sagemc comskip

[xpmagician]

I am current using the sagemc stv (not 6x9), anyone know how to add comskip and weather function to that stv? I prefer to run comskip manually but when i play the file on tv it doesn't give me options to skip it or automatic skip the commercial. Thanks

[Ceger]

Originally Posted by xpmagician

I am current using the sagemc stv (not 6x9), anyone know how to add comskip and weather function to that stv? I prefer to run comskip manually but when i play the file on tv it doesn't give me options to skip it or automatic skip the commercial. Thanks

Well I can help you (somewhat) with weather module. It comes with the older one built in. You can add it to the menu by right clicking and then enabling the weather entry. However, while it was set for my xip code, all it did was say loading. Nothing ever filled in.

Edit: I read that you should remove the Weather entries from the properties file and then have the STV recreate them upon reload. Look for entries prefixed "mlbdude/weather".

As an alternative, I loaded in the newest Sage V3 Weather Suite, enabled it on the main menu and it works just fine, but now you have to tinker with the XML to get the weather info you need.

Anyone know why the built in weather module will not load any data?


Also, I am interested in getting commercial skipping working as well. I never set it up and am looking to do it for this STV. I will go through the 38+ pages in the MC169 thread, but hope someone could outline it here.

Ceger

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by Ceger

Also, I am interested in getting commercial skipping working as well. I never set it up and am looking to do it for this STV. I will go through the 38+ pages in the MC169 thread, but hope someone could outline it here.

Ceger

It's actually pretty easy to setup. I'm using ShowAnalyzer to take care of my commercial detection. (See the thread in the customizations section.) If you want "Live TV" commercial detection, (i.e., time-shifted commercial detection), then you will need to use DirMon to kick off SA on a currently recording show.

Basically, after you install SA and DM, you may need to tweak a couple of settings, but we can help you out on this over on the DM and SA threads. For the $10 version of SA, it's really worth it, the detection is a lot less CPU intensive.

Then, depending on if you are using DM or not, you will need to adjust your commercial settings in the STV. If you are not using DM, you need to have the STV setup to detect commercials. This is done through a "comskip.exe proxy," which is just telling SA to run. This can be downloaded from Jere's site, www.dragonglobal.com . I believe it goes in the base SageTV folder.

If you are running DM, then you should be able to turn all commercial detection off in the STV, as DM will take care of running SA. You also will not need the comskip.exe proxy either.

I hope this helps. It sounds confusing at first, but it's really just two pieces of software, and then tweaking some settings.

[Ceger]

Originally Posted by geogecko

It's actually pretty easy to setup. I'm using ShowAnalyzer to take care of my commercial detection. (See the thread in the customizations section.) If you want "Live TV" commercial detection, (i.e., time-shifted commercial detection), then you will need to use DirMon to kick off SA on a currently recording show.

Basically, after you install SA and DM, you may need to tweak a couple of settings, but we can help you out on this over on the DM and SA threads. For the $10 version of SA, it's really worth it, the detection is a lot less CPU intensive.

Then, depending on if you are using DM or not, you will need to adjust your commercial settings in the STV. If you are not using DM, you need to have the STV setup to detect commercials. This is done through a "comskip.exe proxy," which is just telling SA to run. This can be downloaded from Jere's site, www.dragonglobal.com . I believe it goes in the base SageTV folder.

If you are running DM, then you should be able to turn all commercial detection off in the STV, as DM will take care of running SA. You also will not need the comskip.exe proxy either.

I hope this helps. It sounds confusing at first, but it's really just two pieces of software, and then tweaking some settings.

I thought that the MC 169 STV had things built in for commercial detection and all you might need is comskip in the main SageTV folder.

Similarly, if I use SA, do I need to use DirMon as well? Can't this STV trigger SA via the Proxy or something?

Some clarification would be uber helpful.

Ceger

[geogecko]

Yes, this STV supports commercial detection, and you could just use the comskip program to do that.

You do not have to use DM, unless you want to take control of when SA processes files for commercials. Such as late at night, or if you want to process currently recording files. I believe that Comskip just processes finished shows, IIRC.

If you don't need live detection, you can just use SA with the proxy.

[Ceger]

Originally Posted by geogecko

Yes, this STV supports commercial detection, and you could just use the comskip program to do that.

You do not have to use DM, unless you want to take control of when SA processes files for commercials. Such as late at night, or if you want to process currently recording files. I believe that Comskip just processes finished shows, IIRC.

If you don't need live detection, you can just use SA with the proxy.

