Let's say a recording has an initial file saved date of 11-18 at 7 p.m. The next day, I go in and manually mark commercials, which was intended to change the composition of the recording. However, the file save date and time is unchanged. When I watch the file in Channels DVR, the commercials that I manually marked to not be included in the recording are still there.
Why are the edits to the movie not resulting in a new file with a new file saved date?
The recordings are not changed. You are just modifying the EDL and what ever Channels use for comskip markers.
The commercial markers are saved in Channels' database. When you make edits to the commercials, it is only Channels' internal data that is modified.
The recording that Channels makes is always the full stream it receives. It does not modify the incoming data in any way. Commercial markers are extra to the recording, not part of the recording.
Does MCEBuddy work off the file as originally saved without my later marked commercials? How does it know I later marked the commercials? I have it pointed to the directory where the file was originally saved.
You would need to enable either MCEBuddy or EDL export options in the DVR webUI. Then the appropriate files are saved beside the recording, and updated according to Channels' database.