Any Alternative to DTb File Watcher?

Here you can ask your questions on how to use Comskip for the detection of commercials. Also questions on how to remove commercials are welcome
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ghostlobster
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:48 pm

Any Alternative to DTb File Watcher?

Post by ghostlobster »

Are ther any alternatives to DTb's file watcher for launching com skip? I'm trying to offload my com skip processing to a secondary PC and file watcher is tossing errors and not initiating comskip. Some else on babgvant's forum is seeing the same error and it does not appear Andy is paying much attention to that forum anymore, which is understandable, seeing as he's spent the better part of the last 7 years trying to support his free apps! :)

So...any options?
erik
Site Admin
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Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2005 3:49 pm

Re: Any Alternative to DTb File Watcher?

Post by erik »

I'm actually having the same question myself as Dtb is very complex.....
I understood someone is working on a simple filewatcher that only can run comskip on the recordings and helps with skipping while watching.
Hope we here more of it soon.
bmblank
Posts: 55
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2012 5:13 pm

Re: Any Alternative to DTb File Watcher?

Post by bmblank »

Third. dtb has way too many settings and options for it to be used purely for comskip stably. I've also noticed that dtb Fletcher only notices new files, so when my computer restarts every night before comskip gets a chance to process every show, when it restarts dtb ignores the unprocessed files that are already in the folder. A solution to that would also be awesome.

Anyway, +1 on the simple file watcher.
ghostlobster
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:48 pm

Re: Any Alternative to DTb File Watcher?

Post by ghostlobster »

Now here's a pretty strange development...in an act of desperation, I just downloaded and installed Jere's (of ShowAnalyzer fame) Dirmon2. After messing with configuration, remembering to always run the app as admin, running the service as a user that has the same user id and password on both machines, and reading the Dragon Global Dirmon2 forums, i appear to have dirmon configured where it'll launch comskip against. Wtv files on my network share. Then, subscribing to the "Let's push my luck" practice, i set it to delete any .xml file in that folder when an associated wtv file does not exist.
End results are still pending, but for now, it appeared to grab a wtv file, launch comskip and start processing it!
Weird!
ghostlobster
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:48 pm

Re: Any Alternative to DTb File Watcher?

Post by ghostlobster »

Update...it appeared that it was ignoring the comskip.ini file, so within dirmon's config panel, i used the --ini= variable in the Command Line Options field...well...looks like the correct ini file is being used! This might just work!
ghostlobster
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:48 pm

Re: Any Alternative to DTb File Watcher?

Post by ghostlobster »

Well...looks like we may have a winner here using Dirmon2. Here's what I did and a few "gottchas" that may pop up for others:
1 - Install using the "Run as Administrator"
2 - Always use "Run as Administrator" when launching the GUI.
3 - In Command Line Options within the job setup, explicitly point to the desired comskip.ini file you want to use using the --ini= flag. Remember, spaces in the path to the .ini file will create issues, so either use " around the path, or just drop the ini mfile in a location that has no spaces in the path.
4 - The configuration is a tad confusing. The Triggers are not exactly obvious. Leave the "Must Exist" flags blank, the variable between Must Exist and Must Not exist should be set to AND. For Must Not Exist, I used xml OR log as the extensions. This way, if it sees a .wtv file, and either a xml file, or a log file does not exist, it will queue the file for processing. If either exists, it will skip that file, seeing it as already processed.
5 - Select the checkbox to tell it not to act upon a file that is being written to. This way it will not try and process live files...until we're ready for this functionality.
6 - When making changes to the configuration, stop the service, either in the services control panel item, or within the Dirmon GUI Global tab.
7 - For cleanup, it's very easy and works. Just tell it that if a xml file exists, and an associated wtv file does not exist,, delete the xml file. Create similar rules for other extensions you don't want kicking around.
8 - On the Global tab within the GUI, set the service to run as a local user, rather than system. I don't know if this is needed, but I had to use this option as I'm processing .wtv files that exist on another PC, so the local system does not have access to those files.
9 - Mine is working using UNC names for recording locations. I did not try anything with mapped drives. Take that for what it's worth, again, I'm not certain it's needed, but that's what is working for me.

