Comskip.ini settings for the UK

[parkimar]

Hi,

I've now got Sage working really nicely, I've retired Meedio

However, instead of being satisfied, I've been tinkering.

I use Sage MC 16x9 and the latest sageTV build.

I decided to switch on comskip yesterday and give it a whirl.
It seems to be doing something, generating the txt files, etc.

however I guess I have 2 questions:-

1) I expected to see purple chunks in the timeline bar for a recording, once comskip has been run for it - And Im not.
2) Does anyone have any .ini files that work well in the UK - Im suspicous that my .ini is the reason for 1). I've included a copy below.

Any help gratefully recieved.

Cheers

Mark

detect_method=255 ;1=black frame, 2=logo, 4=scene change, 8=fuzzy logic, 16=closed captions, 32=aspect ration, 255=all
verbose=4 ;show extra info
fps=25 ;frames per second (NTSC=29.970, PAL=25)
border=10 ;border around edge of video to ignore
max_brightness=40 ;frame not black if any pixels checked are greater than this (scale 0 to 255)
test_brightness=30 ;frame not pure black if any pixels checked are greater than this, will check average brightness (scale 0 to 255)
max_avg_brightness=20 ;maximum average brightness for a dim frame to be considered black (scale 0 to 255)
max_commercialbreak=600 ;maximum length in seconds to consider a segment a commercial break
min_commercialbreak=5 ;minimum length in seconds to consider a segment a commercial break
max_commercial_size=400 ;maximum time in seconds for a single commercial or multiple commercials if no breaks in between
min_commercial_size=3 ;mimimum time in seconds for a single commercial
min_show_segment_length=100
live_tv=1
delete_logo_file=1
min_black_frames_for_break=1;
output_videoredo=0
output_zoomplayer_chapter=0
output_zoomplayer_cutlist=0
play_nice_start=0600 ;at what time of the day should comskip slow itself down
play_nice_end=23:59 ;ending time for self slowing

[gplasky]

Did you enable comskip in the settings of Sage MC?

Gerry

[parkimar]

Hi,

yes, I enabled it in the detailed setup.
It's creating the txt files,

Example shown below :-

Cheers

Mark

Average score per frame - 0.05
Average score per block - 0.75
Average Scene Change Rate - 1.12 changes per second.
Average Aspect Ration - FULLSCREEN
----------------------------------------------------
Block list after weighing
# sbf bs be fs fe sc len scc scr cmbnd AR cc
0) 0 0 0 1 58 1.00 2.280 0 0.00 0 FULLSCREEN NONE
1) 1 1 0 59 1222 1.00 46.520 0 0.00 0 FULLSCREEN NONE
2) 1 1 0 1223 43566 0.00 1693.720 0 0.00 0 FULLSCREEN NONE
3) 1 1 0 43567 44768 1.00 48.040 0 0.00 0 FULLSCREEN NONE
Threshold used - 0.0000 After rounding - 0.0000


---------------------
Initial Commercial List
---------------------
0) 1 1222 48.84 seconds
1) 43567 44768 48.04 seconds


---------------------
Final Commercial List
---------------------
1 - start: 1 end: 1222 length: 48.84 seconds
2 - start: 43567 end: 44768 length: 48.04 seconds

44978 Frames Processed
################################################################
Time at end of run:
Fri Jun 17 10:22:58 2005
################################################################

[Jere_Jones]

The example you gave is the log file. There should also be a txt file that, in your case, should look something like:

FILE PROCESSING COMPLETE
------------------------
1 1222
43567 44768

Looking at the log, a couple things stand out as suspicous.

This looks like a half hour show. Does it start and end with a commercial, but has a 28 minute block of show in the middle?

I'm not sure how things work in the UK, but in the US that would be unusual.

In all likely hood, your black thresholds are set too low in your comskip.ini file. Try adjusting them up, slowly, until you get better results.

