Questions on Commercial Detection

Channels DVR Server
#1

For Commercial detection, I know I select between 1 and 3 cores. Performance doesn't seem to be an issue with my PC, but I'm wondering if I use more or less, does that affect the accuracy, or is it only speed? In other, if I select one core, and it takes longer, will that possibly mean it's more accurate?

I also really like verifying the commercials on my iphone. I find when I'm watching I show, I'll pull it up on my phone, and verify the commercials (this then updates in real time while playing on my tv) so I can make any adjustments.

#2

It only affects speed not accuracy.

#3

For me running Channels DVR on windows the commercial detection is very bad. Near 10% of the time it gets it right. So bad I can't use the automatic skip because it will either block off a ton of the show as commercials even when it's not or it doesn't detect the commercials at all and I have to advance it but if I have commercial skip on with detection on and I fast forward it, it then often skips to the end of the show so I have to rewind it back looking for the right spot anyway so I keep it off. About 1 out of maybe 10 will get marked right which is way to low to be useful. Accurate commercial detection is something I really miss from my Tivo but I realize that Tivo detection was done by humans so it was nearly always perfect. I just wished that if nothing else there was a way to change the commercial detection settings on Windows easily with a GUI interface that you could just switch settings around to try to get the detection better. I have gone in on the settings page and manually changed the detection after the fact as described here but I'm recording like 15 to 25 or more shows a day so even if it was easy to be able to tell and adjust the detected commercials and it's not because it's not just a slider that you can adjust where the commercial is and save it you have to just click on certain ones that you think it's the closest to being right based on thumbnail views of it and doing it 25 times each day would be a full time job and I already have one of those. Maybe one day someone will come up with a better why of detecting commercials where it will be much more accurate. Till then it's full manual mode for me when using Channels DVR.

#4

Have you looked at VideoReDo? Before Tivo had humans clipping commercials I would use that product.

#5

But like I said having 25 or so shows every day having to use another program is way more time consuming than it's worth and it's not like I'm saving them to keep and re-watch. I watch and then delete the shows. If it's way better at detection of commercials then the current built in one of Channels DVR then hopefully it will get put in it at some point as a replacement for the current one.

#6

You get skip mode on 25 shows a day from TiVo?
That's more than I record in 2 weeks and I still have a couple Lifetime TiVo's I use as a backup for Channels DVR for the few things in a year I want to make sure are recorded no matter what happens with AC power/Internet/HDHomeRuns, etc.

#7

Never said anything about how many Tivo shows I recorded a day but yes I used to when I was using it. But not all shows were always marked for commercials but at least you knew it wasn't before starting the recording. Tivo had about 80% of them with commercial skip enabled. I sold it 6 months ago with lifetime on it on ebay before it was considered obsolete and it was still worth something. Hence the reason I'm now using Channels DVR.

#8

What channels are you recording? I find it very accurate on regular network shows. And I think the way the networks place their commercials, there is enough of a break between show and commercial it can detect. Cable channels are a different story. Trying to make it so you can’t tell the difference between the show and the commercial.

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#10

Have to agree.
I don't remember any recordings that had program material marked as commercial.
Usually find it erring on the side of leaving commercials in.

The shows/movies I have Channels DVR comskip are the ones I use VideoReDo on to remove the commercials and save them for later viewing.

I find the Channels DVR comskip well balanced, it will never be perfect and results vary by network.
I like the fact it may leave in some ads instead of skipping program material (Skip/FFWD button helps).
I can always fine tune the markers with VideoReDo for those I want to save.
Some people using PlayOn swear it's commercial detect is 100% accurate, but so do some people using TiVo skip mode.

