Plex DVR Can Now Strip Commercials From Recordings
Plex has added an interesting feature to its DVR recording software. After the update, Plex users now have an option of automatically cutting out commercials from live TV recordings.
Unlike other commercial-skipping solutions available today, Plex's update cuts out the ads from the saved recordings permanently. Users can now see a new "Remove commercials" option in the Plex DVR settings, as first reported by Cordcutters News.
Users who are running the popular media center software need to take the specs of their computer or media server into consideration, however. Plex warns that it's going to take a capable CPU to handle all the video editing going on as their new software strips out the ads from video files.
"This process may take a long time and cause high CPU usage. Portion of your recordings detected as commercials will be completely removed from your video files," Plex described the new feature.
The feature will be rolling out as a beta version for Plex Pass subscribers, users who have paid for a Plex service subscription, according to Tech Crunch. This feature is expected to eventually come to all Plex users when it comes out of beta.
Users who want to test the feature need to update their media server to the latest version of their software; as of this time, that's version 1.10.0.4516, according to Plex. To get a media server up to this test version, they need to have a Plex Pass to unlock early access to new features.
According to reports, the new "Remove Commercial" feature looks to be working well on all platforms except for a few cases. Media servers running FreeBSD, as well as devices that cannot run video transcoding software, seem to be unable to take advantage of the new option.
