# Anyone notice TV commercials having "deja-vu" glitching problems?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-notice-tv-commercials-having-deja-vu-glitching-problems/209510>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [October 25, 2003, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-notice-tv-commercials-having-deja-vu-glitching-problems/209510 "2003-10-25T17:03:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![anamnesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb8c5e/32.png) [@anamnesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anamnesis)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2003, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-notice-tv-commercials-having-deja-vu-glitching-problems/209510/1 "2003-10-25T17:03:26Z")

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Has anyone else here with Comcast cable television service noticed that commercials (with increasing frequency) seem to be having a little “hiccup” when they begin? It is reminiscent to me of the deja-vu phenomenon from the first Matrix movie (I think they called it a “glitch”) when something would happen, then rewind and happen again. The commercial will play about half a second to one second, then stop and start again.

I certainly don’t mean to imply any fanatical suggestion that we are in fact living within the Matrix (I’m not okay in the head, but I’m not a conspiracy theorist, heh) … I was hoping that maybe this happens elsewhere and perhaps someone with maybe some insight into television broadcasting (or at least has a theory of their own) might know why these glitches seem to happen during commercials. I notice them more and more these days; I figured maybe they were being done to synchronize broadcast times by small increments so that shows and commercials have evenly-alloted time spaces and so that nothing runs too long or too short and gets cut off. ::shrug:: 😕

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**Author:** ![if6was9](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e47c2d/32.png) [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2003, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-notice-tv-commercials-having-deja-vu-glitching-problems/209510/2 "2003-10-25T17:36:32Z")

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I have Comcast out of Philly. This may be what it is… Often they’ll show about a second of a national commercial, then switch to a local commercial. Maybe they don’t have a local one to run…

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**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\
**Post date:** [October 25, 2003, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-notice-tv-commercials-having-deja-vu-glitching-problems/209510/3 "2003-10-25T17:42:03Z")

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I’ve seen some of that lately, **ana** , Comcast out of Atlanta here. No idea what it’s doing.