Comskip beta supports WTV file format

[WScottCross]

Didn't see this posted so I figured I'd throw it out there.

Comskip is under active development, unlike ShowAnalyzer, and the latest beta versions do support scanning WTV files. The down side is that to get access to the beta versions requires a donation to the developer. I took the leap and tried it. So far I'm impressed. The developer responded to my emails within minutes in some cases and within a few hours at worst. It's not perfect yet and occasionally bombs out on a scan, but at least it doesn't hang forever like SA has a habit of doing.

I was impressed with it's scanning accuracy with the default settings. It even found the commercials with better accuracy on the shows that SA had problems with. There are no profiles in Comskip like in SA, but I've been using the Processing Condition Editor in DVRMSToolbox and had good results in getting it to skip my premium channel recordings and create an empty commercials file instead.

Worth a look if you're tired of SA hanging or crashing on you.

[STC]

Ahh fantastic!
I have been using comskip but the process has to convert it to DVRMS first.
I must try this out, see if I can reduce the IO and CPU load on my HTPC.

Thanks for this.

[STC]

yummy:

Build 0.81.017 available in the early access area has the first multi threaded decoder.
Add
thread_count=2
to your config.ini for the fastest multiple comskip decoding.
When only running one instance of comskip on a multicore CPU you can set
thread_count=4
for even faster processing.

He does also state this is very much a beta and should not be used in a production environment.
-I tend to stear clear of any possible wife upset issues if I can avoid them!

[adam1991]

yeah, like SA *isn't* beta?

got stuck on a show again Thursday afternoon, noticed it yesterday.....this after many weeks of good behavior......

[STC]

Hehe lol yes I see what youre saying.
This latest batch of revisions seem to have big changes. I see live TV scanning is temporarily borked...

[adam1991]

the key word being "temporarily".

In fact, I never expected that anything like that *would* work on anything other than a ReplayTV. That it *might* work on 7MC is worthy of note.

[lithium630]

Showanalyzer IS suppose to be in development. Hopefully the new version will out sometime soon.

[adam1991]

Showanalyzer IS suppose to be in development. Hopefully the new version will out sometime soon.

huh. First I've heard of that.

I hope he doesn't mind that I don't hold my breath...

[STC]

SA did not work very well for me. It used to when I was analogue but not now through digital.

[winterescape]

I love watching a show and having 7MC auto-magically skip commercials! I have been looking forward to the release of Comskip with WTV support, like stonethecrows mentioned above, my current implementation converts to DVRMS first, to then use Comskip to detect commercials. It all works well but I do think this new version will reduce processor loading…

Anyone know if the comskip.ini files stayed the same with the new version?

[lithium630]

Showanalyzer IS suppose to be in development. Hopefully the new version will out sometime soon.

huh. First I've heard of that.

I hope he doesn't mind that I don't hold my breath...

The developer was on Entertainment 2.0 sometime around August and said he was working hard on it. The next version is supposed to incorporate schoolhouse like functionality. I stopped using SA a while ago because I need it to be perfect for the WAF. I'll try the next version if it's easier to tweak.

[WScottCross]

Showanalyzer IS suppose to be in development. Hopefully the new version will out sometime soon.

huh. First I've heard of that.

I hope he doesn't mind that I don't hold my breath...

I guess he's SO deep in the development that he hasn't even logged into his own support forum since June and hasn't posted on there since March. I sent him an email asking if he was still around and got no reply. When he WAS around he did talk about still working on it, but that he had sort of coded himself into a corner. I understand if things aren't going that well, but at least log on and let us know you're still alive!

I finally gave up and I'm continuing to test Comskip with all my new recordings and once I have acceptable results and at least as much stability as SA, I'm switching it over on my main 7MC box.

[WScottCross]

I love watching a show and having 7MC auto-magically skip commercials! I have been looking forward to the release of Comskip with WTV support, like stonethecrows mentioned above, my current implementation converts to DVRMS first, to then use Comskip to detect commercials. It all works well but I do think this new version will reduce processor loading…

Anyone know if the comskip.ini files stayed the same with the new version?

Not sure what the older versions INI file looked like but I do know that many of the settings are carryovers from the previous versions. I would guess that the old version would work just fine and the new features would require adding lines to the INI to enable them. Well worth a try IMHO.

[STC]

Maybe it would be nice for us to compare notes. A new thread if anyone's in?

[WScottCross]

Sounds good to me!

[Venom51]

I'm in. I just dropped this on the system yesterday to do some testing before I do away with SA. I hate that development has stopped on SA as I have always had good results with it.

[STC]

I started one: http://thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewtop ... 8451#p8451