Plugin: CommercialDetector

[Brent]

Umm... Till tonight I had been ignoring this plugin since I had SJQ working okay. But decided to turn SJQ off and give this thing a try. All I can say is wow! Easy to use, easy to set up AND configurable from the UI in a way that is easily understood.

Time for a plugin highlight article on this one. Great job!

[tmiranda]

Thank you. If you have suggestions for improvements or enhancements please let me know that as well.

I do have a next release in the works, but for now the only change is adding a link from the Comskip Playback setup (in the Detailed Setup->Customize menu) to the CommercialDetector plugin setup. I'm hoping this will make it easier for new users because they will only have one place to go to configure Comskip Playback and CommercialDetector.

[Brent]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

for now the only change is adding a link from the Comskip Playback setup (in the Detailed Setup->Customize menu) to the CommercialDetector plugin setup.

Honestly, that's the only improvement I can think of at the moment. It serves every other need for me at least.

I did a writeup this evening on GeekTonic. If I misstated anything or you see anything else wrong in the article let me know. Thanks!!!

[tmiranda]

Thank you for the kind write up.

[Brent]

One addition that would be nice to have:
Option to delay comskipping if any clients are connected

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Brent

One addition that would be nice to have:
Option to delay comskipping if any clients are connected

do people ever disconnect clients?

[Brent]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

do people ever disconnect clients?

Apparently yes.
I guess an even more useful one would be the ability to set times that comskip can't run as an option. So primetime for instance if one has a lesser powered server.

[tmiranda]

Brent,

I had actually thought about putting "no comskip" times in there but never got around to it. I'm also thinking one of the "no comskip if" options could be to not run if x number of shows were recording and/or being watched (where x is configurable). I'd find that useful because if my server is busy recording two or three things and someone is watching something my disks can't keep up...

Maybe I'm not seeing something obvious, but why does it matter if a client is connected or not? I can see the issue if they are actually playing something. What am I missing?

Thanks for the suggestions.

Tom

[Brent]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Maybe I'm not seeing something obvious, but why does it matter if a client is connected or not? I can see the issue if they are actually playing something. What am I missing?

Tom,
You are correct - it only really matters when media is being played back - if then even.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Brent

Tom,
You are correct - it only really matters when media is being played back - if then even.

The problems here is that all it can do is prevent comskip from STARTING while other activity is going on. I'm not sure it's enough to really help if the system is that strapped for performance.

[psicat]

I made the switch from SJQ over the weekend. So far so good. This will be so much easier for first time installers! I like the CS indicator near the REC indicator too, however it only appears on my extender (odd). Also, one of the config options does not pop up a menu for changes and seems to just select something randomly. I can't remember exactly, but it's the one that defaults to "Queue".

[tmiranda]

You say the icon only appears on your extender. What else do you have that it's NOT appearing on? If you have a SageClient you need to install the plugin on it as well (as a Client Plugin). If you have multiple extenders it will only show up on them after you reboot the extender or reload the base STV, which is normal behavior for all plugins.

Can you be more specific about the config options issue? I think you are talking about the option that queues the files that do not already have .edl files but I'm not certain. Sombody else reported a string out of bounds exception so I'm curious if you have the same thing because so far I can't reproduce the error.

Thanks,

Tom

[psicat]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

You say the icon only appears on your extender. What else do you have that it's NOT appearing on? If you have a SageClient you need to install the plugin on it as well (as a Client Plugin). If you have multiple extenders it will only show up on them after you reboot the extender or reload the base STV, which is normal behavior for all plugins.

Everything has been rebooted/power cycled. I will double check that it's installed on my SageClient as well.

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Can you be more specific about the config options issue? I think you are talking about the option that queues the files that do not already have .edl files but I'm not certain. Sombody else reported a string out of bounds exception so I'm curious if you have the same thing because so far I can't reproduce the error.

Yeah, sorry about the lack to detail. I'll find out tonight and post.

[toricred]

I've been using ShowAnalyzer for a very long time now. I'm trying this plugin out to move away from SJQ, but I'm curious why you're calling ShowAnalyzerEngine instead of ShowAnalyzer and letting SAV1 handle managing the queue?

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by toricred

I've been using ShowAnalyzer for a very long time now. I'm trying this plugin out to move away from SJQ, but I'm curious why you're calling ShowAnalyzerEngine instead of ShowAnalyzer and letting SAV1 handle managing the queue?

Personally, I've never likes SAV1's queue management. It actually pissed me off that ShowAnalizerEngine didn't have any status information anymore, because I prefer to have much more control over my process than SAV1 allows. For this particular plugin, at this point, i don't think it matters one way or the other... but DirMon2 and SJQ both allow far more control over the processes than SAV1's queue does. (like knowing what OTHER tasks are being run as well as SA, and having that figure into resource management)

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by toricred

I've been using ShowAnalyzer for a very long time now. I'm trying this plugin out to move away from SJQ, but I'm curious why you're calling ShowAnalyzerEngine instead of ShowAnalyzer and letting SAV1 handle managing the queue?

If I let SA handle the queue I can't easily monitor the progress or determine how many jobs are running. I'm not an expert on SA, is there a reason why I should use their queue management?

[psicat]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

You say the icon only appears on your extender. What else do you have that it's NOT appearing on? If you have a SageClient you need to install the plugin on it as well (as a Client Plugin). If you have multiple extenders it will only show up on them after you reboot the extender or reload the base STV, which is normal behavior for all plugins.

I checked and it's installed and enabled on both client and extender. But strangely, it's not showing up on either now. Maybe I dreamed it. When comskip is running, does a CS icon appear at the top of the screen near the REC indicator? Initially, I thought I saw this and it's a nice touch.

