alex77777 16 Posted December 28, 2025 Posted December 28, 2025 I use Virtual TV to display the recorded antenna shows I have and I also have the Commercial skipper plugin enabled for those. Before updating to 4.9.1.90 the commercials would skip perfectly fine on my Apple TV 4k 3rd gen just fine but after the update the commercials only skip on the episode that I started on but all future episodes that play in that viewing session don't skip commercials. My playlist playback method is Playlist (Live) on Virtual TV. I thought it was a playlist issue with Emby so I added those episodes to a playlist outside of Virtual TV and they skipped fine so it seems to be how Virtual TV builds the playlist. All the other devices I have skip fine except for the Apple TV. Has anyone else had issues with the Virtual TV plugin since updating to 4.9.1.90? I see that the Virtual TV plugin hasn't had a new version in sometime so it seems that the newest Emby server update is to blame for this issue. If you need me to elaborate further let me know, this is kind of a niche issue and a little weird to explain correctly. Any help would be appreciated.
Luke 42077 Posted December 28, 2025 Posted December 28, 2025 Hi there, let's look at an example. Please attach the information requested in how to report a media playback issue. Thanks!
pünktchen 1409 Posted December 28, 2025 Posted December 28, 2025 @alex77777 Have you tried what i've told you - "Play on another device" with your Apple TV as a target?
alex77777 16 Posted December 28, 2025 Author Posted December 28, 2025 11 minutes ago, pünktchen said: @alex77777 Have you tried what i've told you - "Play on another device" with your Apple TV as a target? I tried that and when I play the episodes from the show page its self it works fine, but when I play it via Virtual TV it doesn't skip the Commercials expect on the one I started the view session on, every episode after that plays the commercials. When I get time ill have to look at the logs. It seems that I can only reproduce the issue by using Virtual TV.
pünktchen 1409 Posted December 28, 2025 Posted December 28, 2025 14 minutes ago, alex77777 said: I tried that and when I play the episodes from the show page its self it works fine... You really have used "Play on another device"? The thing is, VirtualTV does exactly the same.
alex77777 16 Posted December 28, 2025 Author Posted December 28, 2025 33 minutes ago, pünktchen said: You really have used "Play on another device"? The thing is, VirtualTV does exactly the same. Yeah I am definitely pressing the "play on another device" button, that's why I'm so confused. What I think I might do is reinstall emby server on my pc. I'm using Ubuntu and installed it via the snapstore (Ive heard this way can cause issues). I think I'm going to install it directly from the website this time and see if it fixes this issue. Ill reply to this thread with an update. I don't think its an issue with Virtual TV, its just I can replicate it with it for some reason.
pünktchen 1409 Posted December 29, 2025 Posted December 29, 2025 @alex77777Please do one more test: Play some video or preferable a real live tv channel the normal way on your Apple TV. While the video is still playing, repeat the "Play on another device" test on your server targeting your Apple TV. Does it make a difference?
alex77777 16 Posted December 29, 2025 Author Posted December 29, 2025 16 hours ago, pünktchen said: @alex77777Please do one more test: Play some video or preferable a real live tv channel the normal way on your Apple TV. While the video is still playing, repeat the "Play on another device" test on your server targeting your Apple TV. Does it make a difference? I tried this and I have the same results. It skips the commercials on the episode it starts on but next episodes that play don't skip commercials.
alex77777 16 Posted December 29, 2025 Author Posted December 29, 2025 @pünktchen it is worth noting that the video files are .ts, I wonder if this can have an effect on things although I didn't have issues in the past.
pünktchen 1409 Posted December 30, 2025 Posted December 30, 2025 On 12/29/2025 at 7:08 PM, alex77777 said: @pünktchen it is worth noting that the video files are .ts, I wonder if this can have an effect on things although I didn't have issues in the past. No, i don't think that's related. As a last test, can you please change the playback mode of your VirtualTV channel from Playlist (Live) to Playlist (Archive)?!
alex77777 16 Posted January 1 Author Posted January 1 On 12/30/2025 at 2:11 PM, pünktchen said: No, i don't think that's related. As a last test, can you please change the playback mode of your VirtualTV channel from Playlist (Live) to Playlist (Archive)?! It seems to have the same results, I even tried "play on another device" while having Playlist (Archive) set and still only skips commercials for the first episode.
pünktchen 1409 Posted January 1 Posted January 1 10 hours ago, alex77777 said: It seems to have the same results, I even tried "play on another device" while having Playlist (Archive) set and still only skips commercials for the first episode. Then it's time to ask the Comskip plugin developer @BillOatmanfor help. After playback has started, VirtualTV isn't involved anymore in any action.
