Utility: ShowAnalyzer Beta

[chrysek]

Originally Posted by Endymion

Stanger's advice works great, and I quote:

"You have to open up the SA configuration, go to the SageTV tab, then fill in the info for the webserver. Then go to Automatic Profile Selection, and add a profile "DoNotProcess" and then setup the criteria for your movie channels."

This also works for file name, show name and category. That should be able to take care of most anything. When you use this it just makes SA create a 0 byte .txt file for all matching recordings, it's pretty much transparent to DirMon.

I've attached an example screencap below.

Awesome, that works.... I am so very happy, it is the best tool!!!! It has everything....



Thank you.

Chris

[geogecko]

Jere.

Is there a way to put in a "start processing new files" delay time? I think, but am not certain, that SA is trying to process a LiveTV file, because for about the first few minutes of each new show, the video is stuttering, and then all of a sudden, it stops. I have noticed that it takes a while before the previous LiveTV show is deleted, after the new one has started. I have set the comskip proxy (settings in SageMC STV), to process commercials while "active," which is what I prefer, if I only miss a show by the time it ends, I'd like the commercials still taken out of it when I watch it, offset by about an hour, or half hour.

Does that make since? I think it takes about 5 to 10 minutes for the previous LiveTV show to be deleted. Maybe I'm just making this up too, I don't know for sure if SA is really trying to process my LiveTV file or not...anyone else verify this?

[rich_l]

Geogecko,

There are a couple of options. You can throttle the amoun of cpu that showanalyzer uses. I have mine set at 70% and the shows still finish fairly quickly. Another method i have been experimenting with is to set dir mon to "process file even while being written too." This allows the commercials to be detected while sage records. So far the cpu usage has stayed below %10 while this is the case. Even while playing back other shows when one is recorded and the commercials are detected, it does not jitter or stutter any.

As for delaying, i think you will have to mess with dir mon's settings on the global tab.

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by geogecko

Jere.

Is there a way to put in a "start processing new files" delay time? I think, but am not certain, that SA is trying to process a LiveTV file, because for about the first few minutes of each new show, the video is stuttering, and then all of a sudden, it stops. I have noticed that it takes a while before the previous LiveTV show is deleted, after the new one has started. I have set the comskip proxy (settings in SageMC STV), to process commercials while "active," which is what I prefer, if I only miss a show by the time it ends, I'd like the commercials still taken out of it when I watch it, offset by about an hour, or half hour.

Does that make since? I think it takes about 5 to 10 minutes for the previous LiveTV show to be deleted. Maybe I'm just making this up too, I don't know for sure if SA is really trying to process my LiveTV file or not...anyone else verify this?

If you're running in free mode, then I don't know what can fix it. When SA starts up in free mode it is going to consume a lot of resources as it reads the entire file for the audio information.

If you're running in normal mode, the biggest help will be processing tht files "live" (i.e. as they are recorded). If you still run into an occasional stutter, then using the throttling should prevent that. On my P4HT3.0Ghz, I throttle it at 30%. That gives it plenty of processor when it rewinds and needs to "catch up".

I might look into adding a "delay" to DirMon, but SA won't be able to do anything to accomplish what you're asking for.

Jere

[geogecko]

Thanks, guys. I think I have mine set at 70% also. Is that what you are talking about Jere, when you say you have it throttled to 30%, or do you mean, 30%, actually?

I'm using the normal version. So, if I wanted to process files "live" do I need to use DirMon, or can the combination of the comskip proxy and SA do it alone? I have downloaded DirMon, but haven't installed it yet. I think the idea of live processing is a great idea, because a lot of the time, my wife gets home right in the middle of when her show is on, and that permits us to start watching it, but still having comskip...

Going to have to look into that.

Oh, and not to nit-pick or anything, but if you provided release notes with your updates, that would be cool. Just so we can see what is being changed with the new versions of SA and DirMon. I'm sure others would find it handy too. (Maybe I missed it somewhere?)

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by geogecko

Thanks, guys. I think I have mine set at 70% also. Is that what you are talking about Jere, when you say you have it throttled to 30%, or do you mean, 30%, actually?

I mean that I limit SA to a maximum of 30% CPU usage. When doing live analyzing, it normally takes 2-3% so 30% gives it lots of "speed up" space.

