Comskip Request

[wrems]

I’d like to request a change as to how comskip works with Phoenix.

Currently, when comskip is set to auto, there is no way to go back and see a portion of a show where the commercial was inaccurately detected. Most of the time auto comskip works perfectly, but when it jumps too early or marks a completely wrong section of video it seems impossible to go back and review that section.

I think that pressing LEFT on the remote should temporarily disable comskip and allow the video to play through the break and then resume to auto skip before the next block. I’m lazy and don’t like to babysit the remote to do this manually.

Is this something that can be addressed? This is one of the most annoying things to deal with.

Thanks!

[PiX64]

+1

My wife and I like to be able to put a show on a let 'er rip. In those circumstances where comskip isn't 100% accurate which is pretty few and far between, its super annoying to have to go into the options turn auto skip off, and then proceed to watching the show.

IT would be awesome if for example the user hits the left arrow phoenix could temporarily turn off autocomskip for that file. (Im pretty positive Diamond does this now.)

any chance at this one guys?

...please....

[bialio]

You realize that Diamond doesn't have it's own comskip handling right? You are referring to the comskip plugin for the default STV.

I will add a bit of code that disables the automatic jump if the last user interaction was less than <n> seconds ago. You can set this to whatever you want, I think that will solve the issue.

[mdnttoker]

Originally Posted by bialio

You realize that Diamond doesn't have it's own comskip handling right? You are referring to the comskip plugin for the default STV.

I will add a bit of code that disables the automatic jump if the last user interaction was less than <n> seconds ago. You can set this to whatever you want, I think that will solve the issue.

Does Phoenix use the same comskip code / plugin?

[scoful]

It would also be really cool to have a global option to ignore the last comskip block in a show. Comskip usually marks the 'Next week on....' chunk at the end of the show as part of the commercial block. I like to watch those on some shows and have to start the show again, skip to the end and disable comskip to view it.

Another alternative method would be to make it simply pause at the end of each show or add a menu item to watch the last block (if an edl is present).

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by bialio

You realize that Diamond doesn't have it's own comskip handling right? You are referring to the comskip plugin for the default STV.

I will add a bit of code that disables the automatic jump if the last user interaction was less than <n> seconds ago. You can set this to whatever you want, I think that will solve the issue.

I didn't, but that makes perfect sense now that I think about it or more then a half a second. I think your idea would work great, at least for my needs.

Thanks for considering a fix! Very much appreciated. Wifey says thanks too!

[wrems]

Originally Posted by bialio

I will add a bit of code that disables the automatic jump if the last user interaction was less than <n> seconds ago. You can set this to whatever you want, I think that will solve the issue.

I think that would do it for my needs too!

Thanks again for all you do. Phoenix is awesome!

[JonTom]

Anyone else experiencing this? Doesn't happen on same files in default STV.

The video reaches the end, and then 'comskips' back 5 secs, forever. I woke up to this last night...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RlbvnBeGyA

[PiX64]

Originally Posted by JonTom

Anyone else experiencing this? Doesn't happen on same files in default STV.

The video reaches the end, and then 'comskips' back 5 secs, forever. I woke up to this last night...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RlbvnBeGyA

Yup I see this from time to time as well. Never posted about it though cause I figured it was an autocomskip issue and I didn't think that many people used it...

[scoful]

For some reason my system periodically doesn't autoskip shows. I see the skip marks, check that autoskip is on and it just won't do it. Other times autoskip works fine.

Is anybody else experiencing this?

To be fair I do need to cleanup/remove my old plugins - I presume that would be a good idea since I would expect most of the others that are there are dead weight - or worse - they may interfere with Phoenix.

Do I need to keep my comskip plugins or is that functionality integrated into Phoenix directly?

[bialio]

Phoenix comskip is integrated directly, but you don't have to uninstall anything you had from before - it's not loaded when Phoenix loads, so it's just taking up a small amount of disk space all things considered.

Autoskip doesn't always work, but I don't know why it doesn't always run. I think I'll add a small indicator to the timebar that will at least show on the UI if the autoskip thread is monitoring things - that way in the future if we get reports of this I will have a little bit more to go on.

btl.

[doncote0]

Originally Posted by scoful

For some reason my system periodically doesn't autoskip shows. I see the skip marks, check that autoskip is on and it just won't do it. Other times autoskip works fine.

