ComSkipper ... A Emby Plugin that skips commercials

[TMCsw 247]

14 hours ago, Ranse said:

Any help would be appreciated !

First there needs to be two(2) '-' for the ini ie "--ini=/etc/comskip.ini"

second as Bill shows you need to use "{path}" not "{emby/Recordings}" (emby will supply the full path and file name with just "{path}".)

If that fails you may need to call an .sh script instead...

[Ranse 6]

7 hours ago, TMCsw said:

First there needs to be two(2) '-' for the ini ie "--ini=/etc/comskip.ini"

second as Bill shows you need to use "{path}" not "{emby/Recordings}" (emby will supply the full path and file name with just "{path}".)

If that fails you may need to call an .sh script instead...

Hi thanks for the reply, 

Is this correct?

[Ranse 6]

8 hours ago, TMCsw said:

First there needs to be two(2) '-' for the ini ie "--ini=/etc/comskip.ini"

second as Bill shows you need to use "{path}" not "{emby/Recordings}" (emby will supply the full path and file name with just "{path}".)

If that fails you may need to call an .sh script instead...

can you please provide an example for shell script?

[TMCsw 247]

21 hours ago, Ranse said:

Is this correct?

No, should be:

/usr/local/bin/comskip

--ini=”/etc/comskip.ini" “{path}”

 

[Ranse 6]

4 hours ago, TMCsw said:

No, should be--ini=”/etc/c“{path}”

 

 

Edited July 26, 2025 by Ranse

[Ranse 6]

4 hours ago, TMCsw said:

No, should be:

/usr/local/bin/comskip

--ini=”/etc/comskip.ini" “{path}”

 

Ok changed it , but it does not generate new .edl files in the folder.

Is there a way to force it?

[Ranse 6]

  

I don't know what else to check , corrected input per @TMCsw suggestion.
Still no go.
Comskipper works fine from CLI when I call it and use it for a single file from recording folder.
The plugin is installed, and I can see it in plugins in Emby.

 

[BillOatman 596]

12 hours ago, Ranse said:

  

I don't know what else to check , corrected input per @TMCsw suggestion.
Still no go.
Comskipper works fine from CLI when I call it and use it for a single file from recording folder.
The plugin is installed, and I can see it in plugins in Emby.

 

Open a command window and run
 

/usr/local/bin/comskip --ini=”/etc/comskip.ini" “filename”

Where filename is the full path and filename of a .ts recording file and see what it does.

[Ranse 6]

20 hours ago, BillOatman said:

Open a command window and run
 

/usr/local/bin/comskip --ini=”/etc/comskip.ini" “filename”

Where filename is the full path and filename of a .ts recording file and see what it does.

I have configured my recordings to be automatically converted to .mkv hevc. 
But manually running Comskipper works with no issues from terminal.
But the plugin for some reason does not do it at all.
I have used .ini file provided from PDF for Ubuntu from github.
 

[TMCsw 247]

Try creating a .sh file  that contains the following:

#!/bin/bash

LD_LIBRARY_PATH='' "/usr/local/bin/comskip" --ini=”/etc/comskip.ini” “$1”

Make it executable and in a directory that emby can access.

Say : "/usr/local/bin/myskipper.sh"

Then call it in emby like this:

 

[Ranse 6]

4 hours ago, TMCsw said:

Try creating a .sh file  that contains the following:

#!/bin/bash

LD_LIBRARY_PATH='' "/usr/local/bin/comskip" --ini=”/etc/comskip.ini” “$1”

Make it executable and in a directory that emby can access.

Say : "/usr/local/bin/myskipper.sh"

Then call it in emby like this:

 

Ok done, thanks again for your help, I'll report back when I have something new.

[BillOatman 596]

On 7/28/2025 at 1:32 PM, Ranse said:

I have configured my recordings to be automatically converted to .mkv hevc. 

Does this conversion happen before or after comskip runs?

[Ranse 6]

9 hours ago, BillOatman said:

Does this conversion happen before or after comskip runs?

to be honest , I am not sure.
The Conversion time is set at 2:30 am daily in Emby under scheduled tasks.
The recording is done at different times ( whenever is the program scheduled)

[BillOatman 596]

13 hours ago, Ranse said:

to be honest , I am not sure.
The Conversion time is set at 2:30 am daily in Emby under scheduled tasks.
The recording is done at different times ( whenever is the program scheduled)

Not sure why it would be a problem, but I would turn that auto convert thing off and do a test recording to see if it makes a difference.

