Automatic Commercial Skipping triggering randomly

Channels DVR Server
#1

I did a search and didn't find any articles on this, so forgive me if it's already been answered.

Has anyone else had the Automatic Commercial Skipping function activate randomly on an Nivida Shield? I've been watching a lot of recorded Olympics coverage and in the middle of a section with no commercials, the video skips forward several minutes randomly. This even happens when I'm watching a recording shortly behind live and commercial detection hasn't even been run yet. The video will just skip forward several minutes and the "automatic commercial skipping" banner shows up in the right hand corner. When I look at the timeline, there are no commercial breaks even identified. Something other than an actual identified commercial is triggering the automatic skipping feature. When I rewind to the point where it triggered, it doesn't happen again.

This happens with both the release Nvidia client and the Beta client. Very annoying as I have to back up several minutes to get back to where I was.

Has anyone else seen this?

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#2

Yes, I've also seen this happen, but on a Fire TV Stick 4K. It's been rather sporadic and hard to reproduce the behavior, as it indeed doesn't happen consistently. I've only seen it happen with a small handful of recordings (most of which had been run through regular Comskip) where the player would automatically skip to some incorrect future timestamp, despite often being only about halfway done playing the current content segment, and when I looked at the client's player timeline (and double-checked Edit Commercials in the DVR Web UI) the player should not have automatically skipped when it did.

In my case, the last time I recall seeing this was about two weeks ago, which was a number of versions back, since I generally keep up to date with the latest Android beta and DVR pre-release versions. I'm waiting for it to happen again so I can submit some client diagnostics for this.

If you haven't already, right after a random automatic skip happens, I would recommend submitting client diagnostics from the Shield app (Settings > Support > Submit Diagnostics) and select the Player option so the developers can take a look.

Also, if you happen to still have any recordings where the incorrect automatic skip happened before (I don't believe I do, unfortunately) and also happen to remember roughly when it skipped incorrectly, maybe you could try playing those again and seeking to shortly before the timestamp when it incorrectly skipped forward previously to hopefully reproduce the issue (and submit client diagnostics immediately afterward).

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#3

When I go back to the point where it triggered, it doesn't do it a second time. It's been doing it pretty consistently over the last few days. I'll reboot the Shield and it won't do it for a few hours. The interesting thing is that it does it on recordings where ComSkip hasn't even been run yet. There are no commercials identified and it will still skip several minutes forward.

The next time it does it, I'll submit a diagnostic via the interface.

#4

This doesn't sound like it actually has anything to do with commercial indexes or the auto commercial skip. It sounds like the video player is having an issue with the recording and jumping ahead in the video. I can understand why this could look like the auto commercial skipping going haywire, as it's the same result. Sometimes TVE streams can get corrupt, that would explain the jumping around.

Please submit diagnostics after it happens, from the app. Without logs we have nothing to go on.

#5

That's what I thought at first. That it was a video player problem, until I saw the big "automatically skipping commercial" banner in the upper right had corner each time it happened.

It just happened again and I submitted a diagnostic log from the player at 1:24p MST. I was watching a recording from last night and it it skipped to the end of the segment. The automatically skipping commercial banner appeared. I reviewed the timeline and there was no commercial at that time.

Hopefully the log will help you figure it out. Let me know if there is anything else I can do.

Thanks!

#6

What do you mean by "skipped to the end of the segment"

From what I can see, there were several commercials detected and it tried to skip past them. It sounds like what you're saying is that the commercials weren't detected correctly. This can happen, especially if the channel logo is missing or changes appears on the screen. The commercial detection is a best effort and sometimes doesn't work well.

You could switch the app to Manual mode which will require you to click to skip commercials. Or you could turn off commercial detection on that Series Pass under show options.

#7

It was a show on Fox News. Typically commercial detection doesn't work very well on there. It gets some of them, but not most. I was watching an interview, in the middle of a sentence of one of the guests, it skipped to the end of segment, (the part of the timeline that is the show, and not the commercial), then started playing the commercial. The banner appeared. I immediately paused the playback and submitted the log. I then rewound the playback to the point in the interview where it skipped and it played through with no issues until the commercial, which it then skipped properly.

I know the commercial detection on FN doesn't work right, so maybe it's not the best place to try to troubleshoot this. I'll be watching recorded Olympic coverage for the rest of the day. I'm sure it will happen again and I'll send another log. It's been happen more and more frequently lately. I haven't seen the commercial detection (the actual analysis) not work properly on any of the Olympic coverage I've been watching so it'll be a better test.

It's happened at least 5 times in the last 3 days. In the middle of the coverage of a sport, it will randomly skip several minutes ahead, and I have to rewind to where I was in the coverage. Sometimes it skips to the beginning of the commercial, and sometimes it just skips 5-10 minutes ahead in the show.

