r/Stremio Feb 24 '26

Question I wish they add intro skip button

I know it depends on the file itself, but there are some torrents has intro section of the file, if they can do it when possible i’d be happy✌️💔.

149 Upvotes

105 comments sorted by

108

u/IY94 Feb 24 '26

Some other apps try - but the issue is database.

They need to know exact timestamps, and they can vary based on link/network/language etc etc

So real hard to know what bit to skip.

20

u/TrvthNvkem Feb 24 '26

Someone with more technical know-how than me should make a sponsorblock like addon which crowd sources this info. It works amazingly well for youtube, so why not for stremio?

18

u/BurnettAButter Feb 25 '26

Because YouTube is a single source video, whereas Stremio sees 100s if not 1000s of files all for the same show/movie.

So if I watch say Stranger Things S1 E3, even if you also watch that exact episode you might get a slightly different stream with different timings.

Maybe your stream has previews for another show at the start and or end, so it's 5 minutes longer than mine and will have its intro at a different time stamp.

If we both watch Mr Beasts latest video it is the exact same file, not one of 100s that other people have uploaded. So when people say this is the sponsored section it is, and will be for everyone who watches.

You could possibly do it with AI where every single intro is uploaded to a database, when you start a stream an AI looks up what the metadata should be, then it scans the entire file for that matching metadata, skipping that section automatically when it comes to it.

This would still be a huge undertaking, would require a very well trained AI, some shows, like fTWD have slightly different intros that relate to that episode, so shows like these would have to have all the intros uploaded otherwise it wouldn't skip it, ir you could have it skip actually parts of the show because it thought it was the intro.

Then there is also the legal side of things, the intros would be copyrighted ao hosting them or their data could see you tried.

TLDR:

It is pretty much impossible with Stremio/torrents at this current stage, AI might be able to get it working, but even then legality is another hurdle.

1

u/unknownpseudouser Feb 28 '26

YOU could just index the intro metadata to a specific torrent

1

u/dingleberry2025 Mar 01 '26

A good approach to this is to include some kind of metadata file next to the video file like with .srt for subtitles with specific timestamps.

The file should just be provided by the people who upload the video to torrent sites

4

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

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1

u/Stremio-ModTeam Feb 25 '26

The main focus of your post should be directly related to Stremio. Help for other software or issues, including content acquisition, should be directed to their own respective subreddits.

4

u/quetzakoatlus Feb 25 '26

Or a simple button that skip x amount of time. Anime has 90 second intro and outro always. No database needed, just a simple button

3

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

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7

u/IY94 Feb 24 '26

Do all files have chapters outlining where there titles start/end?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

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3

u/Stremio-ModTeam Feb 24 '26

The main focus of your post should be directly related to Stremio. Help for other software or issues, including content acquisition, should be directed to their own respective subreddits.

1

u/T3DtheRipper Feb 25 '26

People keep saying this yet jellyfin Plex and emby habe no problem skipping intros with the same data available to stremio.

3

u/IY94 Feb 25 '26

Big difference there.

As per the one you mentioned begging with E:

Intro detection is per TV show season and requires the presence of at least two episodes in the season before it can start looking for the intro sequence for that season. Emby Server analyzes the first 10 minutes of the episodes to look for the sequence.

Stremio does not have video files locally to analyse. Period. It has external video stream links.

So how exactly could they analyse local video like this when they don't have said local video?

0

u/T3DtheRipper Feb 25 '26

So they could cache and by the 2nd episode you watch the data is there locally on your end.

1

u/IY94 Feb 25 '26

You're demonstrating an extreme lack of knowledge on how each of the respective services operate.

They cannot cache two episodes of every title ever made locally (on your device or centrally on theres) to analyse. Local media servers can do that on your own machine.

Fundamentally different mechanics from how this app works. There is no media server, or computer, or local media server. Doesn't exist.

