Commercial Skip not running lately

[jwklinck]

Has something changed recently with the commercial skip. It just to do a pretty good job, especially on regular network shows for me, but in the last week or so it's turned on, but there is no commercial elimination in any of the shows recorded.

[Edwin_Perez]

Yeah I had the same problem updating to latest prerelease fixed that.

[jwklinck]

Is this a known bug that will be corrected? I'm not certain how to update to the latest pre-release.

[chDVRuser]

Refer to this Pre-Release access for DVR subscribers knowledge article

[jwklinck]

I've updated to the latest pre-release for the last several days, and I am still not getting commercial skipping on any recording. I've even tried turning it off and on again to hopefully reset it, and I've gone in on recordings and asked it to rescan for commercials (under options), but it is still not working.
Any ideas on what I should try to get this working again?

[tmm1]

What does the log show after each recording? Is it attempting to find commercials? Is there an error?

[jwklinck]

It is attempting Commercial Detection but fails with an error. Here is a segment of the log...

2023/02/03 20:00:30.633275 [DVR] Processing file-2560: TV/Jeopardy!/Jeopardy! S39E105 2023-02-03-1929.mpg
2023/02/03 20:00:35.108758 [DVR] Running commercial detection on file 2560 (TV/Jeopardy!/Jeopardy! S39E105 2023-02-03-1929.mpg)
2023/02/03 20:00:36.326752 [DVR] Commercial detection failed for Jeopardy! S39E105 2023-02-03-1929.mpg with exit status 16
2023/02/03 20:51:30.727958 [DVR] Deleted #2551 /volume1/DVR/TV/Name That Tune/Name That Tune S03E04 Fox Legends Gleeful Idols 2023-02-01-1959.mpg (user)
2023/02/03 21:00:30.016367 [TNR] Closed connection to 10A09F7B/2 for ch44.1 WTOG-CW
2023/02/03 21:00:30.224863 [SNR] Statistics for "TV/Penn & Teller Fool Us/Penn & Teller Fool Us S09E10 The Evil Magic Octopus 2023-02-03-1959.mpg": ss=94%,90%-98% snq=99%,94%-100% seq=100% bps=11622964,921952-11780832 pps=994,79-1009
2023/02/03 21:00:30.393740 [SNR] Buffer statistics for "TV/Penn & Teller Fool Us/Penn & Teller Fool Us S09E10 The Evil Magic Octopus 2023-02-03-1959.mpg": buf=0% drop=0%
2023/02/03 21:00:30.452962 [DVR] Finished job 1675472390-18 Penn & Teller: Fool Us
2023/02/03 21:00:30.747510 [DVR] Waiting 58m59.25250632s until next job 1675479570-1 Blue Bloods
2023/02/03 21:00:30.759649 [DVR] Processing file-2561: TV/Penn & Teller Fool Us/Penn & Teller Fool Us S09E10 The Evil Magic Octopus 2023-02-03-1959.mpg
2023/02/03 21:00:32.453776 [DVR] Running commercial detection on file 2561 (TV/Penn & Teller Fool Us/Penn & Teller Fool Us S09E10 The Evil Magic Octopus 2023-02-03-1959.mpg)
2023/02/03 21:00:32.906904 [DVR] Commercial detection failed for Penn & Teller Fool Us S09E10 The Evil Magic Octopus 2023-02-03-1959.mpg with exit status 16
2023/02/03 21:11:30.655610 [DVR] Deleted #2549 /volume1/DVR/TV/You Bet Your Life With Jay Leno/You Bet Your Life With Jay Leno S02E108 Puppy Power Walk 2023-02-01-1329.mpg (user)
2023/02/03 21:31:30.702210 [DVR] Deleted #2554 /volume1/DVR/TV/Jeopardy!/Jeopardy! S39E104 2023-02-02-1929.mpg (user)
2023/02/03 21:59:30.068395 [DVR] Starting job 1675479570-1 Blue Bloods on ch=[110.1 106.1 6.1 10.1]
2023/02/03 21:59:33.155765 [TNR] Opened connection to 10A09F7B/0 for ch110.1 WTSP
2023/02/03 21:59:33.156501 [DVR] Recording for job 1675479570-1 from 10A09F7B ch110.1 into "TV/Blue Bloods/Blue Bloods S13E12 The Big Leagues 2023-02-03-2159.mpg" for 1h1m29.9314584s
2023/02/03 21:59:33.768209 [IDX] Generating video index for job 1675479570-1
2023/02/03 23:01:00.005715 [TNR] Closed connection to 10A09F7B/0 for ch110.1 WTSP
2023/02/03 23:01:00.191329 [SNR] Statistics for "TV/Blue Bloods/Blue Bloods S13E12 The Big Leagues 2023-02-03-2159.mpg": ss=98%,96%-100% snq=100% seq=100% bps=0 pps=307,54-533
2023/02/03 23:01:00.461595 [SNR] Buffer statistics for "TV/Blue Bloods/Blue Bloods S13E12 The Big Leagues 2023-02-03-2159.mpg": buf=0% drop=0%
2023/02/03 23:01:00.606422 [DVR] Finished job 1675479570-1 Blue Bloods
2023/02/03 23:01:00.827676 [DVR] Processing file-2562: TV/Blue Bloods/Blue Bloods S13E12 The Big Leagues 2023-02-03-2159.mpg
2023/02/03 23:01:06.044940 [DVR] Running commercial detection on file 2562 (TV/Blue Bloods/Blue Bloods S13E12 The Big Leagues 2023-02-03-2159.mpg)
2023/02/03 23:01:07.004742 [DVR] Commercial detection failed for Blue Bloods S13E12 The Big Leagues 2023-02-03-2159.mpg with exit status 16
2023/02/04 04:51:34.700083 [HC] Removed 916.7K from /volume1/DVR/Images/tmsimg to keep under cache limit of 1G