I really don't want to use manual mode. I'm not always near the remote when watching. It's been working great for the last 2 years. It's just been in the last few days that this has been happening. Very odd.

#8

Yeah this part is weird, especially if you’re not even seeing commercial markers in the timeline when these auto skips occur, and you see the auto skip banner?!

#9

I know. It's happened 3 times so far. The first time I thought it was just a video player issue maybe due to a bad stream as I didn't notice the auto skip banner. The next time I was watching about 30 mins behind live and I clearly saw the auto skip banner. I was very confused because I knew the recording hadn't completed yet and there was no way it could have any commercial markers in it. I quickly pulled up the timeline and verified there were no commercial markers present. It happened a third time last night.

I'm now watching several recorded shows all of which have properly detected commercial markers. So far, it hasn't skipped in the middle of the show, but I'm sure it will happen again sooner or later. It's been pretty consistent over the last few days.

#10

It just did it again. This time on my 2nd Shield in the bedroom. I was watching a recording of the figure skating and in the middle of the Russian's performance it skipped about 3 or so minutes forward on it's own. The auto skip banner appeared. There were no commercials indicated in the timeline although detection had completed and it had correctly skipped all the previous commercials. I immediately paused it and submitted a log. This was at 1:27a MST. It's doing it on both of my Shield devices.

Hopefully this will help identify the problem.

#11

It just happened again. This time on the Shield in the living room. I was watching a recorded show from Fox News and it skipped ahead about 4 minutes on it's own. There was only one commercial identified, (comskip doesn't do a good job on FN), and I was about 10-15 mins past it. There were no more commercials identified in the recording. Again in the middle of a sentence, auto skip activated and showed the banner. I rewound the video back to the point where it skipped, and submitted the log. This was around 8:17a MST.

Let's hope the issue can be identified.

Thanks!

#12

I guess no one else is having this issue. :slightly_frowning_face:

FYI. It happens about 3-4 times per hour now. If I force stop the client, it'll stop doing it for a few hours, but it always comes back eventually. I've been force stopping it before I start watching anything and I've been able to minimize the annoyance.

I submitted several logs from the client but never heard anything from the developers. I guess since it's not an issue for anyone else, there's no priority for them to look at it.

Well, if anyone else starts having the issue, I'm happy to help troubleshoot it.

#13

On the web UI if you select edit commercials for the recording does it show markers at the places that are skipping ahead?

#14

I haven't looked in the web UI when it's happened, but the next time it does, I'll look look there and tell you what I see. If I bring up the timeline in the app when it does it, there are definitely no commercial markers anywhere near where it skips and when I rewind to get back to what I was watching when it skipped, it won't do it again at the same place.

I've even had it happen when I'm watching several minutes behind "live" and commercial detection hasn't even run yet. It just skips several minutes ahead for no reason and the automatic commercial skip banner appears. The commercial detection hasn't run yet, so there aren't ANY commercials identified in the recording.

It appears to be a problem with the app. It happens on both my Shield devices, and it doesn't happen in the same place on either of them with the same recording. It always appears to be random. It's like something in the software thinks a commercial is there and activates the skip. Very bizarre!

#15

It did it 3 times again last night so I checked the recording in the Web UI under "Edit Commercials" and there were none identified at the time it skipped. It was in the middle of a block which was correctly identified as being part of the show.

Force stopping the app again stopped it from doing it for the rest of the show.

#16

I too have been having this issue. I don’t really have anything to add but I wanted to monitor this post so I can learn more. Mine too skips early, I say early as it is highlighted correctly, and if I too rewind it does not do it again. Can’t seem to get a fix on it as it has work so well for so long. Thanks again! Sheldon

#17

I wouldn't describe this issue as "early", although I've seen that happen as well. It's like it activates the skip about 5 or so seconds before the commercial actually starts. Just cutting off the last few seconds of the show before the commercial. I always figured this was an issue with the detection, not the client skipping, but maybe it's not. What I'm describing here is it activating the automatic skip right in the middle of the show. Where there's no commercial detected for many minutes either before or after where it happens. It even happens on shows that are still recording and don't have ANY commercials identified yet. It's very bizarre.

Glad to know I'm not the only one this is happening to. :slightly_smiling_face:

#18

In case anyone is interested. I happened again 3 times tonight. This time it was a program that was currently recording so Comskip hadn't even run yet. There were no commercial markers present and there was still 20 minutes left of the program to be recorded. I had to disable automatic skip because I kept having to rewind several minutes to get back to where I was when it skipped and it was getting annoying.

I'd love to help figure out the problem. Automatic skipping is one of my favorite features of Channels and now I have to disable it to keep it from happening randomly.