Hopefully not. MythTV just flags the start/end point for each detected commercial, in its database, and the playback can then auto-skip over those points, and the remote can be used to manually skip to the next flagged (start or end) point as desired.

Cheers

This feels like some sort of confessional.
Here goes nuthin-

I don't watch shows. When the TV gets turned on, certain channels get cycled through and if nothing good is on, the TV gets turned off. Typically, the channels are Comedy Central, History, and Discovery. Very rarely will I venture out into any others.
That said, some of my favorites are
Dirty Jobs
Any Live Stand-up (if it's good)
Dimitri Martin
Tosh.0
Southpark/Family Guy/Adult Swim
Mythbusters
Daily Show/Colbert Report
Pawn Stars

My housemate is hooked on Sons of Anarchy, so I follow along with that, but it's not something I'd tune in to on my own.
I like shows like Modern Marvels and How It's Made, but I don't pay attention to 'the new season' or which are repeats- it's pretty much all new to me since I don't watch that much.

I think the concept of a 'reality show' is glorifying some real idiots these days. It saddens me to see how far down 'The History Channel' has fallen from the original intent. I laughed when I heard about their new show- Madhouse. I used to race dirt oval in the 80's and, yah, lots of drama in the pits with the rednecks.

I'm a Dimitri Martin fan. I watched his CC standup special again yesterday and it was just as funny as the first time.

I had similar functionality documented in my PVR app design for ATI in 2004. I don't know if Sage supports its own chapterization or marking of points on the timeline of its recorded content. Comskip handles detection and output of data noting the location of the commercials. When integrating with Sage the information is passed to something else, but I haven't looked enough into it to get the full picture, so maybe it doesn't need to transcode after all. It would be nice to be able to just cut and concatenate.

Ok, I just did a little digging and it turns out Sage *can* support section markers. Another tool is used along with Comskip to modify Sage's DB with the data. I may give this a shot if the analysis is fairly quick.

EDIT: Ok, I've installed Comskip, a utility (service) called Dirmon2 which monitors the creation of files in specified folders and then the Comskip plugin for SageTV. My whole library of recorded programming is now having commercials marked.

I've tested playback on the pilot episode of Fringe and it's working well. The plugin supports auto-skipping which I haven't tested, but the remapping of the left and right buttons on the remote to jump around the episode are very nice. No more need to skip 2:30 and then a few presses of 10 seconds. Cool.

Thanks for bringing this up and prompting me to give it a shot Mark. It was pretty painless and in retrospect I wouldn't haven't gained anything by waiting until the next update. The plugin integrated fairly well and shouldn't break with any minor updates either.

Has anyone seen the series Leverage? I just caught a brief commercial for it (inserted into another show) and wanted to know if it's any good? Apparently in its second season, it's a TNT show. I suppose I've never heard of it because I don't have TNT up here and I don't think it's being carried by any Canadian stations that I do get.

Likewise, any comments on the series Hung? This one I did previously know about, just haven't seen any of it.

Excellent!

I use auto-skip with MythTV, and when it misjudges a commercial (about one in ten on CBC, and far less on all others) things are easily adjusted with a quick tap of the next/prev track buttons on the remote.

Cheers

I've watched the first few episodes of Hung. It's not bad, not great. It's far more about the main characters' lives than it is about the gigoloing. Thomas Jane does a good job playing a sad sack, and I've always liked Jane Adams.

Okay, I'm getting caught up on some of my backlog.

I just got to the episode of Fringe with the organ donation girl.

That episode you're talking about of Fringe is a season one episode they decided not to air originally. Probably to tighten up the overall story-arc, since it was another one of the episodes that didn't relate to it. The strange thing I found was that the episodes that did air aren't missing an episode number (at least if the number listed on TV.com are the real production numbers).

It was shown this season as a "special" and wasn't intended to try and fit in. They advertised it as a special event but didn't put enough emphasis on it by calling out something like "special lost episode from season one." I believe they used it both as filler and to test audience on that other time slot. It was on a Tuesday, right? Maybe they're planning on trying to put a Fringe/American Idol combo up against Lost next month.

The items mentioned aren't spoilers, since that episode is clearly a season one episode when both the things you mentioned were obviously true.

I have no idea when it was shown; I have a TiVo. Nothing in the episode called it out as a special.

The airing was advertised as a special prior to it airing. And I believe some days before because we saw the promo clip in the recording for something else. It's a fluke I saw the mention because I'm normally quick about skipping over commercial breaks.

