I’m with you, I’d subscribe again in a heartbeat if the com skip was automatic.
One can playback Channels recorded shows with MrMC (iOS, tvOS, android) or Kodi (most platforms except iOS/tvOS). Both auto skip commercials.
Caveats:
Must wait until Channels commskip process has completed for recording
Run the edl hack as described in this forum. One time command.
Heck, for a while now, channels dvr isn’t detecting commercials correctly for me, it’s hit and miss on everything I record, so if they were auto skipped or removed the outcome would be a disaster.
Yup. It's close, but sometimes detects program resumption in the middle of commercial breaks--followed by another commercial break, detects the end of commercial breaks late, or fails to detect program resumption entirely (usually at the end of a program). Not taking a shot at Channels' devs, cuz I love these guys, but I'd never base commercial auto-deletion on Channels' commskip data.
Personally, I don't find having to hit a "commercial skip" button all that onerous, but to each his or her own.
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Ideally the user would be able to customize the comskip ini file, or use one already customized (like the one MCEBuddy and I use). Still not perfect (and won't ever be), but my comskip nearly always gets it right, or errs on the side of programming, but that's for me and the channels I use. Network editing practices make huge differences in comskip performance - hence the ability to alter or replace the comskip ini with one that might work better.
Personally, if there's a way for me to do something to improve the automatic removal of an advertisement so I won't have to endure the interruption later - I'm gonna do it. I can, so I did. If, one day it stops working all together (for some reason), I'll do something else until the only thing left is skipping through ads with the remote (the last and least preferred option).
You can customize it if I remember right. I think you can find how here: Feature request: Comskip ini access but I've never used it.
Comskip hasn’t worked correctly for days for me with the constant school closing notices across the bottom. I need a polar vortex filter for comskip.
Good info will likely help others, but I don't need it. I've been using a custom comskip ini for years with MCEBuddy.
Hello, I'm new here and I would like to respond to your comments on "LIVE TV" commercial skipping. Specifically this statement "And, if you're skipping commercials in live TV, how does that even work? Blank the screen when a commercial airs?". My solution has been to substitute ROKU video when the commercials start and return to the LIVE video when the commercials stop. Although, this process begins with a single button press on the ROKU remote and concludes with another single button press on the STB (in my case) remote to return to the original watched video it is and has been 100% accurate. In order to implement this process I only needed to purchase 3 items from Amazon totaling ~ $30. The best part is no software is required, ,just a finger ( ;>). I welcome the communities comments.
The situation has changed from when this was originally. There is now a setting in the DVR to run Comskip on live streams. (Comskip has always offered an option to be run on live streams, but there was never a good way to integrate it into Channels.)
Hi racameron. So when I sit down to watch the LIVE news at 6:00 PM I would see ROKU video during all the commercial breaks instead of their commercials and at 6:30 PM the news would be over and I could switch channels to another program to repeat the process. Is that correct?
No. The commercial detector runs in the background and continuously works to mark commercials for skipping while the recording occurs, instead of only running after the recording has finished.
Hi and sorry for this delayed response. Our daughter is visiting for the holidays. Since I do not have either Channels or Comskip at this time I am having trouble understanding their operation in the commercial deletion process. I'll ask a single question that will help me better understand what happens with Channels and/or Comskip when the first commercial is encountered in "real time". If I turn on the TV at 6:00 PM to watch the news and commercials are presented at 6:05 PM thru 6:08 PM what will I see on my TV at 6:05 PM thru 6:08 PM with Channels and/or Comskip?
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If you are recording the news, and have live detection enabled, then you will see commercial markers on the timeline, just like you do with recordings.
Apparently, that means if I closely watch the "timeline" I would be able to detect when the commercials begin, terminate and normal programming returns. If that is the case, I should be able to switch my TV to the ROKU input to watch Youtube at 6:05 PM and then at 6:08 PM switch back to the TV's STB input to once again watch the news all in real time. Where does the "timeline" appear since I will need to monitor it during the entire news presentation? Is the "timeline" a hardware output from Channels/Comskip that I could employ to control the TV's HDMI input selection?
If you’re not up to date and behind realtime, you wouldn’t have to switch to anything as it will automatically skip the commercials.
If you are at real time, you’ll never see commercial markers, except in the past, because you’re at real time. You certainly wouldn’t see them in the future. Channels can’t predict the future.
So I’m not really sure how it would help you in your scenario.
Either you’re not going to see any markers to help tell you when to switch to watching something else, or you will and it will auto skip for you, so you don’t need to switch to watching something else.
I would implore you to utilize the first 30 days being free to try everything out for yourself to see if it fits your scenario. No one can really answer questions this personal.
Just install it and try it out. If it doesn’t fit, cancel without paying anything.
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Hi maddox and thank you for answering my basic question of can Channels/Comskip control an alternate source of video in real time during TV commercials. I believe that I am not unique in watching TV in real time with cable and other sources including OTA. I also believe that many don't employ these TV sources BECAUSE of commercials. My goal was to find a product that would enable inserting an external video source during commercial time for TV viewers. The Channels "community" quickly provided the information that "real time" commercial substitution isn't possible. I would expect that if consumers had a "super computer" dedicated for the task, the commercial start/stop recognition time could be considerably reduced to be more practical for the purpose. Although I sincerely appreciate your offer, I'll continue use my $30 commercial substitution device which works 100% of the time for real time or recorded programming. In the meantime, please continue your efforts with this since nobody I know likes TV commercials.
Channels app cannot do this. You would be better suited looking for other options.
Some of us were probably thrown by you referring to what you want as commercial skipping -- which has a particular meaning to this community. I.E. jumping over a commercial as if it was never there. Only possible of course with recordings.
Commercial substitution or blocking, would be another thing. It's an interesting concept, and certainty preferable to watching commercials, but not part of Channels DVR.
Another way to look at it though, is you could watch the content that would be inserted during commercial breaks before watching a recording of a news show, and then watch the news once it's been processed for commercials.
Having said that, if you're happy with what you have, then why switch?