Plugin: CommercialDetector

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by toricred

I tried using the built-in recordings menu and I still don't see anything about run comskip or deleting the edl files. I'm not actually using comskip, but rather ShowAnalyzer. Could that be a clue that I have some setting missing?

Possibly. First check to make sure you have installed the CommercialDetector UI Mod plugin and not just the CommercialDetector General plugin. Next go to Settings->Detailed Settings->Advanced and look for Comskip Options (near the end of the list). There is a setting in there that enables/disables showing the Comskip button on the menus.

Let me know how that works out. There is something amiss for sure if you are not seeing the button.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Sambo555

That .jar fixed deleting orphan files.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by uberpixel

I've made a bunch of changes lately so I'm not sure how this started but...

With comskip running on 2 threads at a time and processing active recordings, the cpu load goes to 100% and SageTV v7 becomes unusable. I've tried disabling comskip and every calms back down. I also hear heavy hard drive activity when comskip is running.

Comskip was running fine in the configuration noted above except for one or two hiccups per hour in my recordings so I decided I needed to make it better.

I rebuilt my WHS system around a 1.8ghz Intel E4300 Core2Duo (which should have been an upgrade from the single core 3.0ghz P4 530).

After the upgrade I also installed the most recent v7 beta software from SageTV.

I got an error message that I had run out of memory so I adjusted my Java heap size to 512mb.

I've also been get "Halt detected" errors and occasional "no signal" errors.

Not sure if comskip is the problem or just a symptom... Any ideas what's going on or how I can troubleshoot?

Here are a few comments and observations that I hope will help:

- 512MB Java heap is probably too small. CommercialDetector does not use much java heap but many other plugins do. I would consider 512MB small and 1MB about right for "most" people.

- What version of CD are you using? The current version available in the repository (0.70) has a bug that sometimes prevents more than one comskip job from starting. This bug is fixed in the forum beta (0.75) I posted a few days back so if you are running 0.75 it could be you were never really running more than 1 comskip and now you are.

- Try running comskip with the "Run More Slowly" option set to True. That may free up some CPU cycles for you.

- Try setting the maximum number of jobs to 1 to see ifthat helps. (Or see what happens when only 1 job is actually running.) I would guess that with only 1 job running your system will be disk bound and not CPU bound. I'm not certain given the CPU you have, but it's worth a shot.

- Do you have any other plugins installed? If so try uninstalling those one at a time to verify that it's CommercialDetector causing the issues.

- When you say you "rebuilt your system", did you just change the CPU or did you also change other components? I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir but since you changed several things at once you need to try to isolate various components to see which one is failing.

Let me know how you get on.

Tom

[toricred]

OK, I had the buttons turned off. What an idiot move. Unfortunately when I turn them both on I only see the delete comskip files button, not the run comskip option. If I just delete the comskip files will CD try to run comskip again automatically?

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by toricred

OK, I had the buttons turned off. What an idiot move. Unfortunately when I turn them both on I only see the delete comskip files button, not the run comskip option. If I just delete the comskip files will CD try to run comskip again automatically?

If you press the button it will change from "delete the comskip files" to "run comskip".

[tmiranda]

I just uploaded version 0.80 which has the following:

- Added ability to scan for and delete files that should have been cleaned up but were not.
- Added experimental option, Intelligent Scheduling, which only starts jobs if Sage is not recording and the job will finish before the next scheduled recording.
- Added advanced options to show what's currently being processed and what is queued.
- Added more robust error detection and recovery.
- Moved some configuration options to Advanced since most users will never need them.
- Fixed bug that would sometimes cause only 1 job to start even though more than 1 could have been started.
- Fixed bug that prevented jobs queued after scan from starting until after a SageEvent.
- Fixed bug that prevented files from being cleaned up if CD was set to start immediately, user was watching live TV, and Sage attempted to delete the MediaFile.
- Fixed bug that caused no jobs to get processed if a queued job contained a MediaFile that was deleted.
- Fixed bug that prevented proper cleanup if a recording was split into multiple parts.

I also updated the wiki: http://code.google.com/p/tmiranda/wi...ercialDetector

[Email68]

Great job.

Thanks!

[wrems]

I just got up and running with this. It's pretty slick. For commercial skipping I've only ever used SA and dirmon in the past. So I thought I would give this plugin a try with the default setup and using comskip.

One thing I either haven't figured out yet or isn't currently available is an option to choose a portion of the file not to execute comskip on. For example, don't process the first 3min of the recording or the last 3min. User selectable times of course, but this was nice in SA to avoid detecting the scenes for the next week's show as commercials. Or, in the beginning of the file the intro/credits etc.

I have tried setting the option for not processing commercials shorter than X... We'll see I'm re-processing some files now to see the results of that change.

BTW, great work on the integration. I won't miss dirmon Although I can't complain when setup it just worked.

[tmiranda]

Glad you like it

There is nothing in the plugin that allows not processing the first and last n minutes of a show. It might be something that is configurable in the comskip.ini file, but I'm not sure. Your best bet will be to look at the comskip manual.

