Comskip Playback for v7

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

2.0.10 works flawlessly, as is, every time. Switching to 2.0.12, I have the same issues I had been:

Just wondering what Java version you're running, I found that anything beyond 6.26 gave me all sorts of wierd problems with SageTV.

John

[nyplayer]

John,

Could this be a problem with the different frame rates that can be contained in a HD recording.?

I am on 2012 performs ok on most recordings on a few it doesn't.

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by JREkiwi

Just wondering what Java version you're running, I found that anything beyond 6.26 gave me all sorts of wierd problems with SageTV.

John

I stopped updating on the server around 6.2x, but I assume you're talking about the client PC; that's definitely above 6.26. If I'm not on 7.x on the client, then I'm almost certainly at 6.33. I'll try locating 6.26 and report back.

EDIT: I believe this is the page with the older versions and the one we'd want is "Java SE Runtime Environment 6u26". I'll check that out when I get home tonight. Although, this does make me wonder... can you have multiple Java versions installed and selectively have them work with specific programs? If not, this could get a bit tedious.

EDIT #2: After verifying, I was actually running 6.20-b02, which surprised me. I'm getting the 6.26 and will report back.

EDIT #3: Scratch that. 6.20 is the 64 bit version I installed. The 32 bit version I'm running is 6.26, so Java's probably not the issue.

[nyplayer]

John I am attaching a debug log ... I have all my plugins Installed. I played the file first with multifunction stop enabled it did not skip. I replayed the file with multi function stop disabled and it skipped. I do not know what causes this maybe it's the "close media file" or the Stop part of the plugin.



Edit
I am getting ready to throw in the towel ... everytime its different.

[panteragstk]

New version works fine for me now.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

New version works fine for me now.

Do you have the multi function stop installed? And what version of Java you running?

Thanks

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

John I am attaching a debug log ... I have all my plugins Installed. I played the file first with multifunction stop enabled it did not skip. I replayed the file with multi function stop disabled and it skipped. I do not know what causes this maybe it's the "close media file" or the Stop part of the plugin.



Edit
I am getting ready to throw in the towel ... everytime its different.

When you say you "replayed" it, do you mean from the beginning (completely unwatched) or from where you left off? With one of the versions, I was having issues only with unwatched recordings. Once it was partially watched, everything skipped just fine.

[nyplayer]

I am just gonna enable debug log enable all my plugins and collect a few days of logs and let John have a look... This varies too much from system to system .. I am sticking with 2012. C'est la vie

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Do you have the multi function stop installed? And what version of Java you running?

Thanks

v6 update 26. and no, the multifunction stop caused me all kinds of issues so I stopped using it.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

v6 update 26. and no, the multifunction stop caused me all kinds of issues so I stopped using it.

Thanks that seems to be doing the trick. Completely removed Multifunction stop and used that Java version. I thought I was the only one having MultiFunction stop problems.

[nyplayer]

Spoke too soon it is just erratic... no more I can do It appears that some HD recordings just will not skip. I think it has more to do with the framerate of the recordings than anything else. At 1 time there were only a couple of framerates 25 and 29.976. Now HD recordings totally exceed that.

So thanks everyone not much that can be down but keep using the old right and left arrow.

Standard frame or field rates
ATSC table 3 defines the following frame rates for digital high-definition television.[23]

23.976 Hz (film-looking frame rate compatible with NTSC clock speed standards)
24 Hz (international film and ATSC high-definition material)
25 Hz (PAL, SECAM film, standard-definition, and high-definition material)
29.97 Hz (NTSC standard-definition material)
59.94 Hz (ATSC high-definition material)
60 Hz (ATSC high-definition material)


Example of 1 that has problem skipping.
scan: 10 previews, 1280x720, 59.940 fps, autocrop = 0/0/0/2, aspect 16:9, PAR 1:1


No Problem Skipping
scan: 10 previews, 1920x1080, 29.970 fps, autocrop = 0/0/0/4, aspect 16:9, PAR 1:1

[gilded07]

I've been using comskip for awhile now (since SageTV v6.3) and would like to increase the accuracy of the app's commercial identification or marking. The commercials on the sitcoms recorded via HDHR seem to be very accurate while commercials on even cable news shows seem to be hit and miss. There is frequently a banner along the bottom of the screen with news highlights but some commercials are still accurately marked while others aren't.

I checked my installed plugins and I have Commercial Detector 1.00 installed and I have playback v2.0.12 installed. Since reading this thread, I've set disable timeline scaling = yes.

