Comskip vs Network overlays

[waynedunham]

I've been pulling my hair out the last few days because Comskip stopped tagging commercials the last several days on all the network stations (CBS, NBC, ABC, etc). Seems to be working fine on all the cable stations.

Well, just now I figured it out. I was looking through the log files for the shows not marking any commercials and keep seeing this throughout the log file.

"Looking For Logo in frames 3364 to 4785.
Edge count - 138301 Percentage of screen - 94.90% TOO BIG, CAN'T BE A LOGO."

I was stumped initially. Well just now as I was watching a network show that had that in the log files, and no commercials marked the AHA moment hit. It was the local station overlay showing all the cancellations due to the blizzard. It runs across the whole bottom of the screen as well as up the sides. The show is shrunk down to keep the aspect ratio and placed above the messages at the bottom of the screen.
My guess is this is why the regular network shows haven't been marking commercials the last several days.

Stupid "NemoGeddon"!! ....And what is with the 3-5 minutes at every half hour of the locals barging in with their "HEY, it is snowing outside!" and then joining the show "in progress". AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!

[reggie14]

Would you mind sharing your Comskip.ini file? I've always struggled to get comskip to work properly. I tried to switch from SA to comskip several times, but I kept going back to SA because with default settings it does much, much better.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Would you mind sharing your Comskip.ini file? I've always struggled to get comskip to work properly. I tried to switch from SA to comskip several times, but I kept going back to SA because with default settings it does much, much better.

I would, but there's nothing special about it. It is just the default. I'm sure there are others who have a much more refined one to work with SageTv.

I was using SA initially, and have a license for that also. Before buying the Comskip license I was using both and letting SA do the files the free version of Comskip wouldn't handle. But SA was crashing on me so often I finally just gave up on it, especially seeing as there never seemed to be any updates any more.

If there are people out there with refined SageTV Comskip.ini files I'd be interested in seeing them also.

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

I would, but there's nothing special about it. It is just the default. I'm sure there are others who have a much more refined one to work with SageTv.

I was using SA initially, and have a license for that also. Before buying the Comskip license I was using both and letting SA do the files the free version of Comskip wouldn't handle. But SA was crashing on me so often I finally just gave up on it, especially seeing as there never seemed to be any updates any more.

If there are people out there with refined SageTV Comskip.ini files I'd be interested in seeing them also.

Best fix would be to move somewhere where the weather doesn't mess with your TV viewing... Aside from that, there are settings in comskip.ini to avoid the ticker area at the bottom of the screen:

ticker_tape=0				; Amount of pixels from bottom to ignore in all processing

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Best fix would be to move somewhere where the weather doesn't mess with your TV viewing... Aside from that, there are settings in comskip.ini to avoid the ticker area at the bottom of the screen:

ticker_tape=0				; Amount of pixels from bottom to ignore in all processing

Any ballpark hints for what setting would be good for the pushy local networks forcing information down our throats?

[Fuzzy]

That would depend on how large the alerts are at the bottom of the screen. I have no bad weather here, so no weather alerts, so i have no idea how many pixels high they are.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

That would depend on how large the alerts are at the bottom of the screen. I have no bad weather here, so no weather alerts, so i have no idea how many pixels high they are.

I put ticker_tape=100 and it has fixed the local ABC affiliate. The local NBC catches some of them (the ticker goes out at some points), but CBS is still a no go since that is the one that puts the bars (with a pattern in it) on the sides.
I'll do a bit more experimenting, but it is looking like most schools are finally starting back up so the overlays will probably be going away for this storm (finally!!).

[rochurch]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Would you mind sharing your Comskip.ini file? I've always struggled to get comskip to work properly. I tried to switch from SA to comskip several times, but I kept going back to SA because with default settings it does much, much better.

Same for me. SA is default and then I have Comskip on a couple of channels that SA hangs up on sometimes.