Automatic Commercial Removal Software

[bingmel]

Hello Fellow Members!
I haven't posted a topic in a while, only because most of the time I'm able to find my questions answered on this Forum. However, I haven't found a Thread that fully answers my current issue at hand.
I currently capture Satellite and TV feeds using my ATI Radeon 9600 Capture Card directly to MPEG2-compliant DVD files. Yes, my Computer setup is fast enough that I have great quality files with no dropped frames.
When I capture shows that have no commercials, I simply edit out the first and last extraneous parts of the clip then author onto DVD. The problem arises when I capture shows that have commercials. Not only is editing out the commercials rather time consuming, sometimes I miss a commercial or two that ends up part of the finished DVD.
Does anyone know if there is a Program that automatically edits out these commercials? I'm looking for a Program where you open the MPEG file, press a button that says "Save Commercial-free File", then wait a few minutes for the results. All I'm doing is editing out the commercials, not changing any file structures. Please let me know if such a Program exists. Thanks, everyone, in advance for your support.

Regards,



MEL

[Matt D]

Nope, nothing out there. It would be cool, but how would your PC or some software know the difference between the commericals and the show?

[jameshgross]

I am going to step way out on limb here and say that I remember many years ago ...
When stations started to use the TV vertical blanking interval to send data.
That commericals were/are identified with a code sent during that time.
I also remember hearing about a device that would blank the TV based on these codes.
But as for removing the commericals what would replace them with? Just a blank screen. I think I would rather watch the commericals.
Of course you can always edit out the unwanted material from a capture.

[bingmel]

I remember during my college days, when learning about broadcast TV, that the picture stream we pick up via antenna has codes within the first few scans that let certain equipment know the occurrence of commercials. I’m not sure if the same goes for Satellite feeds. I believe these codes are used in the broadcast community to help local stations. Since the main broadcast station (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, etc.) would nationally air the same show, the local affiliates would use these timed codes to queue their local commercials. These codes would also be used to determine which commercial would be used since the length would vary. If these codes still exists, I’m wondering if software can utilize them especially during the editing process. Again, I’m just putting my thoughts into words in this Forum Thread.

[handyguy]

Only Commercial Advance could do that on a vcr. You'd have to wait for it to FF. Also, sometimes it would keep FFing.....

Best thing to do is simply note what time the commericals come on because most programs do it at the same time for each of their programs.

[maek]

You would think that there would be a way to do it...VCR's take the cue from an off-screen signal, why not programs?!? I'm sure that some programmer out there will figure out a way.

[daamon]

Hi bingmel,

Although this doesn't answer your question, it will help with commercials that sneak into the final DVD.

Just rip the VOBs back to your hard-drive and re-author, cutting out the commercials in the process. Re-authoring won't (shouldn't) re-encode, so there's no quality loss.

You don't say what you're using to author, so I'll say that TMPGEnc DVD Author can do this. Basically, any authoring app that accepts VOBs and allows you to select sections from them.

Good luck.

[buttsy00]

daamon,

How do you edit VOB's and cut out commercials? I have TMPGEnc DVD Author and haven't seen this feature...

Wouldn't you have to convert back to avi first?

Also how can I change the menu of a DVD after I have ripped it to my HD?

[daamon]

Hi buttsy00,

I'm doing this from memory coz I'm at work and it's been a while since I've done this, but it should be roughly right. Here goes...

1. At the start of TMPGEnc DVD Author (TDA) click "Add video" - browse to the VOB(s) you want and add it / them.

2. When creating chapters, you can choose the start and end point of the footage - do this to "skip" (and so effectively cut out) the commercials.

3. Author and burn as normal.

The main thing is, it's possible and the baove is a rough guide on how to dit. Experiment or hunt around the forums...

Hope that helps some. Good luck...

[Goober57]

Not sure if this is what you want but I found it in the VideoReDo forum.

I use VideoReDo and DVD Movie Factory to MANUALLY remove commercials so I didn't read everything.

Here's the link .......

http://www.drdsystems.com/VideoReDo/useful_utilities.htm

__________________________________

For your viewing pleasure.........

http://www.bookstallsf.com/79.jpg

[jaamarti]

Hey all,

There was a filter set for virtualdub that was created by some grad students that did automatic commercial removal. It was dubbed 'The Karin Project". I can't seem to find it now, but I will host what I have of it on my web site. I never could get it to work, but I have not had much time to fool with it....

