Starting to test Comskip with h.264 support

[Phydeaux]

Wow - fast response. Is this my Magic Bullet or just the first step in diagnosing my issues? I'll put it play tonight.

Thanks Erik
RLW

[erik]

I received a h.264 file from a user that had little or no commrcials detected
As the h.264 decoder is not robust and I am having problems with the demux the sound and video get out of sync.
That is why you may have to increase the volume_slip.
When using ComskipGUI you can check yourself if sound and video get out of sync. Look at the black frames and the silences near the end of the video.

[Dean_H]

erik,

I too am having troubles all of a sudden with comskip (sound just like Phydeaux is having). I've not changed anything in the system, but comskip does not like ANY ts files right now. It will process the mpeg files recorded from the PVR-2250 card, but nothing from the HD-PVR box.

I will try the audio setting in the INI file. But seems odd that all of a sudden things stopped working. The windows error that pops up is quite annoying for the family while we are watching a show.

EDIT:
By the way, I'm recording everything at 1080i only (STB is fixed to output only that format)

[erik]

Do you mean comskip is crashing?
Or not detecting?

[Phydeaux]

I made the volume_slip=150 setting change last evening. It made no appreciable difference to comskip's ability to correctly identify commercials. Nor did it put an end to the errors I posted earlier.

I still can't figure why comskip crashed with everything I fed it for three days and now it's suddenly no longer crashing. I think the fact that I installed ffdshow and haali splitter were red herrings, although the libavcodec.dll duplication was worth looking at. But that file also exists within the comskip directory, so there is no reason why it wouldn't be using it. At any rate it doesn't seem to be an issue now even though both programs have been reinstalled...

RLW

[erik]

The libavcodec of comskip is different because I added some robustness improvements in the h.264 decoder.
ffdshow can use the libavcodec of comskip

When you follow the "how to ask for help" post in the support forum of comskip I will have a look.

[Dean_H]

erik,

Comskip is crashing when trying to detect commercials. I've used comskip for some time, and all of a sudden things are not working. I've searched the computer for any other copies of libavcodec and the only copies are from comskip. I've also removed the other dll files from the comskip folder (as they are not in the newer releases).

I will try setting volume_slip=150 and see what happens, but any (now all) TS files get a windows error.

EDIT:

OK, I just to the same show that made comskip error (at 40%) and changed the volume_slip to 150. The show still causes comskip to error at the same point.

[erik]

I uploaded comskip build 0.80.016.
It no longer uses libavcodec.dll but the new included comcodec.dll to eliminate all possible confusion with ffdshow.
Like to hear if it improves.

[ab_victory]

Hi, Forum Newbie here but been using SageTV for a few years now.

I have the same problem with Comskip 80_015 crashing with libvacodec.dll as the cause.

I have downloaded and installed Comskip 80_016 with the comcodec.dll and it still crashes - this time with comcodec.dll as the faulting module.

I am running Vista x64 and I have the third-party Vista Codec Package installed which I believe includes ffdshow if that's any help . . .

[erik]

As I can not reproduce the problem I will start to implement some other solution.

[ab_victory]

FYI, I also ran v80_016 on my XP machine and it crashed again with comcodec.dll the culprit

[erik]

Do you use the default comskip.ini file?
Could you upload a short recording that crashes comskip to my ftp server?

[ab_victory]

Hi erik, yeah default comskip.ini except for standard parameters changed for tuning. I will try and find a smaller file that also crashes comskip and upload it . .

[ab_victory]

Erik, what size (mb) would you consider too big too upload to your ftp? Also, the smaller files don't always crash.The larger files with h264 and high frame rates and more than half an hour in duration are consistently crashing

[erik]

I have many GBytes available so size is not the problem, only upload time.
The link to my FTP server is 8MBit/s
Make sure your ftp client can recover (most can)

Mail me so I can send you the ftp details.
erik@comskip.org

[ab_victory]

Email sent . . .cheers

[Dean_H]

erik,

I just d/l'ed the newest version of comskip (version 16 I believe). I'm getting the same windows error as before. This only happens on TS files (mpeg files process just fine). I'm using the defult (the one that is part of the zip file) INI file with no modifications. The TS files play just fine in Sage as well as windows media player and other players. I'm not sure what happened. Seems like things were working just fine and then all of a sudden the TS files cannot be processed. I can upload logs if you would like, just let me know.

[erik]

I am traveling at the moment so can not access the ftp server at high speed.
Will come back if I need more info, most probably a long recording that always crashes comskip.

[Dean_H]

erik,

Just to clarify....EVERY TS file crashes comskip for me.

[erik]

Dean,

If I remember well you already uploaded a recording that is crashing comskip.
If true then I did test that recording and it did not crash on my test systems.
If not, I would like you to upload a short recording Saturday or later as my ftp server is experiencing some problems and I am traveling at the moment.

Untill I can reproduce the crash there is nothing I can do.
I do not know yet how to use the dump files one of you did send me...... stupid me.
And I need to very if the change I make is solving the problem.