[spaceboy]

do you not use dvrmstoolbox to initiate comskip? thats what i do and i have that program with the paid version of comskip monitoring my recordedtv folder. it produces the xml files and keeps them in C:\Users\Public\DvrmsToolbox\CommercialsXml\

i think from there dvrmstoolbox also helps wmc to process the commercial xmls but i have no idea how xbmc would interact with them

also xbmc definitely needs to integrate live tv / recorded tv with the remainder of the library in the way that the program linked to above, recordedtvhd, does. i use this and its an essential part of my wmc setup, i couldn't make the transition to xbmc on my main htpc without it. but i think that needs much deeper integration than i imagine is planned by this addin? it would be very gratefully received but seems like a significant task

[TechLife]

It sounds to me like what people are looking for here in the long run is after a program is recorded (either scheduled or on the fly), it is automagically trimmed front and back, commercials removed, renamed, moved to the appropriate regular library directory and scanned into the library. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the gist I get from what I have read. I think the concept is cool but is going to be a ton of work and nothing that is going to happen next week.


All I want is smooth time shifting like is on a cable/sat box LOL.

[bandook]

It sounds to me like what people are looking for here in the long run is after a program is recorded (either scheduled or on the fly), it is automagically trimmed front and back, commercials removed, renamed, moved to the appropriate regular library directory and scanned into the library. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the gist I get from what I have read. I think the concept is cool but is going to be a ton of work and nothing that is going to happen next week.


All I want is smooth time shifting like is on a cable/sat box LOL.

Isn't that basically all that dvrmstoolbox does? To me it sounds like all that xbmc would need to be able to do is read the file that tells the player where the commercial cuts are and then skip over them.

I've tried show analyzer before in the past but was never able to get it 100% reliable. I know some folks have had better success, but it does take some considerable tweaking to get the commercial skips dialed in on all shows. In wmc it is only a couple presses of the skip button and commercials are over. Plus you can edit the skip duration so you even have fewer presses.
I would however like to see this feature added, but not at the expense of taking away dev time of more important features.

[hedgepigdaniel]

@TechLife yeah that sounds like the holy grail, but given that commercial detection is never going to work perfectly its an unattainable goal. The way xbmc currently works with an EDL commercial skip record seems the best compromise to me. if it works then its completely automatic, and if it doesn't then its trivial to skip back/forwards manually. The wiki sais that the EDL file is scanned only when the media starts playing. If that's the case then one improvement would be to auto update it regularly.

Actually cutting the ads and pre/post show stuff out of a recording is always going to be a manual process because its got to be right to be useful and only a human can verify that it is done correctly.

[TechLife]

I have never tried the commercial removal utilities myself but it doesn't surprise me to hear they aren't perfect. Never really saw how they could be.

[krustyreturns]

I assume the wiki hpDaniel is talking about is:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Edi...ist#MythTV

Its not clear reading this whether having an EDL file (or the other formats) will work if the recording is a wtv file. Does someone know if this wtv/edl combo works with xbmc? And if it does work, does the wtv file need to be in a regular video library folder, or does it also work if its played from the recordings list in LiveTV?

[Hedda]

For working with redorded files you just think of the EDL files like external SSA/ASS or SRT subtitle files.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/?title=Subtitles#Ex...itle_files
http://matroska.org/technical/specs/subtitles/ssa.html

For XBMC external EDL and subtitle files work with any video format and need to exist in the same folder.

They both use timestamps, and have same file name as the video file with exeption of the file extension.

/folder/video1.wtv <= Video file
/folder/video1.edl <= EDL file for above video file
/folder/video1.ssa <= Subtitle file for above video file

Again, for EDL in PVR client best is probably to look at the code of MythTV PVR client for XBMC

Does XBMC already handle things properly if EDL data is changing on the fly while it is already playing a file, or does it only read in the EDL file when it first opens a video file?

I think this would be an important feature too as I know its popular. But like Scarecrow, I am not clear how this stuff works since I have never used it - I have always thought skipping forward was good enough to get through commercials. So since the only two active developers (so far) are clueless on this, we need your guys input to get it done the right way.

See XBMC wiki http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Edit_decision_list and just test scenarios I guess?

Best would probably be if your PVR client follow XBMC's extended EDL format since it is more flexible.

Compare
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Edi...Player_EDL
with
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/edl.html

The actions supported by this file format have also been extended by XBMC to include Scene Marker and Commercial Break actions since the original format only supports Cut and Mute. Supported actions are:

0 - Cut
1 - Mute
2 - Scene Marker (if start and end times are specified, the end time is used)
3 - Commercial Break

I believe that the MythTV PVR client for XBMC addon code will be the best example too look at for this

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=PVR...g_template

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Myt...l_Skipping

[Hedda]

Not sure if it helps but here is a EDL patch for TVheadend https://github.com/tvheadend/tvheadend/pull/284

[goblygoop]

I dunno if this is helpful, but mcebuddy is my goto for com skip and library management. WMC records, after it stops, mce picks it up, converts to TS, comskips, labels series and episode info based on the EPG (not perfect for the random kids shows my wife wants), then moves it to the appropriate series folder on my nas. In XBMC, my "recordings" goes to my DVR folder.

[spidertnt]

feature request : Integrating a custom stream into the server end of this great pvr plugin.

Streams like RT television. or ustvnow streams. are reliable streams and would be worth having.

Thanks.

[Talguy]

Feature Request for the client side of things. Can we get a button mapped so when pressed it will take us directly to the live point in the stream we're watching. This can work in the Live TV View when viewing something timeshifted. It could also work when viewing Recorded TV. When pressed while watching Recorded TV it would stop playing the recording and take us to the channel the program was recorded on in the Live TV View.

[scarecrow420]

That is out of the hands of a PVR client addon and would need to be done in the main XBMC itself (which addons would then implement/handle the calls etc).

[bry]

hey kr - you think it would eventually be possible to make a bullet list of the requests edited into the first post?

[krustyreturns]

Yeah we should do that, maybe edit the first post and keep the list there. My reason for making this a sticky is so we don't loose them. Looks like we have no shortage of ideas, just short memories and short time, this at least helps solve the first problem.

[bzwrxbz]

Implement resume on recordings when wtv is remuxed. Currently it just starts from the beginning every time you start the same show.