Plugin: CommercialDetector

[nwboater]

Another Comskip question. We use and really like MyMovies for SageTV. I believe for it to work properly all the movies need to be in the Videos folder, or something similar - just all in the same folder. Each in their own sub folder of course.

We have a lot of movies recorded from TV that we would like to have in MyMovies. Is there a way that Comskip can be made to work with movies in a different folder from the recordings folder? I could wait to do the move until they have been marked by Comskip if that would help.

Thanks,
Rod

[tmiranda]

Rod,

CommercialDetector will not run comskip on a Client. Dirmon2 or SJQ will.

Tom

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by nwboater

We have a lot of movies recorded from TV that we would like to have in MyMovies. Is there a way that Comskip can be made to work with movies in a different folder from the recordings folder? I could wait to do the move until they have been marked by Comskip if that would help.

The easiest thing to do is to wait for CommercialDetector to finish creating the .edl and then move the movie and .edl to wherever you want. As long as the .mpg and the .edl are in the same directory it will work fine.

Alternatively, from the default STV go to Videos, select the movie and then select the option to run comskip.

[nwboater]

Tom,

Thanks very much for both your prompt and helpful responses.

Rod

[Zone99]

I've been trying to find out if it's possible to have comskip replace the file after commercial detection.

When I was using BeyondTV, I believe it's commercial marking program would mark the commercials and then replace the file with the commercial-less file.

Can Commercial Detector and comskip do this?

Here's what I'm trying to do:

- record a show
- mark and cut the commercials
- replace the file
- convert to iPhone format

After that, I would suck that into my iTunes library and then it would be available for use on my iPad or Apple TV.

Possible?

Thanks!

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Zone99

I've been trying to find out if it's possible to have comskip replace the file after commercial detection.

When I was using BeyondTV, I believe it's commercial marking program would mark the commercials and then replace the file with the commercial-less file.

Can Commercial Detector and comskip do this?

Here's what I'm trying to do:

- record a show
- mark and cut the commercials
- replace the file
- convert to iPhone format

After that, I would suck that into my iTunes library and then it would be available for use on my iPad or Apple TV.

Possible?

Thanks!

This is a job for SJQ (Sage Job Queue). Others have already done this using comskip (to generate the .Vprj files that contain the commercial locations), VideoReDo (to cut out those commercials), and MediaShrink (to convert format.)

SJQv4 is getting ready to enter public beta so I'd recommend not spending a lot of time gettin it to work under SJQ3.

[fas77]

My hardware:
Windows 7 32 bit
Sagetv 7
i7 860
4 GB DDR3
nvidia gt 430
Vizio 55"
Yamaha reciever

I've been running comskip without issues for some time now.
I just installed a HD-PVR so I got the donated version to use.
The new comskip version is in its own directory with the plugin
pointing to its location.
It processes the .ts files but takes a long time.
For example a 30 minute show takes 42 minutes to process.

I attached the comskip log and comskip ini for the 30 minute show I was testing.

I did try other recordings and have the same results.

Is this normal for .ts files?

[Fuzzy]

H.264 does take quite a bit longer to process than MPEG-2, but on that hardware, it shouldn't really be taking THAT long.

[bradvido]

@tmiranda

I have been using the commercial detector plugin and it is working great! Thanks for your work on this.

I usually watch most of my recordings in XBMC (personal preference), which supports comskip's .edl files as well.
However, I would like to have the .edl files act as "commercial break" instead of "cut" as defined here.
All that needs to be changed is the last flag, from zero to three like so:

5.3   7.1    0
15    16.7   0
420   822    0

becomes

5.3   7.1    3
15    16.7   3
420   822    3

I have a script that does this conversion automatically.
This works great for XBMC playback, but breaks support in SageTV.

So, is there any way you can enable support in your plugin for the '3' flag to act the same way that '0' currently does in SageTV?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[phunny]

I was thinking of running this on my Sage 7 but I am confused about the install. Can I install the UI on the server? It says to do it on a client I currently use three HD200's do I need to install placeshifter on another pc and run it there or can I run it on the server?

Thanks

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by bradvido

So, is there any way you can enable support in your plugin for the '3' flag to act the same way that '0' currently does in SageTV?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

I'm not sure, I'll have to look into that for you.

I just browsed through the comskip.ini file and I think you can accomplish what you want using this setting:

output_vdr=1

I'm not 100% sure about it, but the comment in the .ini file seems to indicate it's the thing to do.

Try this:
- Copy the .ini file to another folder.
- Edit the .ini file and change the setting from 0 (the default) to 1.
- Go to the CommercialDetector options and point it at the new .ini you just created.

Let me know if that does what you need.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by phunny

I was thinking of running this on my Sage 7 but I am confused about the install. Can I install the UI on the server? It says to do it on a client I currently use three HD200's do I need to install placeshifter on another pc and run it there or can I run it on the server?

Thanks

Just install the Commercial Detector UI Mod on the HD200's and you will be fine. Install should be very simple

[phunny]

I got it work, working nicely because it is simple KISS method works for me

[OneOfMany]

Just a kudo to you for all your hard work! Installed on server and clients.. and all is working great. WAF is bumped up another notch for sure.

Thanks again.

Grant

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by OneOfMany

Thanks again.

Grant

[matterw]

Just wanted to say that you got this right -- so simple and works like a champ. You nailed down the need for the people looking for a v7 comskip trigger agent. Keep it up!

-Matt

[tmiranda]

Thanks Matt.

[nettech_gt]

I installed this plugin on my HD100. Since all my recrdings use an HDPVR I dowloaded the donator version of comskip. I created a new folder "comskipHD" in the SageTV folder and copied the new version to this folder. Then pointed the plugin to the new .exe and .ini files. I recorded a 30 min show to test. After the recodring comskip ran for about 4 hours. (at about 45% CPU) It generated three files (attached) but it did not cut any comercials... Help!

[robogeek]

Originally Posted by nettech_gt

I installed this plugin on my HD100. Since all my recrdings use an HDPVR I dowloaded the donator version of comskip. I created a new folder "comskipHD" in the SageTV folder and copied the new version to this folder. Then pointed the plugin to the new .exe and .ini files. I recorded a 30 min show to test. After the recodring comskip ran for about 4 hours. (at about 45% CPU) It generated three files (attached) but it did not cut any comercials... Help!

Did you also install the Comskip Playback for V7 plugin? It is also required for automatic commercial skipping. The Commercial Detector just runs the comskip program which flags the frame numbers or timestamps of when commercials start and end. The Comskip Playback plugin is the plugin that does the actual automatic skip for you. Neither of these plugins will actually 'cut' the commercial from the recording, they just flag the location of the commercials so they can be auto-skipped during playback.

[nettech_gt]

THANX!! I didn't know I needed to install the "comskip playback plugin". I have now installed it and I now see where the comercials are.


I have a couple more questions; is there a way to fine tune the edl file that gets generated? On each of the "dark green sections" (where the commercials are) it plays 1 -5 seconds of comercials before it resumes playing the show. Also my Sage sever is running on a P4 2.4 Ghz with 1 GB RAM. A 30 min show took over 4 hours to process. (not using the "play nice" setting) is this normal? Seems knida of long to me... THANX!