It should be here:

http://www.coe.uncc.edu/~jaamarti/Karin.zip

if anyone has any luck with this, can you shoot me some help?!? =)

[presto]

Beyond TV automatically marks the commercials. It does a great job on some shows and a lousy job on others. When I record Charmed it marks each commercial perfectly.

I then open the file in VideoReDo and the commercials show up as red. I mark the beginning and end of show and then save and Ta Da! no commercials.

It is extremely easy and quick to adjust the commercial Beyond TV marks with VideoRedo on those shows where it isn't perfect.

If you don't want to buy Beyond TV and VideoReDo just get VideoReDo. It is much much much faster at removing commercials than any other program. One slider allows you to move quickly thru a show and another slider lets you zero in on the exact spot.

[jaamarti]

Presto,

It looks like I will be giving Beyond TV a atry here soon.. I will need to dl it from work though... takes too long to grab it on my dial-up =/. how does it mark the commercials? and what is the easiest thing to use when editing to make the best use of those marks?


Jason

[presto]

The Only program that I know of that uses those marks is VideoReDo. (Accept of course Beyond TV, which doesn't cut them out but let's you skip commercials with one button)

When you set up BTV just tell it to use Smart Skip by default. After it records your show it will analyze it and the commercials will be marked. It takes a while but I'm not sure how long. Usually when I go to watch my shows the marks are there unless it was just recorded.

Beyond TV is great but you might not be pleased with the results when using an ATI card. Beyond TV and ATI don't play well togethor. The picture will be a bit fuzzier than with MultiMedia Center for some reason.

Still I would make the change. Beyond TV is a lot better PVR than MMC. I have an ATI card which I use for outputing to TV and I added two Hauppauge Win TV 250's so I can record two shows at once.

I believe the Hauppuage Win TV 150's have come out and can be bought for less than $80.00.

[jaamarti]

Ahhh.... Well, at this time I do not think I can justify the spedanture of any cash for both apps. Also I was disappointed to find out that Beyond TV used the Dot Net framework. My system has some software on it that does not 'play well' with the Do Not framework for me to use Beyond TV. bummer... Oh well, time to go back and work with Karin and see if I cannot get that to work.

On a side note, I found the page for the Karin Project again. Here is the link:

Karin

It has another version of the filters than what I had posted earlier...

Happy editing!

Jason

[drjtech]

Check out the ComSkip project for SageTV:
http://www.sage-community.org/index.cgi/wiki/ComSkip

This package integrates Commercial Advance into SageTV to add capability similar to BeyondTV.

-drj

[presto]

Just get VideoReDo. You can cut commercials out of a movie or TV show in about one minute. Get the free trial and see.

[Garibaldi]

Here are a couple free ones. Cuttermaran, Mpeg2Schnitt. An easier one to use that you might be more interested in though (granted none of these are automatic) is gopdit for linux. Let me know and I'll send you a link if I can find it.

[Matt D]

Each of these options has it's merits and uses, but as you point out Garibaldi, they aren't automatic.
Bingmel is aware of how to remove them manually, and doesn't want to do this anymore. Unfortunately, as I said before, there is absolutely nothing that will allow you to run a video clip through and come out edited of commercials with the touch of a button.

[Garibaldi]

Each of these options has it's merits and uses, but as you point out Garibaldi, they aren't automatic.
Bingmel is aware of how to remove them manually, and doesn't want to do this anymore. Unfortunately, as I said before, there is absolutely nothing that will allow you to run a video clip through and come out edited of commercials with the touch of a button.

Since there is nothing that is automatic (as of yet) I guess his only option is to use the manual stuff.

[Matt D]

Right, he'll have to keep on doing it himself, or just leave em in.

One piece of advice Mel is that shows are exactly the same length every time. That is, if one episode of your favorite show is 46:23 without ANY commercials, it will be 46:23 (or within a few seconds) the next time. If you edit a show and see that your run time is some minutes longer than that, you know you missed a few ads that need to be cut.

[mastersmurfie]

Ahhh.... Well, at this time I do not think I can justify the spedanture of any cash for both apps. Also I was disappointed to find out that Beyond TV used the Dot Net framework. My system has some software on it that does not 'play well' with the Do Not framework for me to use Beyond TV. bummer... Oh well, time to go back and work with Karin and see if I cannot get that to work.

