STV Import: Comskip Playback support for SageTV v4 (v1.3 18/Oct/2005)

[dfrancis]

yep, never used the comskip.exe, only used neilm svt with dirmon and SA.
was working ok, then it just went tits up, and snever worked since

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by dfrancis

yep, never used the comskip.exe, only used neilm svt with dirmon and SA.
was working ok, then it just went tits up, and snever worked since

Can you elaborate a little? Since it was working, it shouldn't take too much to get it working again. What happened, exactly?

Jere

[dfrancis]

that's pretty much it, it installed without any issues.
It was working, except it would always go wrong at the first commercial, IE sound but no video.
Then it just stopped, it looks like it's not proccessing the files, as there is no commericial "skip" time line.
if I manually do it, it works, SA won't see it and ignores the gaps
As I say, I have a few things to try including a full reinstall of SA, but I have no idea why it stopped working.

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by dfrancis

that's pretty much it, it installed without any issues.
It was working, except it would always go wrong at the first commercial, IE sound but no video.

That doesn't sound like SA's fault.

Originally Posted by dfrancis

Then it just stopped, it looks like it's not proccessing the files, as there is no commericial "skip" time line.

Do the .txt files exist? Do they have any commercials identified in them?

Originally Posted by dfrancis

if I manually do it, it works, SA won't see it and ignores the gaps

Manually do what? What doesn't SA see? I'm confused.

Originally Posted by dfrancis

As I say, I have a few things to try including a full reinstall of SA, but I have no idea why it stopped working.

It is possible you are confused about what SA (and comskip) actually do. SA (and comskip) only scans the file and creates a .txt file with the locations of the commercials. It is up to the STV to use the information in the .txt file and properly "decorate" the timeline and skip from and to the proper times.

Jere

[dfrancis]

Ok, looked over the forums on your site and found that someone else is/was having the same issue.
It looks like it "unregistered" itself? will this abe a common thing? IE once it does it, it will always do it?
Also, do you have an answer for the first part of that other guys problems and mine, where it wont do the first commercial properly but subsiquent break skip without issue?

[blade]

Originally Posted by dfrancis

Ok, looked over the forums on your site and found that someone else is/was having the same issue.
It looks like it "unregistered" itself? will this abe a common thing? IE once it does it, it will always do it?

Have you ever upgraded to a newer version of SA? Anytime you upgrade you have to re-enter the key. I've been using SA for months now and it works perfectly for me.

As for the second part of your problem, it sounds like you need to be looking at your STV and possibly your hardware. I'd try going back to the default STV then importing the comskip import so you have a clean install. I think you're blaming SA for another piece of software's problem. As jere said SA doesn't execute the skip, that's the STV.

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by dfrancis

Ok, looked over the forums on your site and found that someone else is/was having the same issue.

Can you share a link? I'm not familiar with this being brought up over there.

Originally Posted by dfrancis

It looks like it "unregistered" itself? will this abe a common thing? IE once it does it, it will always do it?

Unfortunately, this IS SA's fault. I have been unable to determine what causes this as it seems to happen randomly. The software that I use to handle the keys sometimes does that. A newer version is out and the author "promises" me that the bug has been fixed. SA 0.6.0 will use the newer version.
For now the quick fix is to uninstall/reinstall/reregister.

Originally Posted by dfrancis

Also, do you have an answer for the first part of that other guys problems and mine, where it wont do the first commercial properly but subsiquent break skip without issue?

What do you mean by "do"? If the markings show up in the correct spot then SA did it's job correctly. If it didn't detect the commercials at all then it missed it. That happens. Commercial detection isn't an exact science.
Or is doing something wierd with the video and/or audio? That isn't SA's fault. SA doesn't do any skipping, it only identifies.

Jere

[dfrancis]

Jere, thanks for the helpful replies. The post over at dragon, is in relation to the de-registration, you replied that a deinstall/reinstall was the current answer.(http://www.dragonglobal.org/forums/showthread.php?t=267)
You mentioned a new version of the key app, will that be an ungrade or a new purchase? or just a patch maybe.

RE, the other issue, it's actually on this thread,previous page. posted by Malbec Quote:

"My issue...as mentioned, I am using Sage 4.1 with DirMon and Show Analyzer. The Comskip file in the Sage folder is the latest version offerred on the WiKi. I still haven't found the "perfect" settings, but in general I am rather pleased. The one issue I keep running into however is SageTV will "stick" when it does an auto skip on a commerical. You will be watching a recorded show that has been ran through SA, you can see the commercial blocks in the progress bar, everything is fine. It then hits the initial commerical frame, skips the commercial and keeps playing. This is all well and good except my TV dos not show the video, rather the screen is frozen on the last frame of the commercial block. You can still here the audio playing as though everything is fine. If you check the progress bar, progress is being made, but the frame is frozen on that last commerical frame. Usually after pressing FF/RW everthing gets back to normal. "

It's exactly the same issue, the first break is shown on the timeline, but for some reason, after the auto skip, only the audio comes through, video is stuck until you hit either FF or RR. After that it goes through the auto skips without a hitch. That may be more to do with the STV but my initial concern was the fact that SA had stopped working(resolved) despite some over zealous protection lol.
I will probably try out a different STV instead of the Nielm one, and see if that makes a difference.
I'd forgotten that you had your own forum over at dragon or I would have gone there first, because I found the product in the sage forum, I just came back instead of looking there.
The reason I asked about the stability, is because I sell HTPCs and would love to be able to reccomend SA, but stability can't be an issue, not everyone can or wants to mess about with apps, I have customers who would simply return a $5K meedia system if it required random re-registration
I guess the new key app will be posted over at dragon, I'll keep an eye out for it there.
Thanks

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by dfrancis

You mentioned a new version of the key app, will that be an ungrade or a new purchase? or just a patch maybe.

