Guide: Automated Ad Removal (DVRMS Toolbox)

[Brocklander]

Although you can use DVRMS Toolbox straight out of the box (as it were), there are a couple of changes that can help the process. There are also plenty of posts across the internet on basic DVRMS Toolbox settings and issues, this post just covers ad removal for Media Portal.


1. Download and install DVRMS Toolbox, restart your PC.


2. In the start menu folder, launch the ProcessingConditonEditor. These are the rules that DVRMS Toolbox will follow when you either run it from a batch file or on a whole folder from the GUI.

Double click Every File, and from the dropdown at the top select 'Cut commercials out of a DVR-MS file and output DVR-MS'. This is the process we'll run against the DVR-MS files, and will customise in the next step.

Click add to create a new rule for the Every File condition. Select Duration, Does Not Contain, and type -1. When a DVR-MS is still being recorded this is its duration, so this way it won't try editing a file that is still being created.



Unfortunately MP doesn't save any show specific information to the metatags in DVR-MS files, so we can't use any other criteria to filter what files are processed (like Channel, Genre, Show Name, etc).

Save all your changes to close.


3. Now launch DVRMSToMPEGSettings, where you can customise the processes you run. Double click 'Cut commercials out of a DVR-MS file and output DVR-MS' and you'll be presented with the steps the process runs through.

Instead of describing each step, just copy what is in the screenshot.



'Replace & with And in the input file name' Some other programs you use (like Crunchie, which I'll cover in a different thread) choke on & characters. This is a good time to switch it if you want, but Media Portal's Recorded TV won't pick up on the changed file name.

'Migrate value in Context["OutputFile"] to Context ["InputFile"]' This is purely for the benefit of the following steps, as DVRMS Toolbox only allows you to rename input files, not output files.

'Replace _tooled with in the input file name' When you run the commercial cutting without this step, DVRMS Toolbox ads _tooled to the end of your processed file name. For me this is a pain because I want to replace the original file, so when I play it from Recorded TV in MP I get the ad free version without any changes (although the duration in MP stays at the original value). This replaces _tooled with an empty value, thereby removing it.

'Move file specified in Context ("InputFile") to D:\Recorded TV' This moves the file from the output directory you specify when running the process to whatever folder the original files are in, and overwrites it. Select DeleteExisting in the options for this.

You can also delete the step that adds Tooled to the metatag, Advances the slider and whatever else, as this doesn't affect MP or the file processing.

Save all your changes and it'll close.


4. Open DVRMSToMPEGGUI, this is where you can run processes from or create a batch file to do so automatically in the future.

Click the Process Directory tab, enter in your destinations (double click on the text field to find the folder) and hit run. This will now match the files in the directory against what is in the Condition Editor. As each file is completed successfully, it ads it to a file list so it doesn't run that file again. You can edit this list from the Condition Editor. It's best to choose a temporary folder for your output, as the process will move the final renamed file back to your input directory.

To create the text to paste inside a batch file, instead of clicking Run after you enter your directories, go to Tools, Copy Commandline to Clipboard.




Hopefully everything works for you! The ad detector can be useless at times, one channel here it just won't detect any ads on. For some reason the ad detector also hangs most of the time I run it from a batch file, but very rarely from the GUI.


Do more with your TVâ„¢
Record to MPG & stream Live TV (AutoDVRConvert)
Automated Ad Removal (DVRMS Toolbox)
Automated compression after x days (Crunchie)
Manually crop DVR-MS length and remove ads (DVR Edit)

[jayrock]

Great job, thanks!

/jayrock

[Pakchoi]

Hi, great guide but Im unable to install the DVRMS Toolbox since IM running the latest MP with .Net Framework 2.0. The Installer requires .net 1.1 to execute the installation.
Does anyone have a workaround to this :?:

Regards

pakchoi

[Taipan]

You can safely install .net 1.1 as well as .net 2.0 on the same PC.

[Downzy]

Hey, thanks for the tips. I'd had a look before, but hadn't really sat down to work out how to make it work.

I've set it up following your instructions and it looks to be working. My first 2 runs didn't work, but the third was perfect. I'm not sure if this had something to do with the fact that the shows were recorded from different channels or that fact that I registered the Commercial Skip Add-in as decribed in the User guide http://www.bluwiki.org/go/DVRMSToolbox_User_Guide. I'll be testing some more recordings in the next few days to see what happens, but I have to say it was great to watch a recorded movie and not have to worry about adds.

Once again, thanks for the tips!

Cheers,
Downzy

[sunsetdk]

I can't get it to work. I tried on a channel called TV3 (i live in DK). It didn't even make the file smaller only a few MB. Tried comship too and that one made it smaler but the adverts were still there som somthing else was cut. Anyone who got a tip? How do they detect that there is an advert?


René

[skippy_nz]

from reading the wiki on DVRMSToolkit - it says that it does commercial removal and compresses the output to mpeg, wmv or wma etc, does anyone know what the compression rate to mpeg is like, ie from a 3gb 1 hour file to what ??

[Taipan]

Originally Posted by skippy_nz

does anyone know what the compression rate to mpeg is like, ie from a 3gb 1 hour file to what ??

It only removes the DVR-MS wrapper from the MPEG2 file, so no futher compression is applied. The resulting MPEG2 file is about 1% smaller. I don't know what it does with conversions to other types (like wma, etc)...

[martyyn]

Originally Posted by Brocklander

Hopefully everything works for you! The ad detector can be useless at times, one channel here it just won't detect any ads on. For some reason the ad detector also hangs most of the time I run it from a batch file, but very rarely from the GUI.

I installed all this yesterday to have a bit of a play and the first run I did I believe it all worked ok (have yet to test fully) but Im trying a file now that just always gets stuck at 6.21% when using the DVMRSToolboxGUI and the 'Cut commercials out of a DVR-MS file and output DVR-MS' profile.

I dont have another file with me to test, but I was wondering Brocklander, which channel it was you couldnt get to work.

[edit] Meant to also say great writeup. The new version of DVRMSToolbox has slightly different dialogs now but I was able to work it out in the end. Thanks for making the effort in putting together a guide. It certainly helps the noobs amongst us.

Cheers
Martyn

[Brocklander]

There's a new version? Will have to try it out!

I've actually stopped using ad removal as I haven't had time to set it up correctly at our new house, and have also been playing with Comskip as an alternative, as well as newer versions and fine tuning of Show Analyzer, which DVRMSToolbox uses for detection.

Strange that the file is getting stuck - is there an error in the way it was encoded in Media Portal (like it crashing or something?). When I said I had trouble with one channel, it was due to it either not picking up commercials or chopping out the wrong parts.