MCEBuddy and Comskip -- Removes commercials from TV recordings -- Anyone using it?

I am in the process of trying to automatically remove all commercials from my TV recordings.  I want to do it in such a way as to minimize human involvement.  I have purchased (well, donated technically) 2 apps to do this.  MCE Buddy and Comskip.  MCEBuddy actually uses Comskip within it’s app to do the commercial removal from the TS files.  It works well for what it does, but the Comskip is either removing too much or too little.  There are ini files that can be adjusted, but it seems there isn’t any standard ini file that works on all recorded content.  New to this, I am still learning, but it seems there are adjustments needed base on what network the content came from, what country, the quality of the recording, and just a whole slew of other factors.  What this means is, most likely some commercials will be skipped, some will be played, some will take out good content along with the commercial and others will leave bits of the commercials.


So, I am just wondering if anyone is using this here and if so, have you worked out good ini files for Comskip, or not.  

-Rodger

I have used MCEBuddy w/ Comskip and run into exactly the same issues you describe.  Broadcasters probably intentionally vary their ‘style’ of commercials in order to thwart this type of editing.  I don’t think you’ll find a ‘one size fits all’ .ini.  I gave up and just resigned myself to fast forwarding thru commercials. 

There is no automated software I know of that gets commercial skips perfect 100% of the time. Everyone I’ve tried has issues and I end up manually modifying the cut list.

At this point I’m just going to use AVIdemux and cut them out mnaullay.

I’ve edited a few already with different programs just to see the time it takes.  Avidemux works pretty well, but it’s a bit clunky and finicky about i-frames at cut-in points.  Another one I’m trying comes from Solveig Multimedia, called Video Splitter.  It’s not free, but it has a nicer interface and works a bit easier (no i-frames to worry about).  I’ve posted a few places about editing the comskip ini file, but have yet to hear anything other than here.  Fully automated is what I want, fully manual isn’t going to be much fun.


-Rodger

As I reported on the SurLaTablo thread, I do plan to develop a commercial removal tool.  Something that presents a series of segments with previews and allows you to pick the ones to keep and the ones to toss (it will auto select ones the software believes should stay).  No ETA on the tool yet.  SurLaTablo currently support automatic commercial removal (with flaws).  And soon will have two algorithms to choose from (both with flaws).


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Funny how my mind works.  Every time I see “commercial” I think of commercial work.  As a contractor, that is some of what I do and I guess it’s embedded in my thinker pretty deep.  Sounds interesting.  Maybe I will have setup and used your SurLaTablo (what does that mean anyways) before then so I will be all set to try it.


-Rodger

“sur la tablo” - means, either “on the Tablo” (accurate) or can mean “off the Tablo” (also accurate)

Somebody that knows French (Oh Canada!) can confirm that interpretation though…

I see.  Don’t know French myself, so I’ll believe ya.  I think tablo has another meaning too I’ll bet.


-Rodger

Strictly speaking it would translate to “on the Tablo”, assuming Tablo would be a feminine object, like a table for example.


“Off the tablo” would not translate as easily, as it is a complex action in french with no shortening as would happen in english.

Can confirm @Luker is correct on the translation. 


Although you could maybe say “Hors le Tablo.” 
Funny how inanimate objects can become gender specific in the French language.  It would be nice to have a second language.  But, as my heritage is Scandinavian, principally Finnish, I don't think I want to learn that language -- Way to tough.
 
-Rodger 

Actually gender for inanimate objects exists in quite a few language, only English is the exception for the Indo-European ones.  Other languages, like Russian for example, have feminine, masculine and neuter genders for nouns.

Yeah, I guess a fella has to be careful over in some of those places which table he sits at, huh?  “Oops, my mistake there a fella sorta, thought I was setting at the regular guys table”!


-Rodger

Sur La Tablo is apparently “correct” Esperanto So that’s what I really meant.

sur la tablo although not proper french means on the table.

Go go gadget thread resurrect! In my little world I’m still going to say it means “on the Tablo” :slight_smile:

I use this one to manually edit commercials. Check this link. http://www.fame-ring.com/index.html

Regards

True, but even English speakers occasionally asign gender. Cars and ships are usually feminine. Example: " She’s a beauty."

that would be great. I paid mcebuddy, but am not too thrilled with it.

A number of languages assign gender to inanimate objects… I took Latin and German in High School, and a little Russian and Spanish on my own, and all do the gender assignment thing, though my table insisted that I use they/them as its pronouns. But I digress…

I’ve played with MCEBuddy and Comskip, and found it much too cumbersome to use for the level of effort required. For a while, Tablo was attempting to do commercial skip as a paid service, but I never subscribed as during the free trial period, I found it to be too inaccurate, and besides, fast-forwarding through the thumbnails worked for me. I can remember Tablo before thumbnails were introduced, so I really appreciate this feature. I know that TiVO was doing a crowd sourced kind of commercial skip, where their servers would look to see where users were fast forwarding through content, but that was after the fact for those who watched that content live. The now defunct Replay TV had a commercial skip feature, and tho I can’t personally vouch for how well it worked, the company went bankrupt before it could really be tested in court.

It would be nice if the broadcasters included a signal to indicate when commercials start and stop, but that is VERY unlikely to happen for obvious reasons.