Originally Posted by geogecko

I'm using the normal version. So, if I wanted to process files "live" do I need to use DirMon, or can the combination of the comskip proxy and SA do it alone? I have downloaded DirMon, but haven't installed it yet. I think the idea of live processing is a great idea, because a lot of the time, my wife gets home right in the middle of when her show is on, and that permits us to start watching it, but still having comskip...

For now, to get live detection you need to use DirMon with both "Process while..." options checked.

Originally Posted by geogecko

Oh, and not to nit-pick or anything, but if you provided release notes with your updates, that would be cool. Just so we can see what is being changed with the new versions of SA and DirMon. I'm sure others would find it handy too. (Maybe I missed it somewhere?)

I always have the release notes posted here.

[geogecko]

Jere. Thank you. Missed those release notes, should have checked there.

Well, maybe I should throttle back SA to 30-40%. I mean, if it can handle it that low, then there is no reason I should let it go up to 70%, unless I'm recording a rather large amount of shows, which I'm not, since I currently only have 160GB of space.

I'll install DirMon this weekend, and give it a try. Thanks so much for the work on this software.

[nigfink]

Is anybody have problems using VideoRedo with the files created by ShowAnalyzer? I can get the file to open, and it shows the cuts, but when I try to output it I get a stream error. Any file that had comskip work on it is fine, but the ones that have now had ShowAnalyzer are not. I have tried many different versions of Redo and can manually edit the files, but I can used the project files. Help please!

Ok, it isn't putting the full UNC paths in the files. I can't get dirmon to work on \\10.0.0.2\tv It doesn't find files for some reason. Since I run VideoRedo from another computer I need it to have full UNC names. I'm gonna mess around some more.

I also have both "Process While..." checked. It used to work, I don't know why it wouldn't now. Any other ideas?

[bhageman]

I get fewer EOF crashes with my 350 card with Sage3, but I still get a few. I just installed ShowAnalyzer and everything works great, except that once in awhile ShowAnalyzer will have the last 2-3 minutes correctly marked as "commercial" so Sage will skip right to the end and I'll get an EOF crash. Comskip (intentionally or unintentionally) never marked the last minutes of a file for skipping.

Is it possible to have an option where ShowAnalyzer doesn't flag the last five minites of the files as "commercial"?

Thanks!

[Jere_Jones]

A new version is up. Enjoy.

0.5.4
- SchoolHouse: Timeline now updates after applying new settings.
- SchoolHouse: Fixed crash when going to Previous Transition if the cursor was already at the begining of the file.
- SchoolHouse: Selecting a different profile will now load those settings.
- SchoolHouse: Settings will automatically be applied when starting the analyzer.
- SchoolHouse: Tried to reduce the necessary screen real estate.
- SchoolHouse: An error opening a file no longer results in two errors, just one.
- Added ability to pad commercials in the .txt file.
- Added DVR-MS support.
- Corrected file closure problem.
- Made adjustments to closure path. Hopefully fixed crashes at the end of processing.
- Added "invisible" mode.

Jere

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by nigfink

Ok, it isn't putting the full UNC paths in the files. I can't get dirmon to work on \\10.0.0.2\tv It doesn't find files for some reason. Since I run VideoRedo from another computer I need it to have full UNC names. I'm gonna mess around some more.

There is an option in SAConfig about whether to use full paths in the VideoRedo files or not.

Jere

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by bhageman

I get fewer EOF crashes with my 350 card with Sage3, but I still get a few. I just installed ShowAnalyzer and everything works great, except that once in awhile ShowAnalyzer will have the last 2-3 minutes correctly marked as "commercial" so Sage will skip right to the end and I'll get an EOF crash. Comskip (intentionally or unintentionally) never marked the last minutes of a file for skipping.

Is it possible to have an option where ShowAnalyzer doesn't flag the last five minites of the files as "commercial"?

Thanks!

That's wierd. I had thought that skipping straight to the end prevented the EOF crash. Can anyone comment on how it works on they're system?

Jere

[bhageman]

Just anecdotal, but it seems that the further from the end Sage is when it skips to the EOF, the less likely it is to crash, but I still see EOF crashes at least 30% of the time. Skipping 3-4 minutes or more to EOF, no crash. Under 30-45 seconds prior to EOF, crashes as often as without any skipping. Let me know if you want me to actually test this.

As always with the 350 EOF problem, I'll keep making sacrifices to the gods and liberally dowsing my system in ox blood and eye of newt in hopes of a solution.

