hi
How can I remove the commercial breaks in my recorded videos?
When does mythtv applying the commercial break search? When it is recording or via cron-jobs?
Works the commercial break with Live! TV?


Thanks a lot,
René

You have to transcode the files in order to remove the breaks. The search for commercials is done after recording is complete. It doesn't quite work when watching live TV.

cesman

I guess that I must be overlooking something, but I just cannot get transcode to remove the commercial from any of my recordings.

This is what I've been doing:

Start playing a recording
Press 'e' to pull up the edit bar
Press 'z' to load commercial detect marks
Adjust cut points where necessary
Press 'e' again to get out of the edit bar (couldn't press 'x' while in it)
Press 'x' to start transcoding
Press 'esc' to get out of play mode

Transcoding then runs to completion, but the resultant file still has the same size and commercials. When at the Play selection screen, the file now does not show the commercial detect list (ala the $ with the slash through it) nor does it show the cut list (ala the scissors). These were shown for the program upon exiting play mode via 'esc'

I'm stumped. I've tried searching here and the mailing list and can't seem to see what's going wrong...

Running KnoppMyth v4

I myself have not useud Myth's internal transcode. In the past, I've used nuvexport which will read a cutlist and export to various formats.

_________________
cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

Well, I can now use the above sequence to remove commercial where previously I could not. I turned off automatic transcoding and changed from mpeg4 to rtjpeg for capture. I then edit the cut points and transcode to mpeg4 (by press 'x'). Commercial disappear!

Previously, I was capturing with mpeg4 with automatic transcoding then editing the cut list and trying to retranscode to mpeg4 without the commercials and it did not work. I'm unsure if it was the automatic transcoding after capture that was causing the problems or if somehow changing from mpeg4->mpeg4 to rtjpeg->mpeg4 solved the problem.

I'll do a little more testing to narrow it down. Perhaps this information may prove useful for any others that might be having the same type problems.

Thanks Xsecrets for the tips ....

no problem. That may be something to send over to the mythtv mailing list, so they can correct the problem wherever it lies.

I find this confusing.

The docs don't match the setup program as to how to get automatic transcoding running.

I have a Transcoders->Rtjpeg/MPEG4 profile, that is marked "Automatically transcode after recording"

I also have Software Encoders (V4l based) -> Default that also says "Automatically transcode after recording"

My default uses the RTjpeg codec.

So what am I transcoding to?!?


At this time, I am interested in saving disk space. 2 hours shows up at 8-10G. Can I do better, transcoding RTjpeg to MPEG4?


I think you are right. it needs to be sent over to the mythtv dev list, and see if they can clean up the docs a bit, at least.

ok there are several different things being talked about here. First automatic transcoding is turned on from the setup menu in mythtv setup>general and choose the automatic transcode option.

Now for how it transcodes. there are recording profiles. If you just have a v41 card you will have several profiles under v4l high/low/etc you can choose from these when setting up a recording in the advanced menu. Then you will have v4l transcoding profiles. this is the profile that will be used when transcoding. also if automatically remove comercials is chosen it will remove the comercials as it transcodes. for example you have low quality set for rtjpeg 480x480 and transcode set to mpeg4 480x480 it will record in rtjpeg and imediately start transcoding it to mpeg4 then remove the old file when it's done.

The problem that the other person seemed to be having was setting both the v4l recording and the transcode seting to mpeg4 it didn't take the comercials out.

Is it possible to define the cut list for commercials using MythTV and just cut the commercials but leave the resulting file in MPEG2 format?

Not from within MythTV it's not. If you make your cutlist, then use the latest version of nuvexport, it will make a cuts-only MPEG2 file. Check the wiki for info on how to set up nuvexport properly to enable this.

You could also use the commercial_cut program I wrote and put on the wiki.It has no dependencies.

Greg,

Will it work on MPEG2-TS (OTA HD) streams also ? Also how do I make a cutlist ? My recordings are flagged for commercials and when I play them from myth, it skips them.

Is commercial flagging enogh for commercial_cut to take the original .TS file and create a new .TS file sans commercials ?

I'm still newbee in myth and confused about cutlist etc etc.

Thanks
Mudit

the commercial skip does create a cut list for you, though you may want to double check it from the edit screen before you go letting it blindly get cut out of the file, as many time the comm skip for me still cuts out more than half of some shows.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets

Thanks Xsecrets. But I'm still confused how is the cutlist created in first place ? Can I save the cutlist and then feed it to some program which will create a new mpeg2-TS minus the commercials ?

Thanks
Mudit

the cutlist is created by the commercial flag process. and if you use the aforementioned utility you will just setup an automatic transcoder, or better yet just edit the cutlist as specified earlier in this thread cause it may eat much of your show otherwise and start the transcode process by hitting X. I am not sure where the cutlist is stored, but you can obviously sent it to an external script as nuvexport can use it if you tell it to. but in the case of the aformentioned program/script/plugin (whatever you want to call it) it integrates directly into mythtv and takes the place of the normal mythtranscode (at least from the way I understand it.) maybe you should read the wiki page he mentioned.

_________________
Have a question search the forum and have a look at the KnoppMythWiki.

Xsecrets