Plex Including Comskip Support?

[Taddeusz]

I'm not using the Plex Pass versions so I don't know yet what it means but this one liner appears in the latest change log:

(DVR) Added functionality to remove commercials from recorded content (#5633)

Will be interesting to see what this means.

[Taddeusz]

So I switched to the Plex Pass version to check it out. Here is the option in the DVR Settings. Apparently it will completely remove detected commercials from the video. That's kind of scary considering how inaccurate comskip can be at times.

[wayner]

Is this just if you are using Plex as a DVR and on TV that Plex is recording? Or will it work on any video file? From that attached image it looks like it is a DVR setting.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by wayner

Is this just if you are using Plex as a DVR and on TV that Plex is recording? Or will it work on any video file? From that attached image it looks like it is a DVR setting.

I'm not entirely sure. I switched back to the public branch. If I had to make an educated guess I'd have to say it's part of the DVR functionality.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by wayner

Is this just if you are using Plex as a DVR and on TV that Plex is recording? Or will it work on any video file? From that attached image it looks like it is a DVR setting.

It is part of the DVR function ... you set it when you setup your recording to cut commercials.

I run Plex on my WD PR4100 and I have been testing it so far accurate commercial cuts not sure what they are using but it works... Very low CPU usage on my NAS.

[SHS]

Version 1.10.0.4516 New
(Web) Updated Plex Web to 3.27.1
(DVR) Added functionality to remove commercials from recorded content
(Live) Added the ability to seek within an active recording, with client support
(Transcoder) Support for hardware decoding of 10-bit HEVC

Still No program guide Boooo

[nyplayer]

They are using Comskip donator version.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

They are using Comskip donator version.

Got a link? Am curious if we would be able to fool it into reading our .edl files.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

Got a link? Am curious if we would be able to fool it into reading our .edl files.

But .edl files work at playback - it looks like they are running a process at, or just after, recording that actually edits commercials out of the video file.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by wayner

But .edl files work at playback - it looks like they are running a process at, or just after, recording that actually edits commercials out of the video file.

That is the impression I get from this.

[bcjenkins]

Yeah, not sure why they wouldn't just mark the commercials and allow skipping/seeking instead of cutting them out.

[wayner]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Yeah, not sure why they wouldn't just mark the commercials and allow skipping/seeking instead of cutting them out.

I don't know if this still matters but that likely would give them more cover if they get sued by Hollywood. Didn't ReplayTV get sued into bankruptcy due to commercial cutting/skipping?

[SHS]

Originally Posted by wayner

I don't know if this still matters but that likely would give them more cover if they get sued by Hollywood. Didn't ReplayTV get sued into bankruptcy due to commercial cutting/skipping?

You do know that TiVo and Dish have it

[wayner]

But my understanding is that the content doesn't get deleted and you have to manually push a button to skip through the commercial break, at least with TiVo. Maybe DTV is different. This is from TiVo's website (see bullets 3 and 4 in particular):

SkipMode - Things to know

• For popular shows, our team usually has SkipMode information updated for a show within 1 hour of the show ending.
• SkipMode only applies to recorded programs, and only to recorded programs which have been marked for commercials by our team. SkipMode can't fast-forward live television.
• SkipMode requires you to use the remote to skip sections. The TiVo device itself does not automatically skip through the commercial breaks.
• When you use SkipMode, the commercial breaks are being skipped. The commercial breaks have not been removed from the program.

[bcjenkins]

It works really well on a TiVo for the shows which are supported. It's almost near instant. The way it works on SageTV is very similar.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by wayner

But .edl files work at playback - it looks like they are running a process at, or just after, recording that actually edits commercials out of the video file.

True. That's my worry. A lot of my shows would be ruined if the file was cut and the original deleted.

[farscapesg1]

As a Plex DVR convert, I'll be looking forward to testing this out on a few non-important recordings but I'm not holding my breath. Instead of automatically cutting the commercials, I wish they would improve their chapter marker support (I think IOS devices are the only ones that support chapter markers outside of movies). Having used both Showanalyzer and Comskip over the years with SageTV, I never felt like either did a good enough job of detecting commercials to cut them completely and always configured my SageTV setup to show the commercial blocks but turned off automatic skip because too often I would have to skip back/forwards slightly anyways.

I will say one thing about the Plex DVR... I thought losing the EPG would be a big deal but for our use it has pretty much been a non-issue. Even with SageTV we rarely looked at the guide as we don't do any channel surfing. For us, set and forget favorites and move on. If there is a new show we want to record I just set a reminder on my phone to check the Plex "guide" that day and set a series recording.