Commercial Skip

[joe123]

My goodness, it's getting crazy trying to get some simple things without having to read gazillions of pages.

I installed DirMon2, Showanalyer, ran it, it produces the the .edl and .txt files with the skip points, but I am confused as to how does SageTV know to use these to skip? Or am I missing something?

ALso, if I use the SageTV convert feature in version 6 to convert files from mpeg format to avi (MP4), will SageTV use the .edl or .txt files to skip over these areas?

[JREkiwi]

Use this import if you are using the Default STV. If you are using SageMC then support is built in.

Yes, it will still use the files after your files are converted to avi. The edl or txt file just needs to be in the same location as the video file.

John

[joe123]

Thanks John.

I don't have SageMC. Thanks for the pointer, I'll try it.

Edit: So if I use the built in SageTV V6 convert to AVI format, it will use the edl info when converting the files and skip those segments automatically?

[joe123]

Works great!

I really like the marker on the programs which shows which recordings have commercial skipping files for.

Very nice! Thanks.

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by joe123

So if I use the built in SageTV V6 convert to AVI format, it will use the edl info when converting the files and skip those segments automatically?

Yes, If the edl file and the avi file are in the same location.

John

[hemicuda]

just don't forget if you set dirmon2 to "clean up" the comskip files when an mpg is deleted that you also set it to see if an avi extension is present. if not, when the mpg is converted you'll loose the comskip info.

[roxy99]

Originally Posted by hemicuda

just don't forget if you set dirmon2 to "clean up" the comskip files when an mpg is deleted that you also set it to see if an avi extension is present. if not, when the mpg is converted you'll loose the comskip info.

Thus Sage 6 skips commercials only if the edl is present regardless of whether playing mpeg4(avi) or an mpeg2. Sage 6 does not physically remove the commercials from the mpg in producing the avi but merely skips them during playback.

[joe123]

Originally Posted by roxy99

Thus Sage 6 skips commercials only if the edl is present regardless of whether playing mpeg4(avi) or an mpeg2. Sage 6 does not physically remove the commercials from the mpg in producing the avi but merely skips them during playback.

Oh rats. I thought that when converting from MPEG2 to AVI with SageTV V6 convert, that the new created AVI file would not include the commercials.

Dosent make sense. If converting format and a edl file is present with skipping points, why not SKIP those points when creating the new AVI file?

[malbec]

Check out BobPhoenix's Video Edit import. I have not played with it yet, but I think it might get you some of what you are looking for.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22312

[roxy99]

Because commercial skipping is not officially supported by Sage therefor it makes sense for Sage to ignore those skip points when using its built in encoding.

You can purchase Videoredo to completely anhilalate the commercials from the mpeg2 stream or you can also try this http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21932

[joe123]

Originally Posted by roxy99

Because commercial skipping is not officially supported by Sage therefor it makes sense for Sage to ignore those skip points when using its built in encoding.

Right, I undestand that, but the edl skip information (points) can be anything and not neccesarity commercial slip points. It can be points in the moview which I don't wan, thus, if the convert process would not include the movie with those points, it would make sense.

EDIT: By the way, SageTV DOES support "Commercial Skipping" - check out:

http://www.sage.tv/stvfeatures.html?sageSub=tv

It says and I quote "Skip through commercials in the blink of an eye.".

I know that it does not support Commercial elimination which is what you probably meant..

[roxy99]

Originally Posted by joe123

Right, I undestand that, but the edl skip information (points) can be anything and not neccesarity commercial slip points. It can be points in the moview which I don't wan, thus, if the convert process would not include the movie with those points, it would make sense.

EDIT: By the way, SageTV DOES support "Commercial Skipping" - check out:

http://www.sage.tv/stvfeatures.html?sageSub=tv

It says and I quote "Skip through commercials in the blink of an eye.".

I know that it does not support Commercial elimination which is what you probably meant..

There was a complaint once posted that the quote "Skip through commercials in the blink of an eye." is misleading. In fact what Sage means is that you can manually skip forward though commercial breaks, eg 30sec jumps. It was not meant to be an automated detection. This is manual commercial skipping

When I first started using Sage, this was one of my beefs- why can't the Sage default installation offer an automatic detection? Well I suppose thats why there are so many customizations. Customizations are a good thing and allows Sage to focus on the core product while users tweak the UI and likes.

Definatley give Bobpheneix's integrated STV a look. Mine is more of an offline batch file and is not actually a STV customization per se.

[joe123]

Yes, I will look at Bob's setup - looks nice.

By the way, it was me who posted that complaint about the Commercial Skipping being mislieading. I still hold that it is mis-leading.

[hemicuda]

What I meant was that when I used Dirmon2 I had it also do cleanup on comskip files after I had deleted the associated mpg show. Just wanted to bring up the point, if yours was set up the same way, that if the converter deletes the mpg after the avi is created then dirmon2 will wipe out the comskip file(s). Unless it was set to check for an associated avi.

Make better sense now I hope?

[sundansx]

When I first started using Sage, this was one of my beefs- why can't the Sage default installation offer an automatic detection?

Search google for "ReplayTV" and "lawsuit"

[FidgetyRat]

As nice as it would be to have the .avi's without the commercials, I would rather leave them in myself. Comskip or SA are not always 100% accurate. On one occasion mine screwed up every commercial (though most of the time i get 99% accuracy). IF it automatically transcoded and cut the commercials permanently, you have no way to correct the mistakes. For the added 50 MB (ish) i'm willing to deal.