Utility: DirMon v0.2.4 (Updated 3 September 2005)

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by snipeman

Bug report:

DirMon is not saving the settings on timeout of a processor.

Originally Posted by snipeman

When entering an ignore filename, if you hit cancel, it still puts a blank entry in the list

Fixed and update posted.

Jere

[snipeman]

Both bugs test as fixed for me.

At the bottom of this message is my updated INI: If you don't see anything else I should adjust, I'm just going to let DirMon work as is for the short term.

I've purchased a MYHD-130 tuner card, and I may look into having DirMon kick off some post processors on some of my HD Transport streams. Gotta keep that media server busy! Wasting CPU cycles is sinful, right?

Thanks for all the work you put into the program. It looks pretty complete for the average Sage user who doesn't run Cayars, or for the Sage user who wants to process from a media server and not their Sage server/client PC.

It should definately be mentioned in the Sage utility and external program threads as a useful resource to the Sage user.

Hopefully my bug testing and suggestions have been helpful!

Regards,

Andy

; DirMon initialization file
; Copyright (c) 2005
; Jeremiah M. Jones
; DO NOT EDIT MANUALLY
Version = 0.2
StartInTray = 1
Frequency = 300
WhileLive = 0
WhileRecording = 1
Directories = I:\\SageTV
Source = mpg,mpeg
Target = txt,log,ccyes,ccno,smi,srt
BlackoutEnabled = 1
BlackoutStartTime = 1830
BlackoutEndTime = 2300
TimeoutEnabled = 1
TimeoutLength = 3600
[Processor 0]
Path = I:\SageTV\Processors\comskip.exe
Hide = 1
Ignore = Bullshit*,Carnival*,Combat*,Fawlty*,Frontline*,Nova*,RealTime*,Soprano*,TheWire*,Nature*,NationalGeo*
DoesExistLogic = OR
BothLogic = AND
DoesNotExistTrigger1 = txt
DoesNotExistLogic = AND
[Processor 1]
Path = I:\SageTV\Processors\mpg2srt.exe
Hide = 1
DoesExistLogic = OR
BothLogic = AND
DoesNotExistTrigger1 = smi
DoesNotExistLogic = AND

[justme]

Just wished to say thanks for the new version. I've downloaded and semi-tested it on a different machine. I won't get a chance to really try it out til the weekend, so you may hear more from me then.

Quick impressions:
good>Like the new logic. Love the fact that you added more logic control, even within the does/doesn't exist trigger boxes. ie two boxes for each, with a toggle for logic used.
Tabs work great.
suggestions>Allow the "delete" key(the actual keyboard key) to be used to remove an "ignore". Small thing just found it a little wierd.
Along similiar lines when you delete an ignore I'd like focus to go to the ignore just below, as that one would now fill the slot left by the deletion. Currently focus(blue bar) goes totally away from the ignore box. Once again no biggy, but could be usefull for when you're doing major changes to a proccessor's setup.
questions>Are mutliple(comma seperated) triggers per box still allowed/used with the new logic setup? See my sample/test ini for an example of what I mean.EDIT>Appearantly not, a quick test of this setup caused comskip to be repeatedly executed. I understand the use of two boxes for triggers and that you've allowed "or" logic, but there may rarely be cases where you want more than 2 triggers to be checked. Anyway, I answered my own question and two is plenty so far.<EDIT
EDIT2>Ignore the section below. Clicking "X" still sends to tray. I just couldn't see the full text of the option boxes. I'm guessing this has to do with me using nonstandard size fonts, as I see this type of thing in many apps. Sorry.<EDIT2
Where did the ability to send DirMon to the tray by clicking the "X" go? Seriously, this is no big deal at all. I understand you are working with limited UI space. Could you maybe allow it by manually editting the ini to set send to tray on "X"? I know you say not to edit the ini manually, but I thought maybe this way it could be added back without using UI space. However I realize this is something that is not likely to be used by most people, so I'm cool.

Test ini:
; DirMon initialization file
; Copyright (c) 2005
; Jeremiah M. Jones
; DO NOT EDIT MANUALLY
Version = 0.2
StartInTray = 0
Frequency = 600
WhileLive = 0
WhileRecording = 1
Directories = T:\\Recorded shows
Source = mpg,mpeg
Target = txt,log,ccyes,ccno,txt
[Processor 0]
Path = T:\Tivo\comskip.exe
Hide = 0
Ignore = Nova*
DoesExistLogic = OR
BothLogic = AND
DoesNotExistTrigger1 = txt,log
DoesNotExistLogic = OR

PS:Small donation has just been sent. I just used your sig's link for Comskip donations. Have a sandwich and drink on me. You'll defintely get more once Comskip TNG comes out, promise.

