Comskip Monitor: Announcement

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Steep

Individually selected hours during the day.



Which creates a comma-delimetted list in the csm.properties file based on a zero-indexed hour. 0-23.

If the 'current time' is in the list of excluded hours, Comskip Monitor will not initiate any processing. However, if processing was begun at 5:59 PM and 6:00 - 7:00 PM was excluded, Comskip would finish processing the current file if one was detected.

That what I get for asking questions first instead of trying it.
I have it installed now and we'l see what happens. I'm also trying network UNC paths. Would this be the format?
\\\\Frontroom\\data (f)\\SageTV

I'll add the user name and password to the service.

Gerry

[ikarus79m]

Does the comskip monitor work on HDTV OTA recordings as well?

[ID10Tbox]

This is working great for me, just one other question and I swear I'll leave you alone

And since this is geared toward simplicity and specifically targeted for comskip
another idea might be to allow some of the comskip options that are in the ini file to be configured through the web interface, during the initial setup. That could be in the Advanced section as well, in order to keep the basic setup simple. But certain things like the output format, (edl, txt, etc) liveTV processing and such could be configurable through the initial setup wizard rather than having to edit the ini file by hand.

I don't have any problem editing the ini file, that is fine by me and most people running Sage will not have a problem with that, but I know your aim is to make this as easy as possible and it might be easier for some if it is presented in a different format (setup wizard) in the beginning instead of having to go edit the ini later on.

In order for this to work well you would probably have to get a better description from erik on what each of the options in the ini file does, that way it can be presented to the user in more or less plain English so the average user will have some idea what they actually mean.

Is there a way to pass command line parameters to comskip when using Comskip Monitor? Really what I'm looking for is to reduce the comskip process priority because the machine I am running on is somewhat underpowered. I don't really care how long it takes, as long as the commercials get detected in the end. And I am trying to keep SageTV from becoming sluggish and unresponsive when an mpg is being processed. When I had Dirmon set up, I was calling comskip with a batch file that executed comskip using start /low comskip.exe

I know there is a --playnice command line option for comskip, but how to pass that using CSM? I took a look at the Java code in csm.jar and it does not look like passing parameters will work the way it is set up now. That would not be a problem for me (not passing cmd line parameters) if CSM included a 'priority' option, maybe set during the initial setup. But it might be if someone were trying to pass some other cmd line option.

I do not know if this can be set up in the comskip.ini, maybe playnice=1 ?
I know you are trying to keep this simple and to the point and that is an excellent aim. But maybe something in the initial configuration, a radio button or something where you can pick the priority, default would be normal.

I like the way the setup is now, very simple and just takes a few steps to get it configured and some of the things I have mentioned might be seen as taking it further away from that goal. Perhaps there could be an Advanced Configuration section in the setup which would otherwise be skipped unless the user chooses it?

These are just suggestions, you can take them or leave them and are by no means critical of CSM. I think it is awesome, since I set up 2.1 I have not had any problems with it. And your response time has been great, I would post something and check the forum the next day or later on the same day and you had already posted a fix!

[Steep]

After butchering the download forum with faulty uploads (sorry Sage forum moderators), I finally managed to get version 2.4 on there.

I implemented the ability to add command line arguments to Comskip processing, and for easy configuration of the --playnice feature on the time exclusions configuration menu.

I hope this helps alleviate most configuration options people require. For now, I don't plan on implementing configuration screens for Comskip itself, but just for the -automated running- of Comskip.

If I were to write a tool to configure Comskip rather than just the running of Comskip, I'd prefer to get in touch with the Comskip authors and work more closely with them so that I'm not stepping on their toes or doing things wrong.

Cheers.

[gplasky]

Just wanted to touch base and let you know Comskip Monitor is working fine for me with the network paths I put in. Nice job by the way on the whole idea/setup.

Gerry

[wheelrandolph]

Same here--setup was very easy and it is working great.

Randy

[erik]

Originally Posted by Steep

If I were to write a tool to configure Comskip rather than just the running of Comskip, I'd prefer to get in touch with the Comskip authors and work more closely with them so that I'm not stepping on their toes or doing things wrong.

Cheers.

I am not sure if I qualify for "the comskip authors" but I am maintaining comskip at the moment.
Feel free to write such a tool.
If you need any assistance mail me.

[Steep]

Originally Posted by erik

I am not sure if I qualify for "the comskip authors" but I am maintaining comskip at the moment.
Feel free to write such a tool.
If you need any assistance mail me.

Thanks Erik!