Some channels are better/worse than others but I find myself frequently having to

1. skip fwd to get to the start of the commercial so it will autoskip
2. skip fwd to the end of the commercials because comskip thought the commercial ended and it hadn't (dark green shorter than it should be)
3. (and an apparent a playback issue) skip through all of the marked commercials manually because autoskip completely failed even though the commercials appeared to be accurately marked on the timeline

The version of comskip.exe I'm using appears to be 80.042 (3/14/2011 from kaashoek.com's website).

1. Will updating to comskip.exe v81_043 (7/31/2012) increase the accuracy of the commercial detection?
2. If I update the comskip.exe file, as suggested I will put it in a different location. However, do I need to point SageTV to that new .ini file too?
3. Or can I continue to use the configured .ini file in the Program Files\SageTV\Comskip directory where it is now?
4. If I do point SageTV to a new comskip.exe file do I have to reload the STVi for each extender / placeshifter? Should I be using CommercialDetectorSTVi.stvi or Comskip_Playback.stvi or does it matter?
5. Are there any other settings in the .ini file that I can tweak to improve the commercial identification / marking? I read something on this thread about banners but I wasn't sure what value to use to get comskip to ignore banners.

Extenders & Placeshifters only; no clients (yet)

Help appreciated!

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by gilded07

I've been using comskip for awhile now (since SageTV v6.3) and would like to increase the accuracy of the app's commercial identification or marking.

What you're going to need to do is go to the Comskip website and learn how to tweak the settings. Once you understand what you're doing and are making progress, Erik is more than willing to help people get it as accurate as possible. Then, you'll be creating a custom file for specific channels or even shows and need to have those triggered based on the correct criteria. Personally, I use SJQ3 for that purpose. If you go that route, I'd be more than happy to assist with my SJQ settings. Presently, I have 4 different comskip settings, based on groups of channels. I'd say my comskip accuracy is about 95%.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by gilded07

1. Will updating to comskip.exe v81_043 (7/31/2012) increase the accuracy of the commercial detection?
2. If I update the comskip.exe file, as suggested I will put it in a different location. However, do I need to point SageTV to that new .ini file too?
3. Or can I continue to use the configured .ini file in the Program Files\SageTV\Comskip directory where it is now?
4. If I do point SageTV to a new comskip.exe file do I have to reload the STVi for each extender / placeshifter? Should I be using CommercialDetectorSTVi.stvi or Comskip_Playback.stvi or does it matter?
5. Are there any other settings in the .ini file that I can tweak to improve the commercial identification / marking? I read something on this thread about banners but I wasn't sure what value to use to get comskip to ignore banners.

Updating will have minimal impact on accuracy. Tweaking the .ini file will make a bigger difference. As Skirge stated, Erik's site has a lot of info on how to tweak the .ini.

To use the new .exe go to the CommercialDetector setup and select "Choose comskip.exe location". Then just select the new comskip.exe.

CommercialDetector supports custom .ini files based on show name and channel. It will look for showname.ini (e.g. "The Big Bang Theory.ini") first, then channel.ini (e.g. "WABC.ini") second and then use the default comskip.ini.

If you do use custom .ini files you will need to tweak some of the settings to make it compatible with CommercialDetector. For example, you will need to set live_tv=1 and delete_logo_file=1. There are others as well but I don't recall them off the top of my head, search the CommercialDetector thread because I posted them there a dozen times at least.

[gilded07]

Thank you Skirge01 and tmiranda -

I didn't realize there was this much customization of comskip outside of SageTV v7. I will definitely take a closer look at Erik's website and the CommercialDetector thread.

I have the two STVi's probably because I used one w/ v6 before the plug-ins were built into SageTV in v7? I can delete the comskip playback STVi and just stick with the CommercialDetector STVi?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by gilded07

I have the two STVi's probably because I used one w/ v6 before the plug-ins were built into SageTV in v7? I can delete the comskip playback STVi and just stick with the CommercialDetector STVi?

If you install the CommercialDetector UI Mod plugin it will install everything you need including the Comskip plugin.

[gacevich]

While people with more Sage knowledge than me work this out I'm inclined to go back and use v2.0.10 which worked fine. Easy enough to download the version from post #317 in this thread. But could someone point me in the right direction for what I do next to replace v2.0.12 with v2.0.10?

Ken

[Skirge01]

As requested...

[JREkiwi]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

As requested...

Sent a PM

John

[Skirge01]

Got it. Will do as suggested and report back. Thanks for all the help already!