Cutting out commercials

[Jthero]

Hi all,

I am using SageTV successfully with comskip enabled and I would like to cut the commercials out of a few shows and put them on DVD. Does anyone know of a cheap or free program that will allow me to cut the commercials out by the frame number? I have tried Temp-mpg and Neros movie editor but they both cut via time in seconds and not by frame number. It just seems easier to use the frame numbers that are generated by Comskip.

Thanks for any advice,

John

[MrApollinax]

not a free solution but the one that was the easiest for me at lease:

VideoRedo Plus

Use the built in ad dection feature and cut out the portions of the MPEG you don't want. I believe they have a 7 day trial if you want to try it out.

[domc]

Yes, everyone here uses videoredo plus. I'm actually going to purchase this today. My trial period is up.

If you use analyzer (additional program Free or $20)to make the .vprj file of where the commercials are, all you have to do is import the Mpg and Vprj file into VideoRedo Plus and the commercials are ALREADY cut out for you. Save as a new Mpeg and then burn to a DVD disk.

VideoRedo Plus is $50 after full running trial version.
http://www.videoredo.com/

I think the trial version was longer than 7 days. Think it was 15 days for me or something.

I will say that I never see a commercial ever now with using these two programs. Analyzer can run on the program that is currently recording. Watching recorded shows, the commercials are just skipped over with SageTV after running Analyzer. This was one of my major reasons for getting sageTV.

[Jthero]

Thanks, VideoRedo does exactly what I wanted.

John

[Menehune]

Yes, The VideoReDo Plus trial is 15 days and it only saves 30 minutes.
I actually have the old version (1.6.2) of VideoReDo and the new version (2.2.1) of VRD Plus. I haven't gotten around to un-installing the old version yet

[cenwesi]

In this day and age and i don't see why SageTV can't make use of the comskip app we use and just cut out these commercial. I mean one of the reason we all like sageTV is the detection. Now get rid of it for good for us. I really don't want to close sageTV just to go cut out commercials and redo the file... blah blah. I setup this box just for sageTV only.
SageTV programmers, are you listening!!!! please cut us a slack here and just do this one thing. Every new user here always talk about commercial detection and getting rid of it. Make this app rock even more by doing this one thing.

[gplasky]

I'm not sure I understand. If you use SA with Dirmon all the commercials that are detected can be set in Sage to skip automatically. So when you watch it in Sage you don't have to do anything. It will skip the commercials for you. Because commercial detection isn't 100% accurrate I sure don't want the commercials cut out automatically. If I want to cut out the commercials and burn the video somewhere I use Videoredo which will automatically cut out the commercials because I generate a Videoredo Project file with SA. And then I just burn it to a DVD with Nero. Until you can guarntee 100 % accuracy with comskip or SA or any otherr app like that don't cut my commericals automatically in Sage.

Gerry

[domc]

Check out the links below:



http://www.sage-community.org/index.cgi/wiki/ComSkip

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...hlight=analyze

[dvd_maniac]

I have been using VideoReDo for a while now. I LOVE it...
I just decided to try SA & DirMon. This definitely makes it easier. I do have one question though:
Can I use SA & DirMon to create a VideoReDo project file that has the scene markers instead of the Cut out segments? I am used to hitting the next & previous marker button and I go through the whole file anyways to MAKE SURE the cuts arer right.
Can SA & Dirmon or DirMon and VideoReDo do this?

[joe123]

This may help:

Linky:
http://forums.gbpvr.com/showthread.p...hlight=comskip
(You may have to tweak it a bit)

I dont see why it would be that hard to write a program which uses ShowAnalyzer information to then create another file without the commercials. ShowAnalyzer does 99% of the work which is identifying the commercials.

I think that there was a comcut (or something close) in GBPVR that did this.

Maybe Jere can create a comcut program or elaborate why it is not an easy thing to do?

[amg]

Originally Posted by joe123

Maybe Jere can create a comcut program or elaborate why it is not an easy thing to do?