I hope to do so soon. My main drawback as a programmer is that I'm a web application developer and haven't written any other GUIs unless you count Applets or Cobol terminal screens. But it seems like the servlet with the self-contained web server seems to be doing the trick for the moment.

The fact that the default comskip config file works 98% of the time for me is also a contributor to my procrastination

[erik]

There are some examples of how to edit a windows ini file.
I have them, they are written in VB.
The comskip .ini file can be changes to contain windows section headings, something like

[main settings]
a=1
b=2
c=3
[detailed settings]
d="asdasd"
g=123

You do need to remove the comment after the setting because this is not done by most ini editor examples.
If you would like to see some examples I can mail them.

[insomniac]

just wanted to say that i am giving this a try. Very easy, straightforward setup. good work.

I will report my cmskip results with this build later.

I.

[tmiranda]

I've just tried this and it does work as advertized: it's easy to install and configure and works great. Some questions:

1. Is there a parameter to make Comskip output edl files? I know I can edit the Comskip.ini file but I was looking for a way to do it during installation. My reason for wanting this is that various threads lead me to believe the edl files are more accurate than the txt files.

2. Is there a way to lower the priority at which comskip runs? When it is running it slows my MVP GUI to a crawl. Right now I've set it to only run at night but this is not ideal for me.

3. If I have multiple UNC paths with recordings, what syntax do I use to add them to the csm.properties file? I saw the previous post on this subject but it is not clear to me at all. I think I can see how to add one UNC path, but I have 4 that I want to add. Any chance of updating the installer to allow you to enter UNC paths?

4. What are the .logo.txt files used for?

5. I see the STVi's (one for .txt and one for .edl) used to get commercial skipping support have not been updated in a while. Will they work in v6? I am running the beta and do not want to go back to v5, too many goodies to give up

Overall I am very pleased with CSM. I was considering adding commercial skipping for some time but the process was just too messy and had too many variables. CSM will make my life much easier. Install CSM, import STVi, and done. Thanks.

[phunny]

I installed the Comskip configured quickly! seemed to be working fine but today (after having it up for 3 days) I noticed that there are *.txt files that are duplicate. For example, I have the office recorded once but I have three *.txt files for the same episode. I know the install was easy but is there something I missed that would allow it to clean up? Thanks

[Steep]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

1. Is there a parameter to make Comskip output edl files? I know I can edit the Comskip.ini file but I was looking for a way to do it during installation. My reason for wanting this is that various threads lead me to believe the edl files are more accurate than the txt files.

For right now you have to edit the comskip.ini file to change the output_edl value. I'll try to add more configuration options like this in a future release. I'm also thinking about having edl files generated by default and plaching .edl on the default cleanup extensions list.

Originally Posted by tmiranda

2. Is there a way to lower the priority at which comskip runs? When it is running it slows my MVP GUI to a crawl. Right now I've set it to only run at night but this is not ideal for me.

The 'Configure Time Exclusions' screen in the configuration program allows you to set the priority as Run Normal, Run Slow, and Don't Run.
Run Normal will run Comskip with Low priority. Run Slow, will make comskip run with the --playnice parameter added which will pause comskip processing for 10 milliseconds between each frame processed. This should help slow systems. Then of course, Don't Run is self explanatory.

Originally Posted by tmiranda

3. If I have multiple UNC paths with recordings, what syntax do I use to add them to the csm.properties file? I saw the previous post on this subject but it is not clear to me at all. I think I can see how to add one UNC path, but I have 4 that I want to add. Any chance of updating the installer to allow you to enter UNC paths?

Yes. I plan on doing more testing with mapped drives and network paths and have them working. I'd like to get mapped drives to work and allow users to configure CSM to run as a user and not 'Local System' to facillitate this end.

Originally Posted by tmiranda

4. What are the .logo.txt files used for?

I'm actually not much of a Comskip expert. The default settings work fine with me and so I've probably done less tweaking than many people out there. I'm guessing it is used to store an ascii map of a channel logo in a temporary file in order to help identify commercials. I only see the logo files while comskip is processing. They disappear once Comskip is finished.

Originally Posted by tmiranda

5. I see the STVi's (one for .txt and one for .edl) used to get commercial skipping support have not been updated in a while. Will they work in v6? I am running the beta and do not want to go back to v5, too many goodies to give up

I'm not sure, perhaps somebody else can help answer your question. I'm still getting to know the default Sage v5 stv. I just bought sage about a month ago.

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Overall I am very pleased with CSM. I was considering adding commercial skipping for some time but the process was just too messy and had too many variables. CSM will make my life much easier. Install CSM, import STVi, and done. Thanks.

