skipping commercial?

look into showanalyzer.

Will showanalyzer even work with encrypted recordings?
I highly doubt it will touch anything other than copy freely recorded content?

no, but encrypted recordings shouldn't have any commercials.

ShowAnalyzer isn't free though, is it? Mine says 8 days left of a 30 day trial...will it still work after 30 days and just be crippled, or will it shut down altogether? Unfortunately, the support for it is non-existent, which is why I don't want to invest any $$ into it. If Jere would get off his arse and answer emails/forum posts, I would think about actually buying it.

That being said, if it shuts down completely, is there a free alternative method to commercial skipping? Thanks.

I use comskip, which is free, and I wrote and posted instructions here...
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post19995843

Thanks, I'll give it a shot. So, I assume ShowAnalyzer completely shuts down after 30 days? Also, since I'm not getting any help over in their forums, is the $30 for SA a per PC license or household one?

I don't believe it tracks how many PCs you install it on with the same license key.

Well, since EVERYTHING but NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX is encrypted, there are PLENTY of encrypted shows with commercials...FXHD, AMCHD, etc. I assume ShowAnalyzer will puke on these? Also, some people have said that SA will actually lock up on a DRM show and not allow it to be deleted...is this true?

SAV1 beta w/ profiles will continue to work after 30 days.

No of them will work on copy protected recordings, so how your providers flags the streams will dictate how useful the commercial scanning software will be over all, on my FiOS w/ everything copy freely it's great.

As stated above I have no experience w/ DRM'd recordings but I don't think that if you try to scan one that is it will prevent you from deleting but if it's still scanning(at times it will get stuck at 100% for a very long and you'll want to kill the scan) it will prevent you from deleting, this is likely what you've heard about. You're best bet is to just set profiles to not scan any channels that will have copy protection and it's also a good idea to set channels like HBO (if they happen to be copy freely for you) to not scan as scanning puts some pretty heavy I/O on the system and you don't want to waste on these recordings that will only have commercials at the start and end.

@lovemyram4x4

Thanks for the info...sounds like a plan. I hadn't done any "tweaking" with SAV1 yet, but have been reading about excluding certain channels/shows...will have to play with that this week.

Thanks again.

You can also set profiles for channels that use different settings that find commercials better(ESPN2HD and CBS-on new series are 2 that the defaults don't work well for me)

Comskip can do similar but SA worked well for me from the start so I never bothered trying anything else.

I do hope Jere gets SAV2 out soon but if history teaches us anything I'd not expect it, especially since it's supposed to be a total code rewrite. At least since I've done a new install any of the bugginess I'd sometimes see(stuck at 100% scanning) hasn't happened, I think it took nearly 6mo before it showed up the last time.

I think you are confusing "encrypted" vs "copy once/freely". Encryption has nothing to do with copy flags and the DRM that windows uses. A channel can be encrypted but that doesn't mean that windows will wrap it in DRM when recording it. That depends on the copy flag and so far it seems most cable providers only set the copy once flags (thus causing the DRM to appear) on premium content (HBO, Cinemax and the like). So in summary, encrypted does not automatically mean copy protected.

Gotcha. Well, everything in MC on Insight cable at my house has the "This show is copy protected" message on it unless it was recorded from NBC, ABC, etc. Are you saying that even though shows MIGHT be able to be scanned by SAV1?

I am not familiar with Insight but based on your message sounds like they are setting the flag to "copy once" for everything but clearQAM. If that is the case then recordings are being wrapped with DRM and they won't be scanned by SAV1, very unusual, as I said in my previous post, most other cable providers only set the copy once flags on premium content. It might be worth a call to them and see if they are aware of it.

Yeah, I may have to since it's VERY annoying...like right now I can't watch Colbert Report or Daily Show anywhere except where it was recorded...it was the same thing with my TiVo setup a few months back...so I know it's an Insight problem.

Just talked to my techie contact at Insight (I've talked to him in the past, he's the guy who trains all of the techs) and he said that from what he understands, THEY don't control the copyright flags...i.e., they don't turn them on/off. He actually thinks that it's in their contract that certain station owners (Viacom, etc.) have the flags on at the source for their content. Could this be the case?

I am no expert in this regard but while it does seem plausable (for example HBO wants their stuff copy protected, regardless who the provider is), why isn't the same across all cable providers including FIOS? If Viacom wants their stuff flagged wouldn't it be flagged with all providers? FIOS hardly flags anything and I am sure they have Viacom content. Makes you wonder doesn't it?

Yeah, that's what I'm wondering. Well, my contact did give me the name of a person to ask, so I shot him an email...we'll see what he says.

Were you able to resolve commercial detection for DRM protected recordings? I am in a similar situation with TimeWarner NYC. They protect Daily Show and Colbert on Comedy Channel HD but not on standard definition. Really annoying. I'm not looking to rip out commercials or convert the file but just want the analyzer to work.

TWC protects everything except the local channels, so you're screwed. They're not going to change the policy either. Same with Brighthouse and a few others. Comcast only protects the movie channels, and Verizon used to leave everything in the clear but I think that's changing.