Comskip settings

[Doubledose]

I have been using comskip for a long time and it works ok, But not always accurate. So over time I have read on these forums about different settings and tried this and that. So the other day I decided to download the latest version and dropped it into my comskip folder and changed some of the ini settings to match my older ini file. But did not gain any big inprovements in the accuracy, in fact it maybe a little worse. ( the good thing is that I saved all of my old files and settings ). Does anyone know if there is certain version of comskip that works with sage well?
So my question is is there anyone who has a list of all of the setting changes that will make this any better or is there anyone out there that has a good working comskip that would want to pass along any settings they have made?
My dish network shows seem pretty good. It is mostly the network stations that are off. I did come across one thread where they had a different ini file for each one of the network stations, has anyone else tried this and does it work good.
Thanks for any info
Wayne

[waynedunham]

I am having some issues with the latest donator version of Comskip as well.

I run comskip while the file is recording and on maybe 1/3-1/2 of my recordings comskip will run, but end up with no marked spaces. Other recordings seem to work just fine and the 'bum' ones are hit and miss, no pattern to the channels or shows.

Now if I call up the menu and delete the comskip files for the recording that didn't find any and the hit "run comskip" it will usually work just fine on those recordings.

At first with the new donator version which I put into a new donator folder so it wouldn't get the donator version overwritten by the free version when an update came along it wouldn't process until the show was done recording. I found that setting in the comskup.ini file and fixed that.

Anyone know of a setting in comskip.ini that might help my issue with comskip not always marking properly on the first run forcing me to delete the comskip files it created and re-running it on that recording?

[KryptoNyte]

In the SageTV comskip settings, how many simultaneous shows do you have comskip allowed to run on?

[Doubledose]

I have just updated and working on my comskip also and after updating had trouble. One thing I noticed in the donators downloads was the last few updates had a lot bigger file size. So I e-mailed Erik and asked him what the deal was with the larger file sizes and all of the errors I was getting and he replied back that he updated the ac3 detection. My log file was flooded with errors and was almost a 6 meg file. I rolled back to the latest version before the file size jumped and all seems to be working now. I am still re-tweeking a few settings with Erik's help for one of my programs.

Wayne

[reggie14]

So, I guess I'm not the only one with problems with comskip. Comskip stopped working well for me roughly the same time my HDHR started to die. For a while, I had a lot of problems with signal quality. After getting a new HDHR, the signal problems appear resolved, but comskip accuracy is still terrible. It's barely useful at this point.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by reggie14

So, I guess I'm not the only one with problems with comskip. Comskip stopped working well for me roughly the same time my HDHR started to die. For a while, I had a lot of problems with signal quality. After getting a new HDHR, the signal problems appear resolved, but comskip accuracy is still terrible. It's barely useful at this point.

The issue I'm seeing is that running comskip while a program is recording is definitely hit or miss. Some programs mark perfectly, and some others generate no marks at all. I don't notice any rhyme, nor reason to this either. One episode of a program will mark fine and another recorded on the same channel with the same HDHR Prime tuner won't.
If I delete the comskip files and re-run it on the recording most times it will mark the commercials properly.

I think what I need to do is backup my comskip.ini and pull in the one from the previous version of comskip that I was running to see if that makes a difference.

[JREkiwi]

Make sure you're using at least version 075 of the donators version. The ones prior did have issues and have been removed from the download site.

John

[KryptoNyte]

I see Erik is including the "ini editor" since August 10th of last year. That should come in mighty handy - has anyone used it yet?

http://www.kaashoek.com/comskip/view...t=418&start=30

[Doubledose]

Yes
I have been using it and it works very well. Nice interface, no more digging thru lines of text make changes.

Wayne

[KryptoNyte]

It's been a long time since I've updated my donator's Comskip, may have to give that a shot. It's one of those, don't touch it Sage items if it ain't broke kind of things, though.

[reggie14]

I've only done a small number of recordings so far, but the newest (donator) version does seem to work better. I also reverted to the mostly default config. I noticed the INI editor refused to read my old config, which I took as a bad sign.

One more thing kind of bothers me. For whatever reason, comskip seems to like to mark the first 3-5 minutes of a recording as commercials. Sometimes there are a few commercials at the start of a recording, but often it marks everything up until/through the opening credits as commercials.

I know I can tell comskip to not mark anything in the first X seconds as a commercial, but is there some better solution to this problem?

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by reggie14

I've only done a small number of recordings so far, but the newest (donator) version does seem to work better. I also reverted to the mostly default config. I noticed the INI editor refused to read my old config, which I took as a bad sign.

One more thing kind of bothers me. For whatever reason, comskip seems to like to mark the first 3-5 minutes of a recording as commercials. Sometimes there are a few commercials at the start of a recording, but often it marks everything up until/through the opening credits as commercials.

I know I can tell comskip to not mark anything in the first X seconds as a commercial, but is there some better solution to this problem?

