MythTV 0.27 commercials flagged but not skipped on playback

[enrico123]

Hi,

I have Mythbuntu 0.27 installed on my server.

After every recording the MythTV Backend 0.27 starts a job for flagging commercials.

Looking in the database, I could also check that the recordings are correctly marked at the begin and end of every commercial, e.g:

mysql> select title, starttime, commflagged from recorded where starttime >= '2014-09-20 18:00:00' and starttime < '2014-09-20 19:00:00';
+---------------------------------+-------------------------------+--------------------+
| title | starttime | commflagged |
+---------------------------------+-------------------------------+--------------------+
| Der Teufel trägt Prada | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 1 |
+---------------------------------+-------------------------------+--------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

mysql> select * from recordedmarkup where starttime >= '2014-09-20 18:00:00' and starttime < '2014-09-20 19:00:00' order by mark;
+---------+------------------------------+-----------+-------+----------+
| chanid | starttime | mark | type | data |
+---------+------------------------------+-----------+-------+----------+
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 0 | 34 | 263990 |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 0 | -3 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 0 | 33 | 10560000 |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 1 | 12 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 1 | 32 | 25000 |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 1 | 31 | 1088 |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 1 | 30 | 1920 |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 23305 | 4 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 32894 | 5 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 51070 | 4 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 60615 | 5 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 80542 | 4 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 89833 | 5 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 111350 | 4 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 120822 | 5 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 138188 | 4 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 147481 | 5 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 166172 | 4 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 175256 | 5 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 195638 | 4 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 204842 | 5 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 223283 | 4 | NULL |
| 1004 | 2014-09-20 18:09:00 | 232957 | 5 | NULL |
+---------+------------------------------+------------+------+------------+
23 rows in set (0.00 sec)


The MythTV Frontend 0.27 is configured for skipping the flagged commercials as following:

Setup->Video->Playback

Commercial Skip (8/8)
---------------------
Automatically skip commercials: Automatically Skip
Commercial skip automatic rewind amount (secs): 0
Commercial skip notify amount (secs): 0
Maximum commercial skip (secs): 3600
Merge short commercial breaks (secs): 0


But during playback, the commercials are not skipped at all.

What I'm doing wrong? Is there a bug in MythTV?

Many thanks for every suggestion!

Cheers
Enrico

[4partee]

Ditto here! Commercials are NOT skipped on playback.

I registered to post this to show that someone else has this problem.

My system is a fresh install of Linux Mint 17 for the purpose of running a fe/be to cut-the-cord.

John

[dizygotheca]

Code: Select all

mythfrontend -v commflag,playback

may give some clues as to what is going on.

I have noticed that the 'Skip' OSD doesn't get shown if the auto-skip occurs just as/before the video aspect changes, which is not unusual for some channels/programmes. The player does skip but it doesn't show any indication that it is working, which can be confusing.

[4partee]

$ mythfrontend -v commflag, playback
Received 'playback' but unassociated arguments have not been enabled
mythfrontend version: fixes/0.27 [v0.27-193-g8ee257c] www.mythtv.org

[dizygotheca]

Sorry - there should be no space between the args. I've edited my previous post (& tested it this time!)

FYI

Code: Select all

mythfrontend -v help

will explain

[4partee]

In the meantime I did find a setting under setup that was set to off and I set it to automatically skip commercials during playback. I must say that there are at least 9 settings/screens for every one that seems to be important. Plus, it is not always obvious whether an important setting is in BE or FE.

Anyway, some tests have shown that commercials are being skipped now.

