New Comskip build appears to work, but doesn't skip in WMC

[r999891]

Hi Erik,
I am using the latest build 081_027 (donators) on Windows 7 WMC with DVRMS toolbox.
If I use the config file included with it, COMSKIP attempts to read the wtv file prior to recording completion. This causes
it to fail.
If I use my original config that came with DVRMStoolbox, it appears to work. COMSKIP waits 5 minutes after recording completion then scans the recording and creates the xml skip file, all is good. But when I watch the program in WMC, it doesn't skip the commercials at all.
At this point I have had to fall back to the old comskip 0.79.143 build which requires me to convert the wtv to dvrms
first.
I think COMSKIP is a great tool and would like to take advantage of the faster processing and other features in the new
build. Please let me know what I can do to get this working.
Thanks.

[bmblank]

From what I've read, you should set your wait time to 10 minutes to prevent it from trying to process too soon. I hope I'm not misunderstanding the problem.

[r999891]

I dont think that's the issue. When I use the old build, it creates the xml file and commercials skip as designed in WMC.

I've tried the new build with both the old and new config files, I get it to create the xml and there is valid data in it,
but WMC seems to ignore it and doesn't skip the commercials. I can post the log output from verbose=10 and the config
files, just let me know.

[bmblank]

I feel silly asking, but sometimes the kiss principle is right on... Do you have the dtb addin running and working properly?

[r999891]

Hi,
Yes, I've got the DTB add in for WMC installed, and it appears to run fine with the older build, but for some reason
isn't working with the newer build, even though the commercials XML file is present. Is there something I can do to check
this or enable some additional debugging to find out why it's not working with the new build?
Thanks.

[erik]

First compare the output of the old comskip with the output of the new comskip.
The files should be "the same"
If you see any difference try to understand the cause and its impact
If the files are the same you have a difficult problem.

[r999891]

I ran comskip using the old build 0.80.042 (had to convert the wtv to dvr-ms format first). Comskip worked as designed and created the following xml output:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<root><commercial end="726.092033" start="619.752467"/><commercial end="931.597333" start="835.401233"/><commercial end="1450.449" start="1294.926967"/><commercial end="1794.4927" start="1640.4388"/></root>

I then copied over the new comskip.exe and comcodec.dll files and ran comskip again against the wtv file.
It runs much faster and is multi-threaded (hooray), and completes in about 3 minutes versus about 15 minutes using the old comskip.
It produced the following xml output:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<root><commercial end="776.242133" start="669.902567"/><commercial end="981.747433" start="885.551333"/><commercial end="1500.5991" start="1346.8455"/><commercial end="1844.609433" start="1690.555533"/></root>
Slightly different from the old one on the timings. When I attempt to playback the video in WMC, the dvrms file using the old comskip works, but the wtv using the new comskip does not.
Should I try to reinstall the DVRMS tool box and DTB add in? Any suggestions or recommendations appreciated.

[erik]

When you playback using the old comskip do you playback the oritignal .wtv file or using the video file converted to .dvr-ms?

[r999891]

For the old build, I play back using the converted DVR-MS file, as it is only able to read these types of files versus the new
wtv formatted files.

For the new build, it reads the native wtv file so I don't have to convert it. But when I attempt playback it doesn't skip the commercials.

[erik]

I was asking about the playback only as I understand you have to convert to dvr-ms when using the old comskip for detection and not when using the new comskip.
When you use the new comskip, could you AFTER you have used the new comskip to find the commercials convert the video to .dvr-ms and THEN playback using the commercial information found by the new comskip and see if this way the commercials are skipped during playback.
If this happens then you playback is not able to skip when playing back .wtv files.

[r999891]

Hi,
After some more trial and error it appears to be working now with wtv files, but for some strange reason it's
inconsistent when recording different channels. I'm using a ceton 4 cable card with Time Warner Cable so I can only
use comskip with the OTA channels as all others are copy protected files (bummer).
But on some of the local news programs, it works with the CBS affiliate but on the ABC shows it doesn't wait for
the recording to finish and starts scanning it about 5 minutes into the recording.
Doesn't do this with the CBS shows.
Anyway happy to report it's working for the most part.
Great tool keep up the good work! Now if I could only find something to skip the files with the dreaded
copy once bit sit, I'd be laughing.

[erik]

For filewatcher you should set the waiting time to at least 10 minutes as the speed of filling depends on the resolution of the boradcast and SD recordings need more time to fill the buffer.

[r999891]

All of the shows are HD (1920).

[r999891]

Update: After some more tests I have found that performance with native wtv files is inconsistent in terms of skip
accuracy. The timings seem to be off and the skip will not take place until the second or third commercial, then it resumes into the program.
However if I convert the file to dvr-ms format, the skip is spot on.
I have set file watcher to 10 minutes but this doesn't affect it.
My configuration is: ceton 4 video card using Time Warner Cable and recording only copy-free programs (OTA broadcasts)
as TWC restricts all other programs with the copy-once bit set.

[erik]

Can you test if the output from comskip is better when you drag and drop the recording, after recording is finished, onto comskip (of cause still assuring the right ini file is used)