Thanks!

[Steep]

Originally Posted by phunny

I installed the Comskip configured quickly! seemed to be working fine but today (after having it up for 3 days) I noticed that there are *.txt files that are duplicate. For example, I have the office recorded once but I have three *.txt files for the same episode. I know the install was easy but is there something I missed that would allow it to clean up? Thanks

First, just some information. While comskip is processing you should see 4 files that look very similar.

SomeTelevisionShowName-31337.mpg
SomeTelevisionShowName-31337.txt
SomeTelevisionShowName-31337.logo.txt
SomeTelevisionShowName-31337.log

This is normal. After Comskip is done processing you should probably only see 3 files.

SomeTelevisionShowName-31337.mpg
SomeTelevisionShowName-31337.txt
SomeTelevisionShowName-31337.log

The log file really isn't needed by your playback STVi. Comskip just creates it just in case your curious. If you are curious, you can look at it and say "Wow, look at all of that information that I have no idea what it means" (my reaction).

Also, to test if the Monitor is cleaning up these (several) files. Find an episode of something that you've recorded and have already watched that you are certain Comskip has processed.

Example:
Seinfeld-TheJuniorMint-1138.mpg
Seinfeld-TheJuniorMint-1138.txt
Seinfeld-TheJuniorMint-1138.log

Then, go into SageTV and delete this recording.
If in 10 minutes to an hour (depending on your setup and what's happening on your system) your Video directory looks like this...

Seinfeld-TheJuniorMint-1138.txt
Seinfeld-TheJuniorMint-1138.log

...(Zombie log files with no associated mpeg) then there is definitely something wrong.

If you are still certain that you have extra Comskip .txt files that aren't being cleaned up correctly. I would really appreciate it if you would help me fix this problem by doing the following...

Open up a windows console and navigate to your videos directory. Type in "dir > mydir.txt". This will create a file called mydir.txt in your video directory. Email mydir.txt to me, as well as your csm.properties file, comskip.ini file, and in your comskipmonitor\data directory, your wrapper.log file. My email address can be found in the README.txt file.

I've tested CSM as thoroughly as I can, but it's impossible to account for every possible setup. Let me know so I can wipe out this pock mark on the face of the program

[insomniac]

im very happy with this setup so far, and the default settings with this comskip build work quite well. again, good stuff man!

On a side note, it seems quite probable that this setup would work quite well with comskip proxy if registered users of Showanalyzer wanted to try something new

[erik]

You can enable both edl and txt output at the same time.

.logo.txt and .log can be deleted.
They are generated for debugging purposes.

These changes will do this.

verbose=0
delete_logo_file=1
output_edl=1

[Steep]

Originally Posted by insomniac

im very happy with this setup so far, and the default settings with this comskip build work quite well. again, good stuff man!

On a side note, it seems quite probable that this setup would work quite well with comskip proxy if registered users of Showanalyzer wanted to try something new

Yea, that's a dirty little secret I was hiding because Dirmon + SA seems to work fine. CSM calls 'comskip.exe' --ini=comskip.ini FileToProcess.ext.

All I'd have to do is make the --ini=comskip.ini parameter optional and then CSM would execute any program on any file type.

[tmiranda]

Steep,

Thanks for the info. The only thing I am still not sure about is how to specify multiple paths. (Question 3.) Are you implying that CSM only supports 1 path? If it supports multiple paths how do I specify them?

Tom

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Steep,

Thanks for the info. The only thing I am still not sure about is how to specify multiple paths. (Question 3.) Are you implying that CSM only supports 1 path? If it supports multiple paths how do I specify them?

Tom

2 network paths:

\\\\Frontroom\\data (f)\\SageTV, \\\\Freenas\\TV\\SageTV

(comma seperator)


Gerry

[eshafer]

Hello,

I am very insterested in your program for automating comskip.

I am attempting to install your program on my HTPC:
Windows 2000 SP4 (logged in as local administrator)
JRE v1.4.2_06

After running startup.bat and configuring my File Directories in my browser I am receiving the following error message:
The CSM service is not installed - The specified service does not exist as an installed service. (0x424)
The Compskip Monitor service is starting.
The Compskip Monitor service could not be started.

A system error has occured.
System error 1607 has occurred.
The process terminated unexpectedly.

Press any key to continue...

BTW, I installed it on my XP laptop and it was sucessful.

To troubleshoot I booted into windows with all non-microsoft services disabled and ALL startup items disabled... still no luck.
If I try to manually start the Comskip Monitor service, I get the same 1607 system error.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.