[mythtv-users] Commercial Detection

[Michael T. Dean]

On 04/17/2015 09:14 AM, Will Dormann wrote:
> On 4/17/15 8:59 AM, Gerald Brandt wrote:
>> How good is commercial detection in .27 fixes?  I'm thinking of
>> automatically skipping commercials (currently, I manually fast
>> forward).  Are there any special setting I need to look out for?
> Turn it on and see?   The commercials are still there in the recording,
> so there's no risk.   It works quite well for me.

Really, though, you're probably better off--whether the detection is 
great or terrible--manually skipping the break with the SKIPCOMMERCIAL 
(by default, Z or End) key and then if it says something completely 
wrong, like, "Skipped 16:14", using SKIPCOMMBACK (by default, Q or Home) 
to go back to where you were when you first skipped.  This coupled with 
your skip and jump keys allows you to find the end of the break much 
faster than using fast forward.  Or, if detection is very bad--such that 
you would almost always need to use SKIPCOMMBACK--just use your skip and 
jump keys rather than fast forward.  I have my jump set to 3min and my 
skip forward to 30s with skip back at 15s, so I can generally skip any 
commercial break with jump forward + one to three skip forwards and one 
skip back (just to get to right before the break ended).

For me commercial detection is very good (much greater than 90% on most 
shows on most networks, I'd say), but I still use, "Notify, but do not 
skip" rather than, "Automatically Skip".  IMHO, "Automatically Skip" 
actually makes following the show more difficult--especially if 
commercial detection is good--because the show tends to wind down before 
the break, then wind back up after the break, and if you don't know 
there was supposed to be a break there, it feels wrong.  Even when I cut 
commercials (and even on the well-done commercial-free sources, like DVD 
and BluRay), I leave a few blank frames between the 2 parts to help with 
the flow.

Mike