No it’s not very straightforward for most people. Just go back to the last version of Plex that works and you are done. Simple fix.
1.18.5.x works. If you have some need for some of the player enhancements in the 1.19.x builds, you can get nearly all of the functionality of the post processing script on Windows by using MCEBuddy and running CURL along with a library refresh as part of MCEBuddy’s PostProcessing commands.
If you want to remove commercials for some but not all programs, I’ve found that having two directories that the TV library looks at works well. One of those directories is for programs with commercials, the other is not.
Once that’s done, set up two conversion tasks in MCEBuddy - one includes running comskip, the other doesn’t. With the two conversion tasks set, create two monitor locations and restrict which conversion task will run against a given location (you should also restrict the media types to .ts - otherwise it will reconvert your existing media).
You’ll need to add the CURL stuff to the profile you choose in your conversion tasks - it’s pretty straight-forward. You’ll need to have the Plex auth tolken - you can get that by viewing the XML when you look at a media item in your library.
The latest Plex Media Server 1.19.3.2764 mentions two DVR fixes. One of them is about a new location for post-processing scripts, but I don’t see any specific mention of commercial skipping. Would someone confirm whether comskip is working in 1.19.3.2764 because I’m planning to stay on 1.18.5.2309 until a newer version has comskip working again.
From what I can tell, it has not yet been fixed. They are still actively working it.
Any update on this from the Plex team would be great. Seems like a pretty major feature to be completely non-functional for too long.
It’s been non functional for months. There was a server beta last week that I thought might help, but it didn’t.
I just noticed this issue tonight on Unraid. Commercial skipping is not working. I don’t think there’s a way of running MCE buddy on Unraid.
If you’re virtualizing a Windows VM in UnRaid, you could, but I’m guessing you’re not doing that.
I’ve been researching doing GPU passthrough so you could still get HW acceleration in that scenario, but haven’t tried it - any experience there?
If your problem began recently when upgrading to to 1.19.3 then this might help.
(Crossposting to hopefully help others who are fighting this issue.)
So after a month or so of my commercial skip not working, I seem to have found a fix based on another thread. You go into the main DVR settings and disable the “Remove Commercials” option, save, then re-enable it. That seemed to magically kickstart mine. Hope it helps someone else.
That didn’t work for me. And I’m beginning to think Plex doesn’t care or isn’t working on this.
I originally posted the disable/enable approach in another thread. Unfortunately, as far as I know, it only has been successful in Linux based environments. Also the issue only began for Linux with 1.19.3. The Win commskip issue has been going on longer, and is apparently a different root cause.
I feel your pain - its important enough to me that every time I upgrade I always time it so I can do a test recording solely to make sure commercial skipping is working. Not having it… ugh.
So I’m running a Windows server, and it seems to have fixed it for me. I will know more tonight, but it appeared to work on shows last night after I resaved the setting.
Wow, good to know! Just curious, what version of the Plex Server are you currently on, and do you know with what version commercial skipping stopped working for you? Also, do you use a custom comskip.ini file? Just trying to put together some background since it seems like it is possible there may be two potential issues with different resolution.
For the record, for me the problem started with 1.19.3.2764, I use a custom comskip.ini, and the unset/reset fixed the issue for me.
I am running Plex on Linux in a docker container. ComSkip stopped working for me with the 1.19.3.x update. I did not have a custom comskip.ini, so the appropriate directory for such a thing did not even exist. I created is and copied the default comskip.ini to that location. The quick test showed that it was back in service, and it has now successfully trimmed commercial from several regularly scheduled recordings.
I was all set to try the other recommended fix (toggle the setting in the tuner settings) next, but I was already attempting the custom comskip.ini fix. Since this worked, I did not try the toggle.
So I’m currently running server version 1.19.3.2793. I think commercial skipping stopped about a month ago, but I can’t be sure. It’s been several weeks. I do not use a custom comskip.ini file.
I verified again last night that recordings were, indeed, having the commercials removed again after resetting the setting to do so.
I would just like the commercial skipping to stop cutting off the beginning of my show.
Bob’s Burgers for example. I set my recording for 2 mins before, but it still cuts off the opening scene. Moved it to 5 minutes before, still cuts off that scene.
If it is the commercial skipper removing what you want at the beginning, then there is a setting you can put in your custom comskip.ini so that the first (x) number of seconds of the show are considered show and won’t have commercials removed:
always_keep_first_seconds=300 ; Any commercial at the beginning shorter than this amount of seconds will be regarded as show
The example above would have the commercial skipper keep the first 5 minutes. If you don’t already use a custom comskip.ini then details are here.
Looks like some manner of ComSkip fix in the newest server update. Fingers crossed!
Will report back after this afternoon’s scheduled recordings.
Nope, no worky.