Originally Posted by Jere_Jones

That's wierd. I had thought that skipping straight to the end prevented the EOF crash. Can anyone comment on how it works on they're system?

Jere

[geogecko]

Jere. Just so you know, the link to download SA from your site is still looking for 0.5.3.exe, instead of 0.5.4.exe...

[Jere_Jones]

What page are you talking about? The showanalyzer page is updated.

Jere

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by Jere_Jones

What page are you talking about? The showanalyzer page is updated.

Jere

Hmm...must have had a cached page or something. When I clicked the "Download SA" link, it was a link to 0.5.3. Now when I click on it, it goes to .4.

Anyway, just thought I'd also let you know, that whatever "invisible" mode does, it keeps the mouse pointer from appearing in between shows like it used to.

Thanks a lot!!!

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by geogecko

Hmm...must have had a cached page or something. When I clicked the "Download SA" link, it was a link to 0.5.3. Now when I click on it, it goes to .4.

It happens. Especially on cable internet. There was one time I had to call Microsoft on the phone and get them to email me a windows update installer because the cable company had cached an old one... for 3 days! Refresh didn't help because it was cached in the cable company's server, not my computer.

Originally Posted by geogecko

Anyway, just thought I'd also let you know, that whatever "invisible" mode does, it keeps the mouse pointer from appearing in between shows like it used to.

Thanks a lot!!!

I'm glad it worked. If it didn't there was literally nothing else I could've done.

Jere

[hchucky]

Originally Posted by hchucky

I am currently running ShowAnalyzer (in demo mode w/ key) with DirMon and every so often it will hang on a show. I currently have it setup to start analyzing a show if the *.txt file does not exit. So far every time that it has hung it has been on a show that I'll watch but not record. I may not even finish watching the show.

I am using the default settings in ShowAnalyzer and have included my DirMon.ini file below. Attached is the status window from ShowAnalyser. Also when I view the text file associated with the show all it says is the following:

FILE PROCESSING COMPLETE
------------------------

Interesting. I just noticed that the show that it hung on has three mpg files KARE11NewsSunrise-3704212-0.mpg, KARE11NewsSunrise-3704212-1.mpg, KARE11NewsSunrise-3704212-2.mpg. Each has it's own text file with the same contents as listed above. Basicaly saying that the processing is complete but not listing any commerical breaks.

DirMon.ini
; DirMon initialization file
; Copyright (c) 2005
; Jeremiah M. Jones
; DO NOT EDIT MANUALLY
Version = 0.2
StartInTray = 1
Frequency = 300
WhileLive = 1
WhileRecording = 1
Directories = U:\\Video,Y:\\Video
Source = mpg,mpeg
Target = txt,log,ccyes,ccno,VPrj,mpg.xml
[Processor 0]
Path = "C:\Program Files\Dragon Global\ShowAnalyzer\ShowAnalyzer.exe"
Hide = 1
Ignore = DoratheExplorer*,ThomasFriends*,MadMoney*,EasyListening*
DoesExistLogic = OR
BothLogic = AND
DoesNotExistTrigger1 = txt
DoesNotExistLogic = AND

I've looked into this further and I know what causes this problem to occur. I am running DirMon w\ShowAnalyzer on two different computers at the same time. On occasion they will both start to analyze the same show. When this happens one of them will always end up hanging. Is there any way to run DirMon w\ShowAnalyzer on multiple computers and not have this issue? I have set a timeout value so at least it does not hang indefinitely.

HC

[Jere_Jones]

@hchucky,

I think what you are seeing is the "crash at the end" bug. I think I fixed it in 0.5.4 and have had one confirmation that it was fixed.

One of the tests that I run is running multiple instances of SA at the same time. I also run SA against the same file at the same time. Both finish fine. The only real concern is that the results of the one that finish first are thrown away. But you shouldn't be seeing crashes.

Looking at the filenames that you listed, they are all show fragments. Something must have gone wrong to cause the fragment, so the file itself is probably messed up. Another possibility is that fragments are often too short to get any meaningful information from so SA could have just not found any commercials.

Jere

[ErsatzTom]

Originally Posted by Jere_Jones

the cable company had cached an old one... for 3 days! Refresh didn't help because it was cached in the cable company's server, not my computer.

When this happens to me (too frequently) I just temporarily use an http proxy. I generally use my employers but there are free proxy hosts out there.

t