I Installed full version of SA (registered) and set Dirmon up. I wasn't sure of the time, so i set it to check every 10 seconds. Just for good measure I also put in Comskip Proxy to the SageTV folder. However, as i record a show and watch it, I do not see any Text file being generated, nor any activity reported from DirMon. Any ideas here?

Ceger

[acrowe]

You don't need both the comskip proxy and dirmon.

And I think 10 seconds is a bit of overkill, but I could be wrong

Did you configure SA too?

[geogecko]

I have mine set at 5 minutes.

In DirMon, there is a place somewhere, that is labeled "Triggers." There should be 4 boxes inside of this box, the lower left one should have "txt" in it.

You don't need the comskip thing, if using DirMon.

This is a good thread to get you going, over at DragonGlobal.

http://www.dragonglobal.org/forums/showthread.php?t=111

[Ceger]

Originally Posted by geogecko

I have mine set at 5 minutes.

In DirMon, there is a place somewhere, that is labeled "Triggers." There should be 4 boxes inside of this box, the lower left one should have "txt" in it.

You don't need the comskip thing, if using DirMon.

This is a good thread to get you going, over at DragonGlobal.

http://www.dragonglobal.org/forums/showthread.php?t=111

Excellent! Got it all going. I set SA to only use 20% at most, I don't know how others have this set. Also, can you specify how may things SA will work on at one tine?

Some final questions...

- Can you select Dirmon to "Process File even if being written to" (for live comm detect i presume) without checking "Process even if drive is being written to"?
- When a show has commercial points set, how do you advance past them or have Sage automatically skip them?

Ceger

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by Ceger

Excellent! Got it all going. I set SA to only use 20% at most, I don't know how others have this set. Also, can you specify how may things SA will work on at one tine?

Some final questions...

- Can you select Dirmon to "Process File even if being written to" (for live comm detect i presume) without checking "Process even if drive is being written to"?
- When a show has commercial points set, how do you advance past them or have Sage automatically skip them?

Ceger

You need to have an STV that support comskip. There are a couple that support live commercial detection, but I only know the name of one, SageMC 16x9 (BTW, you don't need a 16:9 ratio TV for it to work either, I'm using mine on a standard def. TV). If you start using SageMC, automatic skipping is already taken care of (just don't enable the commercial detection in the STV, remember, DirMon is taking care of that). For SageMC, you will need to go into the last 2-3 pages of the thread, and find ToxMox's post (unless mlbdude has updated his .STV file with ToxMox's code), with the zipped .stv file, that contains the modifications needed for "live" commercial detection. It's just one file inside the zip file, and it needs to go into the SageTV directory. You then deleted the SageMC_169.stv file, and rename ToxMox's file to that name. Then you are set. (First, install the latest SageMC beta, found on the first page, just before the screenshots.)

Sounds a bit confusing, but all you need, are the beta STV files (not latest), then ToxMox's STV file, renamed to the original file name. BTW, you have to select the STV in the detailed setup, to get it to show up.

As far as the difference between those two settings, I'm not sure. I was told to enable them both. You could ask on the DirMon thread, and Jere would respond. I have mine throttled to just 30%, running on an AMD Athlon 64 3000+, and notice no problems.

[geogecko]

Here's where the ToxMox .stv file is located...

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...&postcount=662

[Ceger]

Originally Posted by geogecko

Here's where the ToxMox .stv file is located...

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...&postcount=662

Thank you! Though I already took the long way to this by importing Nielm's Comskip auto advance, and though it didn't display correctly from the detail menu, I enabled it from the properties file and all works great.



Ceger

[steingra]

Can someone let me know which stv's that ShowAnalyzer could be used with. It sounds like a good program(is it really better than COMSKIP), and I wouldnt mind trying it.

I have not used COMSKIP yet, but I am just considering all my options, as I get ready to try out a different .stv

Thanks

[src666]

You can use SA with any STV - it is a totally external program that just generates the commercial skip data. Whether or not an STV supports commercial skipping is another matter. Most do, either natively or by importing Neilm's comskip STVI.

[steingra]

Originally Posted by src666

You can use SA with any STV - it is a totally external program that just generates the commercial skip data. Whether or not an STV supports commercial skipping is another matter. Most do, either natively or by importing Neilm's comskip STVI.

So if I got setup to use ShowAnalyzer, are you saying that most STV's should be able to use the files output by ShowAnalyzer? Since I dont really know much about ShowAnalyzer, does it generate like a text file/index of where the commercials are at in a given mpg file?

Or does it do something to the mpg video file itself? Im guessing it just creates an external index file for each show that you use *ShowAnalyzer* upon.

[src666]

It writes text files that the STVs and imports use.

http://www.dragonglobal.org

All will become clear.