldn't ask how to do it, wouldn't go through the trouble, and wouldn't know what to do if someone made a suggestion (which is what I'm looking for). The main stream wouldn't be able to follow directions on this subject considering they'll likely be pretty OS or program-savvy based.

Don't confuse my looking for a suggestion with me being computer illiterate. When I say technological know-how, anyone not trolling will understand that I'm talking about knowing what someone means when they say "install this extension" or "edit your hosts file to include this" or "exploit this flash player glitch," etc. There's a big difference between not having a suggestion, which requires no technological know-how, and not being able to utilize a suggestion, which does. Go back to your cave.

 

I don't think you can stop the ads as its a script or such that runs with the website that possibly tells it to show this ad after such a time. Or it could be even worse and be implemented in the stream itself.

Either way, its LOST. I don't understand why you'd even care about the ads and stuff. It's not worth watching and the ads are probably better.

 

i can say that it's definitely possible because the commercials are separate from the videos. however, i have no clue how to bypass it, and i'm guessing no programmer has actually spent his/her time making this bypass as it would be different for each site

 

Is the commercial in the video or is it a separate popup? If it's in the video, just skip past it.

 

i would if I could but when the commercial starts the scroll bar at the bottom get's disabled and disappears

 

Jakamo5 i usually just click on the commercials before watching an episode and then you can play the ep from the beginning with no interruptions...just take 4 minutes before you watch to get the commercials out of the way

 

this is a pretty good idea