Comskip Support Forum

I am switching over to MCE and am trying to get COmSkip to work via DVRMS-ToolBox

I think I have everything installed and edited the comskip.ini file edited to enabled

output_dvrmstb=1

Although everything seem to be run after a show, the commercials aren't skipped. IN the recorded_TV foled, I end up with a log file indicating that comskip has run but no .xml file (where I though the commercials were identified).

How can I confirm the comskip and DVRMS-ToolBox are workign correctly and hwo do I actually skip a commercial?

Take Care.

First drag and drop a recording onto comskip ensuring the right ini file is in the same folder as comskip.
This should have comskip detect the commercials and output the required files next to recording.

When dtb is the one running comskip (in my experience) it would put the commercial files in some dtb directory, I think in the windows user directory. Dtb did know where to look though and would read the files no problem. You do have the addin installed, correct?
To be honest, I'm using dirmon2 as the file watcher now and I'm much more satisfied with it.

I have attached a copy of my comskip.ini file. When I drag and drop the video file I get .log and .edl created. Is that the expected output? Shouldn't there also be an .xml file?

I have been reading the other threads regarding commercial skipping on liveTV. Are there any changes required to the comskip.ini file to enable this?

; See comskip.txt in the distribution zip file for many settable parameters, read manual.html, tuning.html and debugwindow.html for how to tune and debug comskip
detect_method=43 ;1=black frame, 2=logo, 4=scene change, 8=fuzzy logic, 16=closed captions, 32=aspect ration, 64=silence, 128=cutscenes, 255=all
validate_silence=1 ; Default, set to 0 to force using this clues if selected above.
validate_uniform=1 ; Default, set to 0 to force using this clues (like pure white frames) if blackframe is selected above.
validate_scenechange=1 ; Default, set to 0 to force using this clues if selected above.
verbose=10 ;show a lot of extra info, level 5 is also OK, set to 0 to disable
max_brightness=60 ;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=25 ;minimum length in seconds to consider a segment a commercial break
max_commercial_size=125 ;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=250 ; any segment longer than this will be scored towards show.
non_uniformity=500 ; Set to 0 to disable cutpoints based on uniform frames
max_volume=500 ; any frame with sound volume larger than this will not be regarded as black frame
min_silence=12 ; Any deep silence longer than this amount of frames is a possible cutpoint
ticker_tape=0 ; Amount of pixels from bottom to ignore in all processing
logo_at_bottom=0 ; Set to 1 to search only for logo at the lower half of the video, do not combine with subtitle setting
punish=0 ; Compare to average for sum of 1=brightness, 2=uniform 4=volume, 8=silence, 16=schange, set to 0 to disable
punish_threshold=1.3 ; Multiply when amount is above average * punish_threshold
punish_modifier=2 ; When above average * threshold multiply score by this value
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=0.75
punish_no_logo=1 ; Default, set to 0 to avoid show segments without logo to be scored towards commercial
aggressive_logo_rejection=0
connect_blocks_with_logo=1 ; set to 1 if you want successive blocks with logo on the transition to be regarded as connected, set to 0 to disable
logo_filter=0 ; set the size of the filter to apply to bad logo detection, 4 seems to be a good value.
cut_on_ar_change=1 ; set to 1 if you want to cut also on aspect ratio changes when logo is present, set to 2 to force cuts on aspect ratio changes. set to 0 to disable
delete_show_after_last_commercial=0 ; set to 1 if you want to delete the last block if its a show and after a commercial
delete_show_before_or_after_current=0 ; set to 1 if you want to delete the previous and the next show in the recording, this can lead to the deletion of trailers of next show
delete_block_after_commercial=0 ;set to max size of block in seconds to be discarded, set to 0 to disable
remove_before=0 ; amount of seconds of show to be removed before ALL commercials
remove_after=0 ; amount of seconds of show to be removed after ALL commercials
shrink_logo=5 ; Reduce the duration of the logo with this amount of seconds
after_logo=0 ; set to number of seconds after logo disappears comskip should start to search for silence to insert an additional cutpoint
padding=0
ms_audio_delay=5
volume_slip=40
skip_b_frames=0 ; Set to 1 to force Comskip to skip frames for higher processing speed.
max_repair_size=200 ; Will repair maximum 200 missing MPEG frames in the timeline, set to 0 to disable repairing for players that don't use PTS.
disable_heuristics=4 bit pattern for disabling heuristics, adding 1 disables heristics 1, adding 2 disables heristics 2, adding 4 disables heristics 3, 255 disables all heuristics
delete_logo_file=0 ; 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_data=0 ; create a dump of the user data channel, used for CC and XDS (such as V-Chip info). Can be use together with output_framearray to remote debug CC decoding
output_videoredo=0
output_womble=0
output_mls=0 ; set to 1 if you want MPeg Video Wizard bookmark file output
output_cuttermaran=0
output_mpeg2schnitt=0
output_mpgtx=0
output_dvrcut=0
output_zoomplayer_chapter=0
output_zoomplayer_cutlist=0
output_edl=1
output_dvrmstb=1 ; Set to 1 if you're running DVRMS-Toolbox
output_edlx=0
output_vcf=0
output_bsplayer=0
output_btv=0 ; set to 1 if you want Beyond TV chapter cutlist output
output_projectx=0 ; set to 1 if you want ProjectX cutlist output (Xcl)
output_avisynth=0
output_vdr=0 ; set to 1 if you want XBMC to skipping commercials
output_demux=0 ; set to 1 if you want comskip to demux the mpeg file while scanning
sage_framenumber_bug=0
sage_minute_bug=0
live_tv=0 ; set to 1 if you use parallelprocessing and need the output while recording
live_tv_retries=4 ; change to 16 when using live_tv in BTV, used for mpeg PS and TS
dvrms_live_tv_retries=300 ; only used for dvr_ms
standoff=0 ; change to 8000000 when using live_tv in BTV
cuttermaran_options="cut=\"true\" unattended=\"true\" muxResult=\"false\" snapToCutPoints=\"true\" closeApp=\"true\""
mpeg2schnitt_options="mpeg2schnitt.exe /S /E /R25 /Z %2 %1"
avisynth_options="LoadPlugin(\"MPEG2Dec3.dll\") \nMPEG2Source(\"%s\")\n"
dvrcut_options="dvrcut \"%s.dvr-ms\" \"%s_clean.dvr-ms\" "
windowtitle="Comskip - %s"