On a side note, I found the page for the Karin Project again. Here is the link:

Karin

It has another version of the filters than what I had posted earlier...

Happy editing!

Jason

I d/l the trial of VideoRedo, and must say I am quite impressed! I capture direct to MPEG2 with my ATI card (usually from channels without commercials...) last evening, I captured direct from <a superstation that will not be named> and used this VideoRedo to remove the commercials.

no synch issues, and besides that, it's much cheaper than Womble...

I might just buy it!!

mastersmurfie

[Garibaldi]

@mastersmurfie, I can send you a demo video of Slide Show Movie Maker also if you would like. Just pm me with your email and I"ll be glad to do it.

[jaamarti]

mastersmrufie,

it looks like I will actually get to give this a shot now, thanks to a @$@# trojan I got from a friend who had it and his email decided I needed it too.... I had too many files deleted before mcafee caught it.

needless to say, after reformatting and reinstalling, I no longer have the software that doesn't like the .net framework...

I will let you know how it goes for me..


jason

[mastersmurfie]

@mastersmurfie, I can send you a demo video of Slide Show Movie Maker also if you would like. Just pm me with your email and I"ll be glad to do it.

@Garibaldi...I guess I didn't see this response...sorry!!

I have used Slide show movie maker for quite a while now...for DVD slideshows...works great with my setup...

@jaamarti
VideoRedo seems to be a very good mpeg editor...still no synch issues for me...

[falco]

Obviously there is NO program out there that does this automatically.
The next best thing as far as I am concerned is Mpeg Video Wizard.
I have been using this for some time now and it has this nifty little feature.
When you are editing out the ads if you hit Control F it takes you to the next blank frame. On the satellite feed that I get there is ALLWAYS a blank frame before the ads and after the ads.
I considered it an expensive program but it takes me about 5 minutes tops to edit out the ads of a 1 hour program.
It will also accept VOBS as input, which is a pretty nifty feature, as well.
Its about as "automatic" as you are going to get.
And NO; I am not associated with the author of this program in any way.

[ludo75]

am i too late?

a swedish channel changes the aspect ratio when commercial is coming on
Married with children, aspect 4:3. Commercial before middle and after with aspect other than 4:3 is removed with this.

/*
free software, ludovic.abigor@etanet.se made it 2010-10-25 01:56
make me with gcc -o stripvdr stripvdr.c
*/

#include <stdio.h>
//#include <string.h>
FILE *inf;
FILE *outf;

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
int k=0,s=1; //k counts bytes s sequnce found toggle
char * c, * d, * e, * f, * g, * h, * i, * j; // there is perhaps better way to do this?
inf=fopen(argv[1],"rb"); // open argument 1 for reading
outf=fopen("out.mpg","wb"); // open out.mpg for writing
while ( (c = getc(inf)) != EOF) // read single char until EOF reached
{
k++; // byte counter
if (c == 0) // if byte is zero continue
{
d=getc(inf); // c is 0 so we get d,e and f
e=getc(inf);
f=getc(inf);
if (c == 0 && d == 0 && e == 1 && f == 0xb3) // sequence header found
{
printf("found sequence at byte %i\n",k);
g=getc(inf); // g,h and i equals 24 bits
h=getc(inf); // bit 1-12 is picture hsize and 13-24 is vsize
i=getc(inf);
j=getc(inf); // j is 8 bits, bit 1-4 is aspect ratio and 5-8 is frame rate
if (j == 0x23) // aspect 2(4:3) and frame rate 3(25fps)
{
printf("found aspect at %i and writes to out.mpg\n",k);
putc(c,outf); //
putc(d,outf); //
putc(e,outf); //
putc(f,outf); //
putc(g,outf); //
putc(h,outf); //
putc(i,outf); //
putc(j,outf); //
s=1; // aspect is 4:3 so we remember that by setting s to 1
}
else{s=0;} // if aspect is not 4:3 then set s to 0
}
else{
if (s == 1) // if aspect is 4:3 then write c,d,e and f (other header) to out.mpg
{
putc(c,outf);
putc(d,outf);
putc(e,outf);
putc(f,outf);
}
}
}
else{ // if c is not zero:
if (s == 1) // if desired sequence is found
{
putc(c,outf); // print other data to file
}
}
}
fclose(inf); // close infile
fclose(outf);// close outfile
return 0;
}