BillOatman 596 Posted January 2 Posted January 2 On 12/29/2025 at 12:33 PM, alex77777 said: I tried this and I have the same results. It skips the commercials on the episode it starts on but next episodes that play don't skip commercials. So is this what is happening ... you play one episode and it skips commercials as you expect, then the next episode auto-starts and it does not skip commercials. But if you start that episode manually (not auto-start) it skips commercials as you expect? If so, cycle log, turn on debug logging, run it though the auto-start scenario, and I'll have a look. Even if I'm wrong, please generate that log and I'll look.
alex77777 16 Posted January 2 Author Posted January 2 1 hour ago, BillOatman said: So is this what is happening ... you play one episode and it skips commercials as you expect, then the next episode auto-starts and it does not skip commercials. But if you start that episode manually (not auto-start) it skips commercials as you expect? If so, cycle log, turn on debug logging, run it though the auto-start scenario, and I'll have a look. Even if I'm wrong, please generate that log and I'll look. Yes sounds like you are describing my issue correctly, When I get a chance I will get you the logs. may be a couple days, I'm a little busy at the moment. I really appreciate the help.
alex77777 16 Posted January 12 Author Posted January 12 (edited) On 1/2/2026 at 3:44 PM, BillOatman said: So is this what is happening ... you play one episode and it skips commercials as you expect, then the next episode auto-starts and it does not skip commercials. But if you start that episode manually (not auto-start) it skips commercials as you expect? If so, cycle log, turn on debug logging, run it though the auto-start scenario, and I'll have a look. Even if I'm wrong, please generate that log and I'll look. Just wanted to give a update. I'm still working on getting a proper log file (Ive been busy), but it seems to detect the EDL file when playback starts, it just doesn't skip throughout the episode. Strangely this morning the commercials skipping was working without issue for about 2 hours then it stopped working again. I haven't changed anything so this is very confusing. I definitely need to generate a log file so we can figure it out. This is what it shows when playback starts on each episode but just doesn't skip when the commercials play. But playback outside of Virtual TV it skips fine. 2026-01-12 12:10:56.349 Info Com Skipper: EDL file /mnt/Recordings/The People's Court (1997)/Season 23/The People's Court S23E09.edl found. Edited January 12 by alex77777
BillOatman 596 Posted January 13 Posted January 13 22 hours ago, alex77777 said: Just wanted to give a update. I'm still working on getting a proper log file (Ive been busy), but it seems to detect the EDL file when playback starts, it just doesn't skip throughout the episode. Strangely this morning the commercials skipping was working without issue for about 2 hours then it stopped working again. I haven't changed anything so this is very confusing. I definitely need to generate a log file so we can figure it out. This is what it shows when playback starts on each episode but just doesn't skip when the commercials play. But playback outside of Virtual TV it skips fine. 2026-01-12 12:10:56.349 Info Com Skipper: EDL file /mnt/Recordings/The People's Court (1997)/Season 23/The People's Court S23E09.edl found. If there is nothing in the log when it gets to a commercial that is detected in the EDL file, then the plugin did not get the notifications from Emby -- or -- since the behavior seems random, comskip might not be detecting everything. Look at the EDL file and when you see a commercial with no skipping, make sure that area is flagged in the EDL.
alex77777 16 Posted January 14 Author Posted January 14 9 hours ago, BillOatman said: If there is nothing in the log when it gets to a commercial that is detected in the EDL file, then the plugin did not get the notifications from Emby -- or -- since the behavior seems random, comskip might not be detecting everything. Look at the EDL file and when you see a commercial with no skipping, make sure that area is flagged in the EDL. Yeah I checked the EDL file and the commercials are definitely detected in it, just doesn't skip when played via Virtual TV. This issue seems to actually be easily replicated. I have a M4 Mac Mini as well and I just set up Emby on it and it acts the same way when I play recordings with comskip via Virtual TV on my Apple TV 4k 3rd gen. What my guess is as to what is happening is the Apple TV Emby app isn't updating its position in time accurately when played via Virtual TV.
BillOatman 596 Posted January 14 Posted January 14 1 hour ago, alex77777 said: Apple TV Emby app isn't updating its position in time accurately when played via Virtual TV. My (admittedly blind) thought would be the reverse of that. ATV shouldn't care where the command came from, so long as it is valid.
alex77777 16 Posted January 30 Author Posted January 30 On 1/13/2026 at 10:21 PM, BillOatman said: My (admittedly blind) thought would be the reverse of that. ATV shouldn't care where the command came from, so long as it is valid. Just a quick update, the Commercial skipping on Virtual TV is working again, but only on one of my Apple TVs which is the only one that really uses the commercial skipping, the other ones don't skip commercials when using Virtual TV still but that's alright. I've switched over to a M4 Mac Mini for my server recently and it still wasn't working but out of the blue one day the commercials started skipping again but only for that one Apple TV. Very strange behavior. Virtual TV version 2.1.7.4 Com Skipper version 2.1.1.1 Emby Server version 4.9.3.0 Apple TV 4k 3rd version 26.1 (Com Skipper works on this one) Apple TV 4k 3rd version 26.2 (Com Skipper doesn't work on this one with Virtual TV consistently) Maybe the tvOS version is the reason its having issue. idk. I'll update this thread if I ever figure out why is doesn't/does work. 2
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