Utility: Comskip

[ldavis]

Erik,

I have run a test case and I think that there is a calculation error in the frame number fix. In the equation:

F’ = F(T/Ta)

T = Ta rounded up or down to the nearest minute

I think that the calculation in comskip now simply truncates Ta which will produce an error if the number of frames indicates a time less than the actual show time

Anyone who plans on using this please note that this will only be accurate for +/- 30 seconds. If the frames are off by more than this, the situation will be worse. I have not had a file like this though.

[erik]

Indeed I made a mistake by always rounding down.
This will be corrected in the next build.

[bgorrell]

Originally Posted by lovingHDTV

I tried putting it on the command line and Dirmon2 would not take it and command line options get put at the end of the command so comskip wont accept that. Hence I'm back with Dirmon. But hey it works and I have HDTV source marked properly

Specifying the COMSKIP.INI file does work in DirMon2. Here's my settings:

Program to run: C:/Program Files/SageTV/SageTV/comskip.exe
Command Line Options: --ini="c:\program files\sagetv\sagetv\comskip.ini" --videoredo --playnice

I verified the result by turning off the "hide console window" option. It's definitely using the correct ini file.

I'll bet a lot of people are effected by this. Perhaps we can get Mr. Jones to change DirMon2 to start in the right directory. This workaround fixes Comskip, but if there were other programs I wanted DirMon2 to run, there would be no guarantee they would have a similar workaround.

[hchucky]

I added the directory that I placed Comskip in to my path and that also seems to have resolved the comskip.ini problem.

HC

[bgorrell]

Now that I fixed my INI problem, I'm noticing that the VideoRedo projects seem to be a few frames off compared to the comskip output. If I open the txt file in comskip, the cuts are spot on, but if I open the .vprj file for the same video, the cuts tend to be 3-5 frames off. Anyone else experiencing this problem?

I noticed this problem consistently with the E! show, "Wild On". It is a great show for testing comskip with. There is usually only one frame (if that) between transitions. While comskip is finding these correctly, the videoredo project is ending up setting its cuts a few frames off.

One clear bug is that the very first frame is always "included" before cutting the first set of commercials. Comskip calls this frame 1, but VideoRedo calls it frame 0. Perhaps the other problems are cumulative?

[erik]

Could you mail me or post a .txt file and the associated .vprj file showing the errors you mention so I can have a look?

[grooves12]

The default detection seems to be doing really well for me... withone exception.

Playback is beginning a couple of seconds late... about 7/8 seconds consistenly. Is there one setting I can change that would effect this... or do I have to go through the entire training manual and get it setup that way??

[erik]

Originally Posted by grooves12

The default detection seems to be doing really well for me... withone exception.

Playback is beginning a couple of seconds late... about 7/8 seconds consistenly. Is there one setting I can change that would effect this... or do I have to go through the entire training manual and get it setup that way??

Well, I wrote the manual in one weekend so it should not be to difficult to read it

Serious now: if you can set
verbose=10
and
output_framearray=1
in the ini file, then process a file that gives the late start, mail me the generated .log, .csv file and tell be at which frame number(s) the playback is how much late I will have a look.

Or you set
padding=10
causing all commercials to be reduced at start and end with 10 seconds.

[erik]

From the changelog

Changes in 0.79.40
- Added parameter: punish_no_logo, default is 1, if set to punish_no_logo=0 then the absence of logo is not punished towards commercial.
- Added parameters: validate_xxx, default is 1, if set to validate_xxx=0 then the validity of cut points coming from volume, scenechange and uniform will not be assessed
- Bug solved: Certain AC3 formats not recognized leading to many "Audio PTS jumped" messages

[erik]

