Best setup for removing commercials ?

[marvin-miller]

No that's about right. Whenever a new comskip version comes out I just copy it over to the comskip folder in VAP and overwrite everything except my .ini file (if it's custom).

It sounds like you did everything right with respect to the 3 main pieces.

In this post;
http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/showt ... post125828
you can see the pictures of my setup (just look at the pictures).

As to the other guy that wanted Media Center to just skip over commercials, not it does not do that. I use it to cut commercials to save file space as I archive a lot of recordings.

I'm sure it would not be hard to add that to it but the real power behind it is not commercial detection, it's what you can get it to do with respect to transcoding, renaming etc. Even when I ran DTB I set it up to cut the commercials.

[Space]

Would you mind sharing your .ini files for Comskip? I figure that if you are automatically removing the commercials from your recordings (instead of just marking their locations for auto-skip during playback), you must have some pretty accurate commercial detection.

I've tried to tweak the .ini file and I sometimes get perfect detection, but other times it either doesen't detect at all, misses some breaks but not others, or skips parts of the recording that it shouldn't. I would never try automatically removing the sections that Comskip thinks are commercials from the recording, as it would often end up with parts of the actual show removed as well.

I only use one .ini file for all channels/programs, so maybe having separate ones for different channels or shows is necessary.

[marvin-miller]

Sure. It almost never removes more then it should - typically the worst behavior I see is the odd missed commercial or broadcaster commercials which contain the logo. But generally, with my cable provider, it's good. Very good.

Code: Select all

detect_method=43 ;1=black frame, 2=logo, 4=scene change, 8=fuzzy logic, 16=closed captions, 32=aspect ration, 64=silence, 128=cutscenes, 255=all
validate_silence=1 ; Default, set to 0 to force using this clues if selected above.
validate_uniform=1 ; Default, set to 0 to force using this clues (like pure white frames) if blackframe is selected above.
validate_scenechange=1 ; Default, set to 0 to force using this clues if selected above.
verbose=10 ;show a lot of extra info, level 5 is also OK, set to 0 to disable
max_brightness=60 ;frame not black if any pixels checked are greater than this (scale 0 to 255)
test_brightness=40 ;frame not pure black if any pixels checked are greater than this, will check average brightness (scale 0 to 255)
max_avg_brightness=25 ;maximum average brightness for a dim frame to be considered black (scale 0 to 255) 0 means autosetting
max_commercialbreak=600 ;maximum length in seconds to consider a segment a commercial break
min_commercialbreak=25 ;minimum length in seconds to consider a segment a commercial break
max_commercial_size=125 ;maximum time in seconds for a single commercial or multiple commercials if no breaks in between
min_commercial_size=4 ;mimimum time in seconds for a single commercial
min_show_segment_length=250 ; any segment longer than this will be scored towards show.
non_uniformity=500 ; Set to 0 to disable cutpoints based on uniform frames
max_volume=500 ; any frame with sound volume larger than this will not be regarded as black frame
min_silence=12 ; Any deep silence longer than this amount  of frames is a possible cutpoint
ticker_tape=0 ; Amount of pixels from bottom to ignore in all processing
logo_at_bottom=0 ; Set to 1 to search only for logo at the lower half of the video, do not combine with subtitle setting
punish=0 ; Compare to average for sum of 1=brightness, 2=uniform 4=volume, 8=silence, 16=schange, set to 0 to disable
punish_threshold=1.3 ; Multiply when amount is above average * punish_threshold
punish_modifier=2 ; When above average * threshold multiply score by this value
intelligent_brightness=0 ; Set to 1 to use a USA specific algorithm to tune some of the settings, not adviced outside the USA
logo_percentile=0.92 ; if more then this amount of logo is found then logo detection will be disabled
logo_threshold=0.75
punish_no_logo=1 ; Default, set to 0 to avoid show segments without logo to be scored towards commercial
aggressive_logo_rejection=0
connect_blocks_with_logo=1 ; set to 1 if you want successive blocks with logo on the transition to be regarded as connected, set to 0 to disable
logo_filter=0 ; set the size of the filter to apply to bad logo detection, 4 seems to be a good value.
cut_on_ar_change=1 ; set to 1 if you want to cut also on aspect ratio changes when logo is present, set to 2 to force cuts on aspect ratio changes. set to 0 to disable
delete_show_after_last_commercial=0 ; set to 1 if you want to delete the last block if its a show and after a commercial
delete_show_before_or_after_current=0 ; set to 1 if you want to delete the previous and the next show in the recording, this can lead to the deletion of trailers of next show
delete_block_after_commercial=0 ;set to max size of block in seconds to be discarded, set to 0 to disable
remove_before=0 ; amount of seconds of show to be removed before ALL commercials
remove_after=0 ; amount of seconds of show to be removed after ALL commercials
shrink_logo=5 ; Reduce the duration of the logo with this amount of seconds
after_logo=0 ; set to number of seconds after logo disappears comskip should start to search for silence to insert an additional cutpoint
padding=0
ms_audio_delay=5
volume_slip=40
skip_b_frames=0 ; Set to 1 to force Comskip to skip frames for higher processing speed.
max_repair_size=200 ; Will repair maximum 200 missing MPEG frames in the timeline, set to 0 to disable repairing for players that don't use PTS.
disable_heuristics=4		bit pattern for disabling heuristics, adding 1 disables heristics 1, adding 2 disables heristics 2, adding 4 disables heristics 3, 255  disables all heuristics
delete_logo_file=0 ; set to 1 if you want comskip to tidy up after finishing
output_framearray=0 ; create a big excel file for detailed analysis, set to 0 to disable
output_data=0 ; create a dump of the user data channel, used for CC and XDS (such as V-Chip info). Can be use together with output_framearray to remote debug CC decoding
output_videoredo=0 ; The old videoredo format
output_videoredo3=0 ; The new videoredo v3 format.
output_womble=0
output_mls=0 ; set to 1 if you want MPeg Video Wizard bookmark file output
output_cuttermaran=0
output_mpeg2schnitt=0
output_mpgtx=0
output_dvrcut=0
output_zoomplayer_chapter=0
output_zoomplayer_cutlist=0
output_edl=1
output_dvrmstb=0 ; Set to 1 if you're running DVRMS-Toolbox
output_edlx=0
output_vcf=0
output_bsplayer=0
output_btv=0 ; set to 1 if you want Beyond TV chapter cutlist output
output_projectx=0 ; set to 1 if you want ProjectX cutlist output (Xcl)
output_avisynth=0
output_vdr=0 ; set to 1 if you want XBMC to skipping commercials
output_demux=0 ; set to 1 if you want comskip to demux the mpeg file while scanning
sage_framenumber_bug=0
sage_minute_bug=0
live_tv=0 ; set to 1 if you use parallelprocessing and need the output while recording
live_tv_retries=4 ; change to 16 when using live_tv in BTV, used for mpeg PS and TS
dvrms_live_tv_retries=300 ; only used for dvr_ms
standoff=0 ; change to 8000000 when using live_tv in BTV
cuttermaran_options="cut=\"true\" unattended=\"true\" muxResult=\"false\" snapToCutPoints=\"true\" closeApp=\"true\""
mpeg2schnitt_options="mpeg2schnitt.exe /S /E /R25  /Z %2 %1"
avisynth_options="LoadPlugin(\"MPEG2Dec3.dll\") \nMPEG2Source(\"%s\")\n"
dvrcut_options="dvrcut \"%s.dvr-ms\" \"%s_clean.dvr-ms\" "
windowtitle="Comskip - %s"

