Cbreak Remove Commercials from Avi Files

More and more PC users use their computer to record TV shows by installing a TV card that they then connect to the TV signal. This is not the only way to record TV to PC though, as you can also use one of the many streaming services available and record shows they make available on your system directly. The issue that some users experience now is that the recordings include commercial breaks as well as the tv show or movie that they want to watch. The freeware application Cbreak has been designed to help users remove commercial breaks from their recordings.

Cbreak works by scanning every frame of a video file, taking note of any black frames in the video. It uses these frames to divide the video up into segments. Once the segments are established, it has two modes that it can operate in:

In autonomic mode, it discards any video segments shorter than a certain time length (60 seconds is the default).

• In manual mode, it plays each segment for you and asks whether it should keep it or not.

When all this is done, it copies the good video segments into a new AVI file along with the corresponding audio. Pretty great, huh? You can also change any of the parameters Cbreak uses to make decisions about a video stream, so it can be adjusted to your specific needs.

It needs to be noted that the program works fine if commercials are punctuated before and after with a little bit of black space in the video stream, as it is used as the discovery method. If that is not the case, the program can't really be used.

Another option in this case would be to use a free video editing software like VirtualDub, and use it to remove the commercials that you have recorded with the tv show or movie. While it may take longer to remove the commercials, it is not as bad as it sounds, especially if you follow the steps of this tutorial.

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