STV Import: Comskip Playback for Default STV (v1.5.4 30/August/2008 for SageTV 5/6)

[joe123]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

There's not really any logic in display the icons. If there's a matching .edl or .txt file for a recording it gets displayed. They only issue I've ever seen have been in client environments where the clients doesn't have access rights to the full path that the recordings are located.

Where are the recordings relative to the server and the UI you are using?

John

Yes, it does not make sense. I am not sure what you are asking. My SageTV exists in my C: drive and I have 8 other drives for movies (movies are also in the c: drive).

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by joe123

Yes, it does not make sense. I am not sure what you are asking. My SageTV exists in my C: drive and I have 8 other drives for movies (movies are also in the c: drive).

Just trying to figure out if there's any possible permissions or connectivity issues. You could enable debug logging and see if anything obvious is logged when you open a view that should have icons but isn't displaying them.

John

[LehighBri]

I recently installed Windows 7 beta on a second partition on my server PC and naturally imported this stvi. After forcing a rebuild of the xml on my client, for some reason the import simply is not working. It's not even showing up as an option item in the Detailed Setup->Customize area.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any reason why this import wouldn't work in Windows 7 (with the same version of Java 6 u 13) on the same PC?

John - thoughts?

[JREkiwi]

Have you got the df_sageutils.jar file installed in the JARS directory .... or wherever it needs to go on Windows 7?

You could enable debug logging and see what's logged during the import process.

John

[LehighBri]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

Have you got the df_sageutils.jar file installed in the JARS directory .... or wherever it needs to go on Windows 7?

You could enable debug logging and see what's logged during the import process.

John

You were right... debug logging indicated the df_sageutils.jar wasn't there. I originally "unzipped" it using the Windows built in unzipping folder copy but I guess that didn't put the JARs in the correct folder and/or overwrite what was there. I installed WinRAR, unzipped like I usually do, and works great now. Thanks for the help.

[karljayne]

I would like to get ComSkip working with the Mac Client. It works just fine with Mac Placeshifter, probably because the server is a PC rig.

It seems that the file (jars, etc) locations are slightly different on the Mac.

Has anyone had any success with Comskip Playback in the SageTV Client for Mac?

[megamojo]

I've noticed something odd since I've gotten a digital tuner and started recording HD shows. It seems the when it autoskips it skips too far, about 10 seconds past where the commercial ends. The commercial locations created by comskip still seems to be accurate, because if I rewind to the middle of the commercial and then skip manually by pressing the right arrow, it goes to the correct spot. I've made sure I don't have any delays set in the options. I've put in a delay of 10 seconds on purpose as a temporay solution to this problem and that seems to be working for now, but that messes up proper skipping for non-HD shows. I tried to change the output that comskip creates from the .edl files that I usually use back to the .txt files that contain frames instead of times like the edl files, but that didn't seem to make any difference so I've switched back to edl.

Any ideas?

[JREkiwi]

megamojo, what version of SageTV are you running? The skipping of HD files has not been accurate until the recent versions of SageTV.

John

[megamojo]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

megamojo, what version of SageTV are you running? The skipping of HD files has not been accurate until the recent versions of SageTV.

John

I'm running 6.5.9.204, the latest release version. When you say recent do you mean a beta that's more recent than that? TBH the actual problem isn't that big of a deal, I'm just glad it's a known issue and not something crazy on my part.

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by megamojo

I'm running 6.5.9.204, the latest release version. When you say recent do you mean a beta that's more recent than that? TBH the actual problem isn't that big of a deal, I'm just glad it's a known issue and not something crazy on my part.

The HD skipping is fixed in the the beta demux which is also included in the betas since 6.5.11

John

[megamojo]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

The HD skipping is fixed in the the beta demux which is also included in the betas since 6.5.11

John

That sounds like exactly what I need. You guys are the best!

[Jackal24]

Ok, I installed this plugin, but I can't find the options under 'customize' and commercial breaks are not shown even with valid edl files. I am running Sage version 6.5.7.201 and using an hd-pvr and I did rebuild. I also tried stopping and restarting sage with no luck.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Jackal24

Ok, I installed this plugin, but I can't find the options under 'customize' and commercial breaks are not shown even with valid edl files. I am running Sage version 6.5.7.201 and using an hd-pvr and I did rebuild. I also tried stopping and restarting sage with no luck.

HD-PVR files are h.264 format. Are you sure you're running the donated version of comskip or the Showanlayzer Suite that is in private beta testing? Those are the only programs that can create the commerical breaks. The regular version of either program cannot.

Gerry

[Jackal24]

I am running the donationware version of comskip.

I rebooted again, and everything works now.

[pseudonym]

I looked through this thread and also the screen shots in the STVi post for downloading and installing Comskip Playback, but I just can't figure out how to use Comskip Playback to start Comskip manually, or even get it to start on watch?

I usually don't watch shows for hours or days after recording, so I've been using DirMon2 to run Comskip, this is done long after the show has finished recording. Quite satisfactory except for the rare occasions where I'd like to get Comskip going while I'm watching.

