[mythtv-users] commercial flagging questions

[Brad DerManouelian]

bungle wrote:
> Two prefacing statements: Until last fall I used Windows/GB-PVR, which may
> color my expectations, and I did search the list archives, so chide my
> search capabilities, not my non-searchiness.
>
> Specs: Kubuntu 7.10, myth .21, X2 3800, 2G ram, 6150
>
> 1. How long should I expect commflagging to take?  I have "all methods"
> enabled.  Comskip (used by GB-PVR and others) consistently took about 4
> minutes on a 1 hours show, same hardware (generally pegging 1 core), and
> uses more detection methods.  Detection was at least as good.  Commflag took
> about 30 minutes for a 1-hours show last night, though it seemed to run at
> about 20-25% (guessing half of one core due to nice?).  I saw at least one
> post that indicated it should be a bit faster than that, but I don't know on
> what hardware.  hdparm shows good speed.  If others are getting much better
> times, then I'll look for something external to Myth.  (I realize it can run
> real-time, but for now I want to resolve this question.)
>   
Allow your jobs to use more processor if you want it to use more 
processor. There's an option in mtyhtv-setup. I believe the default is 
"Low" which is what you're seeing. You can choose to peg your processor 
if you like. :) Commflagging generally happens realtime for me on an 
AMD64 X2 4200+. About a minute after the program finishes, the commflag 
job is done.
> 2. Is there any way to see the commercial breaks without editing the
> recording and loading the breaks as a cutlist (Z)?  (Did I characterize that
> right?)  Doing so seems to change the behavior, notably it seems to autoskip
> even with autoskip off.  My search for an OSD with commercial breaks turned
> up "yeah, that'd be cool".  Yup.  Mostly I am interested in this because of
> #3:
>   
Coorect. Not implemented to show commflags in the OSD. You're right - it 
would be cool. :)
> 3. It looks like the only commercial-skipping keys are Z and Q, and they
> always jump even if the position is nowhere near a commercial.  My wife (and
> thus I) had a problem the other day because she skipped at a commercial, and
> it jumped 15 minutes or so.  What happened was that first break was not
> marked, so it jumped to the next break further into the show.  I have found
> somewhat of a solution in turning the auto-notify on with the blue osd. 
> However, now we have to watch for the popup, and if there's no commercial
> use one key (right) to jump, and use another (Z) if there is a break.  I
> find mvpmc's skipping more natural: skip right is a 30-second skip, unless
> the position is within a commercial break, and then the whole break is
> skipped.  With that one just has to know "jab this button until commercials
> go away".  Assuming the keyboard reference on the wiki is complete, I'm
> guessing this is not possible?  I also did not see any setup options.
>   
I generally use a combination of 4 keys to skip through programs. 
Advance goes ahead 30 seconds - no matter what. Replay goes back 5 
seconds - no matter what. Skip+ goes to the next commflag point (either 
beginning of the next or end of the current), Skip- goes to the previous 
commflag point (either end of the last or beginning of the current).

I also use auto-skip so I generally never touch the remote when watching 
a program and I don't see any commercials at all. If it skips ahead too 
much (as it does sometimes), I grab the remote, hit Skip- and it will go 
back to where the big bad skip happened and start playing video 
normally. If there is a commercial in there somewhere, I Skip+ and it 
goes to the end and I continue watching.

My 10 year old doesn't really get this concept, so if something skips 
too much or not enough, she just uses the Advance and Replay keys to go 
forward and back as needed until she's at the right place.

-Brad