[mythtv-users] commercial skipping recorded shows

[Bruce Markey]

Craig Longman wrote:
> 
> there's been a lot of activity in this thread, but i still think my 
> original problem isn't being considered.  if i'm not mistaken, the main 
> thing that bruce is talking about still pertains only to watching 
> recordings (or livetv) while they're still being recorded.  whereas my 
> 'commecial skiping sucks' refers to watching the show long after 
> recording is complete.

Given that you are referring to seeing these problems after
the recording has finished, you're right, that hasn't been
addressed.

> are these two issues still related?

Quite possibly so.

>  i am definitely still seeing it, 
> three programs recorded today while i was out and all of them skip 
> wonderfully.  i watched one while it was recording yesterday and 
> skipping sucks on it (watching it again today).
> 
> anyway, seems like this problem doesn't bother anyone else, but i wanted 
> to point out where this all started.

I don't think this is usual behavior that everyone is seeing
which would explain why it doesn't seem to bother anyone else.

Here are some possible explanations that come to mind from 
more likely to less likely:

-) When watching while recording, the CPU is pegged causing the
file to have lots of missing frames and throwing off the timecodes
and frame rate. If this is the case, you would see the video 
speeding up and slowing down and possibly hear choppy audio. See:
http://www.mythtv.org/docs/mythtv-HOWTO-19.html#ss19.4 . Watch
"top" to see if your CPU idle time is near zero during playback
while recording.

-) mythbackend crashes, dies or is killed before the recording
ends. The seektable and blank frame info wouldn't be written 
and it would behave worse than watching while recording.

-) Your database schema doesn't have the 'recordedmarkup' table.
Unlikely. Commercial skips would suck for all pre-recorded.

-) Manual recording. The few times I tried this it didn't seem
to have the seek information after after it finished. I never
looked to see why.

The first seems most likely because if the CPU was busy but
keeping up while recording only, watching at the same time might
push it over the edge. Several people reported 'damaged' files
around the time of the 0.8 release if the CPU was pegged and/or
the MPEG4 quality setting where changed drastically.

--  bjm