[mythtv] New Method for Commercial Detection.

[Daniel Kristjansson]

On Tue, 2006-05-02 at 21:22 +1200, Robert Dunn wrote:
> I start with a hand created database (perfect keys for the week or so 
> when they were made, depending on how fast
> the TV companies change their ads) what I would get with perfect keys 
> would be.
> 
> ----------*****---------*****--------
> 
> After a while I would get due to some commercials not being detected
> 
> ----------***-*---------**-**--------

I think this is a good starting point, but you might need
to add some kind of rating system. In larger countries the
selling of ad time is split, and often the local cable
operator sells local adds at the end of each commercial
break, these local commercials will only be shown at the end
of the break so it would never be 'caught' in the middle.

I think this audio signature functionality would be very
useful outside of commercial flagging. I've thought of using
signatures on the image frames to distribute program edits,
but this type of signature on the audio might work just as
well and be much faster. I'm a graphics guy, so my first
thought was about doing PCA on several series of images
around the edits, which would be a little expensive...

BTW My classic example for why you would want to do this
is Troi on ST:TNG. If you've ever watched that show you'll
know how much better it would be if every non-plot-advancing
conversation involving her was cut... I think a lot of old
TV shows could be improved through similar editing.

-- Daniel