read comskip file in progress

[johnsonx42]

Could PVRX2 be enhanced to read an in-progress comskip file during playback, so that commercials detected to that point can be skipped automatically?

[sub]

I think it already does, but I've never tried it. ie, if you run it in parallel, and allow the recording to get a decent distance ahead, the app will reload the comskip file if it changes during the playback of the recording.

[pBS]

make sure to enable livetv skipping in comskip too...
live_tv=1

[johnsonx42]

I think it already does, but I've never tried it. ie, if you run it in parallel, and allow the recording to get a decent distance ahead, the app will reload the comskip file if it changes during the playback of the recording.

It doesn't. I do run in parallel.

edit: if comskip actually finishes while playing a recording, then PVRX2 does load the comskip file. However in my experience it almost always loads it wrong - the breaks are all in the wrong place, or even if they are in the right place some are missing. I almost always have to exit and then resume playback to get the comskips loaded correctly.

I say "almost always" because I have seen it work correctly, but I have no idea under what conditions it does actually load the breaks correctly.

[johnsonx42]

make sure to enable livetv skipping in comskip too...
live_tv=1

Are you sure? I don't think the functionality enabled by that parameter is used at all by GB-PVR.

[HarryH3]

From looking through a log file for comskip, it would appear that it doesn't decide where to place the markers until the very end of the process. It scans the recording several times, looking for different things on each pass (Logo detection, black screen detection, dictionary detection, etc). Only after all the passes have completed does it run the algorithm to make its best guess at where the commercial breaks are located, using all of the collected data as its guide. It appears to decide all of the markers at one time, so there aren't any markers for GBPVR to use until comskip has finished its task.

[HarryH3]

Oh yeah, I currently have comskip set to run after a recording ends, which takes quite a while with the weak system in my sig. But if comskip finishes while we're watching something that just recorded, then the auto-skip feature magically kicks in and starts working when the file becomes available. I haven't noticed it being off when that happens, but our viewing is done almost exclusively over the network via MediaMVP's. Perhaps that makes a difference? :confused:

[rookie]

Oh yeah, I currently have comskip set to run after a recording ends, which takes quite a while with the weak system in my sig. But if comskip finishes while we're watching something that just recorded, then the auto-skip feature magically kicks in and starts working when the file becomes available. I haven't noticed it being off when that happens, but our viewing is done almost exclusively over the network via MediaMVP's. Perhaps that makes a difference? :confused:

I've noticed if I start watching before comskip finish a completed recording that when it finishes the comskip "skips" are mostly compressed toward the front of the recording. I simply exit out and resume the recording which brings the timeline and comskip "skips" back in line correctly.

[johnsonx42]

ah, ok, thanks Harry. If comskip doesn't actually put the markers in the file until it's done, then there's nothing sub can do.

edit: yeah, I should have checked myself a little better before asking. I just looked at the comskip files for an in-progress recording that I know has reached a commercial break: the .edl file hasn't even been created, and the .txt file is empty.

[johnsonx42]

I've noticed if I start watching before comskip finish a completed recording that when it finishes the comskip "skips" are mostly compressed toward the front of the recording. I simply exit out and resume the recording which brings the timeline and comskip "skips" back in line correctly.

Yes, that's what I usually see too.