Plugin: CommercialDetector

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by doncote0

Commercial detector always installs as failed. Any ideas?

Is this plugin, what gives me the comskip configuration options in Sage? If not, that may be the problem.

No idea why it would say failed. You're an experienced user so I assume you have tried rebooting after installing the plugin. Attach your sage logfile because that will usually give some good clues.

The plugin gives SOME of the comskip config options. The easiest way to explain it is that things are divided into three pieces:

- The UI: If you install the CommercialDetector UI Mod Plugin it will install the comskip playback Plugin and then do some modifications on it to support CommercialDetector specific options. The comskip playback plugin has all of the UI related comskip options. (Auto skip, timebar options etc.)

- Launching comskip: This is done by the CommercialDetector General plugin. This plugin contains some comskip options. (Launch when recording starts, number of comskip instances to run, comskip priority, .INI file to use, etc.)

- comskip itself: comskip has many options that are contained directly in the comskip.ini file. The only way to alter these options is to edit the comskip.ini file.

If you install the CommercialDetector UI Mod Plugin it will install the whole shebang and give you the most common defaults. Let me know if that answers your questions.

[doncote0]

Yes, I rebooted many times. I am very familiar with comskip, the ini file and how they work together.

But so far, comskip is not working. It exists, the cmd file is in the place that it is looking for it, but manual comskip does nothing. I am not sure what brought the comskip options back, maybe it was enabling the hidden (secret) Sage unsupported menu.

It has been weird to say the least. I upgraded to the latest 7.1.9.x to which killed my IR. Since I could not find an obvious and easy fix for that, I did a complete and clean install of 7.1.9.x after blowing away the original sage install directories. IR is back and working very well, recording seems to be working better than I remember, but a few plugins won't play nicely.

Jetty and commercial detector are not happy, which makes me unhappy since I use them a lot. I guess I will be making the change to SJQ4 since I blew away the original SJQ3 that I was so happy with. MKANET's theme plugin give me a MD5 checksum error which makes me wonder if it has been tampered with (won't allow an install anyway).

CommercialDetector UI Mod Plugin is where I have done the plugin installs from. The UI does not fail, but the Commercial Detector does.

I don't know if the environment that Sage creates during the 7.0.23 install is needed as a foundation for 7.1.19.5, but I imagine since a lot of others aren't complaining about it, then possibility is more likely.

Interestingly, the plugins of concern will install and say they are installed correctly (after uninstall and reinstall). However after a reboot, the plugins will be listed as 'failed' under the installed plugin list. Maybe this is all related to the problems with Jetty. I'll start there as well as checking on the comskip.cmd file. After that, I will do a manual remove and reinstall of all plugins that are the basis (dependencies) for other plugins (even though they currently look okay).

Log thing...okay...I'll do that too. Thanks...

[nettech_gt]

Originally Posted by nettech_gt

So if I update my version of Sage to 7.19 and sagex to 7.192 it should work?

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Yes.

So I upgraded to 7.1.9 and the recorded shows are automatically being qued and processed. However... I have another issue. When I select a show that has not been processed, not currently qued and was recorded well in the past, then select "run comskip" it doesn't get qued or processed. How is the "run comskip" on a single show supposed to work? THANX!

[doncote0]

Originally Posted by nettech_gt

So I upgraded to 7.1.9 and the recorded shows are automatically being qued and processed. However... I have another issue. When I select a show that has not been processed, not currently qued and was recorded well in the past, then select "run comskip" it doesn't get qued or processed. How is the "run comskip" on a single show supposed to work? THANX!

The problem that I had is now gone. I got the problem by upgrading to 7.1.9 (in my case a clean install). Somehow Sage remembered most of the plugins and listed them as being installed --even though they were no longer installed (probably registry or some cached info).

What I did--I uninstalled ALL plugins, shutdown SageTV completely and restarted. After verifying the plugins were gone, I installed them all over (successfully).

So after upgrading to any version of SageTV, if you are having problems with a plugin, uninstall that plugin (and all related and dependent plugins) and reinstall it.

In the case of comskip, there could be as many as 4 plugins that need to be uninstalled before reinstall (don't forget the JREkiwi Comskip Playback plugin).

