[Astrocyte74]

For the past several years I've been using .edl Files to enable family safe movie filtering (as per the kodi wiki entry on .edl files - "Examples of use include can be to skip commercials, cut out content inappropriate for children, or skip over the half hour acid trip in 2001: A Space Odyssey .") . 

Since upgrading to kodi 18.5 - this feature appears completely broken.  I have confirmed this on an osmc build of 18.5 running on a Vero 4k machine (actually confirmed on 2 separate such machines) and on an 18.5 release running on Mac Os X and on 18.5 running on windows.

Here is the log file (*v18.5) from mac with playing a movie with an .edl file in the same folder:
https://paste.kodi.tv/bucigogoqa.kodi

And here is the log file  (*v18.5) from Windows:
https://paste.kodi.tv/liwipameda.kodi

With 18.4, .edl files worked.  Though, since v17 .edl files have caused a temporary audio sync issue but it always re-adjusts / catches up.  Here is a log for 18.4 running the same movie / edl file:
https://paste.kodi.tv/lumaxizemo.kodi

I recognize this may seem strange as according to 18.5's release notes, one of the improvements included  "Fixes to commercial skip (EDL) processing".  However - in my case the opposite seems to be true?

For further background information:

With v17.6, .edl files worked but as mentioned above had the audio sync issue.
https://paste.kodi.tv/xonijiwuko.kodi

With 16.1 - .edl files worked PERFECTLY with proper audio sync, etc.
https://paste.kodi.tv/dojelezulo.kodi

Thanks for any suggestions or help!  I really don't want to have to downgrade everything to 16.1.

[Astrocyte74]

I’m suspecting I may have either posted this in the wrong forum or it may be of little interest to the average Kodi-ite.

Any suggestions of which forum to post this to? Any chance a moderator could “move” it for me as I don’t see an option to do so?

Thanks!!!

[Karellen]

You have posted in the correct forum

It is not something I use, so have next to no experience with it. Also, it does not come up a lot on the forum, so it must have a very small userbase, which is probably the reason why you have had no response yet.

You are probably already aware of the wiki page here... https://kodi.wiki/view/Edit_decision_list

If you provide some edl files, I'll try to look at the issue.

[black_eagle]

I do use .edl files, but mine are auto-generated at the end of a TVHeadend recording to skip adverts. It's usually an rPi3B that plays back these recordings using LibreElec with Kodi 18.2.  Can't say I've noticed any issues with audio sync.  I also have v19 that has played a few recordings, again with no issues with audio sync when Kodi skips ads.

I'll set up a couple of .edl files to skip parts of films and edit this post later with the results.

[emveepee]

I recall in the github discussion on the fix there was an older format of comskip files that was not included .  Noting the errors in your pastebin I suspect the issue is with how you format your edl files not with comksip itself.

Martin

[Astrocyte74]

I do use .edl files, but mine are auto-generated at the end of a TVHeadend recording to skip adverts. It's usually an rPi3B that plays back these recordings using LibreElec with Kodi 18.2.  Can't say I've noticed any issues with audio sync.  I also have v19 that has played a few recordings, again with no issues with audio sync when Kodi skips ads.

I'll set up a couple of .edl files to skip parts of films and edit this post later with the results.

Thanks black_eagle for looking into this!  Just for further clarification, the audio sync occurs with muting, not with video skipping, so that may not be applicable with your set-up if you are using .EDL to skip commercials.   I would, however, be interested to see how your .edl files are formatted . . . . as Martin Mentioned above, he felt that based on my error reports there may be a formatting error with my .edl files.  Strange that they worked fine on pre-kodi 18.5, but nonetheless I'd be interested to see how to correct mine!

[Astrocyte74]

I recall in the github discussion on the fix there was an older format of comskip files that was not included .  Noting the errors in your pastebin I suspect the issue is with how you format your edl files not with comksip itself.

Martin

Thanks Martin - this is a good lead for me to look into for sure!  Looking through github discussions on this, I found this link (Kodi 18.4 does not skip commericals #16564) as the most recent regarding comskip / edl files in Kodi, though I couldn't see any posts there on how the formatting of .edl files may affect things.  Do you recall if there was a different github discussion I could look for?  Thanks for your assistance!

[emveepee]

It was this comment in a related thread that I remember https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/16596#...-530538585

Martin

[black_eagle]

An .edl file that skips adverts.

xml:
5.00    238.16    3

1101.16    1238.40    3

1789.84    1927.40    3

3302.12    3399.28    3

4067.96    4165.28    3

4827.24    4866.04    3

5035.72    5068.40    3

5758.32    5795.12    3

5987.68    6019.24    3

6671.88    6690.16    3

6881.68    6934.24    3

7649.32    7970.28    3

8617.04    9053.40    3

Those are times because the file it's playing is a .ts file and frame numbers are not supported for .ts files.  As a test, I'll change the threes to ones later and play it back and see if it goes out of sync.

