Plugin: CommercialDetector

[jptheripper]

ok I am all windows. I have comskip configured and running (donator version) on my sage server. It runs comskip automatically after the show completes.

I would like to offload the "load" of comskip to another server, but keep all the automated functionality. Is this possible?

[ChePazzo]

Originally Posted by jptheripper

ok I am all windows. I have comskip configured and running (donator version) on my sage server. It runs comskip automatically after the show completes.

I would like to offload the "load" of comskip to another server, but keep all the automated functionality. Is this possible?

I never really tried to get the automated part to work in my offserver implementation. I am assuming you are using dirmon? If both boxes are windows and it works on one by monitoring the directory, then I don't see why it wouldn't work if running on another box, just monitoring a 'windows share' directory.

I should also mention that, comskip.exe was installed on the windows desktop, not on the sage server.

It can't hurt to try. I mounted my UNC share as the 'M' drive on my workstation. just copy comskip.exe to that machine and run it.

to sum up, what you want to do should be very possible. Just understand that you will be eating through your network bandwidth, especially if you have like 4 or 5 comskips running at once (I would have up to 7).

Try it and report back your success and/or failures.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by jptheripper

Quick question.

Is it possible to run comskip.exe on another machine? My htpc is not super beefy but the family quad core sitting next to it could easily do the work.

I did search the thread but couldnt find anything.

This plugin is really not meant to be used to run comskip on another machine, for that I'd highly recomment SJQv4 (Sage Job Queue). The learning curve is greater for SJQ but you will have a lot more flexibility.

Slugger has already written the groovy scripts (when you look into SJQ that will make sense) so you wil have a good head start.

[traker1001]

Hey folks, I made a donation a couple days ago to get the donor version of comskip so I could run it on my H264 files. Can anyone tell me how long it usually takes to get the download link after you donate? I still haven't gotten email one from him.

[jptheripper]

mine took about 2 days.,

[element33]

Not sure if I'm supposed to start a new thread, but I'll try here first. Auto detect/skip works beautifully for me (thanks!), but when I click "Run Comskip" in the show's options nothing happens. I don't see comskip in the Task Manager. When I go to CommercialDetector's config menu and do "Scan All Recordings WIthout Comskip" comskip runs OK. The paths to comskip.exe and comskip.ini are correct. So why doesn't "Run Comskip" work? "Delete Comskip Files" works fine.

Also, is there a way to delete orphaned files automatically, e.g. every time SageTV starts? I sometimes see leftover junk but I'm too lazy to get into the Detector's config menu to start "Delete Orphaned Files".

Sage7.1.5, CommercialDetector 0.80, ComskipPlayback 2.0.6.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by element33

Not sure if I'm supposed to start a new thread, but I'll try here first. Auto detect/skip works beautifully for me (thanks!), but when I click "Run Comskip" in the show's options nothing happens. I don't see comskip in the Task Manager. When I go to CommercialDetector's config menu and do "Scan All Recordings WIthout Comskip" comskip runs OK. The paths to comskip.exe and comskip.ini are correct. So why doesn't "Run Comskip" work? "Delete Comskip Files" works fine.

Also, is there a way to delete orphaned files automatically, e.g. every time SageTV starts? I sometimes see leftover junk but I'm too lazy to get into the Detector's config menu to start "Delete Orphaned Files".

Sage7.1.5, CommercialDetector 0.80, ComskipPlayback 2.0.6.

You need to install the CommercialDetector UI from the "UI Mod" section of the Plugin Manager. That will make the "Run Comskip" and "Delete Comskip Files" option work.

There is no way to delete the orphans automatically on startup. The best thing to do is make sure you have "Cleanup files with these extensions" configured properly so you don't nee to run "delete orphaned files" at all.

Tom

[element33]

Cool, thanks. "Run Comskip" works now.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by element33

Cool, thanks. "Run Comskip" works now.

Good. In the future, all you need to do is install the UI Mod plugin and it will automatically install all of the other things that are needed (The "General" plugin including comskip, the ComskipPlayback plugin, and all required dependencies.)

I tried to make this easy, and installing one plugin is about as easy as I could get it

[zoltran]

A bit of a side-bar ...
.. but does anyone run comskip with the multithread option to use more than 1 core/cpu ?

