Edit Commercials - mark all blocks as program

[chDVRuser]

Right now you have to click each block detected as an ad to toggle it.

I'm asking for a way to mark the whole recording as program material (no ads) without having to click every block detected as an ad to toggle it.

The reason for this is I would like to keep some recordings in Channels DVR (but with ads removed) instead of having to move them to local content imports and spending even more time fixing matches and editing metadata.

I use VideoRedo to remove the ads in the recorded file and save it as a .ts file, then rename the .ts file to .mpg and move it over the Channels DVR recorded file. Before I do this I mark the recording as having no ads using Edit Commercials. After replacing the recorded file I Refresh Metadata to pickup the new duration. This works fine, but requires a lot of clicking to mark a recording as having no ads.

[truckie36]

Would setting your recordings to not detect commercials accomplish what you are looking for?

[chDVRuser]

Unfortunately not.
I use comskip to create a project file (.VPrj) with time markers used by my video editor, VideoRedo.
The comskip log file is also useful to pinpoint the PTS timestamp where a recording interruption occurred.

[chDVRuser]

Now a lot less clicking, but not as easy as clicking a button or two.
Created a script I manually run after removing ads and replacing the original recorded file.
Of course this is based on current undocumented API's.

# Remove the commercial markers from Channels
POST /dvr/files/{FileID}/comskip/edit?source=local --data-raw "[]"

# Refresh metadata to update duration
PUT /dvr/files/{FileID}/reprocess

# Regenerate Video Index
PUT /dvr/files/{FileID}/m3u8

Posting the windows command file I'm using if anyone is interested.
I'm sure you could modify it for other OS's

I prompts you for the FileID of the recording, displays what you entered and prompts to continue doing the above API calls.
It will keep looping (until you don't enter a FileID) so you can process multiple recordings.
No error checking since I just wanted a quick and dirty script.

My DVR is at 192.168.1.4:8189, so just edit the IP:port to match yours.

marknocommercials.cmd

@ECHO OFF
:GETFID
SET _FILEID=
REM SET /P prompts user for input and assigns it to the variable _FILEID
SET /P _FILEID=Enter Recording's FileID, or press ENTER to cancel 
IF %_FILEID%.==. GOTO FINISHED
ECHO CTRL-C cancels, to process file '%_FILEID%'
PAUSE
ECHO Removing commercial markers from Channels
curl -XPOST "http://192.168.1.4:8189/dvr/files/%_FILEID%/comskip/edit?source=local" --data-raw "[]"
ECHO.
ECHO Refreshing Metadata
curl -XPUT "http://192.168.1.4:8189/dvr/files/%_FILEID%/reprocess"
ECHO.
ECHO Regenerating Video Index
curl -XPUT "http://192.168.1.4:8189/dvr/files/%_FILEID%/m3u8"
ECHO.
ECHO.
GOTO GETFID
:FINISHED
EXIT

[bnhf]

@chDVRuser

Created a script I manually run after removing ads and replacing the original recorded file.

I think I'll add a Bash version of this to OliveTin.

@chDVRuser would this also work for recordings I made on PBS and various premium channels (before I turned Comskip off on those channels)? I know I have some recordings I intend to keep, where "phantom" commercials were detected, and I'd love to clear away those incorrect detections.

[chDVRuser]

Yes, it will work for those older recordings.