Utility: Comskip

[JUC]

I'm sorry if this has been asked recently--but how would you use comskip with dirmon? or without? I'm using SageMC. I switched to SA a while ago but wanted to check out the recent builds of comskip. Would i just install it in the sage directory and then just in the sagemc options enable it? That would not require dirman correct? Or--i assume i could set dirman to launch comskip whenever it finds a new recording?

Thanks,

JUC

[jlindborg]

I use DirMon with Comskip myself - it can be done either way. I switch between SA and Comskip so keeping it in Dirmon is easiest for me. Both kick out the same format .TXT file with the start/stop times of the commercials detected so the commercial skip plug ins for Sage work the same for either one.

all I had to do in dirmon is switch from running the ShowAnalyzer.exe to the comskip.exe which I have installed in its own folder. Works like a champ.

[JUC]

so you don't install comskip in the sagetv folder then? just in its own folder based on the last reply. Is it dirmon that tells it where to output the txt file to? same as SA?
Thanks,

JUC

[jlindborg]

yep. In fact I have all commercial detection running on a seperate box - both SA and ComSkip are installed on that box and DirMon is processing files through shares on the main sage rig. Yes, DirMon passes the full path to the MPG file into either SA or ComSkip and the folder where that MPG file is found determines the location of the output .TXT (and log and other files like ViedoRedo jobs and such) are stored.

[toricred]

Could you post your .ini file?

Originally Posted by jlindborg

I use DirMon with Comskip myself - it can be done either way. I switch between SA and Comskip so keeping it in Dirmon is easiest for me. Both kick out the same format .TXT file with the start/stop times of the commercials detected so the commercial skip plug ins for Sage work the same for either one.

all I had to do in dirmon is switch from running the ShowAnalyzer.exe to the comskip.exe which I have installed in its own folder. Works like a champ.

[jlindborg]

It's all default for the new install other than
verbose=0
output_debugwindow=0
delete_logo_file=1
output_videoredo=1

here's the full file for fun:

detect_method=43 ;1=black frame, 2=logo, 4=scene change, 8=fuzzy logic, 16=closed captions, 32=aspect ration, 64=silence, 255=all
verbose=0 ;show a lot of extra info, level 5 is also OK, set to 0 to disable
max_brightness=60 ;frame not black if any pixels checked are greater than this (scale 0 to 255)
test_brightness=40 ;frame not pure black if any pixels checked are greater than this, will check average brightness (scale 0 to 255)
max_avg_brightness=25 ;maximum average brightness for a dim frame to be considered black (scale 0 to 255) 0 means autosetting
max_commercialbreak=600 ;maximum length in seconds to consider a segment a commercial break
min_commercialbreak=25 ;minimum length in seconds to consider a segment a commercial break
max_commercial_size=120 ;maximum time in seconds for a single commercial or multiple commercials if no breaks in between
min_commercial_size=4 ;mimimum time in seconds for a single commercial
min_show_segment_length=120 ; any segment longer than this will be scored towards show.
non_uniformity=500
max_volume=500 ; any frame with sound volume larger than this will not be regarded as black frame
min_silence=20 ; Any deep silence longer than this amount of frames is a possible cutpoint
ticker_tape=0 ; Amount of pixels from bottom to ignore in all processing
punish=0 ; Compare to average for sum of 1=brightness, 2=uniform 4=volume, 8=silence, 16=schange, set to 0 to disable
punish_threshold=1.3 ; Multiply when amount is above average * punish_threshold
punish_modifier=2 ; When above average * threshold multiply score by this value
intelligent_brightness=0 ; Set to 1 to use a USA specific algorithm to tune some of the settings, not adviced outside the USA
logo_percentile=0.92 ; if more then this amount of logo is found then logo detection will be disabled
logo_threshold=0.80
aggressive_logo_rejection=0
connect_blocks_with_logo=1 ; set to 1 if you want successive blocks with logo on the transition to be regarded as connected, set to 0 to disable
cut_on_ar_change=0 ; set to 1 if you want to cut also on aspect ratio changes, set to 0 to disable
delete_show_after_last_commercial=0 ; set to 1 if you want to delete the last block if its a show and after a commercial
delete_show_before_or_after_current=0 ; set to 1 if you want to delete the previous and the next show in the recording, this can lead to the deletion of trailers of next show
shrink_logo=5 ; Reduce the duration of the logo with this amount of seconds
after_logo=0 ; set to number of seconds after logo disappears comskip should start to search for silence to insert an additional cutpoint
padding=0
ms_audio_delay=5
delete_logo_file=1 ; set to 1 if you want comskip to tidy up after finishing
output_videoredo=1
output_womble=0
output_cuttermaran=0
output_mpeg2schnitt=0
output_mpgtx=0
output_zoomplayer_chapter=0
output_zoomplayer_cutlist=0
output_edl=0
output_vcf=0
output_btv=0 ; set to 1 if you want Beyond TV chapter cutlist output
output_projectx=0 ; set to 1 if you want ProjectX cutlist output (Xcl)
output_demux=0 ; set to 1 if you want comskip to demux the mpeg file while scanning
output_framearray=0
output_debugwindow=0
live_tv=0 ; set to 1 if you use parallelprocessing and need the output while recording
cuttermaran_options="cut=\"true\" unattended=\"true\" muxResult=\"false\" snapToCutPoints=\"true\" closeApp=\"true\""
mpeg2schnitt_options="mpeg2schnitt.exe /S /E /R25 /Z %2 %1"