I still enjoy the show, but I wish they'd do more with the larger story arc. It's one of the things that bugged me about X-Files as well. During the first season they built up this good back story with the ZFT, "the Pattern," Massive Dynamic, etc... This season they're letting it all go to waste. And even the very few episodes that contributed to the longer arc weren't as tightly integrated with the issues/points they set up last season as they could have been.

It seems like they're catering too much to the ability to show episodes out of order for possible syndication.

I disagree. I think they're doing an excellent job at playing with the larger story while doing the regular episodic stuff. It sounds like you're upset that they haven't mentioned stuff like the ZFT and other things you mentioned, but they're still dealing with the larger picture. It's all related, we just haven't seen how yet. Heck, I'd say at least half the episodes this season have dealt with nothing but the larger picture. The frozen heads, Walter's "missing pieces," etc. If anything, I like this stuff better. I found the ZFT stuff boring, and there's only so many times you can have Olivia storm in to Massive Dynamic and Nina say they don't know anything about the thing they obviously know about That gets super boring.

I think the show is doing just fine.

Well, except for the "special," which I saw no mention of as being a special, but then again I don't watch ads anymore, and there were no Fox shows that I watch that were airing before Fringe came back where I might have seen promos.


On a side note, Bitt, thanks for recommending Better Off Ted. I've plowed through the first season already, and it's simply hilarious. I love the nearly cartoonish reality it's set in, I love how likable they're able to make the lead (considering how annoyingly attractive and charismatic he is), I love that they cast Byron from Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and it took me a while to realize that there are only about two scenes that take place outside the company. It's a fantastic show, and you're right, it'll probably be canceled in no time, which is strange because I can't imagine it costs all that much. It seems like they must have about 4 different sets, and most of the actors I've never seen before, so they can't make all that much.


And on a final note, I was in TV heaven last night, as I was completely unaware that both Burn Notice and Supernatural were starting back up again. Supernatural had one of its weaker episodes, but that's meaningless for the show as even its worst episodes are still great.

Matt, the issue with one-off episodes, is like on the X-Files, they can easily get boring. And repetitive. And when the characters are isolated from the over-all arc they're no longer believable. At least in Fringe they'll still often make reference to the past and previously shared/disclosed/watched events. The characters need to keep growing and every episode should add to their "history" and persona. That's the saving grace and where the X-Files completely faltered. IMO, it's what started to damage it and eventually made it a complete POS (even before the larger completely dumb-ass mistakes).

Some of the best episodes of The X-Files were one-off episodes. Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose and Jose Chung's From Outer Space both come to mind. In honesty, the recent episode of Fringe that dealt with the Watcher reminded me of those. A little more heavy-handed, but similar in feeling. (The writer responsible for like 75% of the really good episodes of The X-Files, Darin Morgan, is now a consulting producer on Fringe.)

On the other hand, since The X-Files had no idea where they were going with their major plotline, the single episodes generally stand out as being better anyway.

I'd argue that the only good ones were the one-off episodes. I hated the mythology episodes.

Exactly what I was going to say. The problem with that show had nothing to do with the one-off episodes. If anything they saved the show. The problem with the X-Files was that Chris Carter clearly didn't have a single clue where he wanted his show to end up.

X-Files' worst crime, IMO, was the resolution of what happened to Mulder's sister. The end of that episode was beautiful and touching, but once it was over I realized that it completely demolished the entire motivation of the show's main character.



Bitt, we have extremely similar taste in TV. It's eerie. I frequently cite Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose as my absolute favorite episode of that show. I kept a VHS tape around of it for years, and now I simply keep that one episode on my hard drive at all times. Love it.

Another of my favorites was from one of the last two seasons. It's the episode starring Joe Morton (Terminator 2, Eureka), where he wakes up in prison not knowing why he's there, and each day he wakes up one day earlier.

A while ago I made a DVD with those to episodes and the one with Ed Asner and Lily Tomlin as ghosts.

Re: Spoiler: Not according to the Wikipedia article on her.

Ok, the last three seasons of the X-FIles were all but unwatchable, every single episode.

Chris Carter not knowing where the show was going is exactly my point. The over-all arc was shot. He kept changing his mind. The characters would grow and then backtrack in every way.

