Best commerical manage option

[sabre]

About time I catch up on all software updates, including v5 to v6. I currently use showanalyzer and dirmon for commercial advance/manage. I see that Opus now lists the following for comskip options:

*Commercial Advance Beta Release (included in several STVs, or...)
*Utility: ShowAnalyzer by Jere Jones (Dirmon triggers and cleans up+)
*comskip varient by malore
*Comskip utility by erik
[added]Comskip Monitor by Steep - seems to be what Dirmon is to showanalyzer
*Commskip batch file for creating XVID and 2 pass version by roxy99

So the question is, what do folks finds works best now with v6 and the least amount of overhead and/or set up time?

[cenwesi]

Good thing you ask this question. In this day and age there should be a simple way to take an already recorded show and

1) strip out the commercial
2) Compress it and maybe dump it into a Recorded TV show directory that is imported

Thats all i have so far.

[blade]

I use comskip and Dirmon2 with the latest comskip plugin for the default stv. Oh and it's setup to use edl instead of txt files because they're more accurate.

[lovingHDTV]

Originally Posted by blade

I use comskip and Dirmon2 with the latest comskip plugin for the default stv. Oh and it's setup to use edl instead of txt files because they're more accurate.

ditto for me

[FidgetyRat]

Showanalyzer + dirmon2 + SageMC

(edl of course. This should be made default. )

[dvd_maniac]

I use Dirmon2 with VideoReDo which analyzes and creates a project file as soon as the file is done recording in the recording folder. I just can't seem to trust automatic cutting. So after I get a few I go through them and add to batch cutting and the new file is placed in the edit folder. Once they are done Cutting Dirmon2 picks them up and encodes using Staxrip CLI. Once the encode is finished dirmon deletes temp files and places the encoded .mp4 file into it's proper import folder.

So the only actual time spent doing anything is checking the cut points...

I am wondering how people trust the cuts to be accurate, especially in dark episodes like most of the episodes of "The Unit"?

Is showanalyzer that much better than VRD?

[gplasky]

Latest comskip by erik
Comskip Monitor by steep


I was using and had paid for Showanalyzer and Dirmon 2. I thought I would try comskip again to see if it worked any better. Around the same time Comskip monitor came out. I'm only doing SD now but I 'm getting much better commercial detection (The Unit is almost perfect-and so was Lost) and Comskip Monitor was easy to set up and never gave me any issues. My 2 cents. I use VRD for the actual cutting but only ran their Commercial Dective a couple of times and it seemed to be so-so. But I have .edl files and .vprjt (VRD Project files) files created so cutting commecials with VRD is a snap. Open the project file and save the video.

Gerry

[dvd_maniac]

When using Comskip to create the project files, does it or can it create the ,arkers as well. I like the seek to next marker feature as it gets right on the exact frame and hate using the mouse to navigate...?

[blade]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

I am wondering how people trust the cuts to be accurate, especially in dark episodes like most of the episodes of "The Unit"?

Most of my shows are dead on. Every now and then some are off, but I'd never trust any program to automatically cut the commercials without checking the marks first. All of my shows are stored temporarily so I don't bother actually cutting the commercials out.

I run comskip on the mpeg2 file as it records. Then I use the built in transcoding with custom profiles to convert certain shows that I don't intend to watch anytime soon to Xvid. For example I have 72 episodes of CSI Miami converted. This allows me to skip commercials on the converted files just like I would for the recordings.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

When using Comskip to create the project files, does it or can it create the ,arkers as well. I like the seek to next marker feature as it gets right on the exact frame and hate using the mouse to navigate...?

Markers are there. Do as you wish with them.

Gerry

[sabre]

Thanks all, great conversation. Just shows how far behind I am as I do not even know what .edl files are. Good to know.

So far it seems comskip is a good choice, and with the Comskip monitor (runs as a service) by Steep including it in a package it seems like the most efficient and reliable way to go. And down the line, and once mastered on SD, it seems it has capability for HD streams (although some reports it may not run just right as of yet) and can set up files for cutting.

[geogecko]

I'm using DirMon2 and ShowAnalyzer. For what it's worth, if you ever needed instructions, there is a rather easy to follow tutorial, right here.

ShowAnalyzer, DirMon2, and SageTV

[Flips]

Do any or all of these options work with HD files (transport streams). The last time I looked into commercial detection that was the draw back I found.

Edit: Just found another thread on this question: http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22133

Thanks,
Flips

[geogecko]

ShowAnalyzer works for most HD shows that I've watched. There are sometimes problems with some shows, but rarely.

[naln]

Originally Posted by blade

Most of my shows are dead on. Every now and then some are off, but I'd never trust any program to automatically cut the commercials without checking the marks first.

Comskip does a pretty good job - I always check the cuts in VideoReDo before deleting them. Then use DivX converter for batch conversion....
But if you prefer automated batch conversions- there are some batch converters available on this forum too. I guess the choice depends on the number of shows you really want to archive.

[jbarr]

I installed and tweaked the "DirMon2 + ShowAnalyzer + ComSkip Plugin" combo today, and am very, VERY pleased with the results. For the ShowAnalyzer processing, I throttled down the CPU to about 40%, so I was able to simultaneously record, playback, and do ShowAnalyzer auto-processing in the background using an average of less than 75% total CPU utilization, and didn't experience any skips or delays. Very nice! And the whole combo runs in the background so there is no interaction needed. It just works, and works well!

I also ran several tests on a couple shows comparing the results between VideoReDo's AdScanner and ShowAnalyzer, and I was more pleased with ShowAnalyzer's results. Your mileage will vary on this one, but for now, I'm sticking with ShowAnalyizer. It is completely automated, and after tweaking the settings a bit, I have consistent results. (Oh, and it's a great deal for only $10.00.)

And to make things even better, I was able to use the new Video Editor plugin to tweak ShowAnalyzer's EDL files' "cut marks" right from within SageTV. This whole package is just fantastic! I realy like the fact that the whole process is completely "non-invasive" in that only the EDL files are created and changed. Any changes and tweaks to cut points don't affect the original MPEG file in any way. The only time the original files would be affected would be if you used the VideoReDo rewrite capability of the Video Editor plugin to create a "cleaned" file. The Video Editor plugin really makes tweaking cut points a seamless and simple task.

I had about 40 shows of varying lengths and content to process through ShowAnalyzer, and though it took a few hours with the CPU throttled down, the end results were absolutely excellent to say the least. I only had 2 shows that had improper cut marks, and the reasons were completely logical and explainable.

Huge kudos to the developers of these tools!

[grooves12]

I've been away from commercial skipping for a while... but it seems like the camp is split about 50/50, but I tend to get the feeling lately from those that have tried both that comskip is working slightly better for them recently.

I guess I could try it since it is free... but for those with "excellent" results, which program are you using, and were you able to just use the default settings, or did you have to "teach" it ot change anything??

[sabre]

So, I ended up sticking with SA/DirMon2, just updating from prior versions (SA/DirMon). While it did take some time to set up again, I felt that it was more flexible compared to comskip (I did try this, and thought i would stick with it, but felt the configuration was limited-but I could be wrong).

Now, the first break on new shows covered by SA do start a bit early, and the rest are fine. I have not tinkered with it, but may have to. I mostly got good results from SA before, and now use the EDL option (not sure what difference it makes).

Hey jbarr, what kinds of tweaks did you make to SA configuration?

[joe123]

Which is faster in your experiences, SA or ComSkip?