Monitor frame numbers?

[CodeMonkey]

I am getting some thoughts together on how to implement commercial detection and skipping into MP. I have been playing with the successor to comskip called ShowAnalyzer (http://www.dragonglobal.org/). It outputs the commercials detected in a text file that contains start frame number and end frame number of the commercials. I believe by using a combination of the following:

g_Player.CurrentPosition;
g_Player.SeekAbsolute();

I can skip to the end of a commercial. However I am unsure as to how to tell I am in a commercial. Is there a way to monitor frame numbers as a recorded show is being played back? Semi automatic mode would just skip to the end of the next detected commercial if a button was pressed. This I could probably do by converting the frame number to a time and use the calls above. However I would also like a automatic mode that would automatically skip the commercial frames. Are the tools to do this already in MP and I just don't see them? Or is this functionality that would need to be added? Everything I see is indexed by time, which is fine. Is there some way to get triggered at a certain point during a show playback?

I would prefer to chat about this in real time on IRC, but unfortunately I don't think I will be able to do that for about two weeks, and only on weekends due to time zone issues. However if frodo et.al. thinks this can only be discussed live, then let me know and I will try and arrange a time to meet.

[Marcusb]

Hi CM, how is this work going? are you having much luck?

Don't take the lack of replies as lack of interest. I am sure there are lots of people out there eagerly waiting for this function.

The sound of semi-automatic sounds quite good too. Maybe you should release this as a beta? In some ways this could be a better option than fully automatic anyway. In any case is is a great leap forward over the "old" way of skipping commercials.

[jshan]

I think the "semi-automatic" would be very cool. I was thinking about this and came up with some thoughts before I saw this thread. I thought I'd jot down some ideas in case it helps codemonkey.

- a plugin that had a configurable start and end time, during which comskip would run it's analysis. That way, the processing takes place during non-live-viewing time. Maybe even have a dialog that comes up for a while, telling any night owl viewer that comskip is about to kick off, thereby allowing the potential viewer to skip comskip analysis for that night.

- the plugin would fire off comskip for any videos that don't already have an associated comskip text file.

- so that we don't get dangling comskip text files for deleted videos, the plugin could also check for any text files that don't have an associated video, and if found, delete them.

- then, during playback by the user, if the user hits a "magic" key on the remote, if the playback is in a "valid" commercial area, then the area is skipped and playback is resumed. A calming positive tone could be played indicating success. If we're not in a "valid" commercial area (i.e. comskip missed it), a negative tone could be played, and the video could go into fast forward so that the user could manually skip the commercial area.

- future integration into MP could include bands of a different color on the timeline of the OSD, visually indicating the commercial areas (yes, I own and use a commercial s/w product).

- could even have another plugin that creates a copy of the video that cuts out the commercial areas, for those that have 100% confidence in comskip.

I'm less inclined to use the "automatic" comskip mode, because my VCR has this feature, and it's really annoying when it kicks in to fast forward to skip over some commercials that aren't commercials.

I'm sure all this has already been thought of, but I thought I'd at least express my interest in this feature.

Regards,
John

[Taipan]

Hey CodeMonkey,

Have you had any success with implementing commercial detection and skipping into MP? Any advice on what works, or doesn't work?