[mythtv] Commercial replacement instead of skipping

[Craig Boline]

Would either of these concepts solve the issue -

1: There could be a way to play mythvideo items, and prior recordings though picture in picture - then switch back when the commercial is over.

2: Same sort of idea as above, except the commercial flagger switches back when it finds the end of the commercial. For example - you are watching mythbusters... a commercial shows up and you hit a button on the remote and start watching your other content.  Then the commercial flagger follows behind. As soon as it logs a commercial (begin and end), Mythfrontend notices and asks if you would like to switch back to your mythbusters.  This continues, when a commercial shows up - hit the button - continue where you left off on your alternative content - switch back... 

Thanks,
Craig.


On Tue, 27 Feb 2007 15:23:55 -0800, Brad DerManouelian <myth at dermanouelian.com> wrote:
> On Feb 27, 2007, at 3:14 PM, Peter Schachte wrote:
>
>> Brad DerManouelian wrote:
>>> On Feb 27, 2007, at 1:00 PM, Hal Lightwood wrote:
>>>> Hi Brad,  thanks for the reply.  Watching LiveTV with a 15 minute
>>>> delay isn't too bad, but do you think we could alter commflag so
>>>> that it could replace the commercials instead of skip them?  If
>>>> commflag takes alot of CPU we'll just make sure we have a very fast
>>>> computer so it can do it quickly.  What do you think?
>>>
>>> I don't see the use case here. If you watch the program delayed
>>> enough for the commflagger to do its job, there is no time to watch
>>> something else. It just skips right to the next scene of your
>>> program.
>>
>> I think Hal's point is that by *replacing* commercials with some other
>> equal-length programming while watching, and assuming the
>> commflagger could run
>> at real-time speed, you would be in a steady state.  So you
>> wouldn't have to be
>> 8 minutes ahead for every 30 minutes of program, you'd just have to
>> be far
>> enough ahead for the commflagger's output to be available.
>> Essentially, as I
>> understand the OP, you'd just be watching slightly delayed from
>> real time, and
>> when a commercial came on, rather than skipping over it, myth would
>> show some
>> other programming until the commercial finished.
>>
>> Sounds like a good idea to me.  It would make watching live TV much
>> more
>> palatable if you could be watching some other recording during the
>> commercials.
>>  But I don't think many myth users, and particularly myth
>> developers, use live
>> TV much, so I don't think anyone will be rushing to implement it.
>>
>> Hal, I would suggest adding this to the feature wishlist on the
>> myth wiki.
>> Probably
>> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Feature_Wishlist_%
>> 28Frontend_Addons%29#LiveTV_.2F_View_Recording
>>
>> would be the most appropriate place.
>
> I understand his intent, I just don't understand how it would even
> possibly be implemented considering the fact that the comm flagger
> takes into account both what it sees at the start and end of a
> commercial break to determine if it's a valid commercial break. If
> you run it real-time, there's no end yet, so it would never tell you
> there is a commercial until it was over. Even if you could somehow
> predict that your commercial start flag is valid without seeing the
> end of the commercial, you'd then need a way to pick what to watch
> while the commercial was playing. Seems like a whole lot of work just
> to avoid not waiting a little while longer to watch your program.
>
> I guess I'm just confused why people still insist on letting program
> directors control their personal time. I don't even think about what
> time programs are on any more. I just watch when I feel like it.
>
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