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Can you be more specific about the config options issue? I think you are talking about the option that queues the files that do not already have .edl files but I'm not certain. Sombody else reported a string out of bounds exception so I'm curious if you have the same thing because so far I can't reproduce the error.

My mistake on this one. It was not clear (to me) that the menu option scanned for unprocessed files and queued them up. Maybe "Scan Now" or "Queue Now" or similar would be less confusing?

[tmiranda]

Yes, the CS icon should show up in the header (SageCleints as well as extenders) when something is being processed. If it's not something is wrong or nothing is being processed.

Are .edl files getting generated for new recordings or not? If not, set debugging to Trace and post a log for me to look at.

Thanks,

Tom

[sacrament055]

Since you're asking for suggestions and you mentioned no comskip if type feature you could add support for no comskip if - channel = premium movie network.. (HBO, Showtime etc that don't have commercials)

[ChePazzo]

Ok, I can run comskip manually from the cmdline:

mike@sagebuntu:/var/media3/tv$ wine /opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.exe --ini=/opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.ini /var/media3/tv/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart-111797-0.mpg

mike@sagebuntu:/var/media3/tv$ wine /opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.exe --ini=/opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.ini /var/media3/tv/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart-111797-0.mpg
Comskip 0.80.031, made using:
mpeg2dec-0.4.0 - by Michel Lespinasse <walken@zoy.org> and Aaron Holtzman
The commandline used was:
/opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.exe --ini=/opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.ini /var/media3/tv/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart-111797-0.mpg

Opening /var/media3/tv/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart-111797-0.mpg
Setting ini file to /opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.ini as per commandline
Using /opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.ini for initiation values.
^Cmike@sagebuntu:/var/media3/tv$  (296.98 fps), 1.00 sec (297.00 fps), 1%

However, when I try to run it from within SageTV (click on show, then click on "Run Comskip"), it fails.
Logs show:

/opt/sagetv/server/sagetv_0.txt:

Tue 9/14 11:52:41.414 [Thread-2820@17fa4a4] CD: run: Command sudo -H -u mike -s wine /opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.exe --ini=/opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.ini /var/media3/tv/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart-111797-0.mpg
Tue 9/14 11:49:00.537 [Thread-2818@1c5247] CD: stderr: /usr/bin/wine: /usr/bin/wine: cannot execute binary file

I try to run manually:

mike@sagebuntu:/var/media3/tv$ sudo -H -u mike -s wine /opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.exe --ini=/opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.ini /var/media3/tv/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart-111797-0.mpg
/usr/bin/wine: /usr/bin/wine: cannot execute binary file

However, if I remove the '-s' option, it works!

mike@sagebuntu:/var/media3/tv$ sudo -H -u mike wine /opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.exe --ini=/opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.ini /var/media3/tv/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart-111797-0.mpg
Comskip 0.80.031, made using:
mpeg2dec-0.4.0 - by Michel Lespinasse <walken@zoy.org> and Aaron Holtzman
The commandline used was:
/opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.exe --ini=/opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.ini /var/media3/tv/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart-111797-0.mpg

Opening /var/media3/tv/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart-111797-0.mpg
Setting ini file to /opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.ini as per commandline
Using /opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.ini for initiation values.
 0:00:28 - 851 frames in 2.98 sec (285.57 fps), 1.00 sec (263.00 fps), 1%

My question to the group: Is there any place I can change the cmd that is run to not include the -s option?

Exception logs:

Tue 9/14 12:14:52.511 [Thread-2823@432be4] CD: run: Command sudo -H -u mike -s wine /opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.exe --ini=/opt/sagetv/server/comskip/comskip.ini /var/media3/tv/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart-111797-0.mpg
Tue 9/14 12:14:52.577 [Thread-2824@bbd1] CD: stderr: /usr/bin/wine: /usr/bin/wine: cannot execute binary file
Tue 9/14 12:14:52.579 [Thread-2823@432be4] CD: run: comskip return code = 126
Tue 9/14 12:14:52.579 [Thread-2823@432be4] CD: run: comskip failed with return code = 126
Tue 9/14 12:14:52.579 [Thread-2823@432be4] CD: ComskipManager: job has completed with status true
Tue 9/14 12:14:52.579 [Thread-2823@432be4] CD: readQueuedJobs: complete. null
Tue 9/14 12:14:52.580 [Thread-2823@432be4] CD: readQueuedJobs: found 0
Tue 9/14 12:14:52.580 [Thread-2823@432be4] CD: ComskipManager: No more jobs to process.
Tue 9/14 12:14:52.580 [Thread-2823@432be4] CD: CSC removeStatus: item before remove 356352348,,344,340,336,332,328,324,320,yadda, yadda, yadda
Tue 9/14 12:14:52.581 [Thread-2823@432be4] Exception in thread "Thread-2823" Tue 9/14 12:14:52.581 [Thread-2823@432be4] java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: ""
Tue 9/14 12:14:52.581 [Thread-2823@432be4] at java.lang.NumberFormatException.forInputString(NumberFormatException.java:65)
Tue 9/14 12:14:52.581 [Thread-2823@432be4] at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:493)
Tue 9/14 12:14:52.581 [Thread-2823@432be4] at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:514)
Tue 9/14 12:14:52.582 [Thread-2823@432be4] at tmiranda.cd.CSC.removeStatus(CSC.java:103)
Tue 9/14 12:14:52.582 [Thread-2823@432be4] at tmiranda.cd.ComskipJob.run(ComskipJob.java:68)
Tue 9/14 12:14:52.582 [Thread-2823@432be4] at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:636)