#297349 - 19/04/2007 16:51
"Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
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Wow. For once I'm not being treated like a criminal for watching a DVD that I've paid for. No annoying "you wouldn't steal a car..." trailer. No lengthy copyright message. Just a (admittedly, not particularly discreet) flyer inside the DVD case, and then straight into the movie.
It even let me skip the trailers.
Of course, it's probably copy-protected...
_________________________
-- roger
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#297350 - 19/04/2007 16:56
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: Roger]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 15/01/2002
Posts: 1866
Loc: Austin
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#297351 - 19/04/2007 17:07
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: RobotCaleb]
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veteran
Registered: 21/01/2002
Posts: 1380
Loc: Erie, CO
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I watched Smokin' Aces last night and it let me skip the trailers and such.
I kind of missed the shame and guilt I normally feel when I see the "YOU WOULDN'T STEAL A CAR" bit.
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#297352 - 19/04/2007 17:09
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12341
Loc: Sterling, VA
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Do any of you actually run into a lot of DVDs these days that don't let you skip the trailers? I know this used to be quite a problem, but I haven't really seen it recently...
_________________________
Matt
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#297353 - 19/04/2007 17:29
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: RobotCaleb]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
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Quote:
Which DVD?
Ashamed as I am to admit it: Mission Impossible 3.
_________________________
-- roger
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#297354 - 19/04/2007 17:45
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/01/2002
Posts: 3996
Loc: Manchester UK
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Quote:
Quote:
Which DVD?
Ashamed as I am to admit it: Mission Impossible 3.
Oh dear, I thought more of you Roger.....
_________________________
Cheers,
Andy M
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#297356 - 19/04/2007 17:51
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Quote:
Do any of you actually run into a lot of DVDs these days that don't let you skip the trailers?
My problem is that it takes me a while to remember to press the "Menu" button or "Title" button or whatever the correct button is, so I sit there futilely pressing the Skip button until I get annoyed and press the FF button so that the previews don't take very long.
Then, after getting to the menu, I remember that I should have just tried the Menu button to begin with, but I'm not really inclined at that point to go back and try it out.
On a tangential note, I don't understand why the "Skip" button is dumbed down to be a "Next Track" button, given the intelligence of DVD players in general. If the player knows that after it finishes this track that it needs to go to another chapter (maybe I have these terms backwards or otherwise wrong?), why not do that when I press the "Skip" button instead of playing stupid?
_________________________
Bitt Faulk
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#297358 - 19/04/2007 19:05
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: andym]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
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Quote:
Oh dear, I thought more of you Roger.....
Hey, it was on special in HMV. £8. I also picked up some £5 Jean-Claude Van Damme movies (the wife likes them for some reason) while I was in there...
_________________________
-- roger
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#297359 - 19/04/2007 19:06
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: Dignan]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Quote:
Do any of you actually run into a lot of DVDs these days that don't let you skip the trailers? I know this used to be quite a problem, but I haven't really seen it recently...
Last I saw, every single Disney DVD.
There was a bit of an uproar about it, maybe they've changed that.
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#297360 - 20/04/2007 00:59
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 06/10/1999
Posts: 2591
Loc: Seattle, WA, U.S.A.
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Quote:
Quote:
Oh dear, I thought more of you Roger.....
Hey, it was on special in HMV. £8. I also picked up some £5 Jean-Claude Van Damme movies (the wife likes them for some reason) while I was in there...
Wow. Tom Cruise -- Jean-Claude Van Damme live boy-on-boy action. And cheap.
No HMV here, tho'
_________________________
Jim
'Tis the exceptional fellow who lies awake at night thinking of his successes.
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#297361 - 20/04/2007 04:35
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: Roger]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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My pet peeve is not being able to insert the cd and press play on the player and not have to futz around with menus, or trailers, or even find out what happened to the DVD remote, just start the dang movie already. Edit: in this one thing VHS is much superior.
Edited by gbeer (20/04/2007 04:38)
_________________________
Glenn
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#297362 - 20/04/2007 04:39
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: gbeer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Even better, the DVDs that simply start playing the feature when inserted (without even having to press play or select), and you only see the selection menu if you press the menu button.
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#297363 - 20/04/2007 04:41
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
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I think I've only ever seen one of those.
_________________________
Glenn
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#297364 - 20/04/2007 08:05
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: gbeer]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 16/04/2002
Posts: 2011
Loc: Yorkshire UK
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Quote:
Edit: in this one thing VHS is much superior.
