DVRMSToolbox + Comskip + SageTV: Dummies Guide?

[Brent]

Does anyone know where I can find the basics to using DVRMSToolbox to monitor & manage comskip for commercial detection with SageTV?

I've been using comskipmonitor because it was very easy, but it's not working with Windows7 as far as I can tell.

[babgvant]

I'm not sure anyone's written one, probably the name

Off-the-top-of-my-head:

1. Install DTB
2. Run settings tool (DVRMStoMPEGSettings.exe)
3. Add Sage's recording directories to the "Watched Directories" list on the "File Watcher" tab (double-click to open folder browser) - one per line
4. If your box can support it, change the # of workers from 1 to 2 (or 3 if you have a serious rig)
5. Change "Min File Size" to 20 so it doesn't try to scan channel surfs
6. Check "Queue on Update" since we set a min file size
7. Check Automatic Cleanup
8. Go to the "Sage" tab and enter the details on your Sage Web Server (necessary for metadata retrival)
9. If you use UNC paths in Sage put that in as the "Sage Record Path" (hmm, this should really accept multiple values)
10. Check "Use Sage" and "Use Webserver"
11. "Save"
12. Restart the FW service (if you installed it) or startup the WinForm FW application (what I use)
13. Optional - update the version of comskip in %ProgramFiles%\dvrmstoolbox\applications\

[cjalphonso]

comskip monitor in Windows 7, I had to right click the .bat file and run as administrator and that got it working for me.

[Brent]

Is there a way to monitor the queue of files waiting to be processed and/or being processed using DVRMSToolbox?


Oh, and where do I find the log file it creates?

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by Brent

Is there a way to monitor the queue of files waiting to be processed and/or being processed using DVRMSToolbox?


Oh, and where do I find the log file it creates?

The file watcher's log is in %public%\dvrmstoolbox\

Each instance of dvrmstompeg.exe logs to %public%\dvrmstoolbox\fwlogs when run by the fw.

Looking at the logs is the best way to monitor status.

[Brent]

I'm doing something wrong. file watcher identifies the proper recordings and executes comskip one time, but then stops working after that. So once its run through all the recordings once - when a new recording comes up it doesn't do anything. So I have to kill the process and restart it to get it to work again.

Any thoughts on what silly thing I'm missing?

[babgvant]

First thing would be to make sure you have the latest rev. If you do, then check the FW log in %PUBLIC%\DvrmsToolbox that should explain what it's doing.

Also check the log file for the individual shows (in FWLogs).

How many workers do you have?

FWIW, SA has the best integration with DTB.

[Brent]

Thanks Andy. I'll review all of that this weekend and report back. Ideally I'd like to get comskip working perfectly first. Then I'll move on to SA so I can do a writeup on that also.

I guess I'm a good person to do a writeup on this since I'm pretty good at doing everything wrong at least once - so I can tell others what not to do