I have both 'start on watch' and 'manual comskip' enabled in Comskip playback settings. I moved the comskip.cmd file that came with Comskip Playback into my regular comskip directory, then configured Comskip Playback to point to that command file. I can open a command window and invoke the comskip.cmd file manually and it runs fine.

I am using SageTV Media Center 6.5.19 beta, running NOT as a service but in the system tray of my PC. Secret Extras UI is turned on, and I am using Malore menus. XP Pro SP3 32-bit plus all post hotfixes delivered by m$. Java JRE 6u14.

There is a "commercial detect" button in the Malore video menu for individual or grouped recordings, this tries to run comskip.exe directly and does not launch the comskip.cmd file. This is the only reference inside SageTV I have found so far.

Are there any screenshots, of where and what the button looks like, to launch comskip manually when so configured by Comskip Playback? What should I see if 'start on watch' runs as it is supposed to do?

Sorry if I am overlooking the obvious but so far it is not obvious to me how to get this started. Help and info appreciated very much.

Thanks and regards,
--pseudonym

[PiX64]

I use comskip monitor which runs as a service. Comskip monitor has a bunch of settings which allow you to tell it how much priortiy it has (play nice) when to run during the day/night, etc.

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...omskip+monitor

~Mike

[pseudonym]

Yep I already use DirMon2 for that same purpose. It works exactly the way I want it to and I have relied on it for years. By the time I get around to most shows, DirMon2 has already taken care of running comskip.

What I want to figure out, though, is how to launch comskip manually using the option provided by Comskip Playback? Or how do I see that the option to 'start on watch' is occuring (or trying to)?

I enabled 'debug' mode in Comskip Playback, but I don't see where that is supposed to be written to. I have SageTV debug mode enabled and that's the only logging I can find.

Comskip Playback is definitely active, as without it I don't have commercial skipping on those recordings that already have a *.edl file as created by Comskip via DirMon2.

Thanks in advance for any help with these two specific features of Comskip Playback.

--pseudonym

[Fuzzy]

This is a feature I never got working either... Though My comskipping seems to keep up with the recording just fine, so it is rare that it is not run by the time I watch something. I use SJQ for starting the jobs, but it should work just as well with dirmon. Unless you are recording WAY more than your servers processing power. If you are processing as they record, it ends up not bogging as bad, because it gets most it's reads from cache since it was just written.

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by pseudonym

I have both 'start on watch' and 'manual comskip' enabled in Comskip playback settings. I moved the comskip.cmd file that came with Comskip Playback into my regular comskip directory, then configured Comskip Playback to point to that command file. I can open a command window and invoke the comskip.cmd file manually and it runs fine.

I've just checked on my system (same spec, except JRE 6u13 as I had problems with window focus in 6u14) and both Start on Watch and manual comskip are both working.

Originally Posted by pseudonym

There is a "commercial detect" button in the Malore video menu for individual or grouped recordings, this tries to run comskip.exe directly and does not launch the comskip.cmd file. This is the only reference inside SageTV I have found so far.

Sounds like you are using the Options button on the item. If you use the OK button instead you will get a different menu.

Originally Posted by pseudonym

Are there any screenshots, of where and what the button looks like, to launch comskip manually when so configured by Comskip Playback? What should I see if 'start on watch' runs as it is supposed to do?

Screenshots of the panel are now here and here. When start on run is run, the only indication is a new comskip process appearing in Task Manager, and hopefully commercial blocks appearing in the recording you are watching.

Originally Posted by pseudonym

Sorry if I am overlooking the obvious but so far it is not obvious to me how to get this started. Help and info appreciated very much.

It's probably only obvious if you use system exactly the same way the I do. . Odds are, that's unlikely, so I should document more.

I would try either putting the full path of the location of comskip (in quotes) in the comskip.cmd file, or just setting up the manual comskip and start on watch app location to point directly at comskip.exe

John

[pseudonym]

Thanks very much John for your reply. Not sure what you mean by 'use the OK' button on the item? I don't have an 'OK' button on my recordings, that I've seen...

Thank you for the screenshots. That helped a lot! I found the manual comskip button That menu comes up on a single (left) click directly on a recording. I've only ever used "watch now" and apparently I've never stopped to look at what else is on it. It never occurred to me to look there for the manual comskip button.

It works! I clicked the button and comskip was launched and worked perfectly on the show

So now I'm testing the 'start on watch' feature again. This time it is working, comskip was launched. The only thing I can think of, I rebooted my PC since I posted here? That should not have made any difference as far as I can see. I've had Comskip Playback installed for a long time, the only change was to enable the manual and start on watch features and point them to my comskip.cmd file. I even stopped Sage and restarted it (I don't use the service, and I didn't just sleep it) but even that doesn't seem like it should matter.

I don't know just what changed but I'm glad I'm in business now.

Thanks for the help, best regards,
--pseudonym