/justme

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by justme

suggestions>Allow the "delete" key(the actual keyboard key) to be used to remove an "ignore". Small thing just found it a little wierd.
Along similiar lines when you delete an ignore I'd like focus to go to the ignore just below, as that one would now fill the slot left by the deletion. Currently focus(blue bar) goes totally away from the ignore box. Once again no biggy, but could be usefull for when you're doing major changes to a proccessor's setup.

Unfortunately, I have been unable to get any keyboard events to register. That's why the TAB button doesn't take you to the next box. I must have done something wrong setting up the dialog box, but I don't know what. It's something that I'll look at though. For now, you can use the shift and control keys to select multiple ignores or directories. Hitting remove will then remove all the selected items. I hope that's good enough for now.

Originally Posted by justme

I just couldn't see the full text of the option boxes. I'm guessing this has to do with me using nonstandard size fonts, as I see this type of thing in many apps.

I wish there was a way to fix this, because I saw it in some of the screenshots posted here, but (again) I don't know how.

Originally Posted by justme

PS:Small donation has just been sent. I just used your sig's link for Comskip donations. Have a sandwich and drink on me. You'll defintely get more once Comskip TNG comes out, promise.

Your donation is certainly appreciated!

Side note #1) This little utility has resulted in more donations than comskip by a $2 to $55 margin. Go figure... {shrug} I would have figured comskip was more useful, but, hey, you don't go fishing with pizza, right?

Side note #2) Comskip:TNG will be known as ShowAnalyzer because it will do more than only find the commercials. It will (eventually) also determine the presence of closed captions as comskip does now. And it will (again, eventually) output the srt or smi or sub files so that running 2 programs on it will be unnecessary.

Side note #3) My test run this morning had ShowAnalyzer running at over 600fps on a 2.4GHz P4M laptop. An alpha release should be available shortly.

Jere

[justme]

Unfortunately, I have been unable to get any keyboard events to register... For now, you can use the shift and control keys to select multiple ignores or directories. Hitting remove will then remove all the selected items. I hope that's good enough for now.

That works for me, thanks for the suggestion.

Quote:

I wish there was a way to fix this, because I saw it in some of the screenshots posted here, but (again) I don't know how.

No worries it seems to be a common issue, so I blame MS.

Side note #1) This little utility has resulted in more donations than comskip by a $2 to $55 margin. Go figure... {shrug} I would have figured comskip was more useful, but, hey, you don't go fishing with pizza, right?

Glad to see your contributions to the comunity are being rewarded. I can only think of 2 or 3 other people who have given as much to the comunity.

Side note #2) Comskip:TNG will be known as ShowAnalyzer because it will do more than only find the commercials. It will (eventually) also determine the presence of closed captions as comskip does now. And it will (again, eventually) output the srt or smi or sub files so that running 2 programs on it will be unnecessary.

Great to hear about you eventually adding smi/srt output. I really can't say how happy, your efforts to add CC support in ShowAnalyzer makes me. While on the topic of ShowAnalyzer, will it output(optionally) a index file of what it guesses are all the scene changes(regardless of if SA eventually decides it's a commercial or not)? Such a feature would be usefull for jumping to points in a show to fine tune edits. Think of VideoRedo's AdDetect marker's and marker jumping functions as an example of a possible use. As you likely know there is a STV Mod in the works to allow show editting(well at least cut mark selection) through Sage's UI.

Side note #3) My test run this morning had ShowAnalyzer running at over 600fps on a 2.4GHz P4M laptop. An alpha release should be available shortly.

Once again I can't say how happy I am.

BTW: Sorry for going OT with this post to mostly ShowAnalyzer related stuff. Feel free to ignore my question(feature request) or answer it in the Comskip thread, when you do get around to actually releasing some code.

/justme

[snipeman]

But... but...


If you make ShowAnalyzer output the CC files as well as the commercial gaps, I won't have any excuse for 2 processors in DirMon!

Comon Jere, what other cool processors can we run?

As far as ShowAnalyzer, if you want me to test I'll be happy to. I've got grainy basic cable and super-clear DTV sat to put it though its paces on. I would be ashamed to run a pre-alpha


Andy

[justme]

Oh, a post in another thread (streaming Sage content over internet) reminded me of another important feature request for DirMon. Can you please add a check for the age(size as well, see 3rd paragraph) of the file. ie how many hours or days old is the "source" file.

This could then be used as a conditional on whether the processor is launched. Obviously it should be a per processor(Tab) check, not a global check. This would come in handy for cleaning up small LiveTV chucks after say 3 hours old (I know there are other ways, just an example). It could also be used to launch a compresssor, as a processor, on files that are over a certian age.