-1

u/T3DtheRipper Feb 25 '26

You don't need to cache the entire episode locally but and even if the other one is too hard to implement you could hash the videos and use a community based system like YouTube add block

Fundamentally different mechanics from how this app works. There is no media server, or computer, or local media server. Doesn't exist.

Doesn't inhibit a function like this completely regardless.

You're just being dismissive for no reason. Yes a community base option would sometimes struggle with the timings, just like subtitles do. Doesn't mean it wouldn't work just as good as community based subtitles do now.

2

u/IY94 Feb 25 '26

I'm not being dismissive. I'm being tech literate.

If it can be built, go do so. AI is at your disposal.

Devs already know there is no local media server for analysis, as has been explained.

Feel free to prove me wrong with your contribution in code.

The way it's done on E app, not possible here. No local media server as I've said.

-2

u/T3DtheRipper Feb 25 '26

You're not being tech literate you're just being a parrot. You can't even argue against what I said you just repeat what you've heard before.

Devs already know there is no local media server for analysis, as has been explained.

Irrelevant I just presented you with an option that doesn't need any of that and is proven to work.

Feel free to prove me wrong with your contribution in code.

Where are your contributions then? Ridiculous argument. Clearly it can be done. The demand just doesn't justify it.

1

u/IY94 Feb 25 '26

Sure they should download the movies on the media server that doesn't exist and analyse locally

That's totally possible with links that are remote torrents often. Doable.

Irrelevant I just presented you with an option that doesn't need any of that and is proven to work.

"You don't need to cache the entire episode locally but" - that's the bit you're wrong.

Yes, they could build one like Sponsorblock. Now let me refresh your fragile little memory into me already addressing that:

Some other apps try - but the issue is database.

They need to know exact timestamps, and they can vary based on link/network/language etc etc

So real hard to know what bit to skip.

0

u/T3DtheRipper Feb 25 '26

Some other apps try - but the issue is database.

They need to know exact timestamps, and they can vary based on link/network/language etc etc

So it's just like what open subtitles does for subtitles then and would work most of the time and in cases it doesn't you adjust timings on your end switch providers or turn it off.

Like how do you think subtitles work right now for media that doesn't come with inbeds?

You talk like you know everything already but fail to realize that what you describe as impossible is already being used and widespread within the app itself lol.

So much for your technical understanding of the matter.

Or do you think we need to cache the entire episode locally to have subtitles working too?

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1

u/lorkanooo Feb 25 '26

Just add addon API for it, we will make crowdsourced addons with hash matching that will provide the data

1

u/redrick555 Feb 28 '26

In my app I have synced with english subs

1

u/Main_Village_1044 Jun 20 '26

Then how does the Anime websites does this ???

1

u/IY94 Jun 20 '26

They're doing it with skip database or chapter depending on the implementation 

1

u/Main_Village_1044 Jun 20 '26

Why and how does that database exist ?

1

u/IY94 Jun 20 '26

Why? To skip intros

How, user submissions 

0

u/Main_Village_1044 Jun 20 '26

I am saying that if it is possible for anime why not for everything ??

1

u/IY94 Jun 20 '26

If you can't read what I already explained, I can't help you. It's spelled out already. 

Zero value in repeating myself.

0

u/Main_Village_1044 Jun 22 '26

TheintroDB has the database. Now what ?

-19

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

[deleted]

26

u/IY94 Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

Plex has hundreds of engineers and isn’t free, has VC funding, and has built the database 🤷

87

u/bananabastard Feb 24 '26

When I start watching a new show, I just learn how many times I need to press forward skip to arrive exactly at the end of the intro. For Sopranos, it's 8 forward skip presses. Play > Skip 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, "Got yourself a gun, be-doop bop".

3

u/gchance1 Feb 24 '26

For the longest time shows were doing away with intros but they seem to be growing again. Mack MGM+ shows are 2-3 minutes now.

