Tuning Comskip for Multiple Channels with SJQ

[lobosrul]

I had a couple of requests for this, so I'm posting my SJQ and Comskip settings for running different Comskip rules on different channels and now for specific types of programming, specifically sports. I only have broadcast HDTV channels thru SageTV and I've only tuned for network (mostly primetime) programming, but the general idea applies for cable channels. I have the "early release" version of Comskip, but I don't think it matters here. I'm also assuming everyone uses edl cutlists.

Installation:

First, you need to have SJQ properly setup and calling Comskip on your recordings. Next download the attached file and unzip into your comskip directory (C:\comskip on my system). You should now have extra ini and logo files along with 2 txt files in your comskip dir. Open SJQ-CLIENT.txt and copy everything in there into the SJQ client editor. If your comskip is in a different directory on your system you will need to edit each instance of "C:/comskip/comskip.exe \"%c%\"" etc. Next open up SJQ-Ruleset.txt. Using a text editor replace each instance of _FOX, _ABC, _CBS, _NBC, and _PBS with your local affiliate ID for each. These are the channel names in your guide, for example I would replace _FOX with KASADT and _NBC with KOBDT. Place the edited rulesets in the SJQ ruleset editor. Thats its for installation.

It shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to customize things a bit if your familiar with SJQ. For instance my setup does not run comskip on PBS so if theres any other channels you don't want comskip setup for edit the last line of the ruleset editor (which is a catch all for any other channels) to include such a channel.

Now for my rationale on what I've done and the settings for each channel, and some observations:

I noticed after just a few tweaks that Comskip was very accurate on FOX, and a with just a few tweaks on ABC, however accuracy on CBS and NBC sucked. The main reason for this is they show previews of their other shows during commercials in HD and with a logo. This just destroys comskips logic. So, for these 2 channels I've set Comskip to all but ignore the logos and concentrate on how long the segments are. This has worked for me to great effect so far with one minor issue. Half hour long comedies, especially on ABC, often have a short segment after the last commercial. I cannot figure out how to get comskip to mark this as a show. There is a way to always mark the very last segment as show but theres usually a very short segment at the very end of my recording after the last show segment. I made a post on the comskip forum a few weeks ago about this, but no replay so far.

I've included logo files because comskip can sometimes tag a weather warning overlay as a logo, ruining accuracy. I haven't included a logo for FOX because they don't use a national logo. My affiliate, and I assume others around the country overlay their bug.

Now, onto sports programming, this section only applies for team sports, I think the default setting will work OK for golf. The strict limit for a how long a commercial or show segment are don't work for sports programming. I.e., think about a football game after a score, 2 minutes of commercial, 30 seconds for the kickoff, then 2 more minutes of commercials. For sports a strict reliance on logo and aspect ratio is necessary. ABC and NBC, seem to use the same logo for all sports (but I've only tested the NBC logo with Hockey), but they are different than other network programming. CBS sometimes uses their logo during sports but not always. FOX uses a different logo for each sport. I believe I have every major sport setup except for baseball.

I sure hope this helps someone out.

Also, I should add, for CBS and NBC my setting aren't very accurate after the show ends. I suppose this is because comskip waits until after its done to go back and apply the length modifiers.

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

I noticed after just a few tweaks that Comskip was very accurate on FOX, and a with just a few tweaks on ABC, however accuracy on CBS and NBC sucked. The main reason for this is they show previews of their other shows during commercials in HD and with a logo. This just destroys comskips logic. So, for these 2 channels I've set Comskip to all but ignore the logos and concentrate on how long the segments are. This has worked for me to great effect so far with one minor issue. Half hour long comedies, especially on ABC, often have a short segment after the last commercial. I cannot figure out how to get comskip to mark this as a show. There is a way to always mark the very last segment as show but theres usually a very short segment at the very end of my recording after the last show segment. I made a post on the comskip forum a few weeks ago about this, but no replay so far.

...

Also, I should add, for CBS and NBC my setting aren't very accurate after the show ends. I suppose this is because comskip waits until after its done to go back and apply the length modifiers.

First, thanks so much for posting these instructions. They helped me out tremendously! Because of your post, I decided to figure out how to tweak comskip to work on certain channels I was having issues with. Through a couple of emails with Erik, he quickly taught me how to fix the issues you're describing above. Hopefully, I'll be able to thank you for writing this up by helping to fix your own issues!

Erik had me add the following entry to my comskip.ini file:

logo_present_modifier=0.5

I added this to my OTA CBS station and tested it out on The Big Bang Theory and it just about nailed the commercials with CBS logos, except for some very tiny spots it still missed. I changed the 0.5 to 0.6 and it was absolutely perfect, including the final bit of show at the end not being flagged as a commercial. I'm now using this setting and modifying the comskip.ini for other channels. I'm hopeful that this additional parameter will work for all my OTA channels, so I won't need a separate comskip.ini called for each one. But, I'm still going through shows and testing.

BTW, for anyone else having issues with perfecting their comskip, I would strongly suggest visiting his support forum and reading how to ask for help. It's very specific, but quite simple. At least for me, Erik was extremely responsive and very helpful. It took me only 2 emails over 2 days to get my issue resolved. Also, if he is able to help you out, please donate to the project, if you haven't already. I think he deserves it.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by lobosrul

Also, I should add, for CBS and NBC my setting aren't very accurate after the show ends. I suppose this is because comskip waits until after its done to go back and apply the length modifiers.

I've found this to actually be a problem in sage, not comskip/SAV1. If you check those recordings in something like ViderReDo, You'll find that the .edl files to contain accurate skip points. The problem is that sage does not report the 'correct' time to the UI. It 'scales' the time reported so that the recording takes up the whole timeslot. Say, you have a one hour program recorded. Due to lag in the recording starting though, it may be 5-15 seconds shorter than the full hour. Sage, in order to make the user not notice that (no-one wants to see the end number on the timeline be 59:48) scales the numbers so the 59:48 media file's timeline actually runs from 0:00 to 60:00 (in this example, it is 'scaled' by 1.0033). The Comskip playback STVi (and SageMC's comskip playback features) use the 'false' UI values, such that the skips at the half-way point would be 6 seconds early (in this example), and nearly 12 seconds early near the end.

The reason it only takes affect once a recording is done is that sage does not 'scale' the timeline until after the recording is finished.

Sage is aware of the problem, but said a 'fix' (a setting to disable the scaling) will be in the next version.

In this thread, I'm working on a modification to the comskip STVi that will allow it to use a separate file (I call them .duration files) that contain the REAL duration of the media file (generated using SJQ to launch MediaInfo.exe) to compensate for this problem. It's working fine in-house for me, and I'l have it rolled up and ready to share for all later today.. I don't currently have SageMC, so I haven't looked at fixing it there, but at least those with the default will have a fix available. (no telling how long it'll be before SageTV v7 will be out, with the requisite fix).

[Skirge01]

Sounds great, Fuzzy, and that's great information to know. Hopefully someone will get it working in SageMC, too. All this time, I've been thinking that comskip was messing up the detection and it turns out it was SageTV itself. But, these glitches got me figuring out the other issues with detection, so I'm definitely better off anyway. My comskips are nearing 100% accuracy now. The issue I just resolved at the end of shows (in addition to what you're talking about) involved short (<1 minute) pieces of show after the final set of commercials, which were getting marked as commercials.