BTW:A check for filesize would be very usefull as well. Both of these functions would ideally be able to be setup to launch the proccessor if the age/size has been passed or not yet reached. In other words, you should be able to launch a proccessor if a file is under OR(by toggle box?) over 300MB. Same goes for the age, you can launch the proccessor if the file is younger than X minutes/hours OR older than X minutes/hours.

As for a user making use of both checks(size and age) for a proccessor's target, you could use the same mechanism you did for the exist/doesn't-exist triggers. ie A toggle box for AND/OR of the date and size triggers. Alternatively, you could setup it up so that you enable the date/size conditional by putting a checkmark in a box. So if there is no checkmark in the Date check box then that entry area is greyed out and unaccessable. The same would go for the Size conditional. If the user put a checkmark in both the size and date conditionals, then it would be obvious that they wanted both to be checked for the specific over/under age/size data they entered. This setup may be simpler/easier for users to understand but would mean that if both conditionals are used they both need to be true, it couldn't be run if either is true. Whatever setup you think works best would be fine with me. But the first option would be more consistant with the other trigger logic to me. It would also add a little more versatility if the user ever needed it.

I realize that simple checks like this could be done from a batch/scipt, as a proccessor, that then launches the true desired exe. Still this would mean that DirMon would not be able to monitor the CPU usage of the correct app(once throttling is added). Using a batch or script would mean that DirMon would be looking at the batch/script's CPU usage which would be totally misleading. Having these two conditional's checks internal to DirMon would be so much better, IMHO.

/justme

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by justme

Oh, a post in another thread (streaming Sage content over internet) reminded me of another important feature request for DirMon. Can you please add a check for the age(size as well, see 3rd paragraph) of the file. ie how many hours or days old is the "source" file.
This could then be used as a conditional on whether the processor is launched. Obviously it should be a per processor(Tab) check, not a global check. This would come in handy for cleaning up small LiveTV chucks after say 3 hours old (I know there are other ways, just an example). It could also be used to launch a compresssor, as a processor, on files that are over a certian age.

Interesting idea. Good idea. I like it. I'm gonna do it.

Originally Posted by justme

BTW:A check for filesize would be very usefull as well. Both of these functions would ideally be able to be setup to launch the proccessor if the age/size has been passed or not yet reached. In other words, you should be able to launch a proccessor if a file is under OR(by toggle box?) over 300MB. Same goes for the age, you can launch the proccessor if the file is younger than X minutes/hours OR older than X minutes/hours.

Never happy. Always ONE more option... idea... whatever...

Originally Posted by justme

As for a user making use of both checks(size and age) for a proccessor's target, you could use the same mechanism you did for the exist/doesn't-exist triggers. ie A toggle box for AND/OR of the date and size triggers. Alternatively, you could setup it up so that you enable the date/size conditional by putting a checkmark in a box. So if there is no checkmark in the Date check box then that entry area is greyed out and unaccessable. The same would go for the Size conditional. If the user put a checkmark in both the size and date conditionals, then it would be obvious that they wanted both to be checked for the specific over/under age/size data they entered. This setup may be simpler/easier for users to understand but would mean that if both conditionals are used they both need to be true, it couldn't be run if either is true. Whatever setup you think works best would be fine with me. But the first option would be more consistant with the other trigger logic to me. It would also add a little more versatility if the user ever needed it.

At least you are describing exactly what you want and it's always easier to program to a spec vice a guess.

Originally Posted by justme

I realize that simple checks like this could be done from a batch/scipt, as a proccessor, that then launches the true desired exe. Still this would mean that DirMon would not be able to monitor the CPU usage of the correct app(once throttling is added). Using a batch or script would mean that DirMon would be looking at the batch/script's CPU usage which would be totally misleading. Having these two conditional's checks internal to DirMon would be so much better, IMHO.

Not a problem. I'll (try to) incorporate these additions.

It may take a little while because I first want to get ShowAnalyzer out to a few alpha testers first. Everytime I think I have it ready to pack and ship I run into "one more thing" that I want to do before hand.

Jere

[AndyS]

Here's one more vote for having DirMon able to run as a service. My back-end machines are Win2K3 servers and it would be great to have DirMon running on one of them without having to keep a terminal-services session open to handle the program.

Andy.

[iamnaeth]

I'm sorry Jere Jones. I asked in the comskip thread and you pointed me here. How do I use this with comskip to make it only run between 12:00AM and 6:00AM?

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by iamnaeth

I'm sorry Jere Jones. I asked in the comskip thread and you pointed me here. How do I use this with comskip to make it only run between 12:00AM and 6:00AM?