[tmm1]

Will need to see the comskip log for one of those recordings to see why it's failing.

Logs/comskip/2560/video.log

Send to [email protected]

[chDVRuser]

Anyone else having issues with no commercial detection?

Looking at the sources for Comskip (the program that does commercial detection), an exit code of 16 means "Could not allocate memory for logo frame buffer". This means your system likely doesn't have enough free memory/RAM to complete the detection, so it just quit.

[racameron]

From later in that same thread, it appears that Aman addressed the issue:

Anyone else having issues with no commercial detection?

Try this:

However, that it is still occurring with an up-to-date pre-release might mean there are additional issues to address.

@jwklinck Have you also submitted diagnostics? For one of those failed detections (such as last night's Blue Bloods), try redetecting commercials (which will likely fail), then submit diagnostics. Afterwards, email [email protected] with the log ID to further detail the issue.

(The troubleshooting diagnostic logs may contain additional information not present in the Comskip log you submitted.)

[tmm1]

The core dumps were fixed, but exit 16 is different and does sound like a memory issue. The comskip log will confirm, and needs to be pulled manually because it's not part of diagnostics.

[tmm1]

Seems like a RAM issue?

[mpegts @ 0x22d0ab00] Before avformat_find_stream_info() pos: 0 bytes read:32768 seeks:0 nb_streams:4
[mpegts @ 0x22d0ab00] After avformat_find_stream_info() pos: 0 bytes read:3166352 seeks:2 frames:48
Input #0, mpegts, from '/volume1/DVR/TV/Jeopardy!/Jeopardy! S39E105 2023-02-03-1929.mpg':
  Duration: 00:30:37.84, start: 46533.478556, bitrate: 3334 kb/s
  Program 3 
    Stream #0:0[0x31]: Video: hevc (Main) ([36][0][0][0] / 0x0024), yuv420p(tv, bt709, progressive), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], Closed Captions, 59.94 fps, 59.94 tbr, 90k tbn, 59.94 tbc
    Stream #0:1[0x32](spa): Audio: ac4 (AC-4 / 0x342D4341), 46034 Hz, stereo, fltp
    Stream #0:2[0x33](eng): Audio: ac4 (AC-4 / 0x342D4341), 46034 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp
    Stream #0:3[0x39](eng): Data: bin_data (STPP / 0x50505453)
Frame Rate set to 59.940 f/s
Format changed to [1920 : 1080]
Could not allocate memory for logo frame buffer 38

[chDVRuser]

I've been wondering about the lowres setting and what value it is on that run.

My understanding of the setting is it reduces resolution of the frames when logo detect/black and brightness levels are being searched for. If that's the case, I would think it reduces the size of each frame buffer?

[tmm1]

lowres only works for mpeg2

[jwklinck]

Thanks. I've redirected the commercials in Blue Bloods, it failed as you suggested. I sent in an email with the log and also submitted the diagnostics.

[tmm1]

How much free RAM is available on your NAS?

[jwklinck]

[racameron]

1GB of RAM is a bit sparse. You may want to monitor your memory consumption while commercial detection is in process; that may elicit some more information.

[Rich_Halvorson]

Recently migrated to a QNAP TS-431K NAS and have Channels running there. Everything is good except commercial scanning is not working.
I'm on Version
2023.01.23.1746
and have received the same:
exit code 16 in the main logs and:
Could not allocate memory for logo frame buffer 38
in the video.log.
my NAS only has 1GB of RAM, but what is required, any way I can use this or am I going to have to move back to a shield?

[eric]

Please try the latest pre-release.

@tmm1

Updating to prerelease

On the DVR web UI, select Status > Version > Check For Update > Check for Pre-Release

Prerelease upgrades happen manually, only when you click the button above. The next time a stable release happens, your DVR will switch back to the newer stable build automatically.