Utility: ShowAnalyzer Beta

[ukmgranger]

There used to be problems with SA & comskip detecting commercials in the UK. Is this still the case? I have not looked at skipping for a while and I wondered whether things had come along any since the old days.

[ukmgranger]

bump

[pjwerdna]

Originally Posted by ukmgranger

There used to be problems with SA & comskip detecting commercials in the UK. Is this still the case? I have not looked at skipping for a while and I wondered whether things had come along any since the old days.

Not sure what problems your talking about.

Some channels I can get detections perfect, some it's mostly right with the odd commercial missed. Others it just plain doesnt work (Channel 4 is almost always wrong)

Personally I wouldnt say detections perfect and you do have to tweak the default settings a bit and of course tell it not to detect at all on channels with no adverts. However it's much better than having to skip commercials manually. There's threads on the SA website that give the settings I worked out.

[ukmgranger]

Originally Posted by pjwerdna

Not sure what problems your talking about.

I seem to remember that there was a problem detecting UK commercials due to the way that they come in/out of programs.

I would have thought that detecting UK commercials would be easier than anywhere else due to the 12 frames of silence that is mandatory when creating a UK commercial (I am an ex post production sound engineer!)

I'll have to give SA a go to see how it gets on.

[lakeman]

Originally Posted by Jere_Jones

SA is undergoing a major rewrite right now ...

Can you give us a hint as to what/when to expect?

This utility has increased the WAF exponentially! Thank you!

[InTheFlow]

Originally Posted by jbanera

The only problem I have seen is my taskbar fills up with ShowAnalyzer processes (see attached jpg) until I run my mouse over one of them, then they all disappear. Has anyone seen this behavior? Is it a setting that I have wrong?

I too have noticed this issue. However I've also noticed that it only does this when the file SA is set to create is not being created.

For example: Mine is set to create VideoRedo project files. Most of the time it works great but on certain files SA does not seem to be able to write the project file after analyzing the mpg.

Then, because DirMon can't find the project file, it executes another instance of SA and thus the many icons at the bottom.

Mine is set to check the directory every 10 minutes so if SA has a problem with one of my files, the next morning I can have upwards of 60 icons down there with one currently still working the "problem" file.

I've looked at the video files themselves and see no difference between the ones SA correctly makes the project files for & the "problem" ones. Both videos will play fine in Sage or Media Player as well.

DirMon is set to not process if the file is being written to so it doesn't seem like it would be a file/drive access violation either. I do allow DirMon to run the process if the Hard Drive is being written to though.

Also, on each of these files I have turned off DirMon and then attempted to run SA manually on the file. It starts up properly and looks like it is running everything correctly. However, when it is done there is no project file in the directory. Like it finishes all the work but just doesn't want to write the file afterwards.

If I check the log files, it always says the same thing (with a different time) regardless if it was successful or a problem file:

10:59:29(0) Entering getsize.
10:59:29(0) File size: 2.98GB
10:59:29(0) Leaving getsize.

The only way I've found around the issue is by opening the file in VideoRedo and saving a project file. Then I can turn DirMon back on and it will continue working its magic...at least until it hits the next one that SA can't create. Of course, on these manually made files I have to then do the commercial detection the old fashioned way...Analyze it myself! LOL

Very Odd.

It did not use to do this but I haven't been able to connect the dots on what might have changed with my system that could have caused it.

So Jere, do you think this could be the result of the termination error you mentioned earlier? Any ideas on what to try other than reinstalling SA?

Thanks.

PS. Despite this issue...I love this program and am very happy I registered it!

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by InTheFlow

So Jere, do you think this could be the result of the termination error you mentioned earlier? Any ideas on what to try other than reinstalling SA?

It's possible. My recommendation would be to send me the file. That way I can find out the real problem. I'm PMing you with the info.

Jere

[drin]

Hi all. I've been too busy recently (unfortunately) to deal with this, but I'm experiencing the exact same problem as InTheFlow. I get 10-20 instances of SA running in the TaskBar along with a dialog indicating that SA has crashed. Mousing over the icons instantly deletes them, but the dialog reappears every 2-3 minutes until I close DirMon.

I'd be happy to send any logs if you want them Jere. Thanks!

-Adrian

[Jere_Jones]

Can you tell if it is processing the same file over and over? What happens if you change the extension of that file so that DirMon "moves on"?

Jere

[drin]

Originally Posted by Jere_Jones

Can you tell if it is processing the same file over and over? What happens if you change the extension of that file so that DirMon "moves on"?

Jere

Hi Jere. I'll test it this afternoon and post the results here this evening.

Thanks!
-Adrian

[Homebuilder]

Hi Jere,

Great program, I just bought it!

I was reading in the forums about future HD use. and Sage recording in ts.

I am about to add a few HD tuners to my set up and would love for commercial detection to work... Since it doesnt yet work with ts files...

(newbie alert) Can dirmon be used to set up am auto convert to normal mpeg2? and then run SA?

I have no idea how to convert ts to mpeg, but I suppose something out there does it.

Just a late night idea...

