SA not working as well anymore...

[dancougar]

Hi all and Jere,
I've been running SA for a while now (paid customer). Been using 0.9.7 since it's release. I initially paid for SA because it's one of those things that just made life more enjoyable. (I use it in conjunction with DVRMSToolbox on a MCE 2005.)
Over the past few months I've noticed a trend towards less and less accurate commercial detection. It used to be rare that I would need to rewind or ff to see some missed show. These days it seems a regular occurance....and not 2 seconds, but often time minutes of the show.
I know work is being done to support new file formats, but is any work being done on the core commercial detection? Does this new 1.0 version being talked about have better detection? If so, how can I get access to it?
This is very frustrating to me and does not bode well with my wife...as we all know WAF is big on these things and she gets very upset when SA decides there is a commercial break in the middle of a scene in Lost, 24, Fringe, etc.

Thank you....

-A

[dabl]

I have noticed the same and/or that the current Comskip is significantly faster processing a show for 'live' commercial detection viewing a few minutes into the show with commercial skip while still processing.

I too am a (recently) paying customer interested in the 1.0 version, including access to the beta. My primary interest in SA is for the Windows 7 support. That is huge to me since erik at Comskip has officially said there is no support for .wtv on the horizon.

For what it's worth I had posted in the 'Where can I get beta1.0??'
thread April 13 and haven't seen any replies since then.

http://www.dragonglobal.biz/forums/s....html#post5866

[thebasa]

i always found comskip to be faster. i never found it to be more accurate than SA. content providers have unlimited resources to throw at making programs like this break to either get their ads seen or ruin your experience enough to stop using them. jere is in a constant battle to keep up with what they're changing in their broadcasts. that he's willing to have kept this up for years is a testament to his devotion as a developer. you think you're frustrated when you miss 2 minutes of lost, imagine how frustrating it is to have dealt with this cat-and-mouse game for years.

[dancougar]

thebasa,
Whoa! Back the boat up. I am not placing blame at all here. I realize it is a cat and mouse game. 0.9.7 has been out for over a year. I paid for the software because it was awsome. I was only inquiring if the core commercial detection is being worked on because it is long overdue for an update and jere is getting behind on the game.
Now if there has been work....and the effort has all been in the 1.0 beta being talked about in a different thread. I would like access (why paying customers don't automatically have access is a question for another time).
Maybe the efforts (Im assuming there have been efforts here) can be ported into a 0.9.8 for general realease even...
I'm not asking a lot here....looking for an update on software that hasn't been updated in over a year. Its not like I post every week say "When is the new version...." I've been more than patient.

-A

[thebasa]

sorry for the harshness, there are just a ton of people asking for the same thing and he's probably just inundated with these requests while surely burning the midnight oil to make good on his may delivery, a delivery that may include updated core detection, but, more importantly, is going to support a whole different file format. i agree i want the beta now too, but i think the tone in that thread is getting irky. everyone's a "paying customer" on the gimme now track. reality is everyone paid 10 or 20 bucks a few years ago for a program that has since surely made up for its price a thousand fold. i'm amazed one guy did all this and continues to.

[dancougar]

Understand....

Keep in mind though. The day you starting asking for money is the same day you have a responsibility to at least keep people informed.

I do agree that it was very little for what I got when it was working well (if I evaluated it today I would not purchase it)....but it came with an expectation of future upgrades...something that I am sure is being worked on, certainly not released, and very poorly communicated.

-A

[thebasa]

we're you really having a ton of problems? they probably vary by whatever environment you're using SA in, but, for me, a week ago before moving to win 7 rc, I was running Vista x64 with DVRMSToolbox 1.2.1.6 and SA 0.9.7 taping analog off 2 M780's and QAM off an HDHomerun and not once did i notice it skipping minutes of any show. on the analog it worked flawlessly, on digital, very rarely it would hit the skip 10-20 seconds early so i'd miss the part immediately before the commercial started. now, when returning from commercial, i think the networks are to blame for faking out the return from commercial so 1 or 2 local ads would be displayed after it skipped. also, who knows which of the 3-part process is to blame here. i've never opened these up after a scan in schoolhouse to see if maybe the xml is correct and mce or dtb addin is screwing up.

[dancougar]

My setup hasn't changed much in a couple of years. XP MCE 2005 with SP2 and all its updates. An adaptec usb dual tuner fed by two Verizon FIOS STB's via composite. Running DRVMSToolbox (1008 I think....whatever the latest is...) and SA 0.9.7.

I still use 2005 because the PC is in the basement and I view the recorded TV on a couple of V1 extenders.

Generally we only record new network programming. Lost, 24, Medium, Fringe, etc. In the past, 24 used to be detected perfectly....now it will jump in the middle of the scene. (Not consistently....sometimes.) I would say once or twice this happens on a typical show....where as it used to be once or twice over 10 shows.

I can typically deal with it....but my wife just yells at me to turn off the auto-skip and manually skip the commercials.

Im not demanding anything....just looking for information of if things are in the works to improve detection.

-A

[thebasa]

dvrmstoolbox has an option to disable skip for the current segment after you skip back once. it kinda helps with damage control when the skip does operate prematurely and the wife's in your ear for a quick solution.