Comskip Support Forum

For cable and dish (standard and HD broadcasts) does comskip have the capability to detect commercials on the fly or with a small lag time (up to 30 seconds max). Might it be possible to detect a commercial and possbile trigger a function to run on a dvr at the detection time?

THanks in advance.

Fred

Fred,

It may be possible but it depends on what you want to record if it may work.
If its about recording the commercials then why not record everything in chunks of say 4 hours.
Let comskip detect the commercials in a 4 hour chunk, invert the detection information and then , based on the inverted output of comskip, cut everything but the commercials.
After one day concatenate the resulting commercials together to make on one day recording of all the commercials.
There are many other ways to do it but the right approach will depend on the objective

Comskip Developers,

I really need to work on the fly, or as close as possible. I want to "replace" the commercial. A small delay (15=30) seconds in broadcast is ok, but any longer would be an issue. I typically DVR runs a second or two behind broadcast anyways.

I want to be able to trigger the start of a commercial and then play alternate commercial in its place. I need a 90% accurate method detection in the commercial. Better to miss the commercial then false trigger during broadcast! It seems like comskip has algorithms in place to detect the commercials accurately enough, but just don't know if processing speed or the currect structure of comskip is setup for real-time or only post processing. I am willing to develop custom hardware if necessary, but feel this application may be feasible on a PC based platform.

I am interested in finding consultant to help develop said device. PLease contact me if your are interested.

Fred

I have been asked before to help support the development of this application.
Unfortunately it is not possible to detect commercials within a couple of seconds in a live broadcast.
Only when the broadcast ALWAYS uses a station logo AT THE SAME PLACE during show and NEVER during commercials its possible to automate the starting of the alternative commercials in realtime (within seconds)
It is NOT possible to detect the switching back from commercials to show within seconds. This could take up to 30 seconds or more depending when the station logo is shown again during the show.