Not on Disney VHS's, now the children my daughter is nanny for are at a cartoon watching age, I've been digging out all the old VHS's from when she was growing up: It's reminded me of the 8+ minutes of patronising trailers, if you try and ff through them, kids think that they're missing something and kick up a fuss!
I thought I'd cracked it by laboriously putting them all on the hard disk without trailers, but if they can't physically push a VHS in to the slot, they can't grasp the concept and kick up a fuss!
_________________________
Politics and Ideology: Not my bag
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#297365 - 20/04/2007 11:03
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: boxer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
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Quote:
I thought I'd cracked it by laboriously putting them all on the hard disk without trailers, but if they can't physically push a VHS in to the slot, they can't grasp the concept and kick up a fuss!
Hardware Steve's youngest is apparently able to go to the CD rack, select a CD (on what criteria isn't really known), go and switch the CD player on, put the CD in, and press play. He's 18 months.
Peter
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#297366 - 20/04/2007 11:45
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: boxer]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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Quote:
Quote:
Edit: in this one thing VHS is much superior.
Not on Disney VHS's, now the children my daughter is nanny for are at a cartoon watching age, I've been digging out all the old VHS's from when she was growing up: It's reminded me of the 8+ minutes of patronising trailers, if you try and ff through them, kids think that they're missing something and kick up a fuss!
I thought I'd cracked it by laboriously putting them all on the hard disk without trailers, but if they can't physically push a VHS in to the slot, they can't grasp the concept and kick up a fuss!
Fit dummy cassettes with RFID tags and use that to signal the PC to play the correct video 
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#297367 - 20/04/2007 12:17
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: tfabris]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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What about pressing PLAY while in the DVD Menu to actually (gasp) play the movie? Instead you have to move the little [insert whatever the highlight is on this movie which is probably different than the last 10 movies you've played] over to the "Play" text which may or may not be easily visible and which may be already selected or be left or right, up or down or a combination of them. Then of course press "Enter"
DVDs (in general) are probably the most counter-intuitively designed products of the past 20 years in my opinion. The problem comes first from the design of the players themselves, having far too many buttons than is required for even twice the included functionality. Then DVD authors implementing restrictions and creating truly annoying interfaces (menu structures, and overall design).
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#297368 - 20/04/2007 12:25
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: hybrid8]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4180
Loc: Cambridge, England
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Quote:
DVDs (in general) are probably the most counter-intuitively designed products of the past 20 years in my opinion.
Right. As the anti-story to Steve's toddler, I once left my parents, both former nuclear physicists who've been using computers from time to time since the early 1960s, but who'd never used a DVD player before, in my house with the suggestion that they'd probably enjoy Fellowship of the Ring on DVD. They couldn't get it to work. (And this wasn't even Hugo's house: I had one TV, one SCART input, speakers built-in to the TV.)
Peter
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#297369 - 20/04/2007 17:11
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: peter]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 19/05/1999
Posts: 3457
Loc: Palo Alto, CA
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Hey, my setup isn't designed to confuse people, no matter how much Claire thinks it is! It's just a simple matter of getting the DVD player on, the amp on and to the right input, and the plasma on and to the right input. I suspect, however, that the number of permutations available for this setup has a lot of zeros after it. Hugo
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#297370 - 20/04/2007 17:25
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: altman]
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veteran
Registered: 25/04/2000
Posts: 1529
Loc: Arizona
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Thats why programmable remotes like Universal or the Harmony are awesome. One button to get all the channels/inputs set and watch/listen to what you want. My setup could probably be a cause for insanity if I didn't have one.
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#297371 - 20/04/2007 17:38
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: Tim]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Quote:
One button to get all the channels/inputs set and watch/listen to what you want.
If all your devices have discretes, yeah. 
I'm not bitter.
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#297372 - 20/04/2007 18:08
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: tfabris]
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veteran
Registered: 21/01/2002
Posts: 1380
Loc: Erie, CO
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Quote:
If all your devices have discretes, yeah.
What device do you have that doesn't have discrete codes?
The Harmony remotes work around this in a clever way, there is a Help button that will ask you if the "TV is on", etc. That way the remote keeps track of what is on/off by itself, but if something gets out of sync, just press Help and answer the questions. Works well for me and keeps visitors to my place happy, too.
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#297374 - 20/04/2007 19:58
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: cushman]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31600
Loc: Seattle, WA
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That *is* clever. Hm. I may have to investigate one of these.
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#297375 - 20/04/2007 20:22
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: tfabris]
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veteran
Registered: 21/01/2002
Posts: 1380
Loc: Erie, CO
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This is the one I have, I'm pretty sure you can pick it up for $150 or less now.
