Com. Auto Skip Tutorials?

morfinx · #1 01-08-2007, 08:00 PM

I recently installed SageMC. I noticed during TV playback, the menu has an option for Com. Auto Skip. How do I go about using this feature? Is there a tutorial or help page for it?

evilpenguin · #2 01-08-2007, 09:15 PM

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

This thread should have everything you need to get going

morfinx · #3 01-08-2007, 10:00 PM

I'm not sure I understand this, Comskip Monitor seems like a standalone program. How does the "Com. Auto Skip" menu option in SageMC TV playback work? Does it do something in real time, or does it launch a separate program, or something else entirely? I have it on right now, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

ke6guj · #4 01-08-2007, 10:12 PM

IIRC, SageMC has a built-in way to start commercial scanning, but that running the standalone programs was preferred.

gplasky · #5 01-08-2007, 11:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morfinx

I'm not sure I understand this, Comskip Monitor seems like a standalone program. How does the "Com. Auto Skip" menu option in SageMC TV playback work? Does it do something in real time, or does it launch a separate program, or something else entirely? I have it on right now, but it doesn't seem to do anything.

You need the comskip.exe in the SageTV directory.

Gerry

morfinx · #6 01-09-2007, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gplasky

You need the comskip.exe in the SageTV directory.

Gerry

What does SageMC do with it? Does run it at a certain time, or does it run it in the background?

gplasky · #7 01-09-2007, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morfinx

What does SageMC do with it? Does run it at a certain time, or does it run it in the background?

It's been awhile (a long while) but I think it runs it in the background.

Gerry

morfinx · #8 01-09-2007, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gplasky

It's been awhile (a long while) but I think it runs it in the background.

Gerry

Oh I see, thanks for the info

Does that work well, or should I use a standalone app like Comskip Monitor?

LJSSageUser · #9 01-09-2007, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morfinx

I recently installed SageMC. I noticed during TV playback, the menu has an option for Com. Auto Skip. How do I go about using this feature? Is there a tutorial or help page for it?

There are two options you need to consider with commercial skipping. One is enabling commercial skipping (comskip) during playback of recorded programs. SageMC reads a file processed by an external comskip program that tells it where the commercials start and end, and it automatically skips those frames.

The second issue is which application to use to write this file. I THINK that SageMC only internally implements use of comskip.exe and runs it on the recorded files. The internal process is rudimentary, and there are much better external applications that are more configurable and more accurate.

The ones I am aware of are Showanalyzer (which requires a scheduling program called DirMon) and comskip.exe. DirMon is packaged with comskip.exe and allows you to very easily set up commercial skipping without having to know too much about it. IMHO, Showanalyzer and DirMon are too complicated, but if you like messing around, there are very configurable.

In any case, you must enable auto skipping within SageMC to use the output files from any of these applications. Search the forum for the keywords (ShowAnalyzer, Comskip, etc.), and you'll find a lot of information floating around from very knowledgeable people.

LJSSageUser · #10 01-09-2007, 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LJSSageUser

There are two options you need to consider with commercial skipping. One is enabling commercial skipping (comskip) during playback of recorded programs. SageMC reads a file processed by an external comskip program that tells it where the commercials start and end, and it automatically skips those frames.

The second issue is which application to use to write this file. I THINK that SageMC only internally implements use of comskip.exe and runs it on the recorded files. The internal process is rudimentary, and there are much better external applications that are more configurable and more accurate.

The ones I am aware of are Showanalyzer (which requires a scheduling program called DirMon) and comskip.exe. DirMon is packaged with comskip.exe and allows you to very easily set up commercial skipping without having to know too much about it. IMHO, Showanalyzer and DirMon are too complicated, but if you like messing around, there are very configurable.

In any case, you must enable auto skipping within SageMC to use the output files from any of these applications. Search the forum for the keywords (ShowAnalyzer, Comskip, etc.), and you'll find a lot of information floating around from very knowledgeable people.

Ooops, always review the post. I meant to say that Comskip Monitor is packaged with comskip.exe. It's a great package to start out with.

morfinx · #11 01-09-2007, 05:19 PM

Oh I see, I think it's finally making complete sense now. Correct me if I'm wrong: programs like Comskip analyzes a recorded show, and inserts flags at show/commercial transitions. By enabling "Com. Auto Skip" in SageMC, SageTV will read these flags use them to skip segments of the video marked as "commercial".

blade · #12 01-09-2007, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morfinx

Oh I see, I think it's finally making complete sense now. Correct me if I'm wrong: programs like Comskip analyzes a recorded show, and inserts flags at show/commercial transitions.

To be a little more exact it writes the location of the commercials to a txt or edl file. It doesn't actually modify the mpeg file.

Quote:

By enabling "Com. Auto Skip" in SageMC, SageTV will read these flags use them to skip segments of the video marked as "commercial".

The stv or stv plug-in reads the text or edl file. Sage then knows where the commercials are and can skip over them when it's enabled in the stv.

One thing you left out was the program that actually tells comskip to run. Programs such as comskip monitor or dirmon2 scans your recording directories and runs comskip on files that haven't been processed. Dirmon2 (and I assume comskip monitor) clean up after themselves by deleting the txt or edl files once you've deleted the recording.

Pmavrovic · #13 01-14-2007, 11:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morfinx

Oh I see, I think it's finally making complete sense now. Correct me if I'm wrong: programs like Comskip analyzes a recorded show, and inserts flags at show/commercial transitions. By enabling "Com. Auto Skip" in SageMC, SageTV will read these flags use them to skip segments of the video marked as "commercial".

Not to be inept, but I cannot find the Menu option described above "Com. Auto Skip" in SageMC?

Can someone direct me as to where I can find this option to enable it?

Thanks in advance.

morfinx · #14 01-14-2007, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pmavrovic

Not to be inept, but I cannot find the Menu option described above "Com. Auto Skip" in SageMC?

Can someone direct me as to where I can find this option to enable it?

Thanks in advance.

During Live TV, or Recorded TV playback, push the Menu button it will come up.

geogecko · #15 01-14-2007, 04:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morfinx

During Live TV, or Recorded TV playback, push the Menu button it will come up.

Well, to be official, it's the Option button...

The menu button would, theoretically take you to the main menu.

dflachbart · #16 01-14-2007, 06:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by morfinx

During Live TV, or Recorded TV playback, push the Menu button it will come up.

Or, you can also enable it in Settings/Detailed Setup/Commercial Skip.

Note that these are 'global' settings, you can still disable auto-comskip for a specific show from the options menu in the 'Program Info' menu

Dirk