A new version. When 0.6.0 is released everyone will need to uninstall the old version before installing the new version, but other than that it should be invisible.

Originally Posted by dfrancis

The reason I asked about the stability, is because I sell HTPCs and would love to be able to reccomend SA, but stability can't be an issue, not everyone can or wants to mess about with apps, I have customers who would simply return a $5K meedia system if it required random re-registration

Completely understandable! I want this bug to go away as well!

Jere

[malbec]

I deleted the comskip.exe file...same issue. I am rather new to all this, and know just enough about computers and programming to be dangerous. And, based on that, it is my guess it is an STV issue. I say this because SA creates the text file with the frames where the commercials are just fine. I am excitedly awaiting 0.6.0 in anticipation of more accuracy though. That said, Jere...you are the best. The software is well worth it.

Anyway, back to the issue, the text file gets created just fine. It is on playback as the text file gets used where the problem seems to occur. That is why I think it is an STV issue.

Being relatively new, I have not made the jump to SageMC quite yet. Tried it once and the navigation with my remote versus the original STV (the back button) drove me nuts. Anybody care to make an STVi for SageMC that results in a more logical remote handling of a back button? It doesn't have to mirror MCE exactly does it? Back to the issue again, maybe SageMC addresses this commercial issue. That said, one more time....anybody got any other tips? A property setting perhaps?

Thanks to all!

[gplasky]

Have you tried it with a different decoder? It sounds more like a decoder issue.

Also in SageMC you can enable a property that treats the left arrow same as back. mlbdude/use_left_as_back=true. Put this in your properties file.

Gerry

[malbec]

Using the default decoder, everybody keeps telling to buy the Nvidia one...now that the MVP extender is out and there are rumors of transcoding (so as to handle AC3 for my ripped DVDs), I think I am ready to take the plunge and strat shelling out cash every which way...Frey boys...get ready some revenue.

Hope the new decoder works.

gplasky-
That is one ugly dog. Much prefer the cats. But for the tip on the back button ... thanks a TON!!!! I think I will be jumping all over that tonight!

[Skiier__Dude]

Hey all,

I'd appreciate some help. For the life of me, I can't get the ComSkip feature to work on either of my 2 client machines. It works 100% on the Server. Here's my setup:

DirMon is successfully running ComSkip.exe and is processing and marking recordings.

Sage Client 4.0.0.56

I have imported the latest ComSkip_Import_Playback.stvi into a copy of the SageTV3.stv.

Commercials do not show up marked in playback and I do not get the ComSkip settings in the Option window.

As I mentioned, if I use the server machine, Comskip works just fine.

I must be overlooking something here -- can anyone help?

[blade]

Skiier__Dude

You'll need to use mapped drives or UNC paths. The clients must be able to see the .txt file at the same location the server does. For example if the comskip .txt file is located at F:video on the server then the client needs to have a mapped drive to that location so that it sees the .txt file at F:video.

[Skiier__Dude]

Blade,

Thanks for the reply. I've inserted UNC path settings (e.g. \\Server\Video) as the target for Sage recordings but still do not get the ComSkip breaks or the ComSkip options showing up on the client machines. Would the fact that I am not even seeing the options show up not point to some sort of plugin configuration error?

Also note, I have entirely re-installed my SageTV clients and deleted the Sage Directories in case I had screwed a file or setting but still get no joy.

[blade]

Oops I didn't notice that you didn't have the options. That'll teach me to answer threads at 5:30 in the morning.

Yeah it sounds like you don't have the import installed. BTW if you're using v4.1 you don't have to make a copy of the STV and all that junk. You can just import it and Sage will automatically create the new file for you.

[Skiier__Dude]

Hey all,

Not really sure what was wrong with my configuration but I took the time to upgrade from 4.0.0 to 4.1, added in the Comskip STVi on the server and client machines and everything works great.

Many thanks to the development team -- great feature. I am a hero in my household.

[eMajor]

using sagetv client i know you need to either use unc paths or an equal mapped drive for the comskip segments to be detected. since i occasionally have wireless network/router issues, i don't like to use unc, and a mapped drive isn't an option.

i was thinking it would be cool if you could specify the unc path to only the comskip files in the properties file. this would override the current path the to recordings directory where it looks for the comskip files now. i can't imagine this would be too difficult, but i haven't had a chance to explore studio as of yet.

thoughts?

[Homebuilder]

Hi, without even trying the demo I went ahead and bought showanalyzer. It sounds like a great product!

In one of your posts you mentions version .6 coming out... in another post you mentioned you left the old versions of dirmon just in case... so I edited your download link and found the .6 beta...

...

Hope you do not mind me putting in the link to .6.0 I figured since it was there, you just hadnt edited the download link for the latest software.

Since I just bought it and I want to install the best version, do you reccomend the .5.10? or is the .6.0 stable? better?

Is the registration issue fixed in 5.10? in .6.0?

Thanks in advance for an awesome product!

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by Homebuilder

Hope you do not mind me putting in the link to .6.0 I figured since it was there, you just hadnt edited the download link for the latest software.

I discourage deep linking to the downloads.
[quote=Homebuilder]Since I just bought it and I want to install the best version, do you reccomend the .5.10? or is the .6.0 stable? better?
0.6.0 is more stable. You need to install 0.5.10 first and then replace the files in the installation directory with the files in the zip file.

Originally Posted by Homebuilder

Is the registration issue fixed in 5.10? in .6.0?

No. It should be fixed in the "real" 0.6.0.

Jere