Is anybody else experiencing this?

Yes, and my install is clean now. I usually just use the right arrow to skip to the end of the first skip. Backing up to before the skip, stopping and restarting play will also fix it. It is a minor annoyance for me right now.

[doncote0]

Originally Posted by bialio

Phoenix comskip is integrated directly, but you don't have to uninstall anything you had from before - it's not loaded when Phoenix loads, so it's just taking up a small amount of disk space all things considered.

Autoskip doesn't always work

Well, the Commercial Detector group says that it should and that if it doesn't it's because of the Phoenix plugins.

Originally Posted by gplasky

If you're using this in Phoenix you need to bring up the issues there. They don't use the plugin system the default Sage uses so the plugins that are in Phoenix are implemented by the Phoenix devs. If you go back to the default Sage interface you won't see the issues you've cited.

Gerry

According to that, autoskip works 100% of the time. (That was my experience using the default theme before switching to Phoenix, too.)

[bialio]

Well, the Commercial Detector group says that it should

I say it should also, but that doesn't make it so. Phoenix has it's own autoskip implementation, so anything you've got installed on the default UI (i.e. the stuff from the Commercial Detector group) doesn't get loaded, and whether it works or not has no bearing on the Phoenix experience.

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by doncote0

Well, the Commercial Detector group says that it should and that if it doesn't it's because of the Phoenix plugins.

Sorry if the explanation was not clear, here is a better recap.

"Commercial detecting" really has two parts, one part that creates .edl files that denote where in the recording commercials start and stop and a second part that displays the info in the UI and does the autoskipping (if that's enabled.)

The CommercialDetector plugin is actually two plugins, a General plugin that creates the .edl files and a UI Mod plugin that adds the UI components. The UI Mod Plugin actually loads up the "comskip playback" plugin to do most of the work in the UI. Phoenix has it's own way of implementing the UI components so the CommercialDetector UI Mod plugin is not needed. (Many Phoenix users do use the CommercialDetector General plugin to create the .edl files.)

So if autoskipping is not working and you're using Phoenix you will need the help of the Phoenix people. If you're using the default STV and commercial skipping is not working you need my help (and maybe help from JREkiwi who supports the comskip playback plugin.)

I'm trying to help you, really

[wrems]

When I notice that the auto skip does not work automatically is while comskip is running. Once the file is complete the skips work as expected. This usually means stopping and restarting the show though. As long as the file is completely scanned before starting to play it the skips work automatically.

Are you running comskip on all recordings including live TV?

My setup runs comskip only when recording has finished so I only see the above issue once in a while. But I bet if you're recording live TV the auto-skipping probably wouldn't work until the show is 100% scanned.

[bialio]

If you don't see it running, for now you can goto the landing zone and then select 'Now Playing' on the TV or Video menu and it should kick in - if there aren't any commercials when playback starts the task that monitors and does the autoskip isn't even started - so that's the issue some of the time.

In the last release I put in code to check for commercials and start the autoskipper when the timebar is displayed - I'm not sure if it works, but it should.

btl.

[LJSSageUser]

Originally Posted by scoful

It would also be really cool to have a global option to ignore the last comskip block in a show. Comskip usually marks the 'Next week on....' chunk at the end of the show as part of the commercial block. I like to watch those on some shows and have to start the show again, skip to the end and disable comskip to view it.

Another alternative method would be to make it simply pause at the end of each show or add a menu item to watch the last block (if an edl is present).

You can resolve these kind of issues by editing the Comskip .ini file. Have it ignore the last <n> seconds of the file and you'll see the "Next on ..." and everything else, including commercials.

[wrems]

Here are the exact entries for the comskip ini file that need to be added:

always_keep_first_seconds=0
always_keep_last_seconds=0

I like doing 180 seconds on the first and last setting to ensure that the beginning of the show isn't cut off funny with the intro credits. To each their own though.

[scoful]

Originally Posted by wrems

Here are the exact entries for the comskip ini file that need to be added:

always_keep_first_seconds=0
always_keep_last_seconds=0

I like doing 180 seconds on the first and last setting to ensure that the beginning of the show isn't cut off funny with the intro credits. To each their own though.

Thanks - I'll give that a try.