Not finding commercials

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
lucasbuck
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 1:02 pm

Not finding commercials

Post by lucasbuck »

I usually wait until posting for help until I'm at wits end, and I'm at wits end (I hate bothering folks if I'm missing something simple). Awhile back my WMC setup stopped marking commercials. All new recordings started saying 'commercial file does not exist, do you want to process'. Older recordings I had still had the file. I can't think of anything I changed around that time.
I'm a donor and using the latest version of comskip and dvrms. Things I've tried: make sure output_dvrmstb=1 was set, reinstalling both (3 times now, copying the donor version of comskip overtop of what dvrms comes with), deleting things out of commercialsxml and letting it rebuild. Still no luck.
Now it starts to scan again, but always the same shows, and never gets past the letter 'D' (stops analyzing anything past Dr. Who). And I noticed there are some shows between A-D that it skips. But everytime it rebuilds, it hits the same shows. Any those shows it does scan now, no commercials found. I've checked and tripled checked every setting I can think of.
For the record, I have dvrms (and comskip in the apps folder) on my e: drive since I have an SSD drive as my c: and try to install everything elsewhere. Recordings go to e: also. There is still the dvrms folder on my c:\users\public folder.
Here are a few logs if they help:

This is the log for an episode of Bar Rescue from the users\public\FWlogs folder:
http://pastebin.com/j1tNbWyW

The text file from the CommercialsXml folder for that episode exists but is blank

Here is the VIH from the CommercialsXml folder:
http://pastebin.com/xjHrgG5u

And lastly the log file from the recorded tv folder on e: (just posting beginning and end since it's too long, and the middle is pretty much the same. Not sure if 78747 lines is normal):
http://pastebin.com/Z4fN3W02 beginning
http://pastebin.com/VXM8Juea end

Hope that's enough (and not too much) information. Would really appreciate any help. Been at this for days.
erik
Site Admin
Posts: 3368
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2005 3:49 pm

Re: Not finding commercials

Post by erik »

The comskip log file suggests that your broadcaster has decided to switch on copy protection.
Can you play the recording with ffplay?
Can be downloaded from here
http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/win32/ ... -static.7z
lucasbuck
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 1:02 pm

Re: Not finding commercials

Post by lucasbuck »

Thank you for the quick reply. If I was doing it correctly (ffplay filename.wtv without any other options) I found that my old recordings would play, local digital would play, but newer recordings from channels like Cartoon Network would give:
'encrypted strean detected, decoding will likely fail'
Several months ago our local cable was purchased by TWC (and now I think after the merger, our territory became Comcast although we are still listed as TWC). Would that be the reason? A policy change? If so, is there a way around it or am I out of luck?
I'm not sure if I understand, since I'm not copying or converting the file (I don't rip out commercials, just mark them to skip). Thanks again for the help.
lucasbuck
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 1:02 pm

Re: Not finding commercials

Post by lucasbuck »

I was reading on some Comcast forurms (although I found out we haven't transitioned from TWC yet), and other folks had the same issue. They had their issue resolved by either a signal to the cablecard or having the card listed differently in their system. I got a really knowledgable tech guy on the phone who was good. He reset the card, and said if that doesn't work, replace the card. If that doesn't work, he said I could open a ticket.
If I could get more info it would help if I have to open a ticket. When you mentioned copy protection, did you mean the flags? And what flag do you think it is set to? Again, since I'm not copying it, I'm not sure why it can't mark the commercial spots.
erik
Site Admin
Posts: 3368
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2005 3:49 pm

Re: Not finding commercials

Post by erik »

The new recordings are encrypted so comskip can not decode them so no commercials can be found.
Only when you can play the new recordings you make with ffplay, comskip will be able to decode.
lucasbuck
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 1:02 pm

Re: Not finding commercials

Post by lucasbuck »

Okay, I've been working with Time Warner, and think there might be two problems. I've been switching out cable cards (I'm on my 3rd one since yesterday), but there has been no change. According to them locals should be copy freely, and other cable channels should be copy once. Using ffplay, I can play local channel recordings, but not ones from other channels (USA, TBS, etc.). But even with the local channel recordings, it says no commercial file founds.
So 1) I'm not sure why the non local channels can't be played through ffplay. If they should be able to, and there's something I need to tell the cable company to set, let me know. Like I said, 3 cards and they say it should be copy once.
2) It looks like DTBFW doesn't even try to process these newer recordings. I'll post the service log, which keeps showing a 'Cannot write to a closed TextWriter' error.
http://pastebin.com/Eq1cJnU9

I hate to be a pain and appreciate the help, but am at wits end. Two trips to the cable company to get new cards, checking logs, etc. If it's the cable company I'm happy to tell them what I need if I knew what to say, and if it's on my end (which if the local recordings that do play in ffplay aren't working it must be something I'm doing) any suggestions would be appreciated.
erik
Site Admin
Posts: 3368
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2005 3:49 pm

Re: Not finding commercials

Post by erik »

YOu can test a free recording by dragging and dropping it onto comskipGUI.exe
Comskip should start and a video window should open showing the video being decoded.
Can you test?
_J_A_S_O_N_
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Sep 07, 2014 4:35 pm
Location: Appleton, WI
Contact:

Re: Not finding commercials

Post by _J_A_S_O_N_ »

I went through this same thing with Time Warner earlier in 2014. Long story short, I gathered up my cable boxes and cablecard and took them back to the local Time Warner cable office and dropped my cable service like a bad habit. It's streaming services (Hulu Plus and Netflix) and free OTA TV for me now.

