Commercial detection

[myoung84]

I am a relatively new Sage user. I have read some of the posts on both showanalyzer and comskip, but there is just so much information its hard to make a decision. So, I would like your opinions on what the best setup is for commercial skipping. I already have SageMC so I wont need the plugins, just the actual mpg processing. What kind of load does this put on my pc? Will I be able to have it run commercial skip processing right after the recording is done of should I have it run in the middle of the night? How long does it take to process say a 1 hour show? My system specs are in my sig.

What are your thoughts??

[ejkeebler]

I'm a newbie too, but I use comskip monitor with SageMC have 3 tuners and don't ever notice it running at all. I have since changed it to not run during like 5pm -10pm, just cause that is primetime recording and I don't notice a thing on my recording or even while watching outside those hours, however I'm not sure it takes that long to mark commercials, so that might by why. For instance, I'm sure I've noticed the commercials marked 30 minutes after a show has recorded. now if you are cutting them out completely that might be a different story.

I have a P4 2.8 Ghz, 3 tuners and often have 2 shows recording at once, but only run the comskip and dont actually recode them without the commericials, i really see no sense in that.

[myoung84]

I too am not interested in removing them, just marking them so SageMC will skip them. You have about the same setup as I do.

I still would like other opinions of others that might have tried both programs.

[sleonard]

I can only speak for SA but it can process an entire hour of mpg video in about 10-15 minutes on my dual core server.

I have it set up to process in real time as soon as a show starts recording. This results in <5% CPU for 3 shows at once and I get the commercial blocks marked on the timeline within a few seconds of a commercial being recorded.

S

[mp328]

i would personally recommend comskip monitor as well.

http://forums.freytechnologies.com/f...do=file&id=138

very easy to setup, download the package and extract it wherever u want. i created a folder "Comskip Monitor" and dumped in the SageTV folder, just to access it easier. or u can even dump in directly onto ur "C" drive or my documents folder.

go inside that folder and find the file "setup.bat" and run it.

it will open internet explorer/firefox and follow the onscreen instructions. takes 2-3min to complete all


and depending how u setup the monitor to work the cpu load can range from 5-50% . if u are telling it to check during the recording, it is very low, because it's doing it incrementally and once the recording is complete the commercials show up right away.

if u tell it to do the check after the recording is complete, it takes around 13-15min for an 1hour show.

and this is just marking, not actually removing the commercials.

[Skiier__Dude]

I will also add my recommendation for Comskip Monitor. I've screwed around with all of the various iterations of Comskip for the past 3-4 years of using Sage and it is by far the easiest to set up and use. In fact, I set it up when it was first released and have never touched it again. My machine has significantly less horsepower than yours does (AMD 3200+), I run Comskip while the show is recording and while I am watching other shows (my server is also a client) and there is still plenty of CPU resources to run the UI (my CPU rarely goes over 50% use).

[BFisher]

I use ShowAnalyzer and have had great results. I have it setup to process immediately (while the show is recording) up to 5 instances. Never even notice the CPU usage (less than ~2-3% per instance)... Works great.

[QueOnda]

Are CS mon and SA both free? Does CSMON do on the fly as SA?

[davephan]

I used to use Comskip, but I switched to ShowAnalyzer a couple of years ago. I also use DirMon2. I paid $10 for ShowAnalyzer, which is dirt cheap compared to the value it gives me. Processing video files for commercial skipping does take quite a bit of CPU power on an older computer, but not as much as CPU load as transcoding video from MPEG2 to Xvid AVI.

My old Athlon XP 2800+ computer consumed a lot of CPU resources and took a long time to process each hour of video. It's been awhile since I had that old computer, so I forgot how long it took. I normally ran Comskip or ShowAnalyzer off hours, when I was not watching TV because the CPU load was so high on that old computer.

In the past, I also tried off loading the Comskip or ShowAnalyzer to an older, slower computer. But I gave up on off loading the CPU load because it took too long to process files. The older computer ended up running Comskip or ShowAnalyzer 24x7 without keeping up with my recordings. The older computer performance was just weak, and it was consuming too much electricity compared to the value it gave me.