I haven't tried to load my old INI file, but might have to give it a shot so I can compare settings between that and what the newest Donator version installed as default. My Comskips have been erratic at best. Sometimes nothing gets marked at all when run concurrent with recording. If I delete teh comskip files for the recording and rerun it after the recording is finished sometimes it will mark fine.
I have noticed some other times though where I'll be watching the timeline as Comskip runs and there are marks within the file popping in, but when it finishes they disappear.
There has to be something going on because even when it does its best the overall accuracy is not as high as the 2012 (or was it 2013) version I was running.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

My Comskips have been erratic at best. Sometimes nothing gets marked at all when run concurrent with recording.

I noticed that same thing. At least, I did with the old version. Letting comskip run on active recordings led to terrible results. As you noted, it often wouldn't mark anything, except, perhaps, for a commercial or two towards the beginning.

When I was still using the older version I configured it so comskip didn't process recordings until after they finished. I haven't tried re-enabling it.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by reggie14

I noticed that same thing. At least, I did with the old version. Letting comskip run on active recordings led to terrible results. As you noted, it often wouldn't mark anything, except, perhaps, for a commercial or two towards the beginning.

When I was still using the older version I configured it so comskip didn't process recordings until after they finished. I haven't tried re-enabling it.

Funny, my experience is exactly opposite. The old version I was running worked almost all the time. This one is not working well at all. I'm sure it is a setting somewhere in the INI file, but haven't the foggiest where to look. I never changed anything other than the play nice and the setting to allow it to mark commercials as the file recorded.

[reggie14]

Originally Posted by waynedunham

Funny, my experience is exactly opposite. The old version I was running worked almost all the time. This one is not working well at all. I'm sure it is a setting somewhere in the INI file, but haven't the foggiest where to look. I never changed anything other than the play nice and the setting to allow it to mark commercials as the file recorded.

Out of curiosity, have you tried changing your plugin/Dirmon settings so that comskip doesn't run until after the recording is finished? As I said before, I've been meaning to re-enable that, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

It doesn't seem like that should change the accuracy, but I think it does... somehow...

[troycheek]

Originally Posted by reggie14

It doesn't seem like that should change the accuracy, but I think it does... somehow...

I think I remember reading somewhere that once Comskip decides the live file is finished, it goes back, checks the whole file again, and updates the commercial list if necessary. In theory, while perhaps things don't get marked right during recording, once Comskip is finished the results should be the same whether the video was processed live or after the fact.

That said, I set DirMon2 to only run Comskip after the recording was finished because I realized that it only took a few minutes to process a finished recording, while live processing tied up the resource count for the length of the show plus a few minutes.

[waynedunham]

Originally Posted by reggie14

Out of curiosity, have you tried changing your plugin/Dirmon settings so that comskip doesn't run until after the recording is finished? As I said before, I've been meaning to re-enable that, but I haven't gotten around to it yet.

It doesn't seem like that should change the accuracy, but I think it does... somehow...

That would definitely be a last resort for me. I watch a lot of things, especially sporting events before they finish recording. For instance I'll start watching a baseball or football game, F1, or Indycar race an hour or more after it starts recording. That way I'll usually be caught up to live around the time the recording finishes.
I also watch the evenings recordings before they finish if there isn't anything in my recordings that I want to watch.

I think I've just got to get a chance to sit down and compare the old INI settings and the new ones to see if I can find something that will make a difference.

[reggie14]

Just a quick update... I tried to re-enable live TV scanning. The good news is that it doesn't seem to impact commercial detection. The bad news is that it still isn't marking commercials in real time. I can tell comskip is running- both by looking at the running processes and viewing the comskip log file for a recording- but it doesn't create an edl file or write to the txt file until after the recording is over.

Is there something in the comskip ini file that I need to change?

Update: OK, it was a config error. The ini editor made it look like live TV processing was enabled, but when I looked at the actual file I saw it wasn't. I enabled it and now it seems to be working as expected. I'll keeping it running like this forma while to see if detection is negatively impacted.

[uberpixel]

Wayne (and others),

Did you ever resolve this issue?

I just completed a fresh SageTV install and downloaded the latest donator version 81_077 and have found that it no longer processes file correctly. I see the same behavior as some others where if I delete comskip and re-run it processes just fine.

I noticed this a while back as well (year or so) and remember I had to revert to an older version that had been working (maybe 81_051?).

I'll re-attach my old boot drive tonight and confirm which version had been working for me.

I was hoping that some other poor soul had already troubleshot this issue for me and I could simply install the latest and greatest version. Unfortunately that's not the case. Do you think Erik would help if we contacted him?

-uberpixel

[reggie14]

Commercial detection for me has been unreliable- particularly on live TV. The update at the end of May helped, but didn't completely fix the reliability issues.

Have you tried disabling detection on live TV?