MCE tool to strip commercials & convert to WMV

[damage]

if you use windows media center as a DVR, this tool will automatically strip out commericals for you and will convert to WMV to save disk space. i read about it here:

http://www.ehomeupgrade.com/entry/2068/strip_out_commercials

 

[electron]

I found this by accident last weekend (while searching TGB), I am going to try to see if I can have it convert all recordings overnight, so they are ready to be viewed next day, without commercials.

 

[Michael McSharry]

I tried it out last weekend. First thing I noticed is that it displays at 1024 x 768 and no scrolling window. This means it is not usable for me directly from MCE since my output resolution is 640x480 for a standard resolution TV.

I stripped out commercials and restored to DVR-MS format a recent recording of the movie Mission Impossible. It did fine at the start of the movie, but about 1/2 way through it looks as if it could not distinguish the movie from the commercials. It also left the segments from the "Dinner and a Movie" hosts which typically preceeded each commercial break.

I did not try to strip a folder.

In my case what would be useful would be to run the program on a second computer using the network to gain access to newly recorded programs. If seems that it would not be too hard to monitor a file who's file has not changed size in 5 minutes or so and then run the strip program on this new file and replace the full one with the stripped-down one. This would seem like a natural use. Are there modes of use for this or similiar programs to accomplish this objective or will it be necessary to make it a roll-your-own effort to put the automation logic around it?

I also did a conversion to WMP format. Can a file in this or MPEG format be played via MCE in full screen just like a DVR-MS format or only via WMP using non-integrated (keyboard/mouse) controls? Is this format perhaps in the "My Movies" arena? If so then what is gained by leaving it in DVR-MS format?