Comskip, Comclean, Rename Recording, and Transcoding

[pastro]

I released a new version of skiptool that provides a GUI for transcoding and commercial strip via stattik's scripts.

[vmq]

I wanted cut the commercials out of my recordings, but keep the subtitles (CC) so I tried to cut the recordings first and generate the srt files after cutting. After realizing that comclean destroys the timeline I ended up with the following command to do the cutting:

cut.bat (thanks to Comclean3, stattik's script and google):

Code:

IF NOT EXIST "%~dpn1_uncut.mpg" move "%~dpn1.mpg" "%~dpn1_uncut.mpg"
IF NOT EXIST "%~dpn1_uncut.edl" move "%~dpn1.edl" "%~dpn1_uncut.edl"
IF NOT EXIST "%~dpn1_uncut.txt" move "%~dpn1.txt" "%~dpn1_uncut.txt"
IF EXIST "%~dpn1.log" del "%~dpn1.log"
IF EXIST "%~dpn1.logo.txt" del "%~dpn1.logo.txt"
set src="%~dpn1_uncut"
set mencoder="c:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\Third Party\mplayer071203\mencoder.exe"

REM set opts=-mpegopts format=mpeg2:tsaf -noskip -mc 0 -vf harddup -hr-edl-seek
set opts=-mpegopts format=mpeg2:tsaf -mc 0 -vf harddup
%mencoder% -oac copy -ovc copy -of mpeg %opts% %src%.mpg -edl %src%.edl -o "%~dpn1.mpg"

If I now run mpg2srt on the cut script I get a .srt file where the timestamps of the captions are off by the amount that was previously cut away. (If there was a caption at 2:01min and the first 2:00min were cut away the caption in the srt file will still have timestamp 2:01 instead of the correct 0:01.)

Using ReTime does not help with this problem, I could only fix it by de-/muxing with ProjectX/mencoder. After this treatment of the mpg file mpg2srt generates correct timestamps.

Now I am wondering if there is an easier way to achieve this? Any hints?

Volker

P.S.: ProjectX has English documentation in its html directory (download/unpack first). In order not to clean away the CC information you need to make sure this setting is cleared:
PreSettings->video->patch c.d.flagged infos of pictures

[pastro]

I wanted cut the commercials out of my recordings, but keep the subtitles (CC) so I tried to cut the recordings first and generate the srt files after cutting. After realizing that comclean destroys the timeline I ended up with the following command to do the cutting:

cut.bat (thanks to Comclean3, stattik's script and google):

Code:

IF NOT EXIST "%~dpn1_uncut.mpg" move "%~dpn1.mpg" "%~dpn1_uncut.mpg"
IF NOT EXIST "%~dpn1_uncut.edl" move "%~dpn1.edl" "%~dpn1_uncut.edl"
IF NOT EXIST "%~dpn1_uncut.txt" move "%~dpn1.txt" "%~dpn1_uncut.txt"
IF EXIST "%~dpn1.log" del "%~dpn1.log"
IF EXIST "%~dpn1.logo.txt" del "%~dpn1.logo.txt"
set src="%~dpn1_uncut"
set mencoder="c:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\Third Party\mplayer071203\mencoder.exe"

REM set opts=-mpegopts format=mpeg2:tsaf -noskip -mc 0 -vf harddup -hr-edl-seek
set opts=-mpegopts format=mpeg2:tsaf -mc 0 -vf harddup
%mencoder% -oac copy -ovc copy -of mpeg %opts% %src%.mpg -edl %src%.edl -o "%~dpn1.mpg"

If I now run mpg2srt on the cut script I get a .srt file where the timestamps of the captions are off by the amount that was previously cut away. (If there was a caption at 2:01min and the first 2:00min were cut away the caption in the srt file will still have timestamp 2:01 instead of the correct 0:01.)

Using ReTime does not help with this problem, I could only fix it by de-/muxing with ProjectX/mencoder. After this treatment of the mpg file mpg2srt generates correct timestamps.

Now I am wondering if there is an easier way to achieve this? Any hints?

Volker

P.S.: ProjectX has English documentation in its html directory (download/unpack first). In order not to clean away the CC information you need to make sure this setting is cleared:
PreSettings->video->patch c.d.flagged infos of pictures

I didn't follow which setting you used to save the CC info. When I run mencoder is gets stripped out.

[vmq]

I didn't follow which setting you used to save the CC info. When I run mencoder is gets stripped out.