[toricred]

I tried your settings and get the same thing (only marks for the beginning and ending few minutes).

[jlindborg]

wish I knew why my behavior is so different from other folks here... you guys have a creepily consistent set of output regardless of shows you're processing. Seems pretty wierd given all the folks using Comskip. But the actual logic it's using is a bit beyond me... I'm a database flunky so I leave that stuff to the smarter kids.

[erik]

In case someone wants to understand why on certain shows comskip does a bad job I invite them to follow this procedure
http://mk.kaashoek.com/comskip/viewtopic.php?t=34

[malore]

erik, thanks for your continued updates. I set my computers clock 20 seconds fast to ensure I catch the start of shows and your version of comskip does a good job of marking the period before the shows starts as commercials so I can jump right to the start of the show. I've also enjoyed using it on some of my HDTV shows.

[ldavis]

Erik,

Thanks for the update and getting HDTV working with comskip. I almost have everything working but there is one problem (Sorry if it has been brought up before) and I do not think that it is a comskip problem but comskip can solve. On 720p/60 material the Sage comskip plugin cannot interpret this correctly because it needs 29.97 fps If the commercial is 10 minutes into the show Sage puts it at 20 minutes. It would be good for comskip (within the .ini) to allow you to tell it to divide the frame numbers by 2 in the final output. That would fix the problem.

[erik]

To check if I understand.

If a certain setting is enabled in the ini file and I detect 60fps material I will divide the frame numbers by 2?
Can someone upload a short recording in 720p/60fps to my ftp server so I can test if I indeed to recognize correctly?
I will PM with the upload details.

[ldavis]

Originally Posted by erik

To check if I understand.

If a certain setting is enabled in the ini file and I detect 60fps material I will divide the frame numbers by 2?
Can someone upload a short recording in 720p/60fps to my ftp server so I can test if I indeed to recognize correctly?
I will PM with the upload details.

Erik,

I sent you a PM but I know that comskip recognizes it as 60fps (59.94). This is in the first line of the output file.

[erik]

From the changelog

Changes in 0.79.34
- Added the proposed cutlistformat for TVersity, enable with output_edlx=1. Warning: This output only is available correctly when scanning the video file, not when editing the cutpoints or processing the .csv file.
- Added ini parameter sage_framenumber_bug=1 to halve the .txt file frame numbers when 720p/60fps content is detected.
- Changed logic when enabling both SILENCE and other detection methods to become more robust against input variations over broadcasting styles.
- Warning: Some changes did have the risk of slightly less quality in detection. Notify me when you detect this.

[toricred]

I think I've figured out the problem. When using Dirmon2, I started getting the expected results when I added the --ini parameter. I think the problem is that it can't find the ini file.

[jlindborg]

Intersting - I haven't upgraded to DirMon2 yet, still using the old DirMon... but I don't pass any params other than the MPG filename itself. Cool, though...

[ldavis]

Erik,

Thanks for getting the 720p/60fps fix installed. Works perfectly.

[evilpenguin]

I fixed the .ini issue with dirmon2 by moving the comskip .ini to my System32 folder.

[erik]

Comskip can find always the ini file if you put the ini file in the same directory as where the recodings are.

[Wheemer]

It would make a lot more sense if the ini was expected to be in the same folder as the comskip exe.

Having the ini placed in the recordings folder could be rather sloppy with multiple recording folders.