Jere

[parkimar]

Thanks for the reply Jere,

You are right they were from my log file . D'oh

It was a half hour show, with a commercial break about 12 mins in, which lasted about 4 mins.

I'll try with higher black settings and feed back the results.

Cheers

Mark

[parkimar]

A quick update,

Im getting some results now, the ad detection rate is poor (My fault I suspect, not the programs), but tinkering with the settings is getting me my purple chunks.

I'll continue to tweak and update.

As a suggestion, would it be a good idea to have a sticky , where people can post thier comskip.ini files, stating what setup they have and where they are from.

E.g. UK, NTL Family Pack
US, COMCAST , or something.

This way we can build up some defaults that people can find easily.

Cheers

Mark

[parkimar]

Hi,

I've done some searches and I've found a lot of info. to go through and a lot of things to try (Jere - thanks for producing a great piece of software and taking the time to support peopl e - most appreciated).

Im tweaking my settings and trying to find the best combi's.
(Now that I've found some good posts, I've realised how hit and miss I've been.)

I'll post the results as I get some.

I do still have 2 questions.

1) Has anybody in the UK got good results - and If so, fancy sharing your INI settings?

2) Would it be recommended to carry on with Comskip, or should I switch to Showanalyser now before I really get going ?

Cheers

Mark

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by parkimar

Hi,

I've done some searches and I've found a lot of info. to go through and a lot of things to try (Jere - thanks for producing a great piece of software and taking the time to support peopl e - most appreciated).

Im tweaking my settings and trying to find the best combi's.
(Now that I've found some good posts, I've realised how hit and miss I've been.)

I've been having a discussion over on the GBPVR forum about tuning comskip and it (I think) is an excellent place to get some good information. The link is: http://forums.gbpvr.com/showthread.php?t=6806

I highly recommend that thread as a starting point for tuning comskip.

Originally Posted by parkimar

1) Has anybody in the UK got good results - and If so, fancy sharing your INI settings?

To date, I am unaware of anyone that has good results there. I was fortunate enough that one of my testers provided me with a sample recording so that I could investigate the problem. The main problem is that your providers do such a good job of joining the show and commercials that there are often NO black frames in the important spots. The latest versions of comskip try to augment the black frames with hard scene changes, but the results are not impressive.
The bad news is that I don't think it is possible for comskip to work well in the UK. The good news is that I'm adding code to ShowAnalyzer to deal with the problems that you British face. I was able to get a perfect detection on the sample sent to me. Unfortunately, the same modifications make other shows (not from the UK) detect less reliably. I'm working on it with optimism.

Originally Posted by parkimar

2) Would it be recommended to carry on with Comskip, or should I switch to Showanalyser now before I really get going ?

I, of course, am biased.

Jere

[parkimar]

Jere, your a good salesman !

I did a test and changed channels part way through a recording, which momentarily changes the screen to black.
Comskip picked this up fine, which would indicate my black levels are ok, there just aren't any scenes to pick up on !

I'll get over to your website and sort myself out with showanalyser - would you rather I posted results here, or on your forum ?

Cheers

Mark

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by parkimar

Jere, your a good salesman !

Originally Posted by parkimar

I'll get over to your website and sort myself out with showanalyser - would you rather I posted results here, or on your forum ?

<joke>
That depends... if the results are good, post them anywhere and everywhere. If the results are bad, send me an email... quietly...
</joke>
In all seriousness though, if you get good results with SA, then post where ever you like. Especially if you think others may benefit. If you get bad results, I'd appreciate a post on the DG forum. Then if we find a solution, post how it was fixed.
The basic idea is that posting here is nice to let people know that the product works, but if there is a problem they should be able to go to one site and find answers. In theory at least.

Jere

[parkimar]

For anyone from the UK, the latest version of SA works really nicely on several channels - so far I've tested sky one, sky mix, Discovery and Discovery + 1. UKTV Documentary didn't do so well, but Im installing Nielm's webserver and I'll customise the settings for the channels using the built in link from SA.

Really nice work Jere.

Cheers

Mark