Padding around automatic commercial skip to confirm it's actually a commercial break

Channels DVR Server Feature Requests
#1

I'm a big fan of Channel's commercial detection via comskip. Since the breaks are usually detetcted pretty well, I recently switched commercial skip over to "automatic" mode to give it a try.

I was hoping there would be a setting to delay the automatic skip by a second or two so you'd be able to confirm the commercial was detected properly (and didn't accidentally flag part of the show). Similarly, at the end of the "commercial break", have it play a second or two at the end of the section flagged as a commercial.

I'm envisioning an option (that defaults to zero so it behaves like it does today) to adjust the intro/outro padding, in seconds. This could be implemented like the "Padding" dropdowns in the "Recordings & Passes" section in Settings.

(In MythTV, which I used for for over a decade, automatic commercial skip would show a timer that said something like "Skipping commercial in 3... 2... 1..." and pressing any key on the remote would abort the skip.)

1 Like
#2

Big +1 from me on this feature request. I know that comskip accuracy is not perfect and Channels cannot do much about it but I've spent so much time scrolling back after I suspected that a skip started too early. This feature would be welcome.

#3

You should click the Vote button in the top-left corner. :smile:

#4

I'll vote for this, but I'd also like the capability to "unpad" by a few seconds or milliseconds. My use-case is this:
I use the vprj files to feed VideoRedo to cut/re-encode shows for playback on other devices while I travel. I always find myself moving the BEGINNING cut points a few milliseconds earlier, and the ENDING cut points a few milliseconds later, to remove the very tip of the first and last commercial.

So... If this is implemented, I suggest the following:

  1. Have a different value possible for the beginning cut point, and the ending cut point.
  2. Allow settings values less than a second, like milliseconds, or decimal seconds.
  3. Allow both positive numbers, and negative numbers, to satisfy those who want to see the padding, and also to satisfy those of us who don't want to see the padding.
#5

I'd like to see this as well, but have padding for each channel. My local FOX station cuts out a second or two before the scene ends and comes back in a second or two too late after the commercial. Whereas CBS is a half second either side.

#6

Or... A different padding for each show, like the "Pass" functionality.