Calling all Australian Comskip users

[NickName]

Hi all,

I was hoping someone could post their working configuration ("ini" file) for Comskip. I have tried several configurations but I am finding that Comskip keeps misses some ads. :-(
Naturally if you have any other tips to improve Comskips accuracy, I'd love to hear it.

Thanks in advance,

Nick Name.

[Marcusb]

I haven't tried for a long time, but I do know that Australia is more difficult than most countries to set up the comskip functions.
The main reason is that our networks keep changing their commercial break methods. Sometimes a black screen, sometimes a fade out and lots of times a "funky" animation.
The US is pretty easy as regulations make the networks always superimpose the rating as soon as they return from a break.

If anyone has a working ini for Australian comskip I would also be very interested.
Thanks,

Marcus.

[Nightmare77]

put me in the same basket, i also would be interested in the working ini file

[NickName]

Thanks for your replies guys. I guess we can all wait and hope together...

Cheers,

Nick Name.

[Taipan]

Attached is the comskip.ini that I have tuned for use with the DVB SD channels 7, 9 & 10. (just delete the ".txt" from the end - I had to add this to get the upload to accept the .ini file)

I should explain that I use VideoReDo to first "clean up" the recorded DVRMS file (using Quick Stream Fix) before running it through comskip, and then I use VideoReDo again to do "frame accurate" cutting of the commercials. This process works very well, and the only commercial related segments that are not removed are short (~10 seconds) of video that the channels sometimes include in a move at the start of the commercial break, reminding you what the movie is that you are watching. As these short segments are faded in over the last few frames of the movie, I haven't been able to get comskip to accurately detect the presence of them, so I figure it is better than watching the 3 to 5 minutes of commercials that follow.

I tried most of the other "tools" editing out the commercials, but they were usually innaccurate by plus or minus 0.5 second (because they cut on GOP boundaries?), but VideoRedo has consistently cut the commercials out to within a couple of frames ....

I am currently using v0.79.70 of comskip, but I notice that Erik has added some more smarts in the recent versions that I am yet to try.

Enjoy ....

[NickName]

Excellent, thanks for that Taipan. Ill go and try that now!

Cheers,

Nick Name.

[dimakatchalo]

hey Nick Name - let us know how you go. Im interested in using comskip, but am reluctant because of the problems experienced by other users!

[GadgetMan]

Hi guys,

As a new user to comskip, I thought I'd document my results/findings.

Taking the most recent version of comskip(comskip79_98), I tried out the settings, along with trying the same recording using different 'detect_method's.

Detect Method(s) explained
You may (or may not) know that the detect method can be set to any combination, by adding the numerical values together:
1=black frame
2=logo
4=scene change
8=fuzzy logic
16=closed captions
32=aspect ration
64=silence
128=cutscenes

So using methods 'black frame' and 'logo' will be 1+2=3

Detect Method(s) results
Using different combinations, I found that for a small recording, with only the 1 commercial yielded these results:
Using 111, 127, 64 and 7 all gave me the same block for commercials
Using 99, 43, 255 gave me somewhat bad results
31 was close to the best case, but not as bad as case 2

Bulk testing
I then tried the setting against a range of recordings, which the following results:
Seinfeld (channel 10): Great-Some ad blocks end half a sec early
Alias (channel 7): Great-Only 1 clip was a few secs too long
Lost (channel 7): perfect!
Heroes (channel 7): perfect!
Prison Break (channel 7): Pretty good. Some breaks 1/2 sec early. Some missed
Sports Tonight (channel 10): perfect
LateLine (channel ABC): perfect
GirlsStuff Boys Stuff (channel ABC2): B65
Primeval (channel 9): CAN'T GENERATE TXT
Big Brother Up-Late (channel ): great.

Verdict:
Now that MP 0.2.3.0RC1 handles comskip .txt files to skip the commercials using the chapter buttons, there's no real harm is running comskip with the settings I used. The original recordings are left untouched. In combination with the skip x seconds feature of MediaPortal you can't really go wrong.
I opted to use as little methods as possible (using a detect_method setting of 7, which utilizes black_frame, logo and scene change)

If you're a Lost, Heroes, Prison Break fan, then you'll be very pleased. I know I am.

The work. The settings compared:

____________________________________Taipan's___Min e_______
detect_method_______________________________111___ _______7
validate_silence______________________________1___ _______1
validate_uniform______________________________1___ _______1
validate_scenechange__________________________1___ _______1
verbose_______________________________________0___ ______10
max_brightness_______________________________60___ ______60
test_brightness______________________________40___ ______40
max_avg_brightness___________________________20___ ______25
max_commercialbreak_________________________300___ _____600
min_commercialbreak__________________________55___ ______25
max_commercial_size_________________________250___ _____125
min_commercial_size__________________________15___ _______4
min_show_segment_length_____________________200___ _____125
non_uniformity_______________________________50___ ______50
max_volume___________________________________50___ ______50
min_silence___________________________________5___ ______20
ticker_tape___________________________________0___ _______0
logo_at_bottom________________________________1
punish________________________________________0___ _______0
punish_threshold____________________________1.3___ _____1.3
punish_modifier_______________________________2___ _______2
intelligent_brightness________________________0___ _______0
logo_percentile____________________________0.92___ ____0.92
logo_threshold_____________________________0.55___ ____0.75
punish_no_logo________________________________1___ _______1
aggressive_logo_rejection_____________________0___ _______0
connect_blocks_with_logo______________________1___ _______1
logo_filter___________________________________0
cut_on_ar_change______________________________0___ _______0
delete_show_after_last_commercial_____________0___ _______0
delete_show_before_or_after_current___________0___ _______0
delete_block_after_commercial_________________0
remove_before_________________________________0
remove_after__________________________________0
shrink_logo___________________________________5___ _______5
after_logo____________________________________0___ _______0
padding_______________________________________0___ _______0
ms_audio_delay________________________________5___ _______5
max_repair_size______________________________40___ _____200
delete_logo_file______________________________0___ _______0
output_framearray_____________________________0___ _______0
output_videoredo______________________________1___ _______0
output_womble_________________________________0___ _______0
output_mls____________________________________0___ _______0
output_cuttermaran____________________________0___ _______0
output_mpeg2schnitt___________________________0___ _______0
output_mpgtx__________________________________0___ _______0
output_dvrcut_________________________________0___ _______0
output_zoomplayer_chapter_____________________0___ _______0
output_zoomplayer_cutlist_____________________0___ _______0
output_edl____________________________________0___ _______0
output_edlx___________________________________0___ _______0
output_vcf____________________________________0___ _______0
output_bsplayer_______________________________0
output_btv____________________________________0___ _______0
output_projectx_______________________________0___ _______0
output_avisynth_______________________________0
output_demux__________________________________0___ _______0
sage_framenumber_bug__________________________0___ _______0
sage_minute_bug_______________________________0___ _______0
live_tv_______________________________________0___ _______0
live_tv_retries_______________________________1
standoff______________________________________0
mpeg2schnitt_options________________
avisynth_options____________________
dvrcut_options______________________
windowtitle_________________________
output_debugwindow____________________________0
global_threshold___________________________0.95