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by nettech_gt

So I upgraded to 7.1.9 and the recorded shows are automatically being qued and processed. However... I have another issue. When I select a show that has not been processed, not currently qued and was recorded well in the past, then select "run comskip" it doesn't get qued or processed. How is the "run comskip" on a single show supposed to work? THANX!

Glad to hear it's mostly working. To get "Run COmskip" to work make sure you have the CommercialDetector UI Mod plugin installed. This is in addition to the CommercialDetector General Plugin. (If you install the UI Mod it will automatically install the General Plugin, but not vice versa.)

You can also try what doncote0 recommended.

Let me know if those suggestions do not work.

[doncote0]

Originally Posted by nettech_gt

So I upgraded to 7.1.9 and the recorded shows are automatically being qued and processed. However... I have another issue. When I select a show that has not been processed, not currently qued and was recorded well in the past, then select "run comskip" it doesn't get qued or processed. How is the "run comskip" on a single show supposed to work? THANX!

You might also want to check the entire path of the comskip.cmd file that is being used to start the manual comskip. On install, it is set to a default location that is often incorrect.

[baradanikto]

tmiranda.....attached is the log file you requested. Let me explain what I meant about "Program Files". When I originally installed the SageTV software, I took the default location for the install, which for me, under Windows 7/64 is the folder "C:\Program Files (x86)". Thus, all plugins are installed as a sub-folder under here also. Now, given what I know about UAC, there can be some problems trying to write to C:\Program Files (x86) if UAC is set to the highest level.

[tmiranda]

@baradanikto

What I see happening:

- When the recording ends CD looks for custom comskip.ini files in the Program Files (x86) directory and doesn't fins any. It then defaults to using the .ini file in C:\Program Files (x86)\SageTV\SageTV\comskip\comskip.ini. This is all normal.

- Comskip runs successfully and does NOT find any commercials. Look at these lines:

Fri 10/7 23:02:08.953 [Thread-14@acfab6] CD: StreamGetter: stdout: The commandline used was:
Fri 10/7 23:02:08.954 [Thread-14@acfab6] CD: StreamGetter: stdout: "C:\Program Files (x86)\SageTV\SageTV\comskip\comskip.exe" "--ini=C:\Program Files (x86)\SageTV\SageTV\comskip\comskip.ini" "E:\Recorded Shows\Sanctuary-Tempus-2897048-0.mpg"
Fri 10/7 23:02:08.954 [Thread-14@acfab6] CD: StreamGetter: stdout: 
Fri 10/7 23:02:08.954 [Thread-14@acfab6] CD: StreamGetter: stdout: Opening E:\Recorded Shows\Sanctuary-Tempus-2897048-0.mpg
Fri 10/7 23:02:08.954 [Thread-14@acfab6] CD: StreamGetter: stdout: Setting ini file to C:\Program Files (x86)\SageTV\SageTV\comskip\comskip.ini as per commandline
Fri 10/7 23:02:08.955 [Thread-14@acfab6] CD: StreamGetter: stdout: Using C:\Program Files (x86)\SageTV\SageTV\comskip\comskip.ini for initiation values.
Fri 10/7 23:02:08.955 [Thread-14@acfab6] CD: StreamGetter: stdout: Commercials were not found.

There are a few things to look at to see why no commercials were found:

- The recording: Is it full of static? Is there some type of "ticker" running across the bottom? Do commercials seamlessly merge with the show? Is the .mpg file corrupted? Is the .MPG really a .TS or .TP file that has been given an extension of .MPG?

- The .ini: What's in the .ini file? Did you make any changes? Is the file corrupted? ZIP and attach the .ini file so I can have a look.

Bottom line: CommercialDetector is running comskip against the recordings but something is preventing comskip from finding any commercials.

Tom

[baradanikto]

Tom,

Attached is the comskip.ini file. I've also attached two additional files that I found in the hopes that it will help you. I don't remember specifically editing the .ini file.

- The recording: Is it full of static? Is there some type of "ticker" running across the bottom? Do commercials seamlessly merge with the show? Is the .mpg file corrupted? Is the .MPG really a .TS or .TP file that has been given an extension of .MPG?

The commercials are not detected on our local NBC HD affiliate and the SYFY HD channel. The shows are .mpg files.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by baradanikto

The commercials are not detected on our local NBC HD affiliate and the SYFY HD channel. The shows are .mpg files.

