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Author Topic: Commercial skipping  (Read 21537 times)

JustinChase

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Re: Commercial skipping
« Reply #50 on: October 31, 2011, 02:58:43 am »

Someone smarter than me can probably figure out how to have comskip.exe run on a completed recording, and edit the comskip.ini for just the .edl output, and you should be good.
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nwboater

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Re: Commercial skipping
« Reply #51 on: October 31, 2011, 08:56:19 am »

I have a utility that watches a Recorded TV folder, and when WMC is done recording a .wtv file (usually about 10-15 minutes after), or when MC17 finishes recording a .ts file (actually usually during, I think the way MC records in eparts in extra folders confuses the utility?) it will 'convert' it to .ts into another folder, on the network, then it runs comskip on it, creates the .edl file* and an .xml file located in a third location, which WMC and the DTBAddin read from and I get automatic commercial skipping when watching the original WMC files in WMC, and I get automatic commercial skipping of the ts recordings (the converted ones and the originals) in MC17.

* the .edl file is currently still being misnamed to match the original filename, not the renamed/converted file.  it takes 2 seconds to fix, then it's automatic.  I'm hopeful this is resolved in the next day or 2.

This does result in duplicates of your files.  Your workflow might cause you to want to delete either copy, and this will do that for you.  it still involves a bit of work with the comskip.ini, but you need to do that to get accurate skipping anyway.  That's on my list, but it's pretty close as it is now.

a 30 minute SD program takes about 5 minutes to completely finish the process and move all the files, YMMV

a 30 minute HD program takes about 13 minutes to completely finish.

MC-TVConverter  the current version can be had here  -  http://mctvconverter.vivolum.net/

He also has a beta board where you can download a version that has commercial cutting separated from commercial skipping, if you want to just get the .edl, but not actually cut the converted file (comskip isn't perfect)

http://mctvconverter.userboard.org/closed-beta-discussion-f2/tvconverter-beta-t6.html

password is beta

If you want a newer version that cleans up after itself better, please let me know, I'm sure he won't mind if I share it with you.

He's been pretty responsive to my feedback, but his last effort failed to fix the renaming issue, yet again :(

Thanks very much for sharing all this information. I'm afraid it's beyond my level of expertise to have this work in MC, but perhaps others can utilize it.

Rod
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nwboater

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Re: Commercial skipping
« Reply #52 on: October 31, 2011, 09:08:33 am »

I guess I have misunderstood what Comskip support in MC means. I thought it meant that after a TV recording is done that Comskip would generate the necessary files so that when the show is watched it will skip commercials.

This apparently is not the case. MC17 is relying on something outside to generate the edl (or whatever) files. MC can then skip commercials. But without the first part we don't have Commercial Skipping in MC.

In our case it's even worse. Our only tuner is an HDPVR. For some reason MC can only record TV with it in .jtv files. For Comskip to work in MC we need it to record ts files. I believe that the HDPVR is a very popular tuner so I hope this issue will get resolved soon.

So it seems there is a lot to be done in MC17 yet to have functional commercial skipping. I know it's still in Beta so perhaps this capability is just around the corner. I can hope anyway!

Rod
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JustinChase

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Re: Commercial skipping
« Reply #53 on: October 31, 2011, 11:07:08 am »

If/when that utility gets updated to fix the naming issue, I'll post instructions on how to set it all up.

it's pretty easy once you know how (learning how was not very much fun :()

I made a request to look at the timing of when the converstion starts, as it seems to start too soon on .ts recordings made with MC.  I suspect it has something to do with the fact that JRiver writes the .ts file in multiple places at one time, for their time-shifting use, and either they don't update the .ts file often enough, or the file watcher doesn't wait enough, which is what I suspect, and have asked it to be extended.

we'll see.

Honestly, if JRiver could just call the comskip.exe when they finished recording, that would be enough to do this, I think.

That tool was discovered as a way to comskip .wtv files, and works perfectly for that currently.  I'm just trying to get .ts files working at the same time, with this same simple tool.

Once we have that, we'll need to tweak the comskip settings for more accurate detection, but that's for another day :)
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JustinChase

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Re: Commercial skipping
« Reply #54 on: November 08, 2011, 10:40:53 pm »

Three things regarding commercial skipping that I would like to see:

1. Commercial skipping meta-data files should automatically be created by invoking the appropriate program by MC. User should not have to set-up some other program and/or scheduled tasks in Windows to generate meta-data files.
2. It should be possible to select if the meta-data is generated as soon as the program recording completes or at some user-configurable time when machine is not in interactive use.
3. Forward commercial skipping should be automatic. I shouldn't have to press any button on the remote to skip through the commercials.

What about an easy one-time only setup, then hands-free?

This is excitng, but how do we generate the EDL file?

Here's how I do it.

You can use the "--ini=<file>" switch in comskip to define channel specific configurations. Depending on your scripting skills, this can be quite powerful.

A "soon" project for me, I need a break :)

What about files recorded in .wtv format? That would be really cool to play all of the .wtv files in MC and have the commercial skipping. Unfortunately I still have to use WMC7 to do the recording on the Ceton but I can transfer the recordings to the server.

Have I got a solution for you ?!?!  :D

I'm currently working to get it working on my Ubuntu server under Wine whenever a new file is detected in the recordings folder.  :)

How's this coming along?  I'd like to do this on the unRAID server if possible

I'm afraid it's beyond my level of expertise to have this work in MC, but perhaps others can utilize it.

I was there too not that long ago.  I would have loved this back then.

As promised, here's the guide I wrote.  I hope it's painless to use.  If not, please tell me how I can improve it to make it more usable, thanks.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=67579.0
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imugli

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Re: Commercial skipping
« Reply #55 on: November 08, 2011, 10:57:59 pm »

How's this coming along?  I'd like to do this on the unRAID server if possible

5 week old at home means a lot of my own pet projects don't move as fast as I'd like them too. This is one of them.  ;)

Will keep you up to date if / when I get it working :)

raym

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Re: Commercial skipping
« Reply #56 on: November 09, 2011, 01:06:00 am »

Does anyone have Comskip working well for Australian television? If so, would you be willing to share your configuration file? Also, what application are you using to analyse the .ts recordings - eg Lifeextender or something else?

Thx
Paul

I use comskip and my config is based on what's shown in this thread: http://www.kaashoek.com/comskip/viewtopic.php?t=232

I'm still tweaking it but it's about 90% accurate as is. I'll probably keep messing with it and post an update soon.
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