Comclean2 0.0.0 issue

[erik]

I would be MOST interrested to see those 4 profiles, they should go into the comskip distribution files as examples for NTSC conditions

[reboot]

The original comclean has/had timecode issues. Playback was unpredictable.
Comclean 2 works much better.

Renamerecordings renames everything, so nothing works. Cuttermaran, videoredo, and womble can't find the file. I have to rename it to it's original recorded name (with the date/time), then edit it.

I can't use Dirmon, except to run comskip or SA, which is pointless, because I can run them through the gbpvr interface, in ParallelProcessing.bat, or in PostProcessing.bat and get the same results.

I know I can manually edit any/all of the output files, but I'm trying to get this optimized/automated for detection AND removal of commercials. A totally hands-free approach.

I am now using comskip and videoredo to automatically do everything, and running comskip in ParallelProcessing.bat, then comclean and renamerecordings in PostProcessing.bat.

Here are the 4 profiles.

[erik]

The timecode problems of comclean can be repaired by running retime on the resulting cleaned mpeg file.
This is done by demuxing the cleaned mpeg file and the muxing it again with mplex1.exe (see retime.zip on my server as listed below)
It is done by people using the D-LINK 320 for playback

Dirmon can run anything when it finds a trigger file without the target file.
It can even run postprocessing.bat (although without the channel number of course)

You could also consider to run comclean and retime in postprocessing.bat before renamerecording.
The cleaned file and the .txt file then get renamed to the destination directory and the _original stays as a backup in the recording directory (I think)

[David]

I am now using comskip and videoredo to automatically do everything, and running comskip in ParallelProcessing.bat, then comclean and renamerecordings in PostProcessing.bat.

This seems a little dangerous to me. My understanding is that postprocessing.bat kicks off when GBPVR is done recording. The way you are doing it, comskip may still be running (via the parallelprocessing.bat file) when postprocessing.bat gets kicked off.

If you add comclean and renamerecordings to your parallelprocessing.bat file after comskip, they will not run until comskip completes anyway.

[reboot]

OK, let's get back to the original problem.

I can run any combination of comskip or SA, comclean or videoredo, and renamerecordings. I can run things in parallelprocessing, postprocessing, or within the gbpvr config, or a combination of those.
I can successfully run comskip or SA on all recordings, regardless of start and end times, and regardless of how they're invoked (parallel, post, or dirmon).
I have chosen (at least for the time being) to use comskip, and videoredo, which is 100% automation of commercial detection and removal, although comskip and comclean 2 produce the same results.
There are no problems with the methods so far.

I cannot, no matter WHAT combination I choose, get renamerecordings to rename all recordings that simultaneously end at the same time.
It will ONLY rename the first recording scheduled (which coincides with the first recording finished in postprocessing).
It NEVER renames any of the other recordings that finish at the same time.
If I run comskip parallel, but do NOT invoke comclean, comclean 2, or videoredo, then renamerecordings DOES rename all files correctly.

This is why I wanted to find a way to run rename recordings BEFORE comskip and comclean/videoredo, or at least before cleaning, but after comskip (whichever is easier).
If I rename first, then comskip can't find the files, or will use the wrong ini. Pointless.
If I use comclean, the recording is appended "_original", leaving a renamed edited file, and an original that neither correspond to the filename within the videoredo batch, nor the cuttermaran batch. I have to rename the file to gain access via womble or whatever.

Edit: I was posting at the same time as David, and that's actually a brilliant suggestion. I will try recordings that end at the same time, using all processing in parallel, and see what happens.

[David]

Hmm, I don't have two tuners, so can't test this.

It seems like you might have issues with renamerecordings running while comskip or comclean have kicked off from your "second" recording. I would think that processing your second recording will lock the file so that it can't be renamed by the renamerecordings from the first recording. I have seen posts indicating that comskip will serialize (only allowing one instance to run at a time). GBPVR may even serialize postprocessing.bat (if my memory and understanding is correct). I don't think that parallelprocessing.bat is serialized though.

You may need to implement some sort of semaphore file in your batch processing to keep renamerecordings from running until the second run.

On the otherhand, I though that renamerecordings (with the s) compared the whole database against recorded files and processed all of them every time. I would think that it would do its work the second time, even if the first run failed for the locked recording.

[reboot]

After perusing logs, I discovered that renamerecordings is failing on subsequent recordings, because the channel number/name/show info isn't in the buffer any more. Once renamerecordings has finished renaming the first show, it can't do anything about the others, because it has no info, or it's trying to rename a file that comskip or videoredo isn't finished with yet. (two types of error's in the logs).
Comskip runs fine, comclean/videoredo runs fine. Comskip will run on all recordings simultaneously (5 recordings, 5 comskips, no problem)
I tried your suggestion, putting everything in parallelprocessing.bat, and it all works splendidly
I was thinking that splitting it up, between parallel and post, would somehow make it better, not worse.
Anyhow, problem solved!

[reboot]

Update. After tuning even more, I now use this profile as default for comskip.
Works excellent on US stations (CBS, ABC, NBC).
Currently testing on FOX to see if it's as good.
May even be good for Canadian stations (more testing later).

[ww4397]

I'm rerutning to an old topic here because I have a question about the Cuttermaran project file generated by Comclean.

Everything works great until I get a show that includes and ampersand (&) in its title. Like "Law & Order" for example. After Comclean demuxs the file and passes it over to Cuttermaran, Cuttermaran stops running and gives these errors:

"The project file is not valid."
"Error while reading the project file."

This only happens with files containing the ampersand.

The funny thing is that if I run Cuttermaran manually, with the ampersand included, it can process the files without a problem.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

[DeadRun]

When the file is selected manually in Cuttermaran Windows handles passing the full filename to Cuttermaran. However, in the cpf file the filename is not surrounded by quotes so when it hits the "&" it gets lost. If you do much postprocessing in batch files or other programs, the & will cause you problems there also.

The most stable fix is to rename the file and the directory that it is in. But then the .cpf file will need to be corrected for the new directory and filename. Not that it is his fault, but I really wish sub would remove all the special characters from the filename and the episode name - that would eliminate a world of problems. But that may be harder than it sounds in a multilanguage solution.