SageMC and Comskip

[JohnLG]

I installed comskip monitor and it runs as a service. Things have been getting screwed up with replays going at double speed and skipping video and playing commercials.
What parameters should I use for comskip. The SageMC menu offers an option to disable/enable background commercial processing. Should I leave comskip as a service and use diable for this option, or should I cancel this service and leave it all to SageMC. I cannot find much docuemntation to assist me. Can someone help?

[dgeezer]

My settings are (under SageMC menu - Comskip Options)
Background commercial processing Disabled
Commercial auto skip Enabled
Start Delay 0
Stop Delay 0
Broadcast Type 29.97 fps


Also edit comskip.ini in your comskip folder and be sure to enable creation of edl files.

[dgeezer]

If comskip is running correctly you will have several files created in your recordings directory. They will have the same name as the recorded show with the extensions .txt .log and .edl. Sage MC will use the .edl file to do it's skipping if it is present.

[JohnLG]

Thanks for the replies. Does this mean that I keep comskip monitor as an automatic service and also enable backgound processing and enable commercial auto skip? What does background processing mean?

I have been getting the edl and log files so that has been working. But the payback seems out of sync. I deleted all the non--mpg files and started it all again today. Let's see what happens.

[Djc208]

As far as I know the functionality of SageMC to control comskip no longer works. It's kind of a left-over from earlier days so I'd leave it as disabled and let comskip monitor do it's thing.

As for the playback problems that should have nothing to do with comskip or comskip monitor. As stated above comskip monitor just runs comskip on new files and cleans up orphaned files on the drives. Comskip just generates the .edl file that SageMC uses to skip commercials.

So if commercials are not getting recognized properly then you can work with the comskip settings to try and get better accuracy, but not every recording will be perfect. If it's a playback issue then the problem is within Sage.

What exactly are the problems you're having? Does the timeline show the commercial (darker colored areas of the bar)? Can you use the right and left arrows and jump to the beginning/end of the commercial breaks? Is this on a PC or an extender?

[JohnLG]

Thanks for the reply.
I deleted all the old edl and txt and log files ans started again. This time the system seemed to work. I do get the black lines where comskip thinks there are commercials and sageMC jumps over them as it should. But comskip seems to miss a lot of commercials and I guess this means that I should fiddle with comskip parameters. It looks like comskip and sageMC are doing the right thing.
John

[gplasky]

If you're trying to comskip .h.264 filkes from a HD-PVR you need to donate to comskip to get the donator's version that supports those file types.

Gerry

[JohnLG]

Gerry, Thanks for that advice. I am not yet up to H264 but when I do I will remember this.
Comskip seems to find the start of all commercials well enough but seems to switch back to the recording before all commercials are finished.