[Space]

Thanks for posting the .ini. It looks like this is the default .ini that comes with Comskip. Did you not make any tweaks?

[marvin-miller]

I believe the only change I made to it was that I increased the longest possible show segment or something along those lines. Or was it the minimum show segment? Either way, it was around 200. Other then that, I think it's stock.

[jachin99]

I'm getting what i guess is a permissions error. I'm trying to place the processed, ad free file in a drive that is separate from my c drive but not located across the network but the processed video files ends up in a "stalled" folder under i think the video redo or vap folder. How would I correct this?

[marvin-miller]

I would suggest asking dlflannery over at the VAP forum - I'm heading out today and will probably be busy for the better part of the week (moving) but I'll keep my ears open anyway.

BTW, try several recordings, if they all do it then something is wrong.

[jachin99]

So a little update here, I have successfully gotten VAP to remove the commercials from a recorded movie, and place it on my media drive without any transcoding. I tested the output file and it played and looked good. Now what I need is something to move all of the recordings from the various PCs I have into the folder vap is monitoring, and somehow have vap create a new folder for each movie it processes, and I think I'll call this good.

[marvin-miller]

THat's pretty easy. Just move a bunch of files from the network into the monitored folder.

For how to file them or rename them take a look at the link in one of my posts above. It has screenshots showing how I set it up to rename the files.

For series recordings is make a new folder like this

Gilligan's Island

and then it will put evrey episode of Gilligan's Island in there like this;

1967-04-09 Two on a Raft.wtv

This way they will all be in their proper series folder and renamed by airdate and episode title. This means you can watch them in order.

In my setup, Movies get put onto the root of dedicated drive and are renamed a little differently. Either way, you can see how I set it up from the pictures in the screenshots from the post above.

[jachin99]

Quick update, I have this working really well but not quite perfect. I've made a few changes to see if it fixes my problem. Does these settings referenced in the post above create a new folder for the processed file, or drop them into whatever folder VAP is configured for under advanced settings? Thanks for the help so far.

[marvin-miller]

Not sure I understand your question but if you choose to record Gilligan's Island, and you have never recorded the series before, what it will do is create a new folder called Gilligan's Island and then place each recording of Gilligan's Island in that folder. In the end, you will have one folder called Gilligan's Island with the entire series in it.

[joecrow]

Up untill just over 20 years ago I was a regular visiter to the USA and was appalled that Gilligans Island and other very old series were broadcast on TV back in the 1990s. Are you seriously saying they are still being broadcast ? Please tell me I'm wrong and it is a recent remake and not a reflection of modern TV in the USA, or are they still broadcasting I Love Lucy.

[adam1991]

Some shows haven't been off the air for 60+ years.

So it goes.

[jachin99]

I don't really record too much TV. My problem is with movies. It will drop my the processed file along with a .jpg file in my movies directory folder instead of making a new folder for that specific movie.