STV Import: Comskip Playback w/ support for EDL

[sundansx]

version: 1.0

This is an update to the standard comskip playback import that now supports the .edl file format generated by showanalyzer. This format is also used by MPlayer (from what I understand).

NOTE: THIS IMPORT NO LONGER SUPPORTS .TXT FILES. ONLY .EDL

The nice thing about this import is that it does not care about the framerate of the video so it should work with PAL, NTSC, and ATSC material of any framerate (I have tested NTSC 30fps and ATSC 30 and 60fps). framerate is taken care of by Showanalyzer. It also has the ability to setup a couple of delays for automatic skipping (see readme.txt). I hate to miss a second or two of a show segment.

Get it here:
comskip w/ EDL version 1.1

[cslatt]

SWEET! I'm trying this out tomorrow.

[popechild]

Can I use this in SageMC (6.7), or am I limited to what's built-in there?

[sundansx]

Not sure, you will have to try it. Make a backup of your stv and then import the stvi. Then erase the .txt file for a show and see if it comes up with comskip information. Also, to find out if the delays are working set a large delay-say 6000ms, then copy and paste text from an edl file into that spreadsheet. The spreadsheet will give you times that are in the same format as the marks on the sage timebar. Then, see if sage jumps at the marks or the marks plus the delay.
good luck, please report back what you find if you give it a try.

[toricred]

What changes did you make to the original import? That might make it easier to modify for SageMC.

[sundansx]

Are you a SageMC developer?

I dont have a detailed list, but it is probably better to do a diff between the two stvi's instead of relying on a general list. Anyway here is a basic changelist:

Added startdelay and enddelay options in the comskip option list. these modify two elements named commercial_start_delay_ms and commercial_stop_delay_ms that are saved in the properties file.

Elements above are retreived in the Comskip Autoskip section and added to the commercial start and subtracted from the commercial end, respectively. Keep an eye out for some tricks I did in there for type conversion.

In the mediaplayer section there is an area that builds the comskip commercial list array from the file and displays the cut marks. I changed the .txt string to a .edl. I also tweaked most of the regular expressions in this area to accomodate the different file format for the .edl files.

I think this release is a couple of lines short from adding .ts support with edl. If only .ts had 3 letters in the extension...
I might go back in and change it if enough people ask for it, but I don't use .ts anymore.

[tsokeefe]

Greetings, I have loaded the STV and installed it, but there is no interface or menu options that appear to select the settings shown in the pictures.

Could you provide an stv newbie a bit of help.....

Thanks

[sundansx]

Is there a comskip option at all? It should be at the bottom of the customize menu in detailed setup.
Were you running the default stv before importing the stvi? It is an importable module, not an stv.

[Stuntman]

Will this also work with Erik's comskip's .edl output?

[sundansx]

Not sure, haven't see comskip edl output. I tried to use the latest release on an HD file and I had the ini setup to produce edl files, but it did not find commercials or produce an .edl file. Here is an example of an EDL file from Showanalyzer to compare:

638.272	829.663	0
1327.46	1498.93	0
2008.58	2225.16	0
2531.03	2727.66	0
3117.15	3309.01	0
3594.56	3594.56	0

[Stuntman]

Originally Posted by sundansx

Not sure, haven't see comskip edl output. I tried to use the latest release on an HD file and I had the ini setup to produce edl files, but it did not find commercials or produce an .edl file. Here is an example of an EDL file from Showanalyzer to compare:

638.272	829.663	0
1327.46	1498.93	0
2008.58	2225.16	0
2531.03	2727.66	0
3117.15	3309.01	0
3594.56	3594.56	0

If this helps.. here is the output from a file I created ...

0.03 4.84 0
576.58 728.39 0
1167.60 1287.82 0
1779.18 1960.93 0
2337.77 2488.69 0
2827.39 2947.71 0
3216.71 3598.19 0

PS.. in the comskip.ini file make sure you have the following set (it is set to '0' by default).

output_edl=1

This created both the standard .txt and a corresponding .edl file for each file I scan.. be sure comskip is using the .ini file.. I have a folder on my desktop that contains the entire comskip package.. I drag an .mpg file onto the comskip.exe file in that folder and it works fine.. I have since changed dirmon to point to this folder and to this .ini file and it seems to be chugging along fine... with the exception of the GUI issue I'll mention below......

My first look it appears as if Sage is in fact skipping commercials with this file, however I am not seeing the commercials marked in the timeline within the sage gui...

