Okay, I’m having a little trouble understanding how this whole PLEX thing works. My setup is as follows: I have my HDHomerunner FLEX connected to both my antenna and home network. I have the PLEX server on my Windows 11 computer, with a PLEX client on my TV. I have scheduled several TV shows to record. Now I’m the type of person who hates commercials. I click on a show that I want to record. Then it brings up another box “Airing Details”. and then I go to Record Options. Then I fill out what I want as far as “Airings” and things. After that, I go down to “Show Advanced” Down close to the bottom it has Detect Commercials. (Side Note: I’ve read this isn’t 100% Proof), where it gives me 4 options. #1: USE DVR Options, #2: Disable, #3: Detect and delete commercials, #4: Detect commercials and mark for skip. Then Save! My first question is what is the normal pick for a person who doesn’t like commercials? The next question is Under #1, it says USE DVR options, what DVR are they talking about?
If I’m going to learn this, I need to ask questions and get straight answers as we have all learned things.
Thanks
I’m not sure what is “normal”, depends on set up. Like if your server computer is good at transcoding and how long you are willing to wait for things to process.
When you plugged in your HD Homerun tuner and configured it in Plex you created a “DVR”. You can access to manage in the settings of the server. One of the settings is the default of how commercials will be treated. https://support.plex.tv/articles/225877347-live-tv-dvr/
when starting a recording you can choose to…
- USE DVR options is saying to use the default setting set for the DVR which could be any of the three things below
- Disable = don’t do anything
- Detect and delete. Requires the server to detect and process the file to remove the commercials which creates a new file without them. This will take the longest to complete. Since commercials could be detected incorrectly it has the potential to remove an incorrect part of file
- Detect and mark. Only puts markers on the commercials so when you are playing back the recording there will be an on screen button to skip past the commercials. This also could detect commercials incorrectly but the file is not altered so you could skip back or forward as needed if there was a mis detection
In response to Question #1, I mean what option do most pick if they don’t like commercials, #3 or #4 from below? In response to the type of computer my PLEX server is on, it’s on an I9-11900K intel chip, ASUS ROG Z590-E with 32GB of RAM, and lots of hard drive space. So, I know my computer is kind of overkill to do this type of stuff.
I looked over the article you told me about, and honestly, I didn’t have this, or maybe I missed it. Can I go back without losing my recordings and do it over again? If so, how would I do that?
Thanks
I can’t say what most people pick sorry. When I had a DVR I choose #4.
when you go to https://app.plex.tv the settings for DVR should be here. where you can manage the defaults
Found it, and set it up. Now the final question of the morning/day before I do something dumb. Now I have a Samsung TV. Its OS is different than Andriod. It’s more of a pain than anything else, but I"m learning it as well. In reference to viewing recordings, do I need another device like a ROKU or now to view my recordings? The reason why I mention this is that I read something someplace that to view recordings your viewing device might have something to delete/skip commercials as well. Do I need ROKU or I can use the PLEX client to view my recordings? One more example of this. I recorded Survivor and watched it. However, in the DVR section, I selected “Delete commercials”, but during the entire show, they were commercials. So did I do something wrong or that was one of those things?
Thanks
If you had it set to delete commercials but they were still there when the recording finished and ready to view then that sounds like it there was some bug or other thing that made it fail to detect and remove them. The client you used to play back should not have mattered in that case because the server is the thing that edits the file to cut out the commercials from it.
Hey BigWheel, I re-read my post and there was something I left out, but it shouldn’t of matter. But for this, I’m very, very sorry. So last night, Survivor came on at 8:00 and got over at 10:00. So last night at 9:00, I turned on my TV, highlighted the program to watch, and started to watch Survivor. So my question is this. Were the commercials taken out when it was recording the show or in playback? Either way tho, I should have never had any commercial.
Thanks
Commercial detection is not 100% accurate so there will always be some leftovers. I would use detect and mark for skip to keep a portion of the show from accidentally being removed. Search for comskip.ini, a bit of a rabbit hole if you start tweaking the file.
Commercial detection does not run until the program has finished recording, if you watch a show in progress then it hasn’t been processed yet.
If you don’t want commercials you can’t use time shifting, you will have to wait for the post processing to finish.
Tiebierius - Star Trek I love it. Anyway, tell me more about this time shifting and does PLEX have it. If PLEX does have it, where is it and how do I enable it?
Thanks
Time shifting is what you did when Survivor was in the middle of recording and you went to the guide and hit play, choosing “Start from the Beginning” or “Live”.
I see said the “Blind Man” and thanks. Didn’t really understand what “Time Shifting” was. Why do people (some) have ROKU connected to their setup?
If the media being consumed consists of Live TV & DVR then the Roku devices are well positioned to provide playback capabilities at a price point most people can afford. They directly play Mpeg2, have nice remotes and are usually trouble free.
Moving up the price range you have Apple TV and the Nvidia Shield but if the only use is TV then they are a bit expensive.
I am intentionally leaving out Chromecasts and Google TV, though the GTV on my Sony TV works quite well.
I find Rokus, and other devices such as Nvidia Shield, etc., a more reliable way of playing virtually everything I have on my server. The smart TV apps are outdated and abandoned quickly, with fewer updates available. If you are happy with your TV app, there’s likely no need to to consider a different device for streaming Plex or other media sources.
Both of you thank you for those words of wisdom. But for myself and wife TV isn’t our main entertainment. Mine is computers, building websites, and playing a game here and there. My wife enjoys coloring on her tablet, listening to her Podcast, and things of such nature. With summertime coming, more outside time for the both of us.
Thank you again
I’m hoping someone reads this I really do. Tonight, my wife and I sat down to watch SWAT and Fire Country. SWAT came on at 8:00 and got over at 9:00 and Fire Country came on at 9:00 and got over at 10:00. Both shows were recorded with the commercials mark for skipping and not deleted. So we started to watch SWAT and I waited for that little sign to come up and say press to skip the commercial. Guess what? It never happen. In fact, on both shows, it didn’t happen. So what is it that I did wrong? Would it be in the logs? If so, where are the logs? I’m getting totally pissed at this PLEX thing.
Someone, please help.
Thanks
Easiest way to get the logs and where they are located: https://support.plex.tv/articles/200250417-plex-media-server-log-files/
Was the show finished post processing? How did you start playback?
There is a global setting in DVR settings for commercials that is applied to all new recordings. Each recording can retain the choice if not set to DVR Settings, and could be disabled. There is the TV Shows/Movie Library setting for Intro and Ad Detection, which if the markers are missing you will need to set to For All Items. Finally are the Settings > Library options that affect Intro detection, again if missing set to as a scheduled task and when media is added
How to tell if the markers were added (best done in a browser https://app.plex.tv/ or Plex for Mac/Windows): Hover over a recorded show and click on the 3 vertical dots > Get Info, a box will pop up, then click View XML in the lower left border. If the processing was done there will be entries for Commercial and Intro towards the bottom.
I don’t have a Samsung TV so I don’t know the state of its capabilities with regard to the rest of the clients, but the support docs indicate any 2016 and later should support it. https://support.plex.tv/articles/skip-content/
How to generate missing markers? Change the schedule task window to be your current time, if it doesn’t kick off then go back to the Show and on the Season Poster hover and click Analyze.
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