Comskip.exe Question

[spector9]

Hi, I am about to give comskip.exe a go. One question though...If comskip.exe goes to work on a mpeg file after it has been recorded, what happens if you are currently watching that as it has finished recording? Will comskip.exe not go to work on the mpeg file as the file is locked? Also, is it very taxing on IO?

Just on another note...someone told me you shouldn't mix a UHF aerial with a VHF aerial into one output?

Cheers

[Jaggy]

As a little bit of background, I have automatic comskip turned off & just use the play button to skip after I have pressed the blue button on the remote to see the timeline & how well comskip has marked the file. I record the News & watch it about 15 to 40 minutes after it has started recording & the comskip marks just show up after it has done it's thing while I am still watching the mpg file. I have a Athlon 64 3200 server with 6 recording devices in it & have never had a problem recording, watching more than one recording & comskip doing it's thing all at the same time, but remember it isn't used for playing back as I use MVP's for that.

If you have a weak signal then fitting a diplexer will drop your signal strength the same as a splitter will. I have a very weak UHF signal & have two UHF aerials, one diplexed (in my case triplexed as we have two VHF transmitters) with the VHF direct to the TV's etc. & one (the BIG one) direct to the PVR to get a better signal.

[ilovejedd]

Hi, I am about to give comskip.exe a go. One question though...If comskip.exe goes to work on a mpeg file after it has been recorded, what happens if you are currently watching that as it has finished recording? Will comskip.exe not go to work on the mpeg file as the file is locked? Also, is it very taxing on IO?

Comskip doesn't need write access to the mpeg so it doesn't matter. It'll continue to process the file.

On a Core 2 Duo E7200 w/HD3450, I have no problems watching a recording with comskip running in the background.

On a Sempron 3200+ w/GeForce 6200TC, I can barely use Firefox, let alone watch 1080i HD w/deinterlacing.

[reboot]

If you run comskip in parallelprocessing.bat then it runs during the recording, not after, and barely uses any resources at all. I can run 2 or 3 concurrently with no issues.
The commercials will be skipped as you're watching it, because comskip runs faster than the video plays.

[feilh]

Did folks find that comskip required tuning in North America? I'm finding that using the default settings its not very accurate. The tuning guide is poorly written giving a novice little understanding of what they should be tweaking. Does anyone have advice for North American QAM settings?

[reboot]

Yes, a LOT of tuning. The cable co's have such a variance in channel quality, that what's a perfect setting for CBS, sucks on Fox.

[rwalker777]

Yes, a LOT of tuning. The cable co's have such a variance in channel quality, that what's a perfect setting for CBS, sucks on Fox.

Sounds like you maybe can share some valuable knowledge! Car to post your comskip.ini? Any other changes you found useful (maybe padding or not padding helped)?

Thanks,
Roy

[reboot]

Here's my comskip.ini for what it's worth. I use an assortment of cards, mostly the PVR-500 which makes the closed caption parameter obsolete, and I found the scene change parameter too sensitive. Remember that this particular ini goes back about 3 years, to a much earlier version of comskip, but does work with the newer versions as well. It just doesn't include all the options found in the newer ones. Remember to change your final output to whatever automatic editing you use, if any.

Code:

detect_method=43         ;1=black frame, 2=logo, 4=scene change, 8=fuzzy logic, 16=closed captions, 32=aspect ration, 255=all
verbose=10             ;show a lot of extra info, level 5 is also OK, set to 0 to disable
max_brightness=255         ;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=10         ;minimum length in seconds to consider a segment a commercial break
max_commercial_size=400     ;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=120     ; any segment longer than this will be scored towards show.
non_uniformity=250
max_volume=500             ; any frame with sound volume larger than this will not be regarded as black frame
ticker_tape=0             ; Amount of pixels from bottom to ignore in all processing
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=0.70
aggressive_logo_rejection=1
connect_blocks_with_logo=0     ; set to 1 if you want successive blocks with logo on the transition to be regarded as connected, set to 0 to disable
cut_on_ar_change=1         ; set to 1 if you want to cut also on aspect ratio changes, set to 0 to disable
delete_show_after_last_commercial=1 ; delete the last block if its a show and after a commercial
delete_show_before_or_after_current=0 ; This can lead to the deletion of trailers of next show
shrink_logo=5             ; Reduce the duration of the logo with this amount of seconds
padding=0
delete_logo_file=1         ; 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_videoredo=1         ;Select the output file you need
output_womble=0
output_cuttermaran=0
output_mpgtx=0
output_zoomplayer_chapter=0
output_zoomplayer_cutlist=0
output_edl=0
live_tv=0
output_debugwindow=0
excessive_length_modifier=0.01

[erik]

One word of warning on this setting
connect_blocks_with_logo=0
in case the logo detection is not very reliable you may want to use
connect_blocks_with_logo=1

[feilh]

Thanks how do you get it to do different settings for the different channels? Or is this not possible?