Schedule Comskip to run later?

[Anthony]

I currently have a postprocessing.bat file that runs Comskip on a show, then calls VideoRedo to remove the commercials. This works great.

However, I stream TV shows from my hard drive to a TViX network media player, and if I'm watching a show when Comskip or Video Redo start processing another file, I get lots of stuttering due to the excessive hard drive activity.

So, I'm wondering if there is a way to schedule the postprocessing.bat operations to run at a time later in the evening when we're not watching TV?

Failing that, is there another way to run comskip at a scheduled time and run VideoRedo when it finishes? A program that watches for files in a specified folder maybe?

Thanks,

Anthony

[Koenie]

Running them in low priority does that help? For me it does eliminate stutter due to hard disk activity.

As far as I know comskip runs in low priority anyway I don't know about videoredo. When you invoke them from the command line with the "start /min /low /wait" options it will run in a low priority thread (maybe you have to replace /min by /b which does not run it minimized but in the same dos window).

If that does not help you need to queue the files and run them during the night with ie windows task manager. The wiki has some examples how to queue the files.

[-Oz-]

i wrote a set of batch files to do this. When it finishes recording it throws the filename in a text file then each morning at 2am it runs comskip, videredo, then compresses them all. For HTPC2 it runs comskip immediately then does the actual cutting and compressing later.

If you want to see/use them let me know and I'll add some comments and attach them.

[Anthony]

Oz,

Yes, please do share your batch file. It sounds like what I'm looking for.

Thanks,

Anthony

[-Oz-]

Here's the batch files. I have a different set that actually checks to make sure the file exists but I have to get those off HTPC2. This one kinda freaks out if the file is MIA when it runs.

Anyway, the PostProcessing.bat is obviously that and it adds to TranscodeQ.txt which is in my C:\HTPC (you can move it anywhere just update the PostProcessing.bat file). Then put the other bat files with the TranscodeQ.txt and at night tell windows scheduler (START>ALL PROGRAMS>ACCESSORIES>SYSTEM TOOLS>Scheduled Tasks) to run transcode.bat

process.bat will need to be edited if you just want to do comskip; i cut the commercials then xvid then rename them all. If you just want comskip then process.bat should just be:

Code:

@ECHO OFF

"C:\Program Files\devnz\gbpvr\comskip.exe" %1

echo %date% %time% Completed comskip on %1 >> transcode_log.txt

If you have questions just post.

[Anthony]

Oz,

Sorry for the VERY long delay!

I looked at your batch files back in December, and for some reason, I couldn't make any sense of how they were supposed to work. So, I set them aside and forgot about them for a couple months. But, my playback stuttering problems got really bad lately, so I decided to take another look.

I made some modifications to your batch files, since I didn't need the logging or transcoding features. I also added checking for missing files and that sort of thing. Most important, I added an "instructions.txt" file that documents how to set everything up. I did it mostly so I'd remember how to rebuild things if I ever have a problem, but I hope it will be of some use to others as well.

I've been using the new batch setup for the past week, with minor tweaks here and there. I'm happy to report it is all working very well. The only "glitch" I have is the working.txt file won't delete. I'm not sure why, but it gets overwritten on the next scheduled run so it's not an issue.

I'm attaching my version of the three batch files and my instructions text file. Thank you very much for sharing your files and giving me a solution to schedule comskip and videoRedo for running later. It has been quite a learning experience, but it worked out well in the end.

Take care,

Anthony