Now, on my playback rig, I have DTB installed, just for the MC Addin functionality, in order to provide automatic commercial skipping. File watcher is disabled, and it does not process anything. Before going to bed last night, I deleted a couple of recordings and 3 items were set to record. This morning, the associated .log and .xml files for the deleted recordings were deleted as well, and the 3 new recordings had been processed. Sounds like this might just work!!
bmblank
Posts: 55
Joined: Thu Jan 19, 2012 5:13 pm

Re: Any Alternative to DTb File Watcher?

Post by bmblank »

That sounds pretty awesome. Unfortunately it also sounds pretty complicated. But hey, what have I got to lose, Kewaunee I'll give it a shot. And maybe I'll surprise myself. And maybe I end up with solid commercial skipping! :-D
ghostlobster
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:48 pm

Re: Any Alternative to DTb File Watcher?

Post by ghostlobster »

bmblank wrote:That sounds pretty awesome. Unfortunately it also sounds pretty complicated. But hey, what have I got to lose, Kewaunee I'll give it a shot. And maybe I'll surprise myself. And maybe I end up with solid commercial skipping! :-D
Never said it was easy, just that it seems to work. If it'll be helpful, I'll post screenshots later. But give it a shot without the visual aid, first. The info in my posting should get you through it.
mike_b
Posts: 11
Joined: Mon Jul 18, 2011 4:34 am
Location: Cascade Mountains of Oregon, USA

Re: Any Alternative to DTb File Watcher?

Post by mike_b »

Yes, someone please give us a simple file watcher for Windows 7 Media Center. I'm waiting for live comskip processing of wtv files and a simple file watcher before switching from SageTV to Media Center. In SageTV the CommercialDetector plugin launches comskip. I simply installed the plugin a couple years ago and haven't touched it since. It works perfectly with comskip, so something simple is certainly possible. The Comskip Playback plugin handles the playback of the processed files. Also a simple install in SageTV. I really hate Google for buying and killing SageTV.
ghostlobster
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:48 pm

Re: Any Alternative to DTb File Watcher?

Post by ghostlobster »

Well, 5 days into this and it works like a champ! Using DirMon2 to launch comskip after a show records and then delete the artifact files after the show is deleted, and it has not skipped a beat. And my setup is not exactly a standard config either. I run comskip on my desktop machine, not on my htpc. So, dirmon is watching the remote share, launching comskip locally, buzzing through a 1 hour long h.264 .wtv file in about 15 minutes (love the Core i5 2500k with 14gb of RAM), and just flat out performing beautifully.
Now...if we could just get that live processing of .wtv files chugging along.... :) (joking, erik! I know you are doing what you can!)
toricred
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Jul 31, 2006 2:15 am
Location: New Mexico

Re: Any Alternative to DTb File Watcher?

Post by toricred »

Are you processing files via a UNC path? I thought that didn't work.
ghostlobster
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:48 pm

Re: Any Alternative to DTb File Watcher?

Post by ghostlobster »

toricred wrote:Are you processing files via a UNC path? I thought that didn't work.
Works fine for me! Again, just make certain that the same user names exist on the remote and local machines, you are logged in as that user and the DirMon service is configured to run as that user.
In my case, both machines have an admin user named Ray (I'm not the creative type), with the same password on both machines. I'm logged into my comskip processing box (local PC) as Ray, the Dirmon2 service runs as Ray, and everything works beautifully!
toricred
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Jul 31, 2006 2:15 am
Location: New Mexico

Re: Any Alternative to DTb File Watcher?

Post by toricred »

Which version of comskip are you using? I thought that was the limiting factor.
ghostlobster
Posts: 32
Joined: Sat Jul 25, 2009 9:48 pm

Re: Any Alternative to DTb File Watcher?

Post by ghostlobster »

toricred wrote:Which version of comskip are you using? I thought that was the limiting factor.
81.036
I don't see how comskip could be a limiting factor with accessing .wtv files using UNC at all. It's just a file that it needs to process. Period.

Erik, care to chime on on that one???

Like I said, it's working 100% for me. Try it out for yourself. It took a grand total of 10 minutes to set it up now that I have the settings above confirmed to work. Dirmon2 does a great job as a set it and forget it application and comskip provides FAR better and faster analysis than SAV1.
It's a perfect match.
toricred
Posts: 22
Joined: Mon Jul 31, 2006 2:15 am
Location: New Mexico

Re: Any Alternative to DTb File Watcher?

Post by toricred »

It was my understanding that a command line such as: comskip \\server\share\file.ts would not actually work. I would be ecstatic to be mistaken though.
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