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Digital Sign Owners Beware the TV-B-Gone

Author: Bill Gerba on 2004-10-26 17:01:03

 WIRED is running an article on the newest nuisance to the digital signage industry, that TV-B-Gone. Invented by Mitch Altman, an inventor with too much free time and an irritatingly overactive sense of social responsibility, the device can turn on or off basically any TV by cycling through hundreds of ON/OFF codes used by most major manufacturers (if you've ever programmed a universal remote control, you have some idea of what I'm talking about).

Digital signage network owners aren't completely helpless, of course.  The cheapest and most low-tech solution to this problem is simply to cover up your screen's IR remote receiver with electrical or duct tape, which will render these rogue remote controls helpless.  Of course, if your screens are within an arm's reach, you can be sure that the tape won't stay there for long, so think about an alternative solution, such as disabling your screen's remote control receiver via a serial command or keypress combo (many screen support this), or using a product like our FireCast digital signage software to query the screen periodically to make sure that it's turned on.

I could go on, but I think that this post over at Gizmodo summarizes it best.

Enjoy :)

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2008-01-11CES Booths: More victims of the TV-B-Gone writes:
...While the TV-B-Gone scene remained quiet for a while, this year at CES the guys at Gizmodo, a gadget blog, decided to have some fun and turn off dozens, if not hundreds, of screens at the various booths that were using them (read: damned near all of them)...

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LEGAL STUFF: The WireSpring Blog is written by Bill Gerba but may periodically include articles by guest authors. The author of each article is clearly identified at the start of the article. The opinions expressed in each article are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official opinions of WireSpring Technologies, Inc. All blog articles are copyright © 2004-2008 William F. Gerba or the guest author, as appropriate. All content besides the actual article text, e.g. surrounding branding and informational content, is copyright © 2000-2008 WireSpring Technologies, Inc. All rights reserved. Except as provided in WireSpring's Republishing and Syndication Policy, no blog content may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without WireSpring's express written consent.
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