I don't want to see that happen to Fringe. BUt if you think anyone plans out a series years in advance... Well that simple doesn't happen. Any showrunner/creator that claims that is just blowing smoke up our asses. A show has to have some headroom and be dynamic enough to adapt to external pressures, so it can't all be carved in stone. I can live with that. But what the X-FIles did was inexcusable.

With Fringe, the most useless and boring episodes have always been the stand-alone ones. Not necessarily all of them mind you, but the only ones I've felt dissatisfied with have aways been stand-alone. I don't mind and actually appreciate side-cases, but they have to keep advancing the larger story arc. The whole Fringe division is supposed to be in place because of "The Pattern." This isn't the X-Files and frankly some of the cases they get brought in on, including the last one, are irrelevant enough that they should never have been called in the first place.

That said, I did like the last episode however.

Anyway, pushing the overall storyline isn't what necessarily makes a show good, so don't assume that's what I'm advocating blindly. If your overall story sucks or you have no clue how to actually develop a story, like say Kring from Heroes, then the show is going to suck crap even if every episode is directly linked to the previous. That guy might have a lot going for him, but TV is not one of those things. Seriously, he needs to find another line of work.

Well, it was one of your points. I was targeting the specific claim that the one-off episodes somehow hurt the show, when I think it was the opposite with that show.


I certainly believe that they can have a framework in place, and at the very least can plot out logical endpoints for their story.


Meh, I suppose I understand, but I never found them boring. They might not be as good as the rest, but I can't remember an episode I disliked so much.


No no, I wasn't assuming that. I certainly appreciate shows that find a great balance between the serial and the episodic, or at least don't pretend at one or the other. For everything I love about Lost, the one thing that leaves me a tad dissatisfied with the show is a slight lack of episodic structures. They're there sometimes, but it doesn't feel like it. But that's okay, because it makes up for it with a fantastic serial storyline.


Wow, I must have really misread that episode, or it simply became fuzzy in my head. My apologies, then. I still argue, however, that pretty much every single plotline in the entire show's run is muddled. I couldn't really tell you what happened in the show now. Maybe that's partly due to my age when the show was running, but I'm not sure I could entirely follow it while it was on.

A plan is not immutable. A plan is a plan. There are TV shows that clearly show that the ... author ... had a particular vision in mind. That doesn't mean he had 110 episodes written and blocked, and none of us (besides you, anyway) think that's what that means.

The X-Files didn't have a plan to take it into multiple seasons. They were flying by the seat of their pants and too many episodes were written with what appears to have been no oversight, leading to the same actors playing different versions of their characters.

You don't have to have the story blocked out into specific episodes, but with the type of series we're talking about (one with a serial element) you need to have some conception of an overall story.

How many show creators have said in interviews that they have the entire series carefully crafted out already in advance? A number of them, including Kring from Heroes as I recall. Even when they come up with an idea for a single season it's always gone to crap. Even for series such as 24 where the season's story is likely very well developed prior to shooting, they seem to have an easy time letting it go to crap.

Some writers and creators are better than others and can keep a series going as if it were all crafted out ahead of time. They take a look at past episodes and factor them in to future ones. Keeping a show cohesive and continuity in check is important and some people just don't have what it takes, even if only to manage this in the hands of others.

Um...that's what we've been saying. That was my example of an unplanned show. I don't know who you're arguing with here...


Again, exactly what we're saying, but something you specifically claimed never happens.


It's not my fault that you believed Kring when he said that. I could tell from 5 or 6 episodes in that this wouldn't be the case. Everyone was touting Heroes as being everything Lost wasn't (when it comes to reveals and plot development), and I was shocked by that. It was clear that this show had no clue what it was doing.


I do think that there are shows that don't have a clear end point, and some that don't even have a direction, but have writing teams that can make it seem like they do.

But what I'm arguing is that there are plenty of shows that have their endpoint in place. They have a framework upon which they hang many plotlines that can help them reach their ultimate goal of telling that story, even if they don't know what those plotlines will be when they're 3 seasons out. That doesn't mean that there will be a set number of seasons, because that decision is usually up to the studio execs and the ratings, but having that framework means they can shorten and extend the series if need be to get the story they want to tell in (though sometimes the networks don't give them the chance).

I didn't disagree with those points you made. I'm not arguing with anyone, what I was expressing was that I believed that this lack of direction and continuity in the X-Files is what made the show start to stink. I was a fan from day one of that show. Not too many later fans actually started watching the night of the original pilot broadcast. I even participated in usenet groups about the show, including a fan-fiction group.



