[mythtv] PATCH: Commercial detection/skip using blank frames

[JC]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your efforts on this.  I think it's gonna work.  Here's a few
comments for your reference:

1) On my PIII-800 (512mb RAM), it takes about 4 seconds per minute to "find"
the end of the commercial.  This means that for the first 4 minute
commercial in Joe Millionaire it took about 16 seconds to skip through the
commercial.  That sure seems like a long time when you're staring at a blank
screen. ;-)  I know you're working on speeding it up, but here's another
idea to make the wait more bearable... How about progress messages on-screen
while we're waiting?  Give us something to look at.  Maybe:  "Skipping
Commercials: 30 sec, 30 sec, 60 sec, 60 sec "  Bing! We're done.  Kinda
makes us feel like it's not off in lala land.

2) On the first CVS I downloaded earlier tonight I applied your patch and
saw a "switch" to toggle auto detection on/off.  In the latest (1 a.m.today)
CVS version, that seems to be gone.  Is that right?  Will you be able to
make it a manual (z key) only thing or will it always be on?

3) Final question... When does it start "looking" for commercials?  I
started playback of a show, fast fwded to the first commercial, backed up 10
seconds and hit play to watch it in action and it slept right through the
fade to black (and it was a long one too).  Does that mean auto-detect isn't
turned on or that it just missed it.  I tried other shows & spots and it
never auto detected, I had to hit Z to get it to take off.

Thanks and keep up the good work.

JC


----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Pinkham" <cpinkham at bc2va.org>
To: <mythtv-dev at snowman.net>
Sent: Friday, February 21, 2003 1:54 PM
Subject: Re: [mythtv] PATCH: Commercial detection/skip using blank frames


> > How long does an average commercial skip take?
>
> I didn't check my watch but I think they were just 3-4 seconds at
> the most on my Athlon 700 with video stored over NFS which slows
> seeking I would assume.  You would think it would be faster, but I
> believe it's being slowed down by the requirement to turn on exactseeks
> before seeking since the code needs to use exact frames so it can know
> where it is in the stream and where to look for commercials.
>
> Give it a shot on your system, if you don't like it back the patch out.
> Even with the patch, unless you hit 'Z' or turn on auto-skip, then nothing
> new gets executed.
>
> Chris
>
>
****************************************************************************
*
> ** Chris Pinkham                  Linux v2.2.18, Sane v1.0.4, Cajun v3.0-8
**
> ** cpinkham at bc2va.org                          http://www.bc2va.org/chris/
**
>
****************************************************************************
*
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-dev mailing list
> mythtv-dev at snowman.net
> http://www.snowman.net/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-dev
>
>