gelmjw@pvr ~ $ mythfrontend -v commflag,playback
2014-10-05 16:54:00.038485 I Setup Interrupt handler
2014-10-05 16:54:00.038570 I Setup Terminated handler
2014-10-05 16:54:00.038603 I Setup Segmentation fault handler
2014-10-05 16:54:00.038644 I Setup Aborted handler
2014-10-05 16:54:00.038697 I Setup Bus error handler
2014-10-05 16:54:00.038731 I Setup Floating point exception handler
2014-10-05 16:54:00.038777 I Setup Illegal instruction handler
2014-10-05 16:54:00.038812 I Setup Real-time signal 0 handler
2014-10-05 16:54:00.038855 I Setup User defined signal 1 handler
2014-10-05 16:54:00.038894 I Setup User defined signal 2 handler
2014-10-05 16:54:00.039234 C mythfrontend version: fixes/0.27 [v0.27-193-g8ee257c] www.mythtv.org
2014-10-05 16:54:00.039264 C Qt version: compile: 4.8.6, runtime: 4.8.6
2014-10-05 16:54:00.039278 N Enabled verbose msgs: general commflag playback
2014-10-05 16:54:00.039326 N Setting Log Level to LOG_INFO
2014-10-05 16:54:00.051526 N Using runtime prefix = /usr
2014-10-05 16:54:00.051575 N Using configuration directory = /home/gelmjw/.mythtv
2014-10-05 16:54:00.051760 I Assumed character encoding: en_US.UTF-8
2014-10-05 16:54:00.051667 I Added logging to the console
2014-10-05 16:54:00.094009 N Empty LocalHostName.
2014-10-05 16:54:00.094070 I Using localhost value of pvr
2014-10-05 16:54:00.157514 I New Client: (#1)
2014-10-05 16:54:00.157654 I Added syslogging
2014-10-05 16:54:00.391298 N Setting QT default locale to EN_US
2014-10-05 16:54:00.391400 I Current locale EN_US
2014-10-05 16:54:00.391485 N Reading locale defaults from /usr/share/mythtv//locales/en_us.xml
2014-10-05 16:54:00.426772 I Starting process manager
2014-10-05 16:54:00.426781 I Starting process signal handler
2014-10-05 16:54:00.429248 I Starting IO manager (write)
2014-10-05 16:54:00.429248 I Starting IO manager (read)
2014-10-05 16:54:00.560074 I ScreenSaverX11Private: DPMS is active.
2014-10-05 16:54:00.789592 N Desktop video mode: 1366x768 59.790 Hz
2014-10-05 16:54:00.894106 I max_width: 1920 max_height: 1080
2014-10-05 16:54:00.904328 I Listening on TCP 127.0.0.1:6547
2014-10-05 16:54:00.904460 I Listening on TCP [::1]:6547
2014-10-05 16:54:00.904616 I Listening on TCP [fe80::468a:5bff:fe9f:2412%eth0]:6547
2014-10-05 16:54:01.709933 I Loading en_us translation for module mythfrontend
2014-10-05 16:54:01.817096 E LIRC: Failed to connect to Unix socket '/dev/lircd'
eno: No such file or directory (2)
2014-10-05 16:54:01.817290 E JoystickMenuThread: Joystick disabled - Failed to read /home/gelmjw/.mythtv/joystickmenurc
2014-10-05 16:54:01.817307 I UDPListener: Enabling
2014-10-05 16:54:01.820192 I Binding to UDP 127.0.0.1:6948
2014-10-05 16:54:01.820484 I Binding to UDP [::1]:6948
2014-10-05 16:54:01.820751 I Binding to UDP [fe80::468a:5bff:fe9f:2412%eth0]:6948
2014-10-05 16:54:01.906662 I Using Frameless Window
2014-10-05 16:54:01.906798 I Using Full Screen Window
2014-10-05 16:54:02.153818 I Using the Qt painter
2014-10-05 16:54:04.648142 I MythUIWebBrowser: Loading css from - file:///usr/share/mythtv/themes/default/htmls/mythbrowser.css
2014-10-05 16:54:04.702207 E MythUIWebBrowser: failed to find our parent screen
2014-10-05 16:54:04.738381 I MythUIWebBrowser: enabling plugins
2014-10-05 16:54:05.117954 I MythCoreContext: Connecting to backend server: 127.0.0.1:6543 (try 1 of 1)
2014-10-05 16:54:05.120194 I Using protocol version 77
2014-10-05 16:54:05.328239 I Current MythTV Schema Version (DBSchemaVer): 1317
2014-10-05 16:54:05.456055 I VDP: decoder<->render support: ffmpeg null xlib xshm xv-blit opengl opengl-lite vdpau nullvdpau nullvaapi openglvaapi
2014-10-05 16:54:05.456092 I VDP: decoder<->render support: vdpau vdpau nullvdpau
2014-10-05 16:54:05.456104 I VDP: decoder<->render support: vaapi nullvaapi openglvaapi
2014-10-05 16:54:05.456120 I VDP: decoder<->render support: crystalhd null xlib xshm xv-blit opengl opengl-lite vdpau nullvdpau nullvaapi
2014-10-05 16:54:05.528152 N VDP: Ignoring profile item 15 (renderer quartz-blit is not supported w/decoder ffmpeg (supported: null,xlib,xshm,xv-blit,opengl,opengl-lite,vdpau,nullvdpau,nullvaapi,openglvaapi))
2014-10-05 16:54:05.528287 N VDP: Ignoring profile item 16 (renderer quartz-blit is not supported w/decoder ffmpeg (supported: null,xlib,xshm,xv-blit,opengl,opengl-lite,vdpau,nullvdpau,nullvaapi,openglvaapi))
2014-10-05 16:54:05.557221 N VDP: Ignoring profile item 19 (renderer quartz-blit is not supported w/decoder ffmpeg (supported: null,xlib,xshm,xv-blit,opengl,opengl-lite,vdpau,nullvdpau,nullvaapi,openglvaapi))
2014-10-05 16:54:05.557388 N VDP: Ignoring profile item 20 (renderer quartz-blit is not supported w/decoder ffmpeg (supported: null,xlib,xshm,xv-blit,opengl,opengl-lite,vdpau,nullvdpau,nullvaapi,openglvaapi))
2014-10-05 16:54:05.595623 N VDP: Ignoring profile item 23 (renderer quartz-blit is not supported w/decoder ffmpeg (supported: null,xlib,xshm,xv-blit,opengl,opengl-lite,vdpau,nullvdpau,nullvaapi,openglvaapi))
2014-10-05 16:54:05.595688 N VDP: Ignoring profile item 24 (renderer quartz-blit is not supported w/decoder ffmpeg (supported: null,xlib,xshm,xv-blit,opengl,opengl-lite,vdpau,nullvdpau,nullvaapi,openglvaapi))
2014-10-05 16:54:06.190003 W ThemeInfo: Unable to open themeinfo.xml for /usr/share/mythtv/themes/BlackCurves-OSD/themeinfo.xml
2014-10-05 16:54:06.190027 E ThemeInfo: The theme (/usr/share/mythtv/themes/BlackCurves-OSD) is missing a themeinfo.xml file.
2014-10-05 16:54:06.275615 W ThemeInfo: Unable to open themeinfo.xml for /usr/share/mythtv/themes/Gray-OSD/themeinfo.xml
2014-10-05 16:54:06.275641 E ThemeInfo: The theme (/usr/share/mythtv/themes/Gray-OSD) is missing a themeinfo.xml file.
2014-10-05 16:54:06.523358 E RAOP Conn: Failed to read key from: /home/gelmjw/.mythtv/RAOPKey.rsa
2014-10-05 16:54:06.849660 N Registering Internal as a media playback plugin.
2014-10-05 16:54:07.638175 A MMUnix:CheckMountable: DBus interface error:
2014-10-05 16:54:08.261653 W No plugins directory /usr/lib/mythtv/plugins
2014-10-05 16:54:08.484484 N Found mainmenu.xml for theme 'MythCenter-wide'
2014-10-05 16:54:08.489266 I Registering HouseKeeperTask 'HardwareProfiler'.
2014-10-05 16:54:08.490760 I Starting HouseKeeper.
2014-10-05 16:54:09.382308 I Bonjour: Service registration complete: name 'Mythfrontend on pvr' type '_mythfrontend._tcp.' domain: 'local.'