That's not what I claimed never happens. What I claimed was that more than that doesn't happen, despite the claims of many creators/producers/showrunners. And not to say that anyone specific in this thread thought otherwise, but that a great many people (in general) do. Many times they have only an idea of the start, a couple of elements in the middle and how it should end. That's not even an overall story arc, but as you've noted, some people can make that work very well. IMO, this is what the creators of Lost had at most.



I didn't believe Kring. That's what I've been trying to say, is that generally speaking I don't put much faith in what the creators say. BUt what I did like about the show was that in the beginning it did seem quite well planned out and well serialized. I haven't really felt terribly happy since the last episode of season 1, however there have been a couple of highlights here and there.

I believe this whole sub-thread started with my desire to NOT see Fringe follow in the footsteps of the X-Files. Like Chris Carter, I don't have this whole thread planed out in advance, so it's not something I think would be very entertaining to someone catching up and re-reading at some point in the future.

Fringe has managed to do what X-Files couldn't do even within the first half dozen episodes of its first season. Develop and maintain a character arc that helps hold the series together. The characters are constantly being built up and don't generally (for lack of any apparent reason, such as a memory wipe) forget past events. I would like to see some additional back-references where appropriate as sometimes I think they're a little light on this. They're always referencing Walter's old work, but they also need to keep referencing facts/discoveries and elements of past episodes that can help with current cases, etc.

A counter example, of a show that I don't think has done this terribly well in some respects, but that I still quite enjoy, is Medium. How many times are Allison's friends going to doubt her and treat her like a pariah when she comes to them with a wacky dream? Really, this woman is *always* right, time to start putting some faith in her.

And B5.

Oh. My. God. That annoys me more than anything else on television. Really, that entire show is intensely frustrating. Everything you said is true, but I would add that Allison herself seems entirely clueless when she gets her visions. It's like "I had the strangest dream, I have no idea if it's at all related to this case that seems exactly like what I dreamed about."

Furthermore, the writers on that show seem to now have a clue how to write the visions she gets. In every episode, it seems like Allison is given one of two things:

1) So much information right off the bat that anyone watching, presumably seeing the exact same thing she does, can easily make the connections she needs to, but for some reason she's oblivious.

2) So little information - or misinformation - and she only gets everything she needs to at the very last minute. Whoever/whatever is giving her these visions is very unhelpful.

Really, I've been very disappointed at how little character and overall plot development that show has. In any other show, the public revelation of her abilities would have been a major point in the show, but after it happened on Medium, it's like nobody cares. And they could be doing some really interesting things with her kids' apparent abilities, but they only bring them up when it's convenient or if they have no idea what to do for a B-plot.


In contrast, I give you the first few seasons of Ghost Whisperer. I expected it to be a truly awful touchy-feely show and much worse than Medium. It was a bit gooey, but I was also amazed at how well they crafted a decent mythology and solid storyline. There were few plot holes, and the show had a great direction. Then they completely pissed it away in the fourth season when Hewitt took more control of the show, and seemingly kicked the very entertaining Jay Mohr off the show abruptly so that her honey, the horrible Jamie Kennedy, could take his place. Ugh.

Anyway, nevermind about the argument, Bruno. I think we're violently agreeing. I do know that some creators say they have everything planned out, and I agree that many don't. I, on the other hand, think some do. I think Lost was planned out, and I pretty much know that Supernatural was planned out. I also know that my favorite show, Avatar, was planned from the beginning to be a 22-episode-a-season, 3 season epic. Pretty impressive for a "kids show."

With regards to Avatar I wish it had been planned as a 4 season show so they could have dedicated one season to Air as well.

True, though it would have been a little difficult considering all the Air Nomads were dead.

Which, by the way, brings up the only flaw in the series, IMO. There's a lot of talk about balance, but they never consider what will happen to the world with all the Air Nomads and Air Benders gone. It's a little bleak, so maybe they didn't want to mention it in a kids show. Then again, maybe Aang and Katara will work on that...

So, no one's seen the show Leverage yet?

How about the new Starz series, Spartacus? Or White Collar on USA Network? This last one seems to be a take-off of the ending of the movie Catch Me If You Can - at least as far as the limited synopsis I've read portrays it.

Apparently Jeremy Kyle wants to make a US show. You lucky people!

Dammit!