This is Jere's comment on cutting the commericials:

http://www.dragonglobal.org/forums/s...4&postcount=64

[joe123]

Originally Posted by amg

This is Jere's comment on cutting the commericials:

http://www.dragonglobal.org/forums/s...4&postcount=64

Ah, thanks for the link. Legal reasons / problems - but of course.

So why is it that VideoRedo software can cut out commercials?

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by joe123

So why is it that VideoRedo software can cut out commercials?

VideoRedo's process isn't automatic to the point of complete invisibility. An analogy: Selling is legal. Sex is legal. Selling sex is illegal.

Jere

[joe123]

Originally Posted by Jere_Jones

VideoRedo's process isn't automatic to the point of complete invisibility. An analogy: Selling is legal. Sex is legal. Selling sex is illegal.

Jere

Ah ok. Good analogy.

I could swear that VideoRedo has a "Batch" feature by which you can automate the process, but I may be wrong.

The law sure is tricky here. So comskip can "SKIP" commercials automatically (automated) and that is ok?

So if someone was to write a program which would take a file (movie) and your SA data and then create another file, that would be illegal? I can see where a program could take any data and your SA data and create another data file and not call it cutting out commercials and be used that way. No?

Or a more "politically" ok way: A program that reads any data file for input, another file with "data entry points" (can be SA data) and simply create another "file" which excludes those "data entry points."

This program can be posted anywhere without having to call it a commercial cutting software. Heck, if I can get my hands on a Windows C compiler, I will write it myself.

[joe123]

Originally Posted by Jere_Jones

VideoRedo's process isn't automatic to the point of complete invisibility.
Jere

Jere, I am not sure if you have see this or not, but http://www.videoredo.com says:

"VideoReDo's AdDetective will scan your files for the likely places where advertisements start and end. You can preview and change the recommendations before editing, or let VideoReDo Plus do the job automatically."

Is this not an automated process?

[dvd_maniac]

"VideoReDo's AdDetective will scan your files for the likely places where advertisements start and end. You can preview and change the recommendations before editing, or let VideoReDo Plus do the job automatically."

Is this not an automated process?

But you have to open the VideoReDo program at some point though.
You can't use VideoReDo to automatically check a directory for new video files, run ad detective, cut-out comms and rewrite the file. You would have to use other programs for complete automation as well.

VideoRedo's process isn't automatic to the point of complete invisibility. An analogy: Selling is legal. Sex is legal. Selling sex is illegal.

This analogy applies here.

But I wonder if Jere could answer my question previously posted here about creating a project file with markers instead of cuts?

[malore]

ReplayTV added Send Show and Automatic Commercial Advance to their Digital Recorders and were sued into bankrupcy. Five ReplayTV users then attempted to sue to establish their right to skip commercials. But the judge dismissed the case because the ReplayTV lawsuit was dropped after ReplayTV was bought out and removed the offending features.

Nothing was really established, so it's a business decision of whether or not you think the risk of getting sued is worth the increased sales.

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

But I wonder if Jere could answer my question previously posted here about creating a project file with markers instead of cuts?

I'm not real sure what you're looking for. The markers are cut start and end points. How do you create markers that aren't cut start or end points?

Jere

[Jere_Jones]

Never mind. A little bit of investigation showed me what you were talking about.

In theory, that is possible. In practice, the information about where the scene changes are is not available to the code that writes the files. There are several layers of code between the two, so it would take some major changes. I'll put it on the todo list, but it may take a while.

Jere

[joe123]

Originally Posted by malore

Nothing was really established, so it a business decision of whether or not you think the risk of getting sued is worth the increased sales.

All this can be done Legaly:

Again, a program which reads any abritary data file plus another data file with start/end points and then creates another file that skips those start/end points is legal.

You then tell the program what the data input files is (could be MPEG ) are and what start/end data file is (could be SA data ) to create another file of same type which now excludes those start/end points.