You will only be able to freely use and process recordings from your local channels that are marked as copy-freely. Those copy-freely recordings should process through Comskip. If they don't, try to manually process one that has failed and see what the Comskip log says. All non-local channels are flagged copy-once and are protected, so you won't be able to process recordings from those channels. Copy-once means you are allowed to make one recording of the video, copying the video from the video stream to your hard drive and not allowed to copy/use the file outside of the program that made the recording. In other words, you can record copy-once programs in WMC and you can play them back in WMC on the same machine, but you can't use them anywhere outside of WMC or on another machine because of the copy-once copy protection.

I believe the problem is the cable company can't switch on/off the copy protection flag on a per-subscriber basis. Unless your local cable main office wants to go through the trouble and effort to configure their headend equipment to obey the broadcaster copy protection flag instead of just arbitrarily forcing the copy-once flag on everything that is non-local, then you're out of luck. If your local schools have a cable-in-classroom program through the cable company, you might be able to send a letter or email to politely argue with the cable company that they are infringing on the right of fair use of broadcasts for educational purposes...but that's a long shot.
lucasbuck
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 1:02 pm

Re: Not finding commercials

Post by lucasbuck »

Thanks for the info, but I don't think that's my issue. Sorry for the slow reply but I got another cablecard and wanted to do some tests so I don't drive you nuts going step by step.

I recorded a show on local (news) and a show on lifetime (dance moms). Neither was scanned for commercials, there weren't any files showing they had been scanned. I ran them both with ffplay and they played fine. I dropped them onto the comskip executable, and they processed, and created 5 files in the same folder I had them in (I copied them over to the ffplay folder for testing, then dropped them into comskip from there). It created an .edl, .log, .logo.txt, and an .xml. I took those and dropped them into c:\Users\Public\DvrmsToolbox\CommercialsXml and played them in WMC. The commercials detected and skipped fine. So it works, it just isn't processing on it's own.

On a couple side notes if it makes a difference (and I don't know where those 5 files are supposed to automatically go during processing). My Dvrm and comskip is installed on my d: drive (which is where my recorded TV is), and then some files are in users\public. I didn't know if it was bad that I didn't install onto C:, but it's an SSD so I try to keep things off of it.

Second, the commericalsxml folder has some files, but no where near how many shows I have recorded. And each of those has 4 files: .txt, .vih, .xml, .edl. What's the .vih? It didn't create one when I dropped the files onto comskip. So for the few shows in that folder, none have a .log or a .logo.txt (but do have that additional .vih file)

Here is my latest dtbfwservice file http://pastebin.com/vYA043ZV

Thank you for any help and if there is anything else I can run and log please let me know.
erik
Site Admin
Posts: 3368
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2005 3:49 pm

Re: Not finding commercials

Post by erik »

Can you post your comskip.ini file?
lucasbuck
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 1:02 pm

Re: Not finding commercials

Post by lucasbuck »

Sure, thank you for the help: http://pastebin.com/e6zhNci7
erik
Site Admin
Posts: 3368
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2005 3:49 pm

Re: Not finding commercials

Post by erik »

As you have
output_edl=1
output_dvrmstb=1
delete_logo_file=0
Comskip should ouput files with these extensions

.edl
.txt
.logo.txt
.xml
.log

dvrms only uses the .xml file for skipping
changing to
verbose=0
output_edl=0
output_dvrmstb=1
output_default=0
delete_logo_file=1
reduces the output to only .xml file.
lucasbuck
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 1:02 pm

Re: Not finding commercials

Post by lucasbuck »

I couldn't find an output_default setting. Do I need to add that line somewhere?

Otherwise I made the changes. Is there a way to clear out all the clutter and make it try rescanning the files again? Or something I can do to test?
erik
Site Admin
Posts: 3368
Joined: Sun Aug 21, 2005 3:49 pm

Re: Not finding commercials

Post by erik »

Deleting the .xml and .txt files should trigger rescanning
You can add the line with output_default=0 to comskip.ini
lucasbuck
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Dec 30, 2014 1:02 pm

Re: Not finding commercials

Post by lucasbuck »

Thanks, I went into safe mode and cleared everything out. While processing some have this error:
http://pastebin.com/1Z8JKVtP

Others just say there aren't any commercials:
http://pastebin.com/p5Ns8D1y

Flags and CP are always clear:
<CopyProtectFlags>None</CopyProtectFlags>
<PictAspectRatioX>16</PictAspectRatioX>
<PictAspectRatioY>9</PictAspectRatioY>
<ControlFlags>None</ControlFlags>

About half are processing correctly though. Maybe I should reinstall or try or using SA unless you have any ideas?
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