[ldavis]

Jere,

I have a similar question about HD. Since sage will now record in PS files with a .mpg extensionm, I have been experimenting with SA latest beta and have had no success. I have had numerous SA crashes and those shows that do finish are marked incorrectly. Should SA work with these files? If so, what suggestions do you have to fix the problem.

[heffe2001]

I'm having the problem where DM tries to process the same file over and over, seems to be (most of the time anyway), files recorded directly from my cable box via firewire (TS files, with .mpg extension). Does SA try to open the mpg file FIRST, before sending a query to the sage web-server plugin as to what channel it was recorded from? (I've got my HD channels explicitly set on the do not process list, and it used to work for the movie channels and such, but appears not to now...).

[chadman]

I have been having a few problems with SA. It does work for a few channels, but not consistently. I tried it with "Cold Case" and it worked great, but the same channel had "Law and Order" and it would not find any commercials. It did scan the entire "Law and Order", but it would not scan every frame. Normally I can watch is scan every frame, but this showed it randomly scanning frame 1 and 2. I am using the "Normal" version of SA and only recording local HD channels via my antenna.

Is there any documentation on what all the settings are for? I was not able to find it on the SA web page/forum. Also what is schoolhouse and how does it work?

I have also tried the preview version "6" but could not get it to work at all. It would start the scan and immediately stop leaving a blank txt file. I would then scan the next file, but do the same thing.

Ok, last question. Does it work over a network drive. I have a networked drive, but SA gets a fatal error every time it starts. I can click "ok" and it will then start to scan the file, but I am not sure why I get the error every time.

Thanks,
Chad

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by Homebuilder

Since it doesnt yet work with ts files...

Just a little while longer...

Originally Posted by Homebuilder

(newbie alert) Can dirmon be used to set up am auto convert to normal mpeg2? and then run SA?

In theory, yes. First you need to find a way to convert ts to ps via the command line. After that, it's a little complicated, but easily doable.

Jere

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by ldavis

Jere,

I have a similar question about HD. Since sage will now record in PS files with a .mpg extensionm, I have been experimenting with SA latest beta and have had no success. I have had numerous SA crashes and those shows that do finish are marked incorrectly. Should SA work with these files? If so, what suggestions do you have to fix the problem.

In theory, yes. Would you mind sharing one of those files with me so I can find the problem? PM me if you can upload it to my server.

Jere

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by heffe2001

Does SA try to open the mpg file FIRST, before sending a query to the sage web-server plugin as to what channel it was recorded from? (I've got my HD channels explicitly set on the do not process list, and it used to work for the movie channels and such, but appears not to now...).

Yes. This is necessary due to the variety of situations in which SA must work. The next version will quietly exit after realizing that it is a transport stream.

Jere

[Jere_Jones]

Originally Posted by chadman

I have been having a few problems with SA. It does work for a few channels, but not consistently. I tried it with "Cold Case" and it worked great, but the same channel had "Law and Order" and it would not find any commercials. It did scan the entire "Law and Order", but it would not scan every frame. Normally I can watch is scan every frame, but this showed it randomly scanning frame 1 and 2. I am using the "Normal" version of SA and only recording local HD channels via my antenna.

If these are transport stream files, then SA won't work. If it is a program stream file, then can you provide me with a sample? PM me for ftp info.

Originally Posted by chadman

Is there any documentation on what all the settings are for? I was not able to find it on the SA web page/forum. Also what is schoolhouse and how does it work?

No documentation yet. I'm still developing SA and it's feature set changes continously. As 1.0 approaches I will be creating documentation.

RE the schoolhouse, the idea is that you load a file and hit start analyzer. SA will (well, should) then scan it showing the results. You can then tweak the settings and see the results immediately instead of having to rescan it. That's the idea.

Originally Posted by chadman

I have also tried the preview version "6" but could not get it to work at all. It would start the scan and immediately stop leaving a blank txt file. I would then scan the next file, but do the same thing.

If these are transport stream files, then SA doesn't support them. What you are seeing is correct behavior.

Originally Posted by chadman

Ok, last question. Does it work over a network drive. I have a networked drive, but SA gets a fatal error every time it starts. I can click "ok" and it will then start to scan the file, but I am not sure why I get the error every time.

I have never seen such a thing. That is truely wierd. I'll see if I can find anything that might cause that.

Jere

[chadman]

Sure, I can give you a sample.

I am using program streams with sage on all of these recordings. SA seems to be hit and miss, but it is consistent. If I get one show that does not work I can try it again and get the same results.

I did get the mapped drive to work last night. I wish I could tell you what I did to fix it, but I have no idea. The only think I did was install your 6 preview version (could not get it to work at all) then reinstalled the current beta. Now my mapped drive works great!

Thanks,
Chad

[Homebuilder]

Hi, I just got this set up, Showanalyzer is off and running on my 2 terra of files... maybe a while before I can test everything.

In the mean time, I noticed you can set SA to output for comskip or videoredo or both etc etc.

If we want both to use this in videoredo and in Sa/nielms stvi, do we need to have both outputs(two files)? or can nielms stvi read the videoredo file alone?