I made a recording on the Plex DVR and the xml exists with lots of commercials in it, but Plex on the fire stick is not giving me the option to skip ads.
What logs do you need to help diagnose this? Verbose logging is already on so I should be able to get you some logs immediately.
There are settings for this in the Tuner/DVR section.
You have to turn those options on, I think there is one for each tuner.
Settings for what? I already have it scanning. The file does scan and Iâm left with an xml file full of commercial segments.
The XML is temporary, I believe it should immediately get written over to the DB entry for the video right away. Once a video records, there is no need to retain the XML file, and I have never seen any stored with any of my recordings.
Well, with my installation, it never goes away unless I delete the episode.
That could mean that it isnât finishing.
Hopefully someone from Plex can help with this soon.
Itâs a good possibility I need to wipe the database of all things DVR. Anyone know how to do it and can help me out, it would be appreciated.
Also, in the status window (drop down) I never see anything close to âScanning for commercialsâ.
Ok, letâs check to see if the setting is even enabled for you then.
Live TV & DVR. This should list your DVR, and the discovered channels.DVR Settings, and scroll to the bottom of this list to look for this option:If that is enabled, letâs see if you disabled it for the recording itself.
Live TV & DVR on the left-hand side of your normal library side-bar.DVR Schedule to see your list of recordings. On the right-hand side, find the show that didnât do commercial skip and click it.Show Advanced.Is it enabled there too?
Yes. Iâm not certain why Iâm being asked several times if itâs enabled.
Why would I disable it if I was testing to make sure it works. The ONLY thing Iâm testing (and diagnosing) at this point is commercial skip.
Like Iâve said 3 times, the xml is created and there are several commercial spans in there.
Itâs in the library as Ad Detection: âAt all timesâ
And the DVR settings to create markers for skipping.
I may have just a few posts here but donât underestimate my understanding of how commercial skip works. Iâve been involved in the scene since the days of Windows Media Center and DVRMS-Toolbox.
There is something very wrong here and logs should be studied to ascertain a solution or how to go about finding this error/bug.
I also made a new library as other posts have suggested with the âPlex Media Showsâ as the agent.
No success on that one either. Still no graphic to skip ads.
We cannot discern your level of technical competency from two sentences asking why Comm Skip isnât working on âfire stickâ. I did find it strange you keep mentioning the XML (which one?), but I didnât want to âassumeâ Masterâs-degree-level of skill based on that alone. There has been one other personâs post here asking if it was enabled, and you brushed off the âis it enabled?â question by stating that it was scanning.
I am just trying to assist you by having you confirm that you did the basics of troubleshooting, which solve 99% of problems people have on these forums. At this point, itâd likely require a dev to analyze server logs to determine why a finished file is not getting marked with comm skip markers.
Edit: Just had a thought: The XML you are referring to, is the xml text you referring to the one you see by clicking Get Info on a recorded item? If it is showing up here, then⊠hmm, even stranger than I thought. Have you tried the item in any other player to see if the comm skip function works at all? Web, iOS, Plex-for-Windows, etc.
Android (my phone) doesnât work, if anything actually works, Iâll edit this post.
Someone else mentioned that the xml is supposed to be deleted after it goes into the database for the show.
The format is:
My Show (2000).ts
My Show (2000).xml
You were asking which xml it is.
There was a problem with tuners in this computer a while ago, I would guess thatâs when the dB started to get âmessed upâ
I erased an xTeVe tuner and it wouldnât come back unless I changed the port number for xTeVe.
Iâll also let you know that âLive TV & DVRâ is NOT what I see. It is ONLY âLive TVâ. I suspect that Plexâs dB needs a fix.
I mentioned the xml would be deleted, but seeing an actual .xml file in your file explorer is odd. Aside from the â.grabâ folder, Plex has not written anything to my media library location other that DVR items. So if you are referring to an actual .xml file, is it alongside the file itself, in your media folder? Or are you looking at it while it is still in the temp â.grabâ folder? Or is it in the â/tmp/â folder in the server data files?
Seeing âLive TVâ instead of âLive TV & DVRâ makes me think that one of two things are happening.