[Astrocyte74]

An .edl file that skips adverts.

xml:
5.00    238.16    3

1101.16    1238.40    3



7649.32    7970.28    3

8617.04    9053.40    3

Those are times because the file it's playing is a .ts file and frame numbers are not supported for .ts files.  As a test, I'll change the threes to ones later and play it back and see if it goes out of sync.

OK, thanks black_eagle! I can see now that my .edl files are formatted the same as yours.  I am using times as well, though with a mixture of '1's (mutes) and '3's (skips).

02010.155    02013.076    1    #Muted:
02504.500    02510.500    3    #skip 
02540.259    02542.571    1    #Muted:
02668.205    02670.082    1    #Muted:
02693.924    02695.064    1    #Muted:
02848.000    02849.750    3    #skip 
02965.877    02966.377    1    #Muted:
02976.476    02978.837    1    #Muted:
03127.246    03129.611    1    #Muted:

Though your list had line numbers before each time entry - is that just formatting here or is that how the actual .edl file looks?

The audio sync issue, though, isn't my main concern as that only lasts  for a few seconds before or after a mute (and again only with Kodi 17 through 18.4).   

The main issue, is that these .edl files seem to be completely ignored with kodi 18.5. . . . No skipping // no muting occurs at all anymore.  This error occurs with Kodi 18.5 running on linux (Vero 4K box with OSMC), Mac and Windows.  I have tested this with mkv and mp4 files.  With 18.4 or earlier (including 18.2 which you are using) the same files worked fine (other than the audio sync issue with kodi 17 ---> kodi 18.4).

If you have time to test your files with 18.5 (the latest official build), it would be interesting to see if your .edl's still work.

Thanks again for your help with this!

[Astrocyte74]

It was this comment in a related thread that I remember https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/16596#...-530538585

Martin

Thanks for that Link Martin!
Reading through that forum - it appears that is the frame number format that is no longer being supported.

"using frame numbers with TS EDL files should no longer work. The theory is this is no longer a required use case."

All my .edl files are "time" based (with seconds) so I'll need to keep troubleshooting this.  Appreciate the lead though!

[Astrocyte74]

Not sure if this is helpful or not  . . . . but here is a sample .edl file that I made up that you could rename to match any video file and have it in the same folder to test this function.

If it works, it should:

• Mute from 4 seconds to 10 seconds
  
• Skip from 16 seconds to 28 seconds
  
• Mute from 32 to 37 seconds
  

I confirmed that this .edl file worked with Kodi 18.4, but not with kodi 18.5 on the same mp4 file.

[black_eagle]

Umm, can't test my .ts recordings on 18.5 as it would involve rolling back the TVH addon which is a system wide install rather than a portable one.  I have however tested my .ts and .edl files on Matrix and they work correctly.  I have also tested the same .edl file I posted here against an .mp4 file (this time in 18.5) and it skipped correctly.

The line numbers were just formatting here btw.  18.5 was built from lastest git master today and was running on Linux x86_64 (Ubuntu 18.04.1).  I'll try again with some different edl files and mix in some 1's and 3's to see if that makes a difference, but at the moment, I can't replicate it.

[Astrocyte74]

OK I think I figured it out!

The .edl files created by the Mute Profanity Plugin include an introductory and ending line that is nested with ###

###### This section is automatically maintained by the Mute Profanity plugin ######
00123.101    00125.458    1    #Muted
00311.228    00312.449    1    #Muted
00327.244    00328.244    1    #Muted
###### END Mute Profanity plugin section ######

If I remove these ## nested  lines (I need to remove from both the top and bottom)  the .edl file loads properly and everything works.  If there is even just a single # in those lines, the file won't work.

Strange that this wasn't a problem with all other Kodi versions.

Thanks for your help with this everyone!

2 follow up questions though:

1) Is this considered a "bug" that I should report / submit somewhere?  I suppose I can go through my several hundred .edl files and remove those lines manually, but if this could be fixed in kodi 18.6,  it may be nice!  I suspect this was an inadvertent result of 18.5's "Fixes to commercial skip (EDL) processing". 

2) There is still the annoying audio sync issue for a few seconds before and after every '1' (mute) where as with kodi 16.1 (and earlier builds) the mute worked perfectly.  Should I report this somewhere?

Thanks again for all your help!

[black_eagle]

If you want to report a bug, you should open an issue at https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/issues with as much detail as possible.  However, it might be reasonably easy to skip lines in an .edl file that start with a #.  I need to look at the code though to see if it's simple enough for me to fix. 

Congrats on figuring it out though.