TVE Commercials

Channels does not insert commercials. They are inserted by the website/network.

(Just because it is only occurring on recordings does not necessarily mean the problem is Channels. Channels only records what it is given; the error is that the network is adding extra "commercials" in the feed.)

And while I'm watching it on the website during a commercial, I duplicate the browser tab and watch in the other tab and it's back to the show there, while the original tab is playing ads.

Definitely an issue with the website feeds.

I don't think 'Channels' is actually inserting the commercials, but they are recording more from the TVE source, than what the TVE source is presenting to Channels when the viewer watches the show 'live'. Somehow, the Channels recording process is picking up 'commercial' content that isn't shown when watching what is being recorded, live.

Has anyone from Channels done a compare by recording a program from TVE, while at the same time, watch it live, then go back and watch the recording to see what is happening? This just started in the last day.

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I see it on their website using a browser, which is where Channels gets the feed from.
That rules out Channels.

Watched on the Discovery Go website in a browser
Started watching Lakefront Bargain Hunt: Renovation - S03E09 about 10:50am, guide shows airing 10:00-11:00am
At 11:11:21 Lakefront Bargain Hunt: Renovation - S01E05 started, guide shows airing 11:00-12:00
Quit watching, but figure it would keep slipping later and later thoughout the day.

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Hope the devs can figure out what’s going on quickly. There are going to be a ton of upset people very soon when their recordings are borked. @maddox @tmm1

I noticed that if I go to the guide and select a non-OTA program, the program will play but when the 'commercial break' message appears, if I wait a few minutes, actual commercials will start playing. if I wait for the commercials to end, you go back to the program. If you do this, the program ends 10-15 minutes later than it was scheduled to end. BUT, if after the 'commercial break' message appears, and after a few minutes, an actual commercials will start. If I back out of the program so you go back to the guide, than select the program again, the program will resume, by-passing the commercial.

I tried this on programs from Fox News and HGTV.

When you select a program from the guide to watch, doesn't Channels start recording the program in the background? If this is the case, it explains the extra commercials in the recordings. Sounds like TVE isn't embedding the 'actual commercials in programing correctly.

Yes. Channels gets the feed from the website. That's what I was talking about.

No, it's not like a TiVo.

I just added 30 minutes extra padding to all TVE recordings until it's fixed.
But will still have the issue with recordings that are back-back on the same channel, since the connection is kept open and shared until the last back-back recording completes.

What I noticed were the commercials that are now included in the live programs. Before this weekend, channels like Fox News would go to a "station break" feed for 3-4 minutes. They might slip in 1 or 2 pharmaceutical commercials during each break and then go back to their live feed. I would assume that any recorded programs would have the same commercials as the live feed. However, if I watch Fox News on the spectrum app, I get the same commercial feed as my wife gets on her Spectrum DVR. The App feed must be different than the TVE feed.

They are from different sources. About TV Everywhere-Knowledge Base

Here's an example.
Watching Discovery Go Magnolia channel in a web browser in three separate browser tabs.
Tab 1


Tab 2

Tab 3

If you're watching in a web browser like this, when it transitions from the static "Commercial break in progress" image to a real commercial, just refresh your browser and you'll be back to the show.
I think that's because it reloads the master playlist.

Not sure how to fix Channels though.

Please let us know if the behavior is any different in the latest pre-release.

I'm here for the same problem and was watching Fox news and it was delayed when I saw your post about the new software. After it installed it started back at the correct time for the current show and I paused it for about 15 minutes when the first commercial break started. When I resumed I pressed the 30 second skip about 9-10 times to get by the Commercial break in progress banner and then I had to press the skip button about another 9-10 times again to get back to the show because it showed an equal amount of commercials and the time is off by about 5 minutes.

This is the same problem I've had since yesterday and it appears to be cumulative. The commercial break screen is followed by actual commercials and the recordings are all hosed.

Still not working on v2025.01.08.2201
I ran two test recordings of the same 1 hour show episode on the same network using two of my servers. Magnolia channel Restoring Galveston-S07E08-Family Beach Bungalow
Both started recording at the same time (5pm). One from my HDHR Prime, the second from TVE.
I measured the duration of the show episode (including recorded ads) from the first frame of the episode to the last frame of the credits.
3601.23 seconds (01:00:01.23) HDHR including 1201.28 seconds (20:01.28) Commercials
4788.95 seconds (01:19:48.95) TVE including 2389 seconds (39:49) Commercials

So it pretty much doubled the included commercial length in the TVE recording.

I can email the debug recording log (7.53 MB, 589 KB zipped) to support if you want it.

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Whomever supports TVE, must have fixed the commercial problem, because this morning (1/9) Fox News seems to be working correctly. Back to getting the 'Commercial Break' notice, then returns back to the regular program. Not getting the extra commercials we were getting yesterday. Running a test on a HGTV to see if that is also fixed.

Looks good today here on Destination America, FYI, IFC, Magnolia, NatGeo and Sundance.

@jgpeacock Is it back to normal for you now?

Good evening, all appears back to normal here. It appears that TVE providers were possibly doing some testing those few days. Nothing to do with CHDVR.

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