I don't know exactly which settings you mean, for cutting I used the small batch file that I posted. After using it and regenerating the srt's with

Code:

mpg2srt %1

the caption information is still complete, but wrongly timed.

If I then re-mux the already cut mpg, please note I demux with ProjectX, and mux back with mencoder, the caption information is still in the new mpg and
running mpg2srt on it generates correctly timed captions.

This is my batch file for re-muxing (hardcoded paths, but you get the idea):

Code:

set pxdir=g:\videoschnitt\ProjectX_Source_0.90.4
g:
cd %pxdir%

java -jar ProjectX.jar -demux "%~dpn1.mpg"

set mencoder="c:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\Third Party\mplayer071203\mencoder.exe"
set opts=-mpegopts format=mpeg2:tsaf

REM Mux back
%mencoder% -oac copy -ovc copy -of mpeg %opts% -o "%~dpn1_px.mpg" -audiofile "%~dpn1.mp2" "%~dpn1.m2v"
c

Remember to change the one setting in ProjectX, otherwise it cleans away the CC information.

[vmq]

I didn't follow which setting you used to save the CC info. When I run mencoder is gets stripped out.

As a follow up, maybe my mencoder is different? I use:

C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\Third Party\mplayer071203>mencoder.exe /?
MEncoder dev-SVN-r25279-4.2.2 © 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
CPU: AMD Opteron™ Processor 850 (Family: 15, Model: 5, Stepping: 10)
SSE2 supported but disabled
CPUflags: Type: 15 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 1 SSE2: 0
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 3DNow 3DNowEx SSE

From here.

Maybe it was a bug that was fixed in a newer version, but "mencoder -oac copy -ovc copy -of mpeg" is copying/cutting with CC info for me.

[pastro]

As a follow up, maybe my mencoder is different? I use:

C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\Third Party\mplayer071203>mencoder.exe /?
MEncoder dev-SVN-r25279-4.2.2 © 2000-2007 MPlayer Team
CPU: AMD Opteron™ Processor 850 (Family: 15, Model: 5, Stepping: 10)
SSE2 supported but disabled
CPUflags: Type: 15 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 1 3DNow2: 1 SSE: 1 SSE2: 0
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 3DNow 3DNowEx SSE

From here.

Maybe it was a bug that was fixed in a newer version, but "mencoder -oac copy -ovc copy -of mpeg" is copying/cutting with CC info for me.

I'll check that out. The file that I ran stripped the captions.
In burndvdx2 when I strip commercials I retime the srt file by adjusting the caption times by the amounts that are stripped from the file.
I was thinking about making that a standalone program as well.

[vmq]

I'll check that out. The file that I ran stripped the captions.
In burndvdx2 when I strip commercials I retime the srt file by adjusting the caption times by the amounts that are stripped from the file.
I was thinking about making that a standalone program as well.

Yes, having a standalone tool that cuts .srt files with cutpoints from EDL lists would be very usefull. Instead of cutting the mpg file one cut then reencode/cut into something smaller and just cut the srt files too. As recoding does not care about GOPs this would generate even better (more exact) cut files. (At the expense of a longer encoding time.)

[vmq]

A few days ago I reported in this thread that cutting with a recent mencoder and remuxing with ProjectX/mencoder solves some problems that I saw with US style analog CC captions (recorded with PVR 150).

I cobbled together some small scripts to cut MPEG2 recordings at cutpoints refined with SkipTool (using EDL files). That's nothing new, comclean{,2,3,4} does basically the same.

The difference is that the CC captions stay intact (if they are there in the first place). This allows using GBPVRs "Show closed captions (Intervideo/VMR7/VMR9)" mode on cut recordings.

Another difference is that the SRT files generated with mpg2srt from the cut file do not show any sliding out of sync anymore, they stay nicely synced with the "intervideo" captions.

To try it just download the attached archive, unpack and follow the instructions in the included readme.txt.

Volker

[_Dude_]

Use the skip tool to fine tune comskip. Eric will help.
I have 4 different .ini files I use, depending on channel.
It's not that difficult to get working with a little patience.
There are posts on the videoredo forums for using it automatically to remove ad's as well, you might want to look there.

If you don't mind me asking how you have this set up....

I've tried everything and NOT one of the programs have any commericials cut out of them! I used comskip and comclean in the past with good results but suddenly it don't wanna work anymore.

Thanks