Will not remove commercials, even after clean install

General Support / Questions Commercial Removal
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I completely understand how frustrating it is to feel like you are fighting with the software after paying for it—especially when even a clean install doesn’t fix it. Please don’t worry, your money is not wasted!

What you are experiencing is a very common scenario when dealing with recordings from platforms like PlayOn (which adds that HBOmax email and IP address notice at the start).

Here is exactly what is happening under the hood, why a clean install didn’t fix it, and how we can get it working perfectly for you right now.

Why this is happening (and why a clean install didn’t fix it)

  1. The Custom Cuts / EDL Trap: When you use Custom Cuts on a video, it saves a small helper file with a .edl extension in your video folder. When MCEBuddy goes to process that video and sees an .edl file, it completely disables automatic commercial detection (Comskip). It assumes you want to use your manual custom cuts instead.
  2. The 20-Second Safety Limit: By default, MCEBuddy has a safety feature in place to ignore any cuts that are shorter than 20 seconds (to prevent encoders from crashing on tiny slices). Since the HBOmax intro notice is very short (usually between 4 and 10 seconds), MCEBuddy flagged your manual cut as “too short” and skipped making it entirely.
  3. The Result: Because of the .edl file, automatic commercial removal was bypassed. And because of the 20-second safety limit, your short manual cut was ignored. To you, it looked like the software did absolutely nothing.
  4. Why a clean install failed: Uninstalling and reinstalling MCEBuddy does not delete those .edl files sitting in your media/recording folders. MCEBuddy kept finding them and skipping the automatic scan. Additionally, the clean install reset MCEBuddy’s safety limit back to the default of 20 seconds, continuing to block your short intro cut.

How to Fix It (2 Options)

Depending on how you want to manage your recordings going forward, choose one of the two options below:

Option A: Trim the Intro Automatically (Highly Recommended!)

You don’t need to manually open every video in Custom Cuts to remove that intro notice. MCEBuddy can automatically slice a fixed number of seconds (e.g., 5 or 6 seconds) off the start of every video and run automatic commercial detection at the same time.

  1. Clear out the manual cuts: Go to your video folder and delete any .edl and .xml files that have the same name as your video. This is crucial—otherwise, MCEBuddy will keep skipping automatic scanning.
  2. In MCEBuddy, double-click on your Conversion Task to edit it.
  3. Click the Expert Settings button at the bottom.
  4. Look for the Cut start box (and Cut end if you want to remove the outro notice too) and enter the number of seconds you want to trim (e.g., 5 or 6).
  5. Ensure Commercial Removal is set to Yes (Comskip).
  6. Click Save and OK.

Now, MCEBuddy will automatically trim the first few seconds of every recording and then scan/remove all other commercials automatically.

Option B: If you prefer using Custom Cuts manually

If you want to keep using Custom Cuts for precise, manual control:

  1. Adjust the Minimum Cut settings:
    • In MCEBuddy, go to Settings and click on System Settings at the bottom.
    • Look for Minimum commercial duration (secs).
    • Lower this from 20 down to 0 or 1.
    • Click OK to save.
  2. Understand the rule: When you use Custom Cuts on a video, remember that MCEBuddy will only cut what you manually mark in Custom Cuts. It will not run automatic commercial scanning on that specific file.

Give Option A a try first, as it completely automates the removal of those annoying PlayOn/HBOmax notices without you ever having to open Custom Cuts again! Let us know how it goes.