Commercial Advance Beta Release

[malore]

IKK, the updated version is available on the first post of this thread. It also gives information on the new freatures I added.
• Added Commercial Auto Skip. Turn it off or on in the media player's option menu. If it skips something that isn't a commercial, uses the Custom4 command to jump back. It won't skip the same section twice in a row.

Start watching a show and bring up the options menu (escape key, right mouse click, or yellow hauppauge button) and turn it on. It will stay enabled until you turn it back off.

[dman]

Originally posted by IKK
Thanks for the quick response Dman. I am currently at work with no ability to use sage. Could you tell me the location of the Auto Skip function so I can try it at soon as I get home.

Thanks Again

Yep, It's on the video Options menu. Press esc on your keyboard or the yellow button on the hauppage remote (i beleive, it's been awile since I've used it) while watching a show.

[JasonJoel]

XP Pro here too, on the server and client.

I'll try the UNC mappings again this afternoon though, and pay more attention.

Jason

Originally posted by Opus4
I wonder if there is an OS difference, perhaps? I'm using XP Pro. You? I only had used space reported incorrectly, not available space.

After restarting, look at the recording details for a show in the UNC dir. Does it list the filename using the UNC path or the previous "drive:\path"?

How about trying a mapped network drive, instead? The thing I didn't lke about that, though, was the need to do the mapping on both the server & client systems.

- Andy

[malore]

Originally posted by dman
I just started playing with Commercial Advance. Let me start by saying, malore, you’re my god. Others may bow down to other deity’s but for me it’s malore; alright enough with the a** kissing. I tried about 5-6 shows last evening and found that returning from a commercial seems to be bang on, however the initial commercial marker always seems to be about 4 seconds into the commercial period. Is this intentional? Also, I had a couple of shows where the first commercial would play, and then 4 seconds into the 2nd commercial the marker would hit. Is anybody else noticing this? I should mention, I’m up in Canada bur we’re NTSC up here too, so the only difference I can figure is that when the CRTC (Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission) overlays commercials for Canadian content may affect things.

Dman

I'm blushing from such praise.

The play time SageTV's media player shows isn't 100% accurate, so I chose to err on the side of caution and wait a few extra seconds before skipping.

If you want to, you might be able to identify the reason it sometime misses the first commercial. While developing comskip.exe, I've been using VirtualDub-MPEG2 to double check the results. I like it because it's freeware and lets you jump to an exact framenumber which comes in handy since I used framenumbers for comskip's output. It takes a minute or so for it to load a mpeg-2 file, but after that it's fast. Take a look at a commercial break where it missed the first commercial and see if there is a clear black frame. If there isn't that's the problem, if there is then check the length of the first commercial and see if it is close to being evenly divisible by 5 seconds (examples 15s, 30s,40s).

[lovingHDTV]

malore,

I see that you can remove breaks that are wrong, is it possible to hit a button and add a commercial break for when a commercial is completely missed?

[ToxMox]

I didn't see this...how do you remove a break that is wrong?

[lovingHDTV]

hit the "custom 4" key.

See post at top of page.

or did I read that incorrectly?

[ToxMox]

Oh that doesn't remove a break just won't autoskip that section twice in a row. The next time you play it the break is still there.

[lovingHDTV]

oh

bummer

[samson]

• Added Commercial Auto Skip. Turn it off or on in the media player's option menu

I can not find the auto skip setting ?

which is the media player option menu?

[Coolwave]

For anyone who uses VideoRedo you may find this useful. I have created a program for my personal use to convert malore's cutlists into VideoRedo project files and has cut the time it takes to edit out commercials in half or even more since at least half of the commercials in each episode I edit are marked exactly correct.

The .NET framework is required. I know many of you hate the idea of installing the .NET framework, but I'm sure just as many already have it installed. .NET is what I can code in the fastest so this only took me about 30 minutes to make and works great as far as I'm concerned.

This program allows you to drag and drop multiple cutlists from your video directory into "SageRedo" and converts them to a VideoRedo project file.

The program reads the text file's path as being the same as the video files path which should be true for everyone. The project file or files is/are then created in that same directory.

Open up the project file in VideoRedo and there you have the same cutpoints as detected.

This is mainly for my personal use and I'm just sharing it for anyone interested, but if you have something to add that you think would make it better then let me know.

[Coolwave]

Originally posted by samson
I can not find the auto skip setting ?

which is the media player option menu?

The menu that appears while watching a recording and pressing ESC, Ctrl+O, right-clicking, or pressing the yellow button on the hauppauge remote.

The menu should have Detailed Info, Close File, Com. Auto Skip etc.

[samson]

Thats what I thought I do not see auto skip on that menu I installed it twice

Is there any way to tell if the rite file is up for download?

I dont know what else it could be I turned off sage then installed the .stv I also do not see the [ca] in the recordings menu

[krutaw]

Malore,

Many many thanks for making one of my last missing wishes come true. So far, it's been flawless as far as functionality.

Now, I just wish someone would find a way to be able to schedule recordings via a web interface.

[malore]

samson, I'll be posting an new update later tonight. Among other things it will have a place showing the date the stv was last modified to help people know they are running the latest version.

krutaw, glad you like it.

[samson]

Great thanks is this a known problem or is it just me? Btw Thanks Id say it is about 90% accurateand it has been only 2 days and already I cant watch tv with out it


One question
I have been using it on groups of my shows while I have been watching tv and taping 2 shows with no problem I was wondering if you could make a setting so it will automatcaly run even when it is taping shows ??
thanks again for a great add on

[insomniac]

yea, malore is definately my hero!

[malore]

Update August 4: (malorebeta.zip )
• The SageTV client is no longer prevented from processing commercial in the background.
• Added two settings to the sage.properties file.
- Set background_commercial_processing_awake=true to allow background commercial processing while SageTV is awake.
- Set background_commercial_processing_recording=true to allow background commercial processing while SageTV is recording another show.
• In the Custom Menus menu, the info command (ctrl-I), will bring up an about box with the date my STV was last updated.
• I've made a couple adjustments to the commercial detection settings that I found to work a little better, but rather than spending all my time trying to figure out the perfect, one-size-fits-all settings, I've made most of the black frame detection settings configurable with a settings file (comskip.ini) I also included a file that has close to the original settings.

Note: Exit SageTV and make a backup copy of sage.properties before editing any settings.

Whenever, I install an updated .stv file, I exit SageTV, make a copy of the old .stv file, replace it with the new file, then restart SageTV. Works every time for me. If you've done it correctly the info command (ctrl-I) in Custom Menus should bring up an about box with the date that my stv was last updated (As long as I remember to change the date ).

[malore]

Had to make a last minute change to comskip.exe, so if you downloaded the August 4 update before 12:30 AM Central time, please download it again. Any .txt files created by it should be deleted, because they won't work right. Look at the modified date or for files greater than 1K in size.

[krutaw]

Originally posted by malore
[B]• Added two settings to the sage.properties file.
- Set background_commercial_processing_awake=true to allow background commercial processing while SageTV is awake.
- Set background_commercial_processing_recording=true to allow background commercial processing while SageTV is recording a show.

Does this mean that any newly recorded shows will be automatically scanned?