[TMCsw 247]

On 7/30/2025 at 3:34 AM, Ranse said:

The recording is done at different times

Does my script file work for you? i.e. is an .edl file created for new recordings?

Just to add about the .mkv conversion possible problem:

The .ts (transport stream) is a rather old format (not about to go away anytime soon, unfortunately?) that is meant to tolerate lost packets, this gives it the ability to basically ignore errors and then (if it doesn't crash resync the A/V).  When you convert the (recording/saved).ts to .mkv, ffmpeg does pretty much tries to do the same thing and will most likely will try to make a copy in the new format but it will do it's best to remove/correct the errors but this may mean that the time marks change some making previous comskip and introskip markers slightly or grossly out of sync..

[vdrover 62]

@BillOatmanDoes version 2.2.0 of com_skipper work with Emby 4.9.1.80? 

[BillOatman 596]

2 hours ago, vdrover said:

@BillOatmanDoes version 2.2.0 of com_skipper work with Emby 4.9.1.80? 

It should, it is linked with

[vdrover 62]

When i replace com_skipper.dll 2.1 with 2.2 and restart my emby container, the plugin is not shown in Emby > Plugins. Restoring the original dll file and restarting Emby works fine.

[BillOatman 596]

5 hours ago, vdrover said:

When i replace com_skipper.dll 2.1 with 2.2 and restart my emby container, the plugin is not shown in Emby > Plugins. Restoring the original dll file and restarting Emby works fine.

Yeah I just noticed me too.  

Also just noticed the dll version is higher than the server.  Not good.  That must be the beta one.

Keep using the older one.  I'll remove the new one from github, thanks.

[jriker1 20]

Is it just me doing something wrong or does the Android "phone" app that is always touted as the go to when having issues with the one built for the TV has issues not support comskip?  Both versions on the NVidia Shield, the TV app works the phone one doesn't skip.

[BillOatman 596]

23 hours ago, jriker1 said:

Is it just me doing something wrong or does the Android "phone" app that is always touted as the go to when having issues with the one built for the TV has issues not support comskip?  Both versions on the NVidia Shield, the TV app works the phone one doesn't skip.

Well, team Emby has people try the android app when basic functionality of the android tv app is in question.  Comskipper is a plugin

But, if you turn on debug logging in your server and watch something that should have skipped a commercial, the log should tell you what is going on. 

[alex77777 16]

I recently updated emby server to 4.9.1.90 and it seems like comskip works fine but when in comes to my apple tv it only works every now and then. My apple tv it up to date on updates as well as the Emby app. I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed comskip being weird at times with the apple tv and if so what have you done to fix it?

[BillOatman 596]

On 12/19/2025 at 4:54 PM, alex77777 said:

I recently updated emby server to 4.9.1.90 and it seems like comskip works fine but when in comes to my apple tv it only works every now and then. My apple tv it up to date on updates as well as the Emby app. I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed comskip being weird at times with the apple tv and if so what have you done to fix it?

Turn on debug logging and watch a show with commercials that should skip, when one does not capture the log to see why.
But also make sure conskip detected commercials where they are.

[Jator 10]

I've been playing with Emby for a while now.  Was revisting it as a daily solution, but noticed that for some reason, Comskip is not working on recordings currently (used to when I first set it up).  I'm on the beta branch, just upgraded to 4.9.4.1 to see if that would address the issue, but still having the same issue.  Checked the log in the tv program folder and saw this (also can replicate when I run Comskip manually).  Happens for all recordings now.

I'm way over my skiis on this, so hoping someone on the forum can let me know if they see anything obvious or can point me in the right direction to troubleshoot?  Thanks.

################################################################
Generated using donator Comskip 0.83
Time at start of run:
Tue Dec 23 07:24:43 2025
################################################################
Mpeg:	/volume1/media/tv/Today 3rd Hour/Season 8/Today 3rd Hour S08E65.ts
Exe	comskip.exe
Logo:	/volume1/media/tv/Today 3rd Hour/Season 8/Today 3rd Hour S08E65.logo.txt
Ini:	comskip.ini

Detection Methods to be used:
	1) Black Frame
	2) Logo - Give up after 2000 seconds
	3) Resolution Change
	4) Closed Captions
	5) Aspect Ratio
	6) Silence


ComSkip throttles back from -0001 to -0001.
The time is now 0724 so it's full speed ahead!