[erik]

Originally Posted by Stuntman

Will this also work with Erik's comskip's .edl output?

Yes

Jere (showanalyzer), sub (of GBPVR) and I agreed on a common fps independend output format and decided to go for .edl
If comskip fails to generate a .edl file its because it can't find its ini file. That can also explain why you get bad detection results.
Make sure the ini file is on the search path (windows directory) or you name it in the command line

[Stuntman]

Originally Posted by erik

Yes

Jere (showanalyzer), sub (of GBPVR) and I agreed on a common fps independend output format and decided to go for .edl

Cool! Now if I could only get the GUI part of it working

[Stuntman]

I spoke too soon.. not only do I not see the skips in the gui.. it does skip.. but it skips to outragous places in the recordings.. obviously something is amiss... what I'm guessing is..

I don't have HD?? I record using good old cable.. a couple PVR 250's and all is good..

I have comskip produce both an .edl file and a .txt file.. when I go back to the original comskip stvi it reads the .txt file and marks and skips correctly.. so I know comskip marked them right.. seems that the edl isn't being used correctly on my non HD content..

Should it work on standard recordings?

[sundansx]

Yeah, should work. I just watched psych from a PVR250 tonight and it worked great from a .edl file. (It still has the bug that the auto-disable after a manual skip wont seem to reenable, but I had that with the other plugin also)

I wonder if something went wrong with the import? Are you using the standard stv? I started with the sagev3.xml (original unmodifed that shipped with SageV5) then added the dynamic menus and then the new comskip stvi. I am running sage as a service.
On my other pc, I am running the client app, original stv only with the new comskip. This is also V5.

[Stuntman]

Originally Posted by sundansx

Yeah, should work. I just watched psych from a PVR250 tonight and it worked great from a .edl file. (It still has the bug that the auto-disable after a manual skip wont seem to reenable, but I had that with the other plugin also)

I wonder if something went wrong with the import? Are you using the standard stv? I started with the sagev3.xml (original unmodifed that shipped with SageV5) then added the dynamic menus and then the new comskip stvi. I am running sage as a service.
On my other pc, I am running the client app, original stv only with the new comskip. This is also V5.

I'm using the latest sage. 5.04 I think.. and yeah, I went back and used the default sagetv3.xml and then applied only your .stvi file.. I saw the option in the setup so I know it got applied.. but it does not mark the bars in the timeline and it was jumping 20 minutes into a show.. right into a commercial no less! The .txt file produced at the same time, without your plugin worked great.. I would assume they were both accurate, but I may be wrong.. I'll try using Jere's SA and see if it works any differently than Erik's Comskip..

I too use Sage as a Service.. and I get the same result whether I run it using placeshifter or any of the mvp's in the house or on the server itself..

[sundansx]

I just had a thought, there might be some hidden characters in your comskip .edl files that it is choking on. I have included an edl file that works with both of my setups and I used it for doing a lot of the development. Try overlaying it to one of your half hour shows (hour show might work, too) to see what it does...

you will have to rename it to edl as the board didnt seem to let me post edl files

[sundansx]

Yeah, if you have Showanalyzer, that might be the best way to do it.

[Stuntman]

Originally Posted by sundansx

I just had a thought, there might be some hidden characters in your comskip .edl files that it is choking on. I have included an edl file that works with both of my setups and I used it for doing a lot of the development. Try overlaying it to one of your half hour shows (hour show might work, too) to see what it does...

you will have to rename it to edl as the board didnt seem to let me post edl files

I deleted the text that was within my comskip created .edl file and pasted in yours.. and it worked! Of course the skips were in the wrong place, but I saw them in the timeline and they skipped at the spots they were indicated to do so...

Here is the contents of one of the 'bad' .edl's that comskip created.. The only thing I see is that comskip creates these columns that are seperated by a 'space' whereas the text of what you sent me looked to be 'tab' seperations.. Something is different obviously!! I've attached a comskip generated .edl in a zip for you.. if you would like to look and see...


72.11 409.71 0
1381.75 1623.29 0
2514.78 2756.35 0
3399.83 3671.50 0
4199.06 4199.09 0

[sundansx]

that would be it then, the regular expression that searchs for time breaks looks for tab characters, not spaces. So it is probably getting real confused when it puts the whole file as one big time segment.

Something interesting...I did not change this part, the old comskip also searched for tabs, from what I can discern. I am not, by any means an expert with regular expressions, tho. Just started using them beginning of this year and have to look up a lot of stuff.