Comments on: Skipping commercials with DVRMSTools, CableCARD edition http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/ The great thing about technology is it always gets better Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:41:12 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.4 By: Ben Drawbaugh http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-1704 Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:41:12 +0000 http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/#comment-1704 In reply to Travis.

There are a few tags that can work. What I recently discovered though is that in Windows7 many of these tags are not written early enough in the recording process to work reliably. I’ve found that the WM/MediaNetworkAffiliation is the most reliable, with a filter of does not contain satellite.

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By: Travis http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-1703 Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:18:33 +0000 http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/#comment-1703 Doesnt it make more sense to use the ProectedContentPercent tag? I have a handful of QAM channel that I cannot imagine would show up as ATSC and are also not protected. These wouldnt get overlooked with your ATSC only tag?

I read some people setting ProectedContentPercent to >0 or <1 and it working. Any ideas?

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By: Ben Drawbaugh http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-871 Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:12:31 +0000 http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/#comment-871 The HDHomeRun is the best deal, it is dual tuner, external and does QAM as well.

With the current version, you have to choose which tuner when you setup the recording, but if you install the TV Pack, then you set the priority per channel, and VMC will take care of it. You can also do manually do it when you setup the recording as well.

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By: Aaron http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-870 Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:04:40 +0000 http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/#comment-870 Which ATSC tuner card would you suggest to buy with a Cablecard setup? Is there a way to set recording priorities within Vista MCE or does Vist MCE do that when you try to record an HD channel? Thanks for the help.

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By: Ben Drawbaugh http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-868 Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:21:30 +0000 http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/#comment-868 With the current version of Media Center you can’t use a analog tuner with a CableCARD tuner, but you can use a ATSC tuner or a QAM tuner with the right driver.

The latest update for VMC adds the ability to use an analog tuner, and it can be found on line at various places, just search for Vista Media Center TV Pack.

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By: Aaron http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-867 Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:16:24 +0000 http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/#comment-867 I just purchased an XPS 420 a few months ago and I am curious what your setup is to be able to skip commercials on some of your recordings. I am assuming you are running an additional tuner in conjunction with your ATI cablecard tuners. How do you setup your system to use cablecard and analog tuner? I have two ATI cablecard tuners in my system. Can I run a analog tuner with the digital tuners? Any information would be helpful.

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By: links for 2008-05-25 | MyHTPC.TV http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-809 Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:47:17 +0000 http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/#comment-809 […] Skipping commercials with DVRMSTools, CableCARD edition – Ben Drawbaugh And when you consider the 1 second it used to take me to hit the 30 second skip button each time, compared to the 3 hours it took me to figure this out, I should break even on time in about 3 years! (tags: Microsoft Windows Vista MediaCenter) […]

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By: ChrisW http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-802 Tue, 27 May 2008 21:22:13 +0000 http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/#comment-802 Awesome work Ben, when I first got my xp 2005 media center I played around with dvrmstoolbox, but about an hour in I decided it was ‘way’ too much work, for such a small benefit.

Now that you have the in’s and out’s down I may take another look.

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By: Andrew http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-801 Mon, 26 May 2008 19:54:14 +0000 http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/#comment-801 Ben,

My current system includes a non-HDMI 7.1 Sony receiver (quite nice) that is connected to (via component video and digital audio) a Motorola tuner/DVR combo. The Sony is then connected to an Epson front projector via component video. A PS3 connects to the projector via HDMI, and to the Sony receiver via digital audio. The Motorola tuner/CVR is also connected to a 32″ Sony standard definition CRT (via S-VHS and analog audio). The PS3 is a nice media extender; it is connected via ethernet to a wireless router. Windows XP boxes wirelessly talk nice with the PS3’s extender capabilities…properly located audio, video and image files on the XP computer can be played nicely on the Epson front projector (via the PS3). The limitation of the Motorola DVR is that it has a laptop 160 GB hard disk inside…with a limit of 15-20 hours of HD recordings. Not surprisingly, there are more remotes in the room than any one person should own. But it all works…and without intending to disparaging her, even my wife can locate and watch files that are located on the XP computer. A new receiver would help some, but to be honest the one we have is good enough (for now). So I am reluctant to fiddle much…but probably will take the plunge and get a 420 or its successor…with the Cablecard tuners…all of which means change and new stuff to learn (sigh). I am not as savvy as you are with this sort of thing…so any blogs/hints/tips etc. are welcome.

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By: Ben Drawbaugh http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/comment-page-1/#comment-800 Mon, 26 May 2008 14:06:42 +0000 http://bjdraw.com/2008/05/23/skipping-commercials-with-dvrmstools-cablecard-edition/#comment-800 Andrew,
You have a few options for the commercial skip. I prefer to leave the skip set to automatic and then when things go wrong I disable it by pressing the “enter” key on the remote. If I want to turn it on, then I hit clear. Those are the buttons I was talking about in my post. The other way you can do it is to have a button act as the commercial skip button. By default this is the right arrow, but I don’t like it that way because when you overlay the guide or other menu, I like to use the right arrow to navigate so the two functions get in the way of each other.

As for the remote. The Dell comes with a useless remote. It is nice looking, works well and has a back light, but there are no programable buttons so there is no way to turn on the TV or control the volume. I ordered this one as a replacement.
http://www.pcalchemy.com/popup_product_image.php?pID=901&current_image=

It looks the same, but has programable vol and power for the TV. And at $17, it makes you wonder how much the one Dell included costed them.

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