If you were using SA in the past and it supported this function, you can still use SA with this plugin. I'm assuming there is a SA setting in the profile that can be set that tells it to not process the first/last n minutes? To use SA just enable the advanced settings and choose Use ShowAnalyzer instead of comskip. It supports SA profiles on a per show, per channel or global basis.

You can get even fancier and use comskip on some channels and SA on others.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

There is nothing in the plugin that allows not processing the first and last n minutes of a show. It might be something that is configurable in the comskip.ini file, but I'm not sure.

This setting is available in the comskip.ini file.

- Added parameters always_keep_first_seconds and always_keep_last_seconds, Set them to the number of seconds at start/end you always want to be regarded as show.

This will accomplish what you want.

Gerry

[vexhold]

I scanned this post for an answer but saw none.

I am a 1st time commercial skipper. (I know, I should have been a loooong time ago) and installed this a couple weeks ago. The problem is, is that my only sources are HD-PVR's and I realized the other day that I needed the donators version.

I now have that and it is configured, how do I redo all the shows that the bad version already completed?

[gplasky]

Get rid of the .edl, .txt files that bear the same name as the recording you wish to comskip again.

Gerry

[vexhold]

Can I just click Delete Comskip Files in the show menu and run it again.

Will that accomplish the same task, or is it better to go in there and manually delete them?

[gplasky]

That command has been there awhile so I'm not positive but you could try that first. Comskip used .txt files before it eventually moved to .edl files. So that may work for you.

Gerry

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by vexhold

I now have that and it is configured, how do I redo all the shows that the bad version already completed?

1. Manually delete all of the .edl, .txt, .log files.

2. Go to the CommercialDetector General plugin options and select Show Advanced Options. Then look for a setting that says "Scan All Recordings Without comskip Info". Once you select that everything will get queued. Note that if you have a lot of files the scan will take a while and you will get the "spinning circle".

[vexhold]

Ok, so I found the .txt files but there were no .edl or .log files.

I made sure before posting by doing a full system search for them.

But I deleted the .txt files and went to the config and followed your steps.

When I clicked "Scan All Recordings Without comskip Info" It bumped up to 48 and the option 2 down from it changed to 100, I wasnt sure if there were other options (ie all) so I clicked it again and the option 2 down went from 100 to 148... I then stopped in fear I was doing something wrong. I check back later and it went down to 146.

Checked again for .edl files and still nothing.

Haha, I know Im doing something wrong but alas know not what.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by vexhold

Ok, so I found the .txt files but there were no .edl or .log files.

I made sure before posting by doing a full system search for them.

But I deleted the .txt files and went to the config and followed your steps.

When I clicked "Scan All Recordings Without comskip Info" It bumped up to 48 and the option 2 down from it changed to 100, I wasnt sure if there were other options (ie all) so I clicked it again and the option 2 down went from 100 to 148... I then stopped in fear I was doing something wrong. I check back later and it went down to 146.

Checked again for .edl files and still nothing.

Haha, I know Im doing something wrong but alas know not what.

You did not do anything wrong.

The first time you click on "Scan All Recordings Without comskip Info" it counts how many it found without .edl or .txt. In your case it was 48. The second time you clicked on it it queued them to be comskipped, that's why the "second option down" ("Show Jobs That Are Queued" which shows the number of recordings queued) went from 100 to 148. You had 100 already queued to be comskipped and you added 48 to it. When you checked back later and it was 146 tells you that 2 were completed. If you actually click on the "146" it will display the shows that are queued.

The fact that you didn't find any .edl files tells me you did not edit the new comskip.ini to create the edl files. (I am assuming you installed the donator's version of comskip and used the default .ini.) To get comskip to create .edl files add "output_edl=1" into the .ini file. To suppress the .txt files (you don't need both .edl and .txt) set "output_default=0". To avoid the .log files set "verbose=0".

Tom

[vexhold]

The fact that you didn't find any .edl files tells me you did not edit the new comskip.ini to create the edl files. (I am assuming you installed the donator's version of comskip and used the default .ini.)

Yes, I am using the most recent donator's version and the default .ini

To get comskip to create .edl files add "output_edl=1" into the .ini file.

This was already there

To suppress the .txt files (you don't need both .edl and .txt) set "output_default=0".

This is not in the .ini, do I need to add it in there?

To avoid the .log files set "verbose=0".

This one was there and is now changed.

[vexhold]

Thanks guys, I got it working. Thanks for the hard work Tom.

[Email68]

Originally Posted by toricred

OK, I had the buttons turned off. What an idiot move. Unfortunately when I turn them both on I only see the delete comskip files button, not the run comskip option. If I just delete the comskip files will CD try to run comskip again automatically?

I think I have the same problem. I have both buttons, del comskip and run comskip set to show in the configuration and the UI plugin enabled. However, only the del comskip for shows that have been auto comskipped shows up. The run comskip button does not show up at all for shows that were not comskpped.

I'm running the latest version of comskip and the .20 sage beta.

-Tim