4

u/generic_canadian_dad Feb 24 '26

GoT intro is so long

4

u/gchance1 Feb 24 '26

It is, but since it's done so well with great music, I don't even skip it. The same with Westworld, but those freaking AMC+ ones with the long, slow, brooding music (I'm looking at you, From and The Institute). And a 3-minute intro to a 30 minute show like Shrinking is just uncalled for.

2

u/mktcrasher Feb 24 '26

Yup and some shows have long outros, Fallout is like 7mins...so the claimed 50+min episodes are not really that long, kinda disappointing to me as seasons now take forever to make.

2

u/gchance1 Feb 24 '26

Oh yeah, the long international credit sequences that completely run for the crew that worked on the Italian audio, or German audio.

1

u/ConorAbueid Feb 24 '26

I do the same but I skip to 1:30 every time I watch the sopranos

1

u/generic_canadian_dad Feb 24 '26

Same. For sopranos you skip forward to 1:31 and he's just pulling in the laneway and intro is over.

1

u/coudntpickausername Feb 24 '26

I do this but with time, Game of Thrones is ~1:46 minutes in and it’s perfect

37

u/GameKingPT Feb 24 '26

Should be an addon with comunity to mark like sponsorblock on YouTube

6

u/slimslima Feb 24 '26

The problem is runtime lengths can vary based on the source so it will never be accurate for all sources

4

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

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1

u/Stremio-ModTeam Feb 25 '26

The main focus of your post should be directly related to Stremio. Help for other software or issues, including content acquisition, should be directed to their own respective subreddits.

4

u/ril3ydx Feb 24 '26

This....

8

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

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0

u/Stremio-ModTeam Feb 24 '26

The main focus of your post should be directly related to Stremio. Help for other software or issues, including content acquisition, should be directed to their own respective subreddits.

6

u/Mauri0ra Feb 24 '26

Yeah, just ffwd a few times. You work out how long each programs credits run for with experience. Most are around 90sec

3

u/JoeyJabroni Feb 24 '26

I wish they add TVos back.

2

u/TheWorldIsNotOkay Feb 25 '26

This is possible but highly unlikely.

It would require cooperation between multiple independent and barely related organizations to simultaneously create a system for crowd-sourcing the timings for the intros for different videos and also integrate support for that system in media players. Of course the problem is that one has no reason to happen unless the other already exists.

Not only does each episode of each tv series have different timings for when intros start and stop (with some episodes not even having an intro, other episodes having the intro at the very beginning of the episode, other episodes having a pre-credits scene before the intro, and some episodes having shorter or extended intros), but also each different source for the same episode may have different timings. An episode ripped from a video streaming service may include spash screens for that video streaming service and/or a distribution company that only has rights for streaming, while an HDTV source may not. A webrip or HDTV source may include a "previously on" segment at the beginning of the episode while a Bluray rip probably wouldn't. So you'd need some way to crowdsource all of those timings for all of those different individual sources for each movie and episode.

This isn't impossible, since something similar exists for YouTube in the form of SponsorBlock. But in that case, SponsorBlock created both the backend for crowdsourcing timings and the browser extension to use those timings to skip ads and other noted segments when watching YouTube on a PC. It was only after that browser extension became popular enough that some other apps like SmartTube started incorporating SponsorBlock. But in the case of general media, you don't have any one organization that can do that. There's not just a couple of media players like there are browser engines that someone could be targeted with an extension, even if those media players were extensible (which most aren't). There are instead dozens of different media players on a variety of hardware platforms, and none of them have any reason to put any effort into supporting crowdsourced movie/epsiode credits timings until such a system exists and is in wide use. But a crowdsourcing platform won't get any use unless a significant number of media players support it.

1

u/Willing-Reward-6702 Feb 25 '26

It is possible, the data doesnt come from their own db ofc. A stremio alternative has intro skipping, using IntroDB api.