The xml is alongside the TS file in the showâs folder structure, NOT in .grab
Server version: 1.31.2.6810 (I just checked for updates and thatâs all high as it goes for now.)
I am guessing the âLive TV & DVRâ started with issues I had in the past (a year ago) was when I had the issue deleting it and setting it back up, which was done WITHOUT a Plex Pass.
Any idea how to wipe the DVR parts from the Database?
Iâm on a slightly higher version, but at least you arenât 1-2 years out of date.
Strange to find the com-skip xml alongside the file in the media library itself. Something tells me then that your server isnât finishing the post-record process. Do you have a custom post-processing script that is ran after a recording? I doubt that is the issue, since the file is making it out of the .grab folder and into the base media folder, but I figure Iâd check.
I know of no way to repair any entries related to the DVR in the database. I think maybe the preferences.xml file in the Plex data folder that Plex loads might have bad entries in it, but I donât know what to look for or delete. Letâs ping @ChuckPa (sorry pal, youâre the only dev I know 
) who might be able to help out more.
You must be on a beta version?
I donât think I do betas⊠I am on a docker, doing the â:Plexpassâ build, which might get releases sooner than non-pass users. I never thought about that being a beta branch.
No PlexPass build for Windows⊠All I see is public and betaâŠ
I really wonder if my browser cache has something stuck where it looks like I donât have a PlexPassâŠ
Iâll beat the hell out of the control-f5 button to see if it helps
Try checking the XML info (click that link for information on how to view it) to see if the commercial markers are actually being written to the database. This isnât a physical file; itâs dynamically generated from the Plex database whenever the âView XMLâ link is clicked after viewing an itemâs info via âGet Info.â
If commercial markers have been correctly generated and added to the database for an item, youâll see XML data similar to the following toward the bottom of the file.
<Marker id="1709" type="commercial" startTimeOffset="0" endTimeOffset="5710">
<Attributes id="1709"/>
</Marker>
<Marker id="1709" type="commercial" startTimeOffset="356520" endTimeOffset="571670">
<Attributes id="1709"/>
</Marker>
<Marker id="1709" type="commercial" startTimeOffset="1622190" endTimeOffset="1817520">
<Attributes id="1709"/>
</Marker>
<Marker id="1709" type="commercial" startTimeOffset="2242110" endTimeOffset="2317580">
<Attributes id="1709"/>
</Marker>
<Marker id="1709" type="commercial" startTimeOffset="2806470" endTimeOffset="3027120">
<Attributes id="1709"/>
</Marker>
<Marker id="1709" type="commercial" startTimeOffset="3345980" endTimeOffset="3416150">
<Attributes id="1709"/>
</Marker>
<Marker id="1709" type="commercial" startTimeOffset="3547610" endTimeOffset="3598930">
<Attributes id="1709"/>
</Marker>
<Marker id="1709" type="intro" startTimeOffset="254285" endTimeOffset="353910">
<Attributes id="1709"/>
</Marker>
If you do not see similar entries, the commercial detection process is failing somewhere along the line; I suspect it is since youâre left with a âShow Name.xmlâ file. As stated previously, that should not survive the process.
My commercial xml looks like a traditional comskip xml, nowhere in there does it say anything about markers.
version="end=â84.400986â start=â0.000000â/>
<commercial end= end=â1603.802203â =â1057.372986â/>
Also, I just made a DVR on another server on my account, it still doesnât say âLive TV & DVRâ ANYWHERE on my account EXCEPT settings where you create the DVR.
There sure isnât a Live TV & DVR on that server in the more screen.
The ONLY way I can get to my guide is to press Live TV in the Plex area at the bottom of the more screen.
Is there a problem with my account?
Did you check whether you had markers in your database using the instructions I provided? The XML file youâre referring to shouldnât be there. Its presence indicates some likely failure. The directions above will let you see if the markers ever made it into the database.
And it is completely normal to see just âLive TVâ now, if you have Plexâs âLive TVâ source enabled (it is by default). If itâs enabled, Plexâs live TV âchannelsâ and your DVRâs are aggregated under once view, Live TV, in clients.
Good to know about the âLive TVâ thing.
No markers as far as I can see but you can take a look at this test recording (that has a robust commercial xml).