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#297376 - 20/04/2007 20:28
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: cushman]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 30/04/2000
Posts: 3810
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We've got one of those Harmony remotes. It does the job, but it's very annoying as our TV (an ancient Mitsubishi projector) and our ReplayTV 5040 both lack the discrete bits. We're pressing the "help" button on a seemingly daily basis, particularly because our daughter's toys have a habit of piling up in front of the TV.
Luckily, all of this stuff is temporary, while we're in our rented house this year. Once we get back home next year, discrete codes will be an explicit requirement in any of our future A/V shopping needs. (Hopefully, by then, the price on shiny flat panels will have continued to fall. The newest LCDs seem very impressive.)
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#297377 - 20/04/2007 20:34
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: tfabris]
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addict
Registered: 11/11/2001
Posts: 552
Loc: Houston, TX
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Quote:
That *is* clever. Hm. I may have to investigate one of these.
I've got the Harmony 880, and swear by it, the help button works well when things get out of sync.
_________________________
--Ben
78GB MkIIa, Dead tuner.
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#297378 - 21/04/2007 14:08
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: BAKup]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3584
Loc: Columbus, OH
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I've got one of the lesser Harmonies and a Sony TV without discreet codes. Mine rarely messes up, and the help button fixes it right up.
That said, I'll be glad when all our devices are in HD and we can switch back to just having a receiver switch seamlessly between all devices instead of using multiple inputs on the TV.
_________________________
~ John
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#297379 - 21/04/2007 20:33
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: JBjorgen]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 30/04/2000
Posts: 3810
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Quote:
I'll be glad when all our devices are in HD and we can switch back to just having a receiver switch seamlessly between all devices instead of using multiple inputs on the TV.
The latest upconverting receivers are perilously close to getting this right. Still, if your TV has the appropriate video switch inside it and you don't need ten gigawatts per channel or something, then the Harmony remote lets you get away with a simpler, cheaper receiver.
I wonder if a Harmony could be cobbled together to support the kludge I was using in grad school. My TV had one S-Video input, which I was feeding from my S-VHS VCR (no DVD players were yet on the market). My roommate's PlayStation-1 also had a S-Video output, which I routed through the S-Video input of the VCR (which, sadly, had to tune to channel 3 to get its input from the awful, mandatory cable box). This meant that selecting video inputs happened by tweaking the VCR while selecting audio inputs happened from the receiver (which had composite video switching, but not S-Video). We got by with a learning remote, but it would have been completely unusable for anybody visiting us.
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#297380 - 22/04/2007 01:18
Re: "Thank you for doing the right thing by buying this genuine DVD"
[Re: DWallach]
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veteran
Registered: 21/01/2002
Posts: 1380
Loc: Erie, CO
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Quote:
I wonder if a Harmony could be cobbled together to support the kludge I was using in grad school. My TV had one S-Video input, which I was feeding from my S-VHS VCR (no DVD players were yet on the market). My roommate's PlayStation-1 also had a S-Video output, which I routed through the S-Video input of the VCR (which, sadly, had to tune to channel 3 to get its input from the awful, mandatory cable box). This meant that selecting video inputs happened by tweaking the VCR while selecting audio inputs happened from the receiver (which had composite video switching, but not S-Video). We got by with a learning remote, but it would have been completely unusable for anybody visiting us.
Yes. You set up "Activities" in the remote, and an activity can have multiple devices. The activity for "Play Game" would include the TV, the VCR and the receiver (and the PS1, but it has no IR input), and the settings for each would be programmed into the Harmony. The remote would select all the correct settings for the devices to be on when it powers them up.
I have a Receiver, Component Video switch, DVD Recorder, Xbox, Cable DVR, iPod dock and HDTV, and all the inputs are different for each action. It would be insanely complex and time consuming to manage all of them without a suitable remote, not to mention that I've had poor luck getting any so-called "universal" remote to know ALL the codes for my devices.
Watching a DVD: TV to HDMI input, DVD recorder on, Receiver to DVD coax input
Watching DVR: TV to component input, Video Switch to Cable, DVR on, Receiver to cable input
Playing Video Game: TV to component input, Video Switch to Xbox, Receiver to VCR1 input
Listening to iPod: Receiver to CD input, dock on, everything else off.
The remote makes doing this so easy that my 4 year old can watch TV without my help. He can even turn on the iPod and listen to music without asking me to help him.
And, the Harmony 880 already knows the Empeg IR codes. You can look up the Empeg in their configuration tool under Audio Servers. How cool is that?
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