[mythtv] alternative method for commercial skipping

[Ben Bucksch]

Marc Kessels wrote:

> All channels are so kind to display a logo/icon in a corner of the 
> screen when a program is showing, but not when the commercials are on...

I think it is generally the same here by now (unfortunately), but I 
don't think you can rely on it. I hope there are still stations which 
don't employ that "corporate graffiti", and there may be some shows 
which don't have the logo, and it would be very confusing to not record 
them or "skip" them.

But another method might work, at least here in Germany: Stations are 
required to separate advertizing and programme, and they do that by 
displaying their logo / clip / corporate art in full-screen before or 
after the ads for some seconds. It's not the same logo/clip all the 
time, but I think they have a limited set, changing from time to time. 
You could just compare, if one of the known logo frames matches the 
current frame, similar to the blank frame comparison. A slight bonus is 
that I think the logo at the begining and end differs, so it's easier to 
see where it starts and ends.

A small problem is that some stations sometimes show one ad at the 
beginning in 80% of the space and their corporate art in the remaining 
"frame" around the ad, but that should also be solveable with additional 
code, if somebody cares. I think some stations sometimes even just show 
one ad full screen before the logo and real ad block, but I that's only 
one short one (10 seconds or so) and probably borderline legal for them 
anyways.

> So I am afraid that the hard part is located in part 1 (at least too 
> hard for me).... But another option would be to do this part manually 
> and put the images and position on a website so that other users can 
> grab the info from there. (just like the EPG) 

Yes, I think that's a good option.

If you want to go with that fullscreen logo route (not sure, if your 
stations also do that), you could let the user hit a key when he sees 
that ad-start and end and then just store that frame for that station.