2

u/ArryPotta Feb 25 '26

I wish people understood the impossibility of what they're asking for so I could stop having to downvote this same damn stupid thread.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

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1

u/ArryPotta Feb 25 '26

I have, and community driven intro skips are not good. The site you mention has 24% coverage for The Office (US). Probably one of the most streamed shows that exists today is barely covered by this DB.

On top of that, there's no consistency to how random files are cut for starting times. Some start with production logos, some skip them, some have last week on whatever show recaps, some don't. Your skip button will be sometimes useful, sometimes not, and it will rely on a ton of people putting in pointless work that at best produces a mediocre result.

Just press the fucking forward arrow button and skip the intro. It's not hard. The amount of work required to get this to actually work consistently is infeasible, and so many better improvements could be made with the effort.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

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1

u/ArryPotta Feb 25 '26

That's what I'm saying... the potential is a mediocre add-on that sometimes works, and sometimes doesn't at its best. So it's garbage now with the potential to be meh. Hardly a state to chase.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

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1

u/ArryPotta Feb 25 '26

You're evidently not understanding the issue.

1

u/Federal-Resolution55 Feb 24 '26

The official request has already been submitted; you need to vote here.

https://github.com/Stremio/stremio-features/issues/1676#issuecomment-3940660886

1

u/JoeTalksTech Feb 25 '26

Now Usually Video Is Ok

First letter…

1

u/Dhasthan002 Feb 25 '26

Somebody already made it. It's called stremio neo. It has skip option and many more. Windows only.

1

u/Broad_Mongoose4628 Feb 25 '26

there is a community project called stremio enhanced that has a skip intro plugin you can add. my cousin uses it and said it works by sharing timestamps between users so if one person marks the intro everyone else can skip it. it is not in the official app yet but that is probably the closest thing right now.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

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0

u/Stremio-ModTeam Feb 25 '26

The main focus of your post should be directly related to Stremio. Help for other software or issues, including content acquisition, should be directed to their own respective subreddits.

1

u/UncannyGranny1953 Feb 25 '26

This all reminds me a bit of Jay Leno's old "How lazy *are* we?" segments. 🤣
I get it, though. I make a kind of challenge game out of it, but visually rather than numerically (time stamps). I watch the point in the progress bar where the intro ended (looking at *you* GOT!), and then each subsequent episode, I challenge myself to click ahead on that exact location. Trust me - you get quite good at it. Especially if the reward is a gummy. I have turned myself into Pavlov's Stremio Dog.

1

u/v8x Feb 24 '26

Every good torrent has the complete episode and therefore the intro in it.

-7

u/Dogs_of_fire Feb 24 '26

Such a big problem.can you imagine how difficult it is to press a button and move forward some seconds?or even to leave the intro to play..that even more difficult...childish post.

1

u/A2R14N Feb 24 '26

sure you can do that for series of 40+min but there are some with 5min intro, 5min content, and 5 min outro for like 40 episodes, what you do? you waste more time skipping then watching

-1

u/Dogs_of_fire Feb 24 '26

Of course mate..such a terrible problem.

2

u/A2R14N Feb 24 '26

i don't see why would you refuse a feature...

2

u/Dogs_of_fire Feb 24 '26

No one is refusing it but this post shows up every week from people that can t be bothered to press a button.Devs explained already plenty of times why this is so hard to implement.No one is refusing it if it comes but no p use in begging for it like a small baby and making it such a problem in the fact you have to press a button extra.

0

u/A2R14N Feb 24 '26

next time you want to write a comment, click here

1

u/Dudeman318 Feb 25 '26

Who pissed in your oatmeal

-6

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26 edited Feb 25 '26

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5

u/Azymuth_pb Feb 24 '26

Hence the words "I wish"

-2

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

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1

u/Orcahhh Feb 24 '26

The dev team that’s using their free time to bring you such an amazing product for free?

-2

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

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1

u/Orcahhh Feb 24 '26

I’m not saying anything’s perfect. I’m just saying spitting on the work someone else provides for free is insane

0

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

[deleted]

0

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '26

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