I have been working with computers since 1967, which dates me just a bit. If I had as much as a dime for every software package I have bought that did not work, I could have retired years ago.
That said, I do not mind paying for software that works. However, I want to verify that it works before paying anything. I find a number of links for downloading the “premium” software, but cannot seem to find any trial version. Would someone please direct me to where I might find this trial version? It’s location escapes me.
If this works as described and automagically removes commercials from DVR’d videos I will be most happy to pony up for a donation.
Even if you get the free version, it still may not be a good representation of what can be done with the premium version due to the enhancements in accuracy and speed improvements available with the premium.
This is my situation as well. Currently I am manually removing commercials on approx a dozen shows during the course of a week. I’ve gotten to the point where it takes me about 5 minutes (not counting encoding time) to open the file - remove the commercials - save the file. After that I let either Plex optimize the file behind the scenes or, if the mood strikes me, do them in Handbrake for conversion of mpeg4.
The commercial removal process is a 5 minute process now for me - but it is still something I have to open up the file to do. If the automatic process for commercial detection and removal was something like 10 - 15 minutes even, I would happily sacrifice some time for the convenience of not having to manually do it myself. Unfortunately, to find out is going to cost $30 just to see how it compares. I’m kind of on-the-fence regarding whether to test that scenario. On one hand it may work great … on the other it may take 30+ minutes and I would end up just going back to my manual process. Without investing $30 it is impossible to know.
My gut feeling here at this web site is the lights are on but nobody is home. No one is constructively monitoring these forums, and there are no “leaders” who are involved with development to respond to any postings here.
I repeat, I do not mind paying for software I perceive as a “good investment.” I even regularly donate to Wikipedia. But so far on this site I see little evidence of intelligent life on the part of the “development team.” Geez, Mars shows more signs of life than this site.
How do I even know if I will receive ANYTHING at all in return for the “donation”? Can anyone speak to this? After all, I get a number of email messages daily that urge me to “click here” to get the best software (or medication or something else that I neither need nor want) in return for putting $10 or $40 or $75 on my credit card!!
I think it’s important to clarify which parts your paying for: Paying for MCEBuddy does two things: 1) obviously, it supports the ongoing development. 2) and more specifically, it gets you access to the latest release. The free version is one release behind. The current release (which just came out), does a lot around HW acceleration.
For Commercial removal, it’s done via an included program called ComSkip. It’s open source and available at Comskip Support Forum - Index page - there is another option, ShowAnalyzer, but it appears to be entirely discontinued. ComSkip is very powerful, but requires a lot of tweaking for the specifics of your local (broadcast tv, vs cablecard, etc). The default settings will help, but are not perfect. You can spend a lot of time tweaking. The purchased version of ComSkip allows it to run multi-threaded, and process WTV files directly. The multi-threading is valuable, the WTV support isn’t given MS’ discontunuation of Media Center. Hope this helps clarify. Thanks! Will.
What program are you using to manually remove commercials? I’m not having much luck with MCEBuddy and I paid for it. It only removes commercials 50% of the time. Something with such a high failure rate is a problem, at least in my opinion.
Hi all - remember, the program that removes commercials is ComSkip - it’s included with MCEBuddy, but it’s a separate program. The default Comskip.ini file will not perform well - you should definitely check out the Comskip forums. Depending on how you get your television signal, you’ll need to tune it. Check out the country specific ini’s forum listing - Comskip Support Forum - Index page
The only difference between the paid and free version is if it’s multithreaded.