When my old XP 2800+ (with 1 gig of slow 100 meg RAM) computer system board died, I replaced the computer with an E6850 3.0 gig dual core with 2 gigs of RAM. I can now run ShowAnalyzer any time without reducing the CPU priority of ShowAnalyzer. I can also run ShowAnalyzer, transcode video, record video, and watch AVI files on the MVP without any performance problems. The CPU load from ShowAnalyzer varies from 20% to 50% running on one core. Sometimes I run a process a couple files at once, still without any noticeable performance problems.

To process one hour of video with ShowAnalyzer takes just under 4 minutes.

If you want to process the files video files quickly, a fast dual core will allow you to watch Comskip or ShowAnalyzer processed files without waiting a long time after the program is done being recorded.


Dave

[Jesse]

Another vote for Comskip Monitor.

Jesse

[erik]

When you have only 2 or 3 tuners and a decent (2.4GHz HT or better) processor you better run commercial detection while recording because you won't notice it running. Processor load is below 5% per active process and it will finish within 10 seconds after the recording is finished.

[mickp]

Heh,

Straight from the horses mouth

[dmiraclejr]

Originally Posted by erik

When you have only 2 or 3 tuners and a decent (2.4GHz HT or better) processor you better run commercial detection while recording because you won't notice it running. Processor load is below 5% per active process and it will finish within 10 seconds after the recording is finished.

erik,

If this post would be better asked somewhere else just let me know. I don't want to derail this thread.

This is very puzzling to me since when I run Comskip I usually get 20% to 50% cpu usage per instance. It often causes slow downs or pauses in video and was a big part of the reason I decided to buy the HD extender and use the server as a server only ( I still see the problem). I would have these problems with only one instance but the more instances that were running the higher the probability of a problem. I have gone to running comskip only in the middle of the night to help with the WAF.

My server is more than capable and I now think it may have something to do with the hard drive throughput but 3.0 Gbps should be enough. Maybe it is the way I have DirMon2 set up? Should my server be able to say record 3 HD shows and have 2 to 3 instances of Comskip running without problems?

By the way OP, Comskip works great at detecting commercials. I'd say it is 95% right on the money!

[erik]

For HD the load can indeed be substantial higher. The figures you mention do not sound abnormal. But the CPU is always running Comskip on the "Idle" priority. The problems you see could be cause by disk access. Not the transfer but the seeking. Recording 2 streams and reading 2 streams for commercial processing and 1 or 2 streams for playback do generate an enormous amount of disk seeking activity. Did someone ever measure that?
Another possible cause is memory trashing. Make sure Comskip has plenty of memory to run. It uses big data arrays which get access almost at random. Using virtual memory will put a terrible load on your disk. Do monitor the availability of Physical memory and the paging out counters

By the way OP, Comskip works great at detecting commercials. I'd say it is 95% right on the money!

I assume that for a free product it should be 100%

[dmiraclejr]

Originally Posted by erik

I assume that for a free product it should be 100%

OK, I would say 95%+

Thanks for the quick reply. Not to blow smoke (you know where) but guys like you truly amaze me with your computer/coding prowess!

I don't think it is the memory since I don't think I am anywhere close to 3GB at peak. Though it makes sense that you are on to something with the hard drive seeking. You may have just saved me $250 for a quad cpu which was going to be my next step.

Like I previously said my current solution is to run Comskip in the wee hours because sometimes even recording 2 or 3 HD streams and 1 instance of Comskip will give me problems.

Would you have any other recommendation to help with multiple, concurrent HD recording and multiple instances of Comskip running?

[bcjenkins]

heh - It's a 100% because it doesn't cost money!

B

[erik]

I just found a possible way to reduce the strain on the disk when running multiple copies of Comskip.
Will be in build 114

Is there anyone that sees the hickups when running Comskip on dvr-ms? or is it only on .mpg or .ts

[bcjenkins]

no dvr-ms here.. SageTV all the way!!!

[dmiraclejr]

Mine are *.mpg .

[dmiraclejr]

I know that you (erik) would have thought of this if it would work but I have to ask......Would using "play_nice" and/or adjusting "play_nice_sleep" help? I just found this adjustment today.

Thanks for all your help. I think it is time I make a Paypal donation to the cause!