#11

Tivo is 100% but not all shows have commercial skip on it. Tivo is 100% because like I said earlier it has humans marking all of the commercials. I have read many who think the commercial skip on Channels DVR is good but people are using many different platforms to do it and I have to believe that it must make a huge difference because like I said with me it is wrong most of the time. And if you enable it to auto skip it will many times skip the show just like the example I gave above where it marks the whole end of like 12 minutes as all commercials on the ABC Evening News. But going by what others have said I'm guessing comm skip is better on some devices running the server than others like mine and to my original point which was I wish I could just be able to go in and mess with the settings of the program that Channels DVR commercial skip uses but there is no way to on my Windows 10. It has no interface gui front end. I'm so happy that many people have it working so well but the problem is that it doesn't work for me most of the time so I was just suggesting that maybe add in a gui in the windows version so the people who were having problems with it could try different settings to see if they could get it working much better like the rest of you.

#13

comskip results will vary by network and show.
Channels DVR devices (clients) all have their quirks when playing back.
I don't use a Channels client device, just the DVR.

If you have issues and like Channels DVR, raise the issue and submit diagnostics.
You can "tune" the comskip that Channels DVR uses, but it's not for the feint of heart and not a simple GUI/switch.

comskip was not developed by the Channels DVR developers.
http://www.kaashoek.com/comskip/

#14

I know you are trying to help but unfortunately we aren't talking about the same things. Never said anything about clients. The comm skip error detection is not done on the clients it's done on the server which for me is Windows 10 and I have noticed commercials breaks with a show that comes back for less than like a minute and a half never sees it has come back and marks it all as commercials even though it isn't. Again all I said is I wished we had a way to edit the commercial skip on Windows 10 since it would be easy to do it on that server platform. It was a wish for someone having problems with it not detecting commercials right. But until or if it doesn't happen I will and do just do all the skipping manually. And the one you are talking about Channels DVR won't use it. I have downloaded it and put it in the same folder as the one Channels has there's in and even moved the channels app out of the folder and channels doesn't even see the program at all and disabled comm skip so even though you can download a gui version it's not compatible with Channels DVR unfortunately.

#15

Why would you replace the Comskip that comes with Channels DVR with yours when ChannelsDVR uses the donator version. What you have to do is supply your own INI file.

On Windows 10 your own INI goes here C:\ProgramData\ChannelsDVR\data

#16

Because the one in channels has no gui but the newer one on github does have a gui option is why. If I change the settings on the comm skip program channels doesn't read the ini file it creates it just ignores it so I also tried just replacing comm skip in Channels with the one that let me use a gui to edit it but then it doesn't use it at all. So another words it won't let me edit the one that Channels uses it says it can't open the ini file and the one the github creates is ignored by channels

#17

Supply your own like I posted above ... Copy over the INI after you have edited with the gui. It is that simple.

#18

Then what are you playing the recordings with???

True

Viewing with what Channels client?

You can do that with the DVR web UI, that's all they have right now. Otherwise tune it's comskip.ini file

I think you're talking about VideoReDo?
That's a Windows video editing program.

#19

Again if I supply my own ini file Channels just ignores it. Anyway I want a way to edit the ini on Channels with a gui because I'm not a computer programmer so trying to go though the code in ini file that channels has means nothing to me hence why I suggested a gui to edit the comm skip settings.

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#20

If you copy it over the DATA directory like I posted above it will not ignore it.

On Windows 10 your own INI goes here C:\ProgramData\ChannelsDVR\data

You just have to make sure that you keep these settings in your ini ...

use_existing_logo_file=0
logo_fraction=0.39
delete_logo_file=1
output_vdr=1
output_edl=1
output_ffmeta=1
output_ffsplit=1
thread_count=1

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#21

I give up, too many cooks in the kitchen
I think when D7789nnm says GUI, he means an easy way to edit the comskip results that Channels DVR uses in a more intuitive WYSIWYG way and doesn't understand it's only a GUI editor for a comskip.ini file -- just my thoughts.

#22

Lol no I've never used VideoReDo. I recorded way to many shows to run them all though an outside program. Try it and you will see that the ini that Channels created for comm skip can't be opened by the program from github with the same name. And Channels won't use the one I created from the github version. Download it and you will see the 2 are completely different sized programs and file dates are a year or 2 apart. I don't know if it's the reason why it can't use each others ii but if you download it you will see what I'm talking about.