How far did you get in setting it up?

Jere

[snipeman]

Jere,

What happens if I try to set a blackout time that crosses over midnight, or crosses over a day border?

For example, is 23:00 to 02:00 permissable? Will this yeild a 3 hour blackout, or a 21 hour backout?

My media server can't handle streaming HD content while comskip is running. I need to push back my blackout time a little.

Thanks,

Andy

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by snipeman

Jere,

What happens if I try to set a blackout time that crosses over midnight, or crosses over a day border?

For example, is 23:00 to 02:00 permissable? Will this yeild a 3 hour blackout, or a 21 hour backout?

My media server can't handle streaming HD content while comskip is running. I need to push back my blackout time a little.

Thanks,

Andy

It will result in a 3 hour quiet time. It starts at whatever time is in the start block and stops at whatever time is in the end block.

Jere

[Wheemer]

After further review, I realized that DirMon isn't processing my comskip files. I didn't realize that Sage had turned on the feature and was handling it... So now that I've turned it off in Sage and double checked DirMon, it keeps saying theres nothing to do...

I've got comskip placed in the DirMon directory. Are there any command line options I should be setting, or something else I've over looked?

On a side not, I noticed that the comskip that's included in Cayars17 download is smaller and uses a couple additional Ini file settings, is it safe to assume that it uses an older version?

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by Wheemer

After further review, I realized that DirMon isn't processing my comskip files. I didn't realize that Sage had turned on the feature and was handling it... So now that I've turned it off in Sage and double checked DirMon, it keeps saying theres nothing to do...

I've got comskip placed in the DirMon directory. Are there any command line options I should be setting, or something else I've over looked?

Can you post your dirmon ini?

Originally Posted by Wheemer

On a side not, I noticed that the comskip that's included in Cayars17 download is smaller and uses a couple additional Ini file settings, is it safe to assume that it uses an older version?

Actually Cayars17 uses a newer version. However the only change is that I modified it to output the .ccyes and .ccno files.

Jere

[Wheemer]

To organize stuff a bit more I placed comskip in it's own folder.

Here's my ini contents:

; DirMon initialization file
; Copyright (c) 2005
; Jeremiah M. Jones
; DO NOT EDIT MANUALLY
Version = 0.2
StartInTray = 1
Frequency = 300
WhileLive = 0
WhileRecording = 1
Directories = E:\\Rec,Z:\\Rec
Source = mpg,mpeg
Target = txt,log,ccyes,ccno
[Processor 0]
Path = "C:\Program Files\ComSkip\comskip.exe"
Hide = 1
DoesExistLogic = OR
BothLogic = AND
DoesNotExistLogic = AND

[justme]

I'm sure Jere will post more/better detail, but...

It's obvious from a glance that you don't have any triggers setup for your comskip proccessor. You need to do this under the tab for your comskip proccessor. You'd want to have an entry for the "does not" box/boxes. ie Put "txt" or "log", depending on your comskip ini's setup, in one of the "does not" exist trigger boxes.

Here's an example(crucial difference in bold) of one that should work based on my own DirMon ini:
; DirMon initialization file
; Copyright (c) 2005
; Jeremiah M. Jones
; DO NOT EDIT MANUALLY
Version = 0.2
StartInTray = 1
Frequency = 600
WhileLive = 0
WhileRecording = 1
Directories = T:\\Recorded shows
Source = mpg,mpeg
Target = txt,log,ccyes,ccno,txt
[Processor 0]
Path = T:\Tivo\comskip.exe
Hide = 1
DoesExistLogic = OR
BothLogic = AND
DoesNotExistTrigger1 = txt
DoesNotExistLogic = AND
[Processor 1]
Path = T:\Tivo\mpg2srt.exe
Hide = 1
DoesExistLogic = OR
BothLogic = AND
DoesNotExistTrigger1 = smi
DoesNotExistLogic = AND

[Wheemer]

Thanks, working now!

[snipeman]

Jere,

The version of COMSKIP you mentioned that makes CCYES and CCNO files, will it work standalone with DirMon?

If so, where do I find it? Buried on page 365456 of a Cayars thread?

Andy

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by snipeman

Jere,

The version of COMSKIP you mentioned that makes CCYES and CCNO files, will it work standalone with DirMon?

I don't understand. DirMon doesn't care what it runs and ComSkip doesn't care who runs it. {shrug}

Originally Posted by snipeman

If so, where do I find it? Buried on page 365456 of a Cayars thread?

Andy

Um... I believe it's only on page 254362.

Seriously, it is included in the later Cayars installation zips.

Jere