I ask because there was an old old thread that suggested it caused issues, but I haven't seen any recent updates

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by zoltran

A bit of a side-bar ...
.. but does anyone run comskip with the multithread option to use more than 1 core/cpu ?

I ask because there was an old old thread that suggested it caused issues, but I haven't seen any recent updates

Not sure what you mean by "run comskip with the multithread option" but you can run multiple instances of comskip. I don't know if comskip itself is multithreaded or not.

[zoltran]

Hi, I found the multi-threaded thread in the comskip forums.
It's supposed to multi-thread, but doesn't and Eric doesn't think it can be fixed
http://www.kaashoek.com/comskip/view...lit=multi+core

[element33]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

You need to install the CommercialDetector UI from the "UI Mod" section of the Plugin Manager. That will make the "Run Comskip" and "Delete Comskip Files" option work.

One more thing: when launched manually from "Run Comskip", does comskip run with the exact same parameters as when it's launched automatically by Com. Detector? I may be imagining things, but it seems like "Run Comskip" works harder and longer than auto on the same show.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by element33

One more thing: when launched manually from "Run Comskip", does comskip run with the exact same parameters as when it's launched automatically by Com. Detector? I may be imagining things, but it seems like "Run Comskip" works harder and longer than auto on the same show.

It should not make any difference at all. If you want you can set the loglevel to Trace, press the "Run Comskip" button, and then send me the log from the Sage server. (Wait a few minutes after pressing the button. The server only looks for files queued from SageClients once a minute or so.) I'll take a look at that to see if anything funky is happening.

[doncote0]

Okay I see always_keep_last_seconds=120
but does always_keep_first_seconds=120 work, too?

Second, is there a way to set a flag on a recording, folder or favorite for DO NOT COMSKIP?

Third, is there a way to force the comskip delay in autoskip and delay in return from autoskip (a negative value) to specific values from within the comskip.ini? This would be great for extenders and MVP's.

[tmiranda]

I can only answer the second question. You can exclude certain channels from being comskipped but you can't skip by recording, folder or favorite. I can see where this would be useful so I'll put it on the list for the next version.

[jerryt]

I installed the Diamond theme and then uninstalled it.

Client started have a problem where commercials change from green to blue on timeline when I do the a FF skip. The Commercial skipping in IU shows disabled, so I enable it again, but then the next FF disables commercial skipping in the IU again. I tried reinstalling all Sage software on the client but the behavior persists.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by jerryt

I installed the Diamond theme and then uninstalled it.

Client started have a problem where commercials change from green to blue on timeline when I do the a FF skip. The Commercial skipping in IU shows disabled, so I enable it again, but then the next FF disables commercial skipping in the IU again. I tried reinstalling all Sage software on the client but the behavior persists.

Not really a function of Commercial Detector, but of the Comskip Playback plugin. This is normal default behavior, to disable auto-skipping on a manual rewind (to keep it from auto-skipping forward again). There are a LOT of configuration options under Detailed Setup -> Customize -> Comskip Playback Options. One of them is 'Disable Autoskip for this long when manually skipping' under 'Operation Options'. It think the default is 12 seconds.

[jerryt]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Not really a function of Commercial Detector, but of the Comskip Playback plugin. This is normal default behavior, to disable auto-skipping on a manual rewind (to keep it from auto-skipping forward again). There are a LOT of configuration options under Detailed Setup -> Customize -> Comskip Playback Options. One of them is 'Disable Autoskip for this long when manually skipping' under 'Operation Options'. It think the default is 12 seconds.

Thanks, that worked.

[doncote0]

There are a LOT of configuration options under Detailed Setup -> Customize -> Comskip Playback Options. One of them is 'Disable Autoskip for this long when manually skipping' under 'Operation Options'. It think the default is 12 seconds.

I do not see that. I see something quite weird instead. I think on of them should say Disable Comskip ....

instead I have two identical entries under Operation Options that both say "Don't Autoskip Commercials Shorter Than This"

So I clicked on both.

The second one came up with a text that said "Disable Autoskip for this long when manually..." It's default was 12. So I changed it to 2 seconds and they both changed to 2 seconds. I changed the minimum commercial to 25 seconds, and they both changed to 25 seconds. Bleck.

Thoughts?