What is your source? Is it via an HD-PVR? if so, the files are H.264, which reuquires the donator's version of comskip. The free version is only able to process MPEG-2 video.

[tmiranda]

I'm at a loss. The .ini looks fine and I see the source is S-Video from a HVR-2250.

Are those the only two channels that no commercials are detected?

[baradanikto]

You are correct. I'm using an HVR2250. At the moment, it appears that any "HD" channel I record does not have commercial detection. I have not tried a non-HD channel. I'll try that next and report back.

[baradanikto]

Ok, the results are in. I recorded a show from a non-HD channel and Commercial Detector worked fine. The video does show commercial breaks. Now, the question becomes, I'm using the HVR-2250 and it appears to be producing ".mpg" files. Do I need the donator version of Comskip? If so, I assume I'll need to uninstall the current version to use the "donator" version?

[Fuzzy]

for the 2250, no it doesn't require the donator's version, as it is still just mpeg-2 files. Most likely it's a tuning issue, and there is something in those streams that comskip is choking on (like your black levels are too high, so it doens't detect the black segments as breaks, because they are actually gray). There are lots of tips and tricks in getting comskip to detect them accurately on the comskip forums.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

for the 2250, no it doesn't require the donator's version, as it is still just mpeg-2 files. Most likely it's a tuning issue, and there is something in those streams that comskip is choking on (like your black levels are too high, so it doens't detect the black segments as breaks, because they are actually gray). There are lots of tips and tricks in getting comskip to detect them accurately on the comskip forums.

Agreed. One thing to try that may give some clues, edit the comskip.ini and change "verbose=0" to "verbose=10". This will dump A LOT of information into the sage logfile which may give us (or somebody on the comskip forums) a better idea to what's going on.

[dibs]

quick question for you all. I have comskip working well, but I only want to launch the comskip.exe manually on specific recordings using the "run comskip" button. I thought setting up restrictions for every hour and then hitting the button on what I wanted to comskip would do it, but that just disables the launching all together. Is there any way to stop the auto scan in Com Det? Is there a way to set up the Playback plugin to do this and bypass the Com Det? Thanks!

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by dibs

quick question for you all. I have comskip working well, but I only want to launch the comskip.exe manually on specific recordings using the "run comskip" button. I thought setting up restrictions for every hour and then hitting the button on what I wanted to comskip would do it, but that just disables the launching all together. Is there any way to stop the auto scan in Com Det? Is there a way to set up the Playback plugin to do this and bypass the Com Det? Thanks!

Probably the easiest thing to do is include all of your channels in the list of channels to skip. You can use a range instead of entering them all, so if in your setup the lowest numbered channel is 2 and the highest is 725, put in 2-725.

[nettech_gt]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Glad to hear it's mostly working. To get "Run COmskip" to work make sure you have the CommercialDetector UI Mod plugin installed. This is in addition to the CommercialDetector General Plugin. (If you install the UI Mod it will automatically install the General Plugin, but not vice versa.)

You can also try what doncote0 recommended.

Let me know if those suggestions do not work.

THANX! Installing the CD UI worked.

How can I improve accuracy of the commercial detection? Most shows processed are fairly accurate but some have a bunch of short skips where there aren't commercials...

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by nettech_gt

THANX! Installing the CD UI worked.

How can I improve accuracy of the commercial detection? Most shows processed are fairly accurate but some have a bunch of short skips where there aren't commercials...

Glad you got it working. The best place to get advice on tuning comskip is over at the comskip forums. Keep in mind that CommercialDetector is very flexible when it comes to using custom .ini files so you can tweak to your heart's content. (You can specify a custom .ini file based on the show name or channel the show aired on.)

Tom

[baradanikto]

Fuzzy, tmiranda...thanks for the advice. I'm beginning to think that it is indeed a tuning issue. I got a chance to watch the video that did produce commericial breaks and some of the breaks were not accurate. I'm going to try and spend some time tuning Comskip. I'll let you know how I make out. Also, I've read some other Sage posts that imply that Compskip does not do a good job in general with detecting commericials from an HD show. Is that correct in your experience? Or, does that only refer to the H.264 Fuzzy mentioned? Again, I'm getting mpegs when I record an HD channel.