The 7MC PC internal 1.5TB Seagate HDD allocated only for Recorded TV is almost full, so I figured it’s now time to use my WHS 8.25TB of storage for, and commercial removing / .dvr-ms editing software on, recordings I plan on keeping for a long time like my family’s favorite movies, which are all of course in HD (The Matrix, Horton Hears a Who, etc.).

At first, as I previously blogged about, I tried the latest versions of DVRMSToolbox / ShowAnalyzer, and with my first three attempts (on three different .dvr-ms recordings), the resulting recordings all had issues:

• Did not remove one commercial from The Matrix (recorded from AMCHD)
• Cut the end of a scene prior to commercial 5 seconds too early twice in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Chicken Little (both recorded from DISNHD)
• Removed the intro title scene including the beginning of the actual movie in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (recorded from AMCHD)

Here was my process: In DVRMSToolbox DVRMStoMPEGGui, in Input File text box double-click and select .dvr-ms file, in Output File double-click and navigate to \\WHS\Recorded TV then type recording name and select Save as Type of .dvr-ms, select Profile “Cut Commercials out of a DVR-MS file and output DVR-MS”, then click the Run button.

I’m pretty bummed about this because from the MissingRemote detailed article, EngadgetHD detailed article, and all the reading on TheGreenButton and DVRMSToolbox forums, I really thought DVRMSToolbox / ShowAnalyzer would have been much more accurate and effective in commercial removal / not removing desired content.

So, I went back to an “old faithful” piece of software called VideoReDo.  This software, that I know of, does not support unattended/automated commercial removal, but with limited interaction, produces a perfect commercial-free, audio/video in-sync throughout, metadata left in tact, high definition.dvr-ms recording.

Here’s my current 3-step process (NOTE: The E: and M: drives are internal to the Media Center PC, so VideoReDo is much more responsive when manipulating .dvr-ms files stored there):

1. Convert .wtv to .dvr-ms: In Command Prompt, run: C:\Windows\ehome\WTVConverter.exe “M:\Recorded TV\<file>.wtv” “E:\<file_preQSF>.dvr-ms”  /ShowUI
2. For non DISNHD recordings, in VideoReDo, click Tools=>Quickstream Fix.  Select Input File E:\<file_preQSF>.dvr-ms, Check Enable Filter (in pop-up showing resolution, click OK), Select Output File M:\<file_postQSF>.dvr-ms, and click OK.  Note, in the forums, Quickstream Fix = QSF.
3. In VideoReDo, open M:\<file_postQSF>.dvr-ms.  Cut very beginning and very end of recording, removing show aired before, and show aired after recording.  Click timeline right before 1st commercial and run “Start Ad-Detective Scan”.  Once scan completed, Hit F5/F6 keys to jump backward/forward to each marker where Ad Detective marked beginning and end of commercials, verifying accuracy and adjusting if necessary.  Click Save As button, navigate to \\WHS\Recorded TV folder, select Type of .dvr-ms and type in recording name and click OK.  Once completed, the final commercial-free .dvr-ms recording will be on WHS accessible from the Media Center PC and any extenders Movie Library section!

NOTE: I had to do the Quickstream Fix prior to the Ad scan on non DISNHD recordings because the other channels recordings actually have multiple resolutions thanks to some commercials being in a different resolution than the show/movie.  This was causing the pop-up error “TN Video Thread: Video Dimensions changed” to appear, requiring a restart of VideoReDo.  More details here.

For reference, software versions:

• DVRMSToolbox 1.2.2.1 R4
• ShowAnalyzer 1.0.59.783
• VideoReDo 3.1.4.549