How to run Plex Commercial Skipper ? Getting Unsupported codec!

Live TV & DVR
1

Server Version#: 1.40.3.8530
Player Version#:
Tuner Make/Model: HDHomeRun CONNECT 4K
Guide/Lineup name: US OTA
Using XMLTV?:
Channel number/Name:
<If providing server logs please do NOT turn on verbose logging, only debug logging should be enabled>

Plex Commercial Skipper, made using ffmpeg
Donator build
The commandline used was:
“./Plex Commercial Skipper”
“–ini=/volume1/PlexMediaServer/AppData/Plex Media Server/DVR/comskip.ini”
-t
“/volume1/Plex-TV/Parking Wars (2008)/Season 04/Parking Wars (2008) - S04E09 - Parking Wars.ts”

Setting ini file to /volume1/PlexMediaServer/AppData/Plex Media Server/DVR/comskip.ini as per commandline
Using /volume1/PlexMediaServer/AppData/Plex Media Server/DVR/comskip.ini for initiation values.
Auto selecting the PID.
Mpeg: /volume1/Plex-TV/Parking Wars (2008)/Season 04/Parking Wars (2008) - S04E09 - Parking Wars.ts
Exe comskip.exe
Logo: /volume1/Plex-TV/Parking Wars (2008)/Season 04/Parking Wars (2008) - S04E09 - Parking Wars.logo.txt
Ini: /volume1/PlexMediaServer/AppData/Plex Media Server/DVR/comskip.ini

Input #0, mpegts, from ‘/volume1/Plex-TV/Parking Wars (2008)/Season 04/Parking Wars (2008) - S04E09 - Parking Wars.ts’:
Duration: 00:03:05.47, start: 1.400000, bitrate: 1766 kb/s
Program 1
Metadata:
service_name : Service01
service_provider: FFmpeg
Stream #0:0[0x100]: Video: mpeg2video ([2][0][0][0] / 0x0002), none(top first), 704x480 [SAR 40:33 DAR 16:9], Closed Captions, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 90k tbn
Stream #0:10x101: Audio: ac3 (AC-3 / 0x332D4341), 48000 Hz, stereo, s16p, 192 kb/s
Unsupported codec!
Could not open video codec
/volume1/Plex-TV/Parking Wars (2008)/Season 04/Parking Wars (2008) - S04E09 - Parking Wars.ts: could not open video codec

2

Firstly, to answer your question, there’s some environment you have to set up when running the command (FFMPEG_EXTERNAL_LIBS).

For example:

FFMPEG_EXTERNAL_LIBS='/var/lib/plexmediaserver/Library/Application\ Support/Plex\ Media\ Server/Codecs/ad47460-4673-linux-x86_64/' "/usr/lib/plexmediaserver/Plex Commercial Skipper" ...

The path will vary based on your environment, but that is the path which currently works on my own.

However, I’m curious what you’re trying to accomplish. This almost certainly will not do it. While you likely will get an EDL file as output, Plex can’t do anything with it natively.

Plex ad detection is an automatic process run by the server. Running the command manually will not update the item in the library with commercial markers. If you want to have Plex perform ad detection for existing items in a library, you must configure that library’s “Ad detection” setting (advanced library settings) to the value “For all items,” then run the analyze function on either the entire series or individual episodes.

So, what are you trying to accomplish?

3

When I see commercial skipper finishing in the server log, it says commercials found for a TV recording. But I don’t see a “skip ads” box when I watch the recorded show on my Apple TV. So I’m trying to see if skipper does indeed find commercials to skip. The standard comskip process works fine and finds commercials. It seems the whole commercial skipping is kind of a black box in Plex. I see no logs and I can’t generate the txt file that the regular comskip can create that shows what commercials were found

4

Ah, gotcha. In that case, have a look at the XML info for one of the files in question. If indeed commercial markers have been created for it, you should see something like the following near the bottom of the XML (or just search for “Marker”):

<Marker id="1709" type="commercial" startTimeOffset="0" endTimeOffset="20250">
<Attributes id="1709"/>
</Marker>
<Marker id="1709" type="commercial" startTimeOffset="213210" endTimeOffset="423520">
<Attributes id="1709"/>
</Marker>
<Marker id="1709" type="commercial" startTimeOffset="1120320" endTimeOffset="1300500">
<Attributes id="1709"/>
</Marker>
<Marker id="1709" type="commercial" startTimeOffset="2683980" endTimeOffset="2924590">
<Attributes id="1709"/>
</Marker>
<Marker id="1709" type="commercial" startTimeOffset="3319180" endTimeOffset="3469430">
<Attributes id="1709"/>
</Marker>
<Marker id="1709" type="commercial" startTimeOffset="3552650" endTimeOffset="3599260">
<Attributes id="1709"/>
</Marker>
<Marker id="1709" type="intro" startTimeOffset="155492" endTimeOffset="211540">
<Attributes id="1709"/>
</Marker>

If those are present, then the problem is somewhere else.

5

Thanks. I see the Marker ID’s in the XML. So now where do I go ? Is it the Plex app on Apple that’s the issue ? Since I can’t really create a support ticket am I just out of luck ? I hate it that I paid for a lifetime Plex pass and get no real tech support.
If it wasn’t for people like you I’d get no response. I appreciate you answering my questions.

6

My next stop would be the web client. See if you get the ad skip button when playing there. If so, it may point to a client issue. Make sure you use the same account as on your Apple device.

7

I uninstalled/reinstalled Plex client on ipad and Apple TV. The skip ads button is now present. Thanks for your help.

8

No problem, very glad you got it working!

9

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