[rhys79]

So, I've been searching for a couple of days now, and while I'm finding lots of old references to the issue of comskip timings being WAY off on variable framerate recorded cable channels, I'm not finding any kind of solution to the problem.

Has anyone figured out a way to fix the comskip timing for variable framerate cable channels, short of having the Myth backend transcode the recordings to remove the commercials? 90% of what I record is on local network TV and works fine, but the five shows I actually record on cable channels (TNT and SyFy) force me to keep EDL set to Dialog and not use it for those recordings.

I'd really prefer not to waste the CPU time transcoding everything, and I haven't found a way to only transcode certain recordings.

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. If there is a standard fix for this issue that I'm just not having any luck finding, could a moderator possibly sticky it so it's easier to find.

Thank you!

[janbar]

Commskip feature works with configuration below:
- kodi 14.2
- latest addon 1.12 (today 1.12.26 , get it from http://janbar.github.io/pvr.mythtv/download/index.html )
- MythTV backend 0.28 (recent snapshot)

Or

- gotham 13
- latest addon 1.9.22 (today 1.9.22-55 , you have to compile it from source )
- MythTV backend 0.28 (recent snapshot)

[zaphod24]

Many of us are waiting until MythTV 0.28 is released (may be several more months). For now, I just manually skip a minute at a time.

This happened when the mythtv plugin changed from logging into the MySQL database and started calling web services (which long term is definitely the way to go). Unfortunately only 0.28 provides the web service to get the proper commercial skip timings for variable framerate recordings.

I asked the MythTV devs if they could backport that web service, but the answer was that it would distract from releasing 0.28.

Another workaround would be to use an older version of Kodi (14.1, 14) with the old mythtv plugin that logs into MySQL, IF you can find that to install. Depending on what your frontend is, you could probably install a really old version of OpenELEC.

[zaphod24]

Looks like the old cmyth version of the plugin only works with Kodi 13 (Gotham).

[tdavis]

Yup, I have one system still stuck at Kodi 13/c-myth because of this issue..

[metaron]

My solution is to disable comskip in the addon and use the following in advancedsettings.xml:

Code:

<advancedsettings>
    <video>
      <timeseekforwardbig>300</timeseekforwardbig>  <!-- Time forward in sec doing a long seek.  Default 600 (10 minutes). -->
      <timeseekbackwardbig>-300</timeseekbackwardbig>  <!-- Time forward in secs when doing a long seek.  Default -600 (10 minutes). -->
    </video>
</advancedsettings>

Just tweak the values to match the standard length of your add breaks (5 minutes on most freeview channels here in the UK).

I then use up and down arrows to skip commercial breaks and left and right arrows to fine tune in 30 second chunks (the new addon+helix seems to seek much more reliably than the old one+gotham did on my RPi).

It isn't perfect, but as I never managed to get mythcommflag to reliably detect ad breaks anyhow, I don't feel too deprived. Who knows, 0.28 may deliver a fix for both issues!

I'm using this on Helix. Not sure (yet) how it will play with variable skip lengths on Isengard, but as it seems possible to adjust the variable skip length values, it should be possible to find settings which work here too.

[rhys79]

Thanks for all the info. I knew it was a VBR problem with certain channels on Comcast, I just wasn't sure if there was a workaround for it with Kodi 14/15 and Myth 0.27. I only have two non-OTA channels I record shows on, and those are the only ones Comcast uses VBR with.

For now, my workaround has been to set the Myth plugin to ask before playing if I want to use the EDL or not, and I just tell it no for TNT and SyFy shows and manually skip the commercials. Unfortunately, neither channel has a fixed commercial break time, they vary from break to break (3-6min on average), so setting an extra skip time tied to a button I'm not using wouldn't help me.

I'll keep an eye out for the release of Myth 0.28, and look in on the stability of the current test builds. I'm not too keen on running a test build as my production Myth server. I've got Myth running in a VM though on my OpenMediaVault server (an old HP ML350 G5 dual quad core Xeon with about 12TB of storage and 16GB of ram), so I could snapshot the VM, update to the current 0.28 test build, and if I have problems, just revert to the 0.27 snapshot.

Thanks again for all of the great information! I'll update if I get something working.

[zoydberg]

are you using the built in version of com detect, or actually using comskip, http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=150084. the built in version is terrible, comskip, although hard to get running, works quite well. theres also windows version that works in wine.

[metaron]

are you using the built in version of com detect, or actually using comskip, http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=150084. the built in version is terrible, comskip, although hard to get running, works quite well. theres also windows version that works in wine.

The internal one. I did see notes about using commskip and wine but it never made the top of my 'to do' list.
Good to know it would be worth the effort though

[metaron]

This PR might be interesting: https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/7520

It relates to adding an option to use EDL lists stored in a directory (not via mythtv/pvr) but might prove a useful stopgap until 0.28 comes along if you really can't live without.

[rhys79]

I only have two channels I record shows on that Comcast uses VBR with (TNT and SyFy), and those shows only run for like three months in the summer, so it's not a deal breaker. Everything else I record is on local network stations, which are CBR and EDL works fine on those. I'll just hold out till a stable release of MyhTV .28 for the EDL fix. I've gotten pretty good at using the variable time skip ahead in Kodi V15 to get past the commercials with those two channels at this point lol. A five press jump is usually pretty close for most of the commercial breaks