Native Commercial Removal

[broadscott]

Sorry if this has been posted before.

It would be GREAT to see some kind of native commercial removal tool incorporated in 3. I think the best option is to have something that simply detects commercials (real time would be the best) so that MP will automatically skip those sections of a recording (or time buffer - hence real time being best). This way you don't have to cut the commercials and create a new file wasting (valuable) disk space.

[Noelix]

Thank you for saying this so I didn't have to!

batch files != incorporated

[and-81]

Don't panic.

The ComSkip support is a work in progress, there is no need to worry.

It's usable in it's current form, but it certainly will be improved. And I'm planning that one day I will get it working in real-time on the timeshift buffer.

As far as native commercial removal, I don't think we'll see this in a long time, if at all. ComSkip is good, it works, and is actively developed. If someone comes up with a compelling reason not to use ComSkip then it will be considered, otherwise I think we have a very good system in the making.

Here are some of the planned features:
1. Automatic Skipping (I've already got this working, just trying to make it better before unleashing it on the public)
2. Display the timeline when a skip occurs.
3. Make skip regions visible in the timeline.
4. Make it work when streaming from TVE 3 Server.
5. Make it work on the Timeshift buffer (shouldn't be as hard as it sounds, I believe ComSkip will work on this, we just need to intelligently process the output).

Let me just say this too. If you feel that the current implementation is not up to standard, I agree. I did it, and I agree. It needs work. But it is getting that work, and will get better. Don't blame ComSkip for the current implementation in MediaPortal, blame me.

I can't go into the reason that I haven't added new features or changes to the current ComSkip support, suffice to say that it will be receiving upgrades in the near future.

If you have any questions feel free to ask me and I'll do my best to explain.

Hope that helps,

[tourettes]

Originally Posted by and-81

As far as native commercial removal, I don't think we'll see this in a long time, if at all. ComSkip is good, it works, and is actively developed. If someone comes up with a compelling reason not to use ComSkip then it will be considered, otherwise I think we have a very good system in the making.

I think that there isn't any reasons for reinventing the wheel. Atleast the removing the need for .bat file is not enough good reason to spend hundreds of developer time in creating a integrated comercial skipping sollution

[broadscott]

Originally Posted by and-81

Don't panic.

As far as native commercial removal, I don't think we'll see this in a long time, if at all. ComSkip is good, it works, and is actively developed. If someone comes up with a compelling reason not to use ComSkip then it will be considered, otherwise I think we have a very good system in the making.

Have you ever tried writing a comskip.ini that works for Australian television?! Oh wait, you're from Melbourne - got one?

[broadscott]

Originally Posted by tourettes

I think that there isn't any reasons for reinventing the wheel. Atleast the removing the need for .bat file is not enough good reason to spend hundreds of developer time in creating a integrated comercial skipping sollution

By the way - I too agree no point in reinventing the wheel. I just meant inclusion of a standard comskip software plugin (don't mind which, as long as it works) with each MP release.

[and-81]

There's another thread where people have got it working well ... Mine seems to work ok, but yeah, it could be better.

But I feel I need to explain here. ComSkip is good at what it does. Unfortunately Australian broadcasters do all sorts of crazy stuff around ads. However, writing our own commercial detection method is not the answer. Writing a commercial detection algorithm from scratch is not exactly a trivial programming task.

We have good ties with the author of ComSkip, so if there is some way he could improve ComSkip for Australian users then I'm sure he'd try. Track down the other forum thread and give it a try, I'm just walking out the door so I can't get it for you now, but if I get home later and find it I'll edit this post.

Out of interest, are you using a dvb-t or a hardware encoding analog card?

Good luck,

[erik1958]

If anyone is willing to process some Australian recordings with comskip with
output_framearray=1
set in the ini file and mail me the generated .csv files together with a list where you would like to see the start and end frame numbers of the commercials I will have a look.
Do also send the comskip.ini you use.

[broadscott]

Originally Posted by and-81

There's another thread where people have got it working well ... Mine seems to work ok, but yeah, it could be better.

Out of interest, are you using a dvb-t or a hardware encoding analog card?

Good luck,

dvb-t : Winfast DTV1000 T

[broadscott]

Originally Posted by erik1958

If anyone is willing to process some Australian recordings with comskip with
output_framearray=1
set in the ini file and mail me the generated .csv files together with a list where you would like to see the start and end frame numbers of the commercials I will have a look.
Do also send the comskip.ini you use.

I am about to head off for a whole month out of internet contact soon, but if I get the chance will try to do this tomorrow. Any particular length of show best? Also, I believe for this to really work you would need 3 different comskip.ini files since all the Aussie TV channels use very different ad methods.

I am only using comskip with dvr-ms files so I can't vouch for the effectiveness of comskip with Aussie mpegs (if it makes a difference). Not that that is relevant to MP 0.2.2.0 since it only records dvr-ms, but it may be for MP 0.3.