Can you look insode the generated log file and confirm is also contains a line that says
output_dvrmstb=1
if not, comskip is unsing another ini file.

In addition to checking the log file for the output_dvrmstb=1 setting (should do this first), if you want to know where it will write the .xml file, open DVRMS and go to the Commercial Skip tab and look at the Commercial Path setting. This should be C:\Users\Public\DvrmsToolbox\CommercialsXml by default. You should find the .xml files there. If not, then they likely are not configured in the .ini file as Erik mentioned. You can search for them if you want on the entire drive. They will be named for the show so for example if my show is named Burn Notice_USAHD_2012_06_21_19_59_00.wtv the commercial file will be called Burn Notice_USAHD_2012_06_21_19_59_00.xml.

If the commercial files are where they should be, make sure the MC Addin tab has the "Skip Commercials" check box ticked (along with Handle Keys) and the Commercial Skip tab has Auto Skip ticked (by default I think Reload Settings and Skip back disable are also ticked). If everything is configured correctly, test the configured forward key (from the Commercial Skip tab) to see if it skips or not and then try the disable key to see if the MC Addin is just disabled for some reason.

The line output_dvrmstb=1 is in the log file.. WHen I check the commercial fodler, it appears that everyhting is being created correctly (Helps when you look in the correct place).

I have checked the "Skip Commercials" check box in the DVRMS MC Addin tab has the "Skip Commercials" and "Handle Keys" check boxes ticked and the Commercial Skip tab has Auto Skip ticked (the Reload Settings and Skip back disable are also ticked).

The forward button is identified as "Right". but when I click on the right button on the remote, it brings up an mini-guide/program info page.

It sounds like the settings are right and the issue is the plug-in just isn't getting loaded correctly. I would run through the following list to see if it corrects the issue:

http://babgvant.com/Wiki/view.aspx/DVRMSToolbox/Commercial_Skip_Addin/TroubleShootingCommercialSkip

I tried stepping through the list.

1. Running Win7 32bit so the first couple don't seem to apply.
3. I am creating XML files and they look to be correct:
4. The following files were not in the aseembly folder (hidden or otherwise)
•CommercialSkipAddIn.dll
•Memmapfile.dll
•MceStateConsumer.dll
•MceStateInterfaces.dll
Trying to uninstall or repair DVRMS-Toolbox produces an error 1001 and the unstall back outs. Per a forum post, I used Mr Fixit to ccomplete the uninstallation. THat seemed to work and after that I was able to reinstall.

I was able to enable the debugging but since I can't find MCEState.dll I can't try to confirm it is enabled

The debug steps seem to be for an earlier version of DVRMSTOolbox or WIndows.

Finally figured it out. Also needed to install DTBAddin. Found that with these instructions

http://www.missingremote.com/guide/enable-commercial-skipping-windows-7and-even-cablecard

Funny I was just typing up a question to see if you had actually installed the add-in. Glad it works.

Thanks for the help. It kept me going.