From the changelog:
Changes in 0.79.46
- Added two ini file parameters, remove_before and remove_after, will remove the given amount of seconds of show before or after ALL commercials
- Increase amount of memory available during live_tv processing to prevent out_of_memory crash when processing very long recordings.
Changes in 0.79.45
- Bug solved: A TS file with MANY PID's causes Comskip to crash
- Improved algorithm to deal with LiveTV in BTV 4.3 (did not solve the problem....)
Changes in 0.79.44
- Added in the debugwindow the option to toggle blocks between commercial and show. Is available after processing an mpeg or a .csv file. Output files are rewritten after each toggle. The refference bar stays at the original detection results. Use the 'T' key to toggle
Changes in 0.79.43
- Changed output for ProjectX from mode 4 to mode 2 to solve ProjectX problem
- Added the PID info for VideoRedo processing of Transport Streams
Changes in 0.79.42
- When for a TS file a non existent PID is specified on the commandline a list of available video PID's will be shown in the log file.
Changes in 0.79.41
- It is again possible to select the video pid in a TS file with --pid=xx where xx is pid of the video stream, all input and reporting on pid's is done in hexadecimal format. The Audio pid will be autoselected
- Bug solved: When a video stream has two audio streams (such as stereo and 5.1) the audio decoding will fail with all kind of error messages.

[Fluffdaddy]

Thank you for your work

[Wheemer]

I have just switched DirMon2 over to compskip from show analyzer. Lately Show Analyzer hasn't been finding anything properly.

I'll update here after testing to tell of my results.

[Wheemer]

Comskip is working very well for me... But the commercial end points are always a second or so before the actual end.

Is there any way to fix that?

[erik]

They are actualy exactly one second early due to a bug I recently introduced.
Is fixed in the new release, build 48

[Wheemer]

OK sounds good... as it is it's working very well. I've only noticed one comercial that was split into two segments, where the center section was still marked show. So I am quite happy to get back my comercial skip function.

However I find the documentation a little involved. It would be nice if comskip was able to learn easily to get better over time.

Steve

[erik]

However I find the documentation a little involved. It would be nice if comskip was able to learn easily to get better over time.

Its too difficult.

Everybody that ever asked me for help on tuning I have been able to help so in a sense its auto learning

Follow this procedure
http://mk.kaashoek.com/comskip/viewtopic.php?t=34

[Stuntman]

I have been using this program for about a week now and am AMAZED at how well it find commercials.. however.. it does seem to be causing a problem for me.. every show now seems to somehow lose its audio sync! If I do a quick FF or REW the video syncs back up.. but I can't watch an entire show without having to fiddle with it.. any idea why this would be?

Thanks!

[erik]

Do you cut the commercials from the recording or do you use an mpeg player that can use the comskip output to jump over the commercials?

Cutting with some cutters (like comclean) can corrupt the timeline causing problems with some players. In that case you need a cutter that restores the timeline. Maybe try comclean2 (using mencoder to do the cutting)

Players that can directly use comskip output are mplayer (use the EDL output) and zoomplayer (use the zoomplayer output)

[blade]

On some shows comskip marks the first and last 2-3 seconds of the show as a commercial. This causes sage to get stuck in a loop and I have to turn off comskip support in sage or fast forward to get past the first few seconds.

I seem to recall reading about this problem before, but can't recall if a solution was found or not. Any help would be appreciated.

[Stuntman]

Originally Posted by erik

Do you cut the commercials from the recording or do you use an mpeg player that can use the comskip output to jump over the commercials?

Cutting with some cutters (like comclean) can corrupt the timeline causing problems with some players. In that case you need a cutter that restores the timeline. Maybe try comclean2 (using mencoder to do the cutting)

Players that can directly use comskip output are mplayer (use the EDL output) and zoomplayer (use the zoomplayer output)

Hi Erik.. to answer your questions.. No, I don't cut the programs.. I might, if I could get the sync issue fixed.. as comskip seemed to be dead on with detecting most commercials.. but with the sync going out so badly I don't dare do it. I watch all my content on a MVP using Sagetv and the comskip stvi import... I don't see this type of sync issue using ShowAnalyzer, but SA doesn't detect nearly as accurately as does yours..

Anything I can do to help figure out what is happening?