Can confirm no change in Version 1.19.5.3112. Still not working.
1 Like
I can confirm it’s still broken, also. So frustrating!
1 Like
Can confirm no change in Version: 1.20.0.3133. Still not working.
1 Like
Has anyone noticed comskip has worked on some recordings but most still have ads. I couldnt tell when the recoding was because they were all repeat episodes and I deleted them before I thought to check the dvr schedule. Oops I know 2 days ago I noticed some of the recordings had ads removed and I tested by manually recording the Late Night Show and it worked. Comskip ran and finished correctly… now I can Not get comskip to run anymore m. I tested with changing the dvr settings and the individual show and episode settings…nothing at all. Now they are just teasing us lol.
@Ksullivan86, what kind of system is running the PMS? Linux, QNAP, Windows 10, etcetera? If Windows 10, what kind of hardware (CPU, GPU) and what Windows 10 version (1903, 1909, 2004, etcetera)? If you look at Windows 10 Event Viewer (on the PMS system), do you see “Plex Commercial Skipper.exe” crashes?
I too have played with every setting I could think of and commercial skip has not worked for the last few versions for me.
2 Likes
I think it’s a pretty complex problem space - for instance, I have a Windows 10 Pro Machine that’s running the latest build (2004) - I get XML files that Plex Commercial Skipper creates, but no cuts are made on that. Others are getting Plex Commercial Skipper crash entirely.
It’s a pain - on Windows, there is a workaround: you can have MCEBuddy scan your recording directory, excluding the .grab directory, and look for .TS files. From there, it will pick them up, do the commercial scan, transcode them, and put them back in the directory. You can have two different directories for recordings - one with commercials, one without. Depending on the directory, you either have MCEBuddy run comskip or not. Finally, you can use the MCEBuddy post processing command to run CURL and update the TV library.
It’s not as elegant as using Plex’s Post Processing feature, but given that it’s not cutting commercials, this has been the consistently working approach for me since 1.18.5 
1 Like
What does Plex need to get some movement on this issue?
4 Likes
Correct, still not working- after Sep 2019 ver 1.18.2.2058. So 10 months! Stop working on “enhancements” and fix this major bug. This is much more important than the look of the GUI. This is a major disappointment and someone is not making the correct choices on software priority.
5 Likes
It works in ver 1.18.2.2058 so I will never upgrade until I have absolute confirmation commercial skipping is working again. So 10 months and absolutely zero information to fix this major flaw.
3 Likes
1.18.5 was the last version that it worked properly without jumping through hoops.
1 Like
The last version that worked for me was “PlexMediaServer-1.18.5.2309”. Like many others, I think this is a MAJOR feature. I personally think it is one of the top five most important features. It is a huge disappointment that it has remained broken for so long. Even more disappointing is that it seems like Plex does not consider this a MAJOR bug…I hope I’m wrong about that.
2 Likes
Sa2000 or any staff, may we please get an update on this issue? This is a VERY important feature.
4 Likes
This is the last version I have that worked PlexMediaServer-1.18.8.2461 (from 2/27/2020).
Betting it went bad on Feb 29 and we have to wait four years to get fixed.
Same here, the last version where commercial skipper worked (wo crashing) for me was PlexMediaServer-1.18.8.2461 (win 2012r2 server, it only runs PMS)
even the plex pass server versions still have the issue. Whats worse, is that the live tv recordings get stuck as “recoriding xyz” in the plex tasks dropdown (web gui), until you open the plex server and click “close app” on all the windows App crash dialog boxes (its ~ 8x per day for me as i record all the local news broadcasts).
I can still access the recording after (with commercials), but it is pretty annoying to have to click though 8+ app crashed screens (or more, if its been a few days).
Hoping for a fix soon! thanks
sorry i cant grab the full debug logs as support requests us to do/upload, but here is what i could grab for now:
Hi,
do you mean that you get dialog menus where you get notified about the app crash?
In another server crash scenario which involved the transcoder.exe to crash, I was told that Plex expects apps to “come back after finish”. In my case, the thumbnail creation stopped and no further transcoder action could be executed until I clicked these dialog menus. In my scenario, switching off appearance of those app crash dialog messages in the Operating system did not make the error go way, but kept the Plex system from “waiting for the transcoder to be back instantly”.
Might be worth a try for you.
Same here. I PAID for a lifetime PlexPass and now the commercials are no longer being removed.
1 Like
I think PLEX is being paid to disable commercial skipping.
do you mean that you get dialog menus where you get notified about the app crash?
In another server crash scenario which involved the transcoder.exe to crash
hi, im refering to the plex server option/feature to scan and remove commercials from Live TV recorded episodes (via an OTA receiver) . Not transcoder.exe , pms is using an opensource tool called commscan (or soemthing similar, cant recall), they seem to have a wrapper app/exe to run this- That is what is crashing on each episode run. (later today when one of the recordings
crashes, ill update with a screen shot of it so you can see- ive already closed out the ones from this morning)
The issue is the plex app used to scan the video file for these commercials (once its done recording), is crashing while its doing that scan (or maybe in the very beginning).
so we are getting the windows dialog box/windows saying xyz program has crashed (and some short debug info).
this had been working fine until a recent PMS update (ie in past 4 months or so).
(and btw, i dont think plex is being paid to allow commercials to remain, lol - i did get a laugh out of that comment though. )
I am well aware, that this is another module which is crashing.
I was just trying to say that having those windows crash notification messages active is not a good thing plex-wise.
The crashed app is still “active” for Plex while that message is being shown. That can have other weird effects. Just disable those notifications. I did…
I have nothing to say regarding your broken skipping problem per se.
And I was not trying to bother you… if you don’t want… that’s fine for me.
Cheers