I hope the above is useful to confirm if I have things correct now.
==================================================
Also, I have a message in Information Center/System Status/System Status "Warning: Is mythfilldatabase running?". What is that?, and should I open a new topic?
Right now I am using EIT because Schedules Direct seems to be under some pressure to develop a new system by Nov 1, 2014. I don't feel comfortable signing up and setting up twice in such a short time. Also it is not clear if changes need to be made to Mythtv as well. The status is not clear on this.

John

[dizygotheca]

Glad you got it working.

The number of settings & their distribution is an acknowledged irritant. I suspect the new WebFrontend will address this.

It's important to understand the roles of the backend & frontend:

• - the backend setup is to run the job that physically detects/flags the commercials in a show and runs once only. No frontend can commskip until this has been done.

• - the frontend setup purely determines what that specific frontend will do with the commflaging when you watch the show

If you only have a single frontend (ie. combined fe/be) then this distinction is not intuitive & it may seem that you're setting things up twice. However, if/when you add more (remote) frontends, their users may prefer not to skip commercials, and you can configure that frontend differently.

Your log just shows the frontend start-up. If you were to then play a recording over a commercial break then the 'playback,commflag' options would start logging pertinent info about seeing commflags, skipping etc. which would help diagnose why it wasn't working (or it would log nothing, indicating auto-skip isn't turned on!).

Mythfilldatabase is the job that downloads guide data. If you're using EIT then ignore the warnings - you should never use both for the same channels. Historically Myth was US-centric where EIT is (I understand) absent/pitiful. Thus Myth still has an irritating habit of presuming mythfilldatabase is being used. I suspect the warning is only generated because it can't see 14 days of guide data.

Can't comment on SD - watch the user mailing list and get ready to jump!