Can't get comskip working

[73cuda]

Hi all,

I've tried twice now to load comskip and can't seem to get it working.

I followed Brent's great tut and I "think" I did it correct but I must be missing something.

I'm not even getting the dark and light green bars. I'm using STV v6.3.10.166.

After doing the comskipmonitor setup.bat, I clicked finish and this came up on the next page....

A directory specified in csm.properties "file.directories" attribute is invalid.
Please update csm.properties with valid video file directories, and then uninstall and reinstall ComskipMonitor.

I need some advice please, thanks

[davephan]

I use ShowAnalyzer and DirMon2 to create the EDL and TXT files, and Comskip for playback.

Did you download and load the "Comskip Playback STVi Version 1.52"? In "Setup", "Detailed Setup", "Customize", "Compskip Playback Options", you should have "Enabled" selected.

Dave

[73cuda]

Did you download and load the "Comskip Playback STVi Version 1.52"?

Yes, I have 1.5.2 loaded

In "Setup", "Detailed Setup", "Customize", "Compskip Playback Options", you should have "Enabled" selected.

Yes I have "autoskip comercials" Enabled.

[MeInMaui]

Are you running a client SageTV installation on a separate computer? If so, the account you are logged in on may not have permissions to access the recording directories directly. If the client does not have direct access to the recording directories, then it won't be able to see the comskip files.

Assuming this is the case, if you have SageTV set up to use local drives on the server, then you have to map those drives to the same letters on the client. If you are using UNC paths, then you have to make sure the client has permissions set to be able to access those shares.

Aloha,
Mike

[73cuda]

Thanks Mike, but I've only got STV on one computer acting as a "server" and the video out is going to TV's in the home and STV is controlled via my remotes thru USB-UIRT.

I just removed a directory in ComskipMonitor by running the .bat again and now I'm not getting this message anymore...

A directory specified in csm.properties "file.directories" attribute is invalid.
Please update csm.properties with valid video file directories, and then uninstall and reinstall ComskipMonitor.

The directory I removed was C:\temptest

I hate to admit it but I don't know how to uninstall ComskipMonitor as it says to do above.

One other thing, when I go to "Advanced-import STVis-ComskipMonitor 79_76, it's "EMPTY" Is that the way it should be ?

And I ran the uninstall.bat and then did the setup.bat again and no good.

[Brent]

Are you running SageTV in service mode?

[73cuda]

Not as far as I know. I didn't select it to run the service.

[Brent]

73cuda,
hang in there. I can't help much tonight as I'm away from my SageTV PC and won't be able to post much longer tonight, but should be able to give you some tips tomorrow night if you haven't already figured it out.

To see if you're using service mode, do Start>SageTV> and there should be a program called "SageTV Service Manager" or something like that. If you are using service mode it will say there. For now, switch away from service mode and see if that changes anything.

Also, can you confirm whether you are using SageMC (not just SageTV, but the replacement interface). Reason I ask is it changes the procedures a bit. Since you're installing comskip monitor, I'm assuming you are not using SageMC, but want to be sure.

[73cuda]

I went to "SageTVServiceControl" and it was and is disabled and stopped.

Right, I've not loaded SageMC, I just d/l'd the latest version of SageTV and reinstalled it today. It's version 6.3.10.166.

But you know, when I went to d/l from Sage I think it said SageMC. But the interface definately looks like the stnd. STV.

I must be doing one thing wrong and just missing it, I hope anyway.

Thank you for all the help, this is the most important add on for me !

cuda

[Brent]

Okay for starters I need to figure out what steps you have completed using the commercial detection tutorial.

In step 1, did you install comskip or showanalyzer? I think from what you said you did download comskip, but let me know for sure and also where (what folder) you downloaded & extracted comskip to?

Then in step 2 did you download comskip monitor or dirmon2? Based on what you said, I'm assuming comskip monitor.
If it was in fact comskip monitor, what folder did you extract comskip monitor to?

Once I know these things, we'll go to the next step.

[73cuda]

In step 1, did you install comskip or showanalyzer? I think from what you said you did download comskip, but let me know for sure and also where (what folder) you downloaded & extracted comskip to?

I downlaoded Comskip79_121.zip and unzipped it into C:\ProgramFiles\SageTV\SageTV\STVs\SageTV3 I see the comskip.exe in that location.

Then in step 2 did you download comskip monitor or dirmon2? Based on what you said, I'm assuming comskip monitor.
If it was in fact comskip monitor, what folder did you extract comskip monitor to?

I d/l'd comskip monitor and put it in the same file as above. I see the ComskipMonitor file folder in the above file.

[Brent]

Okay. Good so far. Try running the comskip montor setup.bat again.

Pick your recordings directory (where you are recording sageTV shows) And chose mpg (and any other video formats you might use) files when it asked you to select "extensions to process". Let me know if you see that error again - if you do tell me what you put under "recording directories"

[73cuda]

Hey Brent,

Thanks for all your patience and help After reading your last post it occured to me I must be missing the correct directory. And that's exactly what it was, I had selected directories where I had allot of videos but they were DVD's I had put on HDD's

So I now have the correct "record to" directory selected and all my recorded videos appear to have been processed.

ComSkip is fantastic, thank you and everyone who have made this available

And your tutorials on your website are invaluable, thanks for making that available to us all too. I'll be making a few donations to your site and to the developer of ComSkip.

Best Regards,

73cuda

[Brent]

Originally Posted by 73cuda

ComSkip is fantastic, thank you and everyone who have made this available

And your tutorials on your website are invaluable, thanks for making that available to us all too. I'll be making a few donations to your site and to the developer of ComSkip.

Glad you have it working now!
Do give a donation to the maker of ComSkip as we want to keep him involved and motivated to keep up with the latest changes

As far as donations to me or my site, I don't really accept donations like that. But I will accept any advice on changing any documentation to make it easier to follow. Thats one reason I get involved in the forum posts like this one as it helps me understand where I can make the documentation easier to follow. Thanks for the praise and don't forget to follow those backup procedures I mentioned yesterday before you add any additional add-ons as it will make your life much easier.

[73cuda]

don't forget to follow those backup procedures I mentioned yesterday before you add any additional add-ons as it will make your life much easier.

I did that right after I downloaded the latest version of STV and before I started the ComSkip load. I needed to know the best way to backup STV and you told me, thanks for that too

[73cuda]

I have one last question about this.

Can ComSkip be set to process while watching live TV, or while recording live TV ?

I know you can't FF into the future, I just mean so I can go back to the start after say, 30 minutes while I've been doing other things and then be able to skip ?

Thanks

[erik]

Yes, during recording, no, not during live TV (I think)
We only watch scheduled recordings, even the news, this way you never miss the start.

[73cuda]

Thanks, it appears that the program your watching live and recording has to finish recording before the comskip bars show up. Even if you back it up to the start.

Is that the way yours is ? Or am I missing something.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by 73cuda

Thanks, it appears that the program your watching live and recording has to finish recording before the comskip bars show up. Even if you back it up to the start.

Is that the way yours is ? Or am I missing something.

Theres a setting - I think in comskip monitor, that you can change to process immediately instead of waiting for the recording to complete. You can also configure times you don't want comskip to run (during prime-time for instance) if comskip is causing your PC to drag under the CPU weight...

[73cuda]

Theres a setting - I think in comskip monitor, that you can change to process immediately instead of waiting for the recording to complete.

If you mean "Start on watch", I have that enabled.

And this is set "Run ONLY if no comskip files exist = False"

Is that alright ?