Settings
--------
[Main Settings]
;the sum of the values for which kind of frames comskip will consider as possible cutpoints: 1=uniform (black or any other color) frame, 2=logo, 4=scene change, 8=resolution change, 16=closed captions, 32=aspect ration, 64=silence, 255=all.
detect_method=123
;Set to 10 to show a lot of extra info, level 5 is also OK, set to 0 to disable
verbose=10
;Frame not black if any of the pixels of the frame has a brightness greater than this (scale 0 to 255)
max_brightness=60
maxbright=1
;Frame not pure black if a small number of the pixels of the frame has a brightness greater than this. To decide if the frame is truly black, comskip will also check average brightness (scale 0 to 255)
test_brightness=40
;
max_avg_brightness=19
;
max_commercialbreak=600
;
min_commercialbreak=45
;
max_commercial_size=120
;
min_commercial_size=4
;
min_show_segment_length=222
;
max_volume=500
;
max_silence=100
;
non_uniformity=500
[Detailed Settings]
min_silence=12
remove_silent_segments=0
noise_level=5
brightness_jump=200
fps=1
validate_silence=1
validate_uniform=1
validate_scenechange=1
global_threshold=1.05
disable_heuristics=0
cut_on_ac_change=1
[CPU Load Reduction]
thread_count=2
hardware_decode=0
play_nice_start=-1
play_nice_end=-1
play_nice_sleep=2
[Input Correction]
max_repair_size=40
ms_audio_delay=5
volume_slip=40
lowres=1
skip_b_frames=0
[Aspect Ratio]
ar_delta=0.08
cut_on_ar_change=1
[Global Removes]
padding=0
remove_before=0
remove_after=0
added_recording=14
delete_show_after_last_commercial=0
delete_show_before_first_commercial=0
delete_show_before_or_after_current=0
delete_block_after_commercial=0
min_commercial_break_at_start_or_end=39
always_keep_first_seconds=0
always_keep_last_seconds=0
[USA Specific]
intelligent_brightness=0
black_percentile=0.0076
uniform_percentile=0.003
score_percentile=0.71
[Main Scoring]
length_strict_modifier=3
length_nonstrict_modifier=1.5
combined_length_strict_modifier=2
combined_length_nonstrict_modifier=1
ar_wrong_modifier=2
ac_wrong_modifier=1
excessive_length_modifier=0.01
dark_block_modifier=0.3
min_schange_modifier=0.5
max_schange_modifier=2
logo_present_modifier=0.01
punish_no_logo=0
[Detailed Scoring]
punish=0
reward=0
punish_threshold=1.3
punish_modifier=2
reward_modifier=0.5
[Logo Finding]
border=10
give_up_logo_search=2000
delay_logo_search=0
logo_max_percentage_of_screen=0.12
ticker_tape=0
ticker_tape_percentage=0
top_ticker_tape=0
top_ticker_tape_percentage=0
ignore_side=0
ignore_left_side=0
ignore_right_side=0
subtitles=0
logo_at_bottom=0
logo_at_side=0
logo_threshold=0.8
logo_percentage_threshold=0.25
logo_filter=0
aggressive_logo_rejection=0
edge_level_threshold=5
edge_radius=2
edge_weight=10
edge_step=1
num_logo_buffers=50
use_existing_logo_file=0
two_pass_logo=1
[Logo Interpretation]
connect_blocks_with_logo=1
logo_percentile=0.92
logo_fraction=0.39
shrink_logo=5
shrink_logo_tail=0
before_logo=0
after_logo=0
where_logo=0
min_black_frames_for_break=1
[Closed Captioning]
ccCheck=0
cc_commercial_type_modifier=4
cc_wrong_type_modifier=2
cc_correct_type_modifier=1
[Live TV]
live_tv=0
live_tv_retries=6
require_div5=0
div5_tolerance=-1
incommercial_frames=1000
[Output Control]
output_default=1
output_chapters=0
output_plist_cutlist=0
output_zoomplayer_cutlist=0
output_zoomplayer_chapter=0
output_scf=0
output_vcf=0
output_vdr=1
output_projectx=0
output_avisynth=0
output_videoredo=0
output_videoredo3=0
videoredo_offset=2
output_btv=0
output_edl=1
output_live=0
edl_offset=0
timeline_repair=1
edl_skip_field=0
output_edlp=0
output_bsplayer=0
output_edlx=0
output_cuttermaran=0
output_mpeg2schnitt=0
output_womble=0
output_mls=0
output_mpgtx=0
output_dvrmstb=0
output_dvrcut=0
output_ipodchap=0
output_framearray=0
output_debugwindow=0
output_tuning=0
output_training=0
output_false=0
output_aspect=0
output_demux=0
output_data=0
output_srt=0
output_smi=0
output_timing=0
output_incommercial=0
output_ffmeta=1
output_ffsplit=1
delete_logo_file=1
output_mkvtoolnix=0
cutscene_frame=0
cutscene_threshold=10
[Sage Workarounds]
sage_framenumber_bug=0
sage_minute_bug=0
enable_mencoder_pts=0

