Comskip 0.72 posted

[erik]

As some of you may have noticed I have made an error in the blackframe detection as of version 0.70 leading to much worse performance with noisy signals.
This is now corrected.

Version 0.72 can be downloaded here

A small disclaimer.

SA 0.52 is becoming very good. The aditional info Jere extracts from the audio does help and I am not able to test the CC functions because there is no CC in Europe.

So if I had to advice what to use for USA/Canada and you do not mind paying the $10 to Jere I would suggest SA.

But if you object to paying and don't mind the more complex tuning or you live in Europe then Comskip may be the right choise (as least it still works better for me).

As soon as Jere adds aspect ratio processing I may change my mind .

However, do NEVER expect any decent results from either Comskip or SA for very long films with dark scenes without logo (as being broadcast on the BBC)

[paperchaser]

At around 47:20 into a 1 hour show, I get "comskip.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close". Good old .69 flagged same file for commercials no problem. I used the ini file that came with .72, changed it for mpgtx output=1 and fps to 29.970. I have not tried it with other recordings yet.

Despite minor issues, comskip still an overall a great project, very intelligently done and creative!

[erik]

mmmmmm

Any other information about the error?

How fast is your uplink speed? Any chance to upload the mpeg to my ftp server?

[paperchaser]

Here is the end of the log if it helps, I will try other files tonite.
End logo block 7 frame 85318 Length - 0: 5:16.42
Frame 85591 - Black frame with brightness of 20 and uniform of 447
Frame 85592 - Black frame with brightness of 18 and uniform of 161
Frame 85593 - Black frame with brightness of 18 and uniform of 50
Frame 85594 - Black frame with brightness of 17 and uniform of 2
Frame 85595 - Black frame with brightness of 16 and uniform of 2
Frame 85596 - Black frame with brightness of 16 and uniform of 0
Frame 85597 - Black frame with brightness of 16 and uniform of 0

[paperchaser]

I tried a different file, and this time it worked without crashing, the flagged commercials look right. It would be a slow process for me to upload, my upstream is 200kbps. Maybe I can cut the mpeg file down to the spot that causes the error.

I'll try it on my full lineup this week and let's see, maybe the one file was a fluke.

[soccerdad]

OK, I may be a little (a lot) dense, but is there a place with fairly complete instructions on getting this to work. I looked at the boards and they talk about tuning but I am not sure what all I need to do to get started. I put the two comskip files in the root directory and enabled the autodeletion in config. It looks like it makes excel files that are filled with all sorts of good stuff, but it the commercials still show up. Do I have to turn something on? How do I know if it found a commercial? I looked on the wiki and read the readme but I am kind of lost. I am good at documentation so if I can learn this well enough, I will write something up that we can post in the doc section. (unless this already exists?)

[reboot]

There are no instructions, except two (very long) threads about "Tuning of Comskip".

I found the default settings didn't work at all.

You must have the line

Code:

comskip %1

in your postprocessing.bat, BEFORE renamerecordings.

Grab a dictionary (no, not the book), which Tipster has compiled (2 or 3 nice updates), and then do a test recording.
BTW, here's my comskip.ini, with the settings that seem to work best for me on Canadian and US channels.

Code:

detect_method=255    ;1=black frame, 2=logo, 4=scene change, 8=fuzzy logic, 16=closed captions, 32=aspect ratio, 255=all
verbose=10        ;show extra info
fps=29.970        ;frames per second (NTSC=29.970, PAL=25)
border=10         ;border around edge of video to ignore
two_pass_logo=1        ;run comskip a second time, once the logo is correctly identified
max_brightness=140      ;frame not black if any pixels checked are greater than this (scale 0 to 255)
test_brightness=65      ;frame not pure black if any pixels checked are greater than this, will check average brightness (scale 0 to 255)
max_avg_brightness=20    ;maximum average brightness for a dim frame to be considered black (scale 0 to 255)
max_commercialbreak=241    ;maximum length in seconds to consider a segment a commercial break
min_commercialbreak=14    ;minimum length in seconds to consider a segment a commercial break
max_commercial_size=91    ;maximum time in seconds for a single commercial or multiple commercials if no breaks in between
min_commercial_size=14  ;mimimum time in seconds for a single commercial
min_show_segment_length=181
logo_present_modifier = 0.01
logo_threshold=0.85
live_tv=0
ccCheck=0
delete_logo_file=0
output_default=1    ;output the default .txt file
output_womble=1        ;output a womble mpeg-vcr file
output_videoredo=0    ;output a video redo file
min_black_frames_for_break=1;
play_nice_start=0720    ;at what time of the day should comskip slow itself down
play_nice_end=2230    ;ending time for self slowing
REM intelligent_brightness=1
REM excessive_length_modifier=0.1
REM ar_split=1.59

Note the last 3 settings are "remed" out.
You can remove the word REM and try them if you like. I found it works better for me without them.

[linfor]

Does this version create the Videoredo cutlist?

[erik]

Yes, did anyone else check it?

[reboot]

It creates .vprj and .wme for me with no problems.