[mythtv-users] skip commercials?

James Orr james at orrwhat.net
Tue Dec 14 22:21:52 UTC 2004


On Mon, 2004-12-13 at 20:29, Phill Edwards wrote:
> >Is it possible to skip recording of commercials?  I'm interested in
> >purchasing a PVR-250/350; is this device capable?
> >
> >How do devices that support this feature detect commercials?  I wonder
> >if it has something to do with the rating system -- I think I noticed
> >my Radeon 9700 AIW (in Windows) display the rating before and after
> >commercials.  It's been a long time since I've used it though.
> 
> The commercial detection algorithms are built into MythTV not the capture 
> card. When the program has finished recording I believe a program runs over 
> it which flags the commercials. This is based on things like detecting blank 
> frames, scene changes and stuff like that. It's not based on displaying the 
> rating.
> 
> Then when you watch it it either pops up a commercial detected message on 
> screen or skips it automatically, depending on your preferences. In 
> Australia a few of us have been having problems with the accuracy of the 
> commercial detection so I don't have auto-skip set.

The accuracy of commerical detection can very wildly from channel to
channel and show to show.  I find it usually works very well on sporting
events which tend not to have a lot of scene changes and dark lighting,
when watching sports i'll usually go into the on-screen menu during
playback and set it to auto-skip (which just sets it for the current
viewing).  Something like Law & Order I usually have to jump back a few
seconds as it usually picks up one of the black screens with the "Trial
Part nn" and the tung-tung sound as the end of the commercials.

Also if you're having some bad weather it will mess it up.  When the
network affiliates put up the advisory maps they're on the screen
constantly, so there's never a completely black frame.

-- 
James Orr <james at orrwhat.net>



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