[mpeg2video @ 0x560c6b392e40] Invalid frame dimensions 0x0.
[mpeg2video @ 0x560c6b392e40] Invalid frame dimensions 0x0.
[mpeg2video @ 0x560c6b392e40] Invalid frame dimensions 0x0.
[mpeg2video @ 0x560c6b392e40] Invalid frame dimensions 0x0.
[mpeg2video @ 0x560c6b392e40] Invalid frame dimensions 0x0.
[mpeg2video @ 0x560c6b392e40] Invalid frame dimensions 0x0.
[mpeg2video @ 0x560c6b392e40] Invalid frame dimensions 0x0.
[mpeg2video @ 0x560c6b392e40] Invalid frame dimensions 0x0.
[mpeg2video @ 0x560c6b392e40] Invalid frame dimensions 0x0.
[mpeg2video @ 0x560c6b392e40] Invalid frame dimensions 0x0.
[mpeg2video @ 0x560c6b392e40] Invalid frame dimensions 0x0.
[mpeg2video @ 0x560c6b392e40] Invalid frame dimensions 0x0.
[mpeg2video @ 0x560c6b392e40] Invalid frame dimensions 0x0.
[mpegts @ 0x560c6b38c040] PES packet size mismatch
[mpegts @ 0x560c6b38c040] Packet corrupt (stream = 1, dts = 4867264254).
[mpegts @ 0x560c6b38c040] PES packet size mismatch
[mpegts @ 0x560c6b38c040] Packet corrupt (stream = 2, dts = 4867281534).
Input #0, mpegts, from '/volume1/media/tv/Today 3rd Hour/Season 8/Today 3rd Hour S08E65.ts':
  Duration: 01:00:59.73, start: 50421.961933, bitrate: 7963 kb/s
  Program 3 
  Stream #0:0[0x31]: Video: mpeg2video (Main) ([2][0][0][0] / 0x0002), yuv420p(tv, top first), 1920x1080 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 90k tbn
      Side data:
        cpb: bitrate max/min/avg: 19400000/0/0 buffer size: 7995392 vbv_delay: N/A
  Stream #0:1[0x34](eng): Audio: ac3 (AC-3 / 0x332D4341), 48000 Hz, 5.1(side), fltp, 384 kb/s
  Stream #0:2[0x35](spa): Audio: ac3 (AC-3 / 0x332D4341), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 192 kb/s
[mpeg2video @ 0x560c6b3c0340] gray decoding requested but not enabled at configuration time
Frame Rate set to 29.970 f/s

Initial audio pts =      0.000

 

[alex77777 16]

On 12/19/2025 at 3:54 PM, alex77777 said:

I recently updated emby server to 4.9.1.90 and it seems like comskip works fine but when in comes to my apple tv it only works every now and then. My apple tv it up to date on updates as well as the Emby app. I'm wondering if anyone else has noticed comskip being weird at times with the apple tv and if so what have you done to fix it?

 

On 12/20/2025 at 6:19 PM, BillOatman said:

Turn on debug logging and watch a show with commercials that should skip, when one does not capture the log to see why.
But also make sure conskip detected commercials where they are.

Upon further investigation it seems that the commercials are having trouble skipping at times specifically when watching with the Virtual TV plugin, if i go to the show how I would with any other show it will skip all commercials but when that episode is shown in the guide via Virtual TV it only skips sometimes. I haven't enabled debug logging yet but the conflict seems to be with Virtual TV and not commercial skipper its self.