Skip commercials?

[CB_2005]

Originally Posted by joe123

That's fair enough $10 bucks. I don't mind spending 10, 20 or $50 bucks if IT IS EASY TO INSTALL AND WORKS.

So where can I download and get Instructions to install this $10 buck commercials skip software?

http://www.dragonglobal.org/showanalyzer.htm

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by joe123

I don't mind spending 10, 20 or $50 bucks if IT IS EASY TO INSTALL AND WORKS.

ShowAnalyzer may not be right for you then. First, SA is beta software, that means you should expect bugs. Second, commercial detection can take quite a bit of research, learning, understanding, and tweaking to get optimal results. Some people get excellent results "out of the box", but that is not guaranteed.

If you feel up to it, then the instructions in the PDF posted by mightyt are as clear as it gets. It even includes instructions on where to download SA and where to get a trial key so you can try it out without spending anything.

Jere

[Menehune]

If you prefer a more hands-on solution which is easy to install, try VideoReDo Plus. I discovered it has commercial detection built in. It is expensive though-$50us. Being a stand-alone windows program it is easy to install.

The way I do it is:
Just copy your mpeg file off the server to your workstation, drop the mpeg file onto the VRDPlus icon, the program opens. Click commercial detect, let program process the file. Save the edited file. Copy edited file back to your server.

It is tedious and manual (not automatic) but I got confused reading the SA installation instructions and haven't had the time to go back to see where I misinterpreted them. Fortunately I'm the only user and I only have two tuners so I am able to manually keep up with the recorded shows. If I record more shows I may need to investigate automated solutions (dirmon? SA?).

Forgot to add: my solution is after the fact. I.e. after sage records the show, not simultaneous or near-real-time.

[blade]

SA is very easy to setup. There are screenshots that show you exactly what your settings should be and the instructions are pretty straight foward. It took me about 5 minutes to setup. I do admit I have no clue how to tweak SA, so if it didn't work well straight out of the box it might be difficult to get right.

[domc]

SA will also make the .vprj file that VideoRedo reads to cut out commercials.
It can be automated as much as you like. Work flow would be:

Use Dirmon in system tray
SA runs whenever you want
Use videoredo to save the new Mpeg

Totally automatic and I don't use videoredo manually. I use SA fulltime so that it's running on the current live program that I am watching too. All you have to do then is 'rewind" the show to where you want and you can watch a delayed live show commercial free.

This is the number one reason why I have a HTPC Box.

[folly12345]

First off
Jere - SA what can I say but thanks a million, this is the best $10 I ever spent. I hope you can turn this into a successful business for yourself. If not, I hope you have fun doing it. I really appreciate your efforts.


MightyT - Your pdf of setup instructions are great! I got Dirmon and Sa running very quickly with them. One suggestion that may save others some frustration, a comment added about needing to use unc / mapped drives when using Sa via a SageTv client would be helpful. I got very frustrated trying to get this to work and wasted several hours of my time. While the solution is on the forums, I for one did not find via any search but only by sitting and reading all the comskip/sa threads.

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by jeffashland

Jere - SA what can I say but thanks a million, this is the best $10 I ever spent. I hope you can turn this into a successful business for yourself. If not, I hope you have fun doing it. I really appreciate your efforts.

You're welcome. I don't know if it will be, or if I even want it to be, a successful business, but it does let me take my wife out to dinner every now and then.

And I do enjoy it. Well... most of the time I enjoy it.

Jere

[BrandonMills]

In general, I like SageTV better than BeyondTV.

However, the excuses for no commercial skipping integrated within the main package are wearing thin. If BeyondTV has it, SageTV should have it.

Same goes with automatic show conversion, and 'buffers' on shows that prevent networks from screwing you out of part of your show by starting it a minute or late.

[k9k9]

Originally Posted by BrandonMills

Same goes with automatic show conversion, and 'buffers' on shows that prevent networks from screwing you out of part of your show by starting it a minute or late.

Detailed Setup -> Customize will allow you to set padding for shows (like to start 5 minutes early and end 5 minutes later)

[Opus4]

There is no feature to set default padding for all new recordings built into SageTV, so perhaps you are thinking of an import that helps with that. But, you can set padding for favorites and for individual manual recordings.

- Andy