BETA: Smart Commercial Detection for TVE & Pluto

Beta Community DVR Beta
#85

Pi-hole is just a blacklist of domain names. And if any request comes in for a domain on the blacklist, it sends back an IP of 0.0.0.0 instead of the normal DNS IP for that domain name.

Which means that this would be a similar blacklist for content that comes from ad servers. But instead of sending a false IP like Pi-hole, it probably just uses that check to mark what to skip on playback.

Comskip, on the other hand, scans frame-by-frame of the full video content looking for segments based on resolution, audio volume, channel logo placement, and a number of other factors.

#86

Can you give Fox News a shot ?

#87

Discovery homestead rescue worked much better than comskip. The first thing i noticed was the handling of the “commercial break in progress” was much better.

“Life below zero” on the national geographic channel didnt work well at all. I verified with the web interface log that the new detection ran, not comskip.

@tmm1 please let me know if you would you like me to upload the file somewhere or anything else you need.

Ill continue to test on random shows and repeats. A lot of my “new” shows are all on hiatus for the holidays.

#88

But you will miss the My Pillow guy! Isn't that your hero?

4 Likes
#89

Nat geo wild shows still fail. has that been worked on?

Please ad a setting to DISABLE this new commercial scanner, at least for certain passes. Or only enable it on tested and proven channels.

it is really annoying having to go in to each recorded show and run comskip manually. This new thing runs regardless of comskip enable to disable.
95% of my shows now do not have working com skip.

#90

:+1: :+1: :+1:
Excellent
Five random Pluto recordings checked with my video editor.

#91

Already did?

Disabled smart ad detector on Fox and NGC channels where it isn't working

#92

I haven't had one work perfectly. Most work for the first couple commercials but miss the last one or two. One skipped the sports segment on the local news but thankfully it was the only one that I had to skip back. I have to agree with Speedingcheetah for the first time, and ask for a way to turn this off or match it to only certain channels.

#93

Where is there an option to disable it per show or pass or channel? that is what i asked for, not an update that that to be installed after the many shows recorded, that hard disables it on just a few channles. Gove the user more control over this. It feels very forced. WHen it works, its awesome, but when it does not, its epic fail.

#94

How many have you had skip past actual programming?
I tested about 8 shows and only one forced me to skip back. However, not one has skipped every commercial.

#95

On affected channels/shows...None. cause it does not mark any commercials at all. or if it does, its 2 segments of 30secs, that are during a commercial break, so its useless. i have to manualy FF through the breaks.

the edit commercials does not work on the server with recordings done by this new scanner.

#96

I have to agree that for users using a Channels client to watch that this new Smart Commercial Detection should be "opt in".
I just use the markers for my video editor to cut commercials for shows/movies I'm saving.
So I'm not a typical Channels DVR user in that respect.

I also realize this is Beta and the devs are looking for feedback. I'm sure they heard yours.

2 Likes
#97

What he said. By opting in to beta updates you are implicitly taking on some risk that undesirable things might happen. That seems to be forgotten a lot around here…

2 Likes
#98

I know what you're trying to say, but DVR prerelease updates aren't Beta.
If you wanted to use a Beta release for a client device, you have to opt-in to the Beta version and install it.
I just updated to the latest DVR prerelease this morning to fix a crash my server was experiencing.
Other people update to prerelease to fix issues they're having, like TVE.
I still think this new commercial detect should run and store results, but make it optional (like an experimental setting).to use those results.

#99

Yes and no. From the Pre-release support article:

That being said…this IS a pre-release version of Channels DVR Server and things can happen. If you want to ensure your TV and DVR systems are completely stable, you should stick to the release version.

2 Likes
#100

I agree with Yes an no, until

my DVR crashed

#101

You can't take a part of the quote out of context to support your argument. The actual sentence is:

If you want to ensure your TV and DVR systems are completely stable, you should stick to the release version.

So, if you want a stable DVR, stick to release.

2 Likes
#102

But if you stick to the release version then you are screwed as far as TVE.... so you have no choice if using TVE. When was the last time we had a release version of the DVR?

2 Likes
#103

I'm sticking to my opinion that has been stated by the devs before.
The DVR prerelease versions are not Betas.
They will introduce new features in them before they go general release, but they are mostly bug fixes.
Just look at the release notes.

3 Likes
#104

How far behind are the stable releases?