[mythtv-users] automating commercial removal

[Tom Metro]

In reading the instructions on the wiki on commercial removal:
http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Removing_Commercials

I see that in order to remove commercial automatically requires setting 
up a script:

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/Script_-_RemoveCommercials

As I understand it, the real reason a script is required for this 
operation is because the cutlist generated by mythcommflag is not 
honored by a transcode job normally launched from the UI.

Is there a good reason why the commflag cutlist isn't copied over to the 
main cutlist by default? Or at least have an option to do this.

I realize that most users don't bother with commercial removal, instead 
opting for the safer option of simply automatically skipping over them 
on playback, but in the event you do want to transcode a show, I would 
think that most of the time you'd want the commflag cutlist.

I'm wondering if the RemoveCommercials script could be paired down to a 
much smaller script that only handles the copying of the cutlist 
(mythcommflag --gencutlist). If so, and jobs run in the right order, it 
should be possible to set that up as a universal user job, and then use 
the regular facilities for commflagging and transcoding. But maybe 
ordering is the problem here...it would need to run after mythcommflag 
and before mythtranscode.

  -Tom