comskip setup and file output (1 Viewer)

[emg178]

Hi all,

Just installed Mediaportal 1.2 after years of using BeyondTV. Both server and client are installed on a 5 yr old computer running Vista and loaded with crap, so it is very far from a clean install. Many things went very smoothly & it is working as intended except for comskip.

I have read the wiki and threads, and have
Set the configuration to autoskip in mediaportal
Downloaded LMremote keymap file which sets skip forward button to f8 & set up a key in the mediaportal configuration named next chapter, mapped to f8 key with action set to ACTION_NEXT_CHAPTER. After experimentation, I determined that this should be set in Fullscreen TVs for watching Recorded TV, and Fullscreen videos for watching from the videos app.

When I watch a show, it does not autoskip commercials, and I cannot initiate a jump to the next chapter using my remote, or f8 on a virtual keyboard.

My <filename>.ts.chapters.xml file has the correct locations, so a version of comskip is running and producing a good xml file. However, the edl and txt files do not seem to have windows carriage return lines, although when pasted into the web form, the carriage returns show up. Also, the txt file is missing the last advert section & the numbers appear to be in seconds * 59 or 60. 60 frames / second seems high, so I am not sure what the units are in that file.

xml file

<cutlist>
<Region>
<start comment="0:06:08.4370000">3684370000</start>
<end comment="0:07:24.3280000">4443280000</end>
</Region>
<Region>
<start comment="0:16:39.6710000">9996710000</start>
<end comment="0:20:17.2850000">12172850000</end>
</Region>
<Region>
<start comment="0:25:58.6830000">15586830000</start>
<end comment="0:27:39.2670000">16592670000</end>
</Region>
</cutlist>

edl file

368.518444.3290
999.6851217.290
1558.681659.270
1731.081731.080

txt file

FILE PROCESSING COMPLETE
------------------------
2208926633
5992172964
9342899457

Questions:
Is there a log file where mediaportal would complain if the chapters (commercial) data were not imported correctly? Then, I can at least determine if it is the chapter file or the client configuration.
I could not find a separate comskip folder and executable within the team mediaportal folder. Is it included with mediaportal, and if so is it in a separate file or part of the server? I have two known versions of comskip file on my computer. One is in an old installation of post haste inside my BeyondTV folder. The other was installed as part of DVRMSToolbox.
When I use the test button in the tv-server configuration tool, nothing happens. That is, no dialogue opens up or anything like that. When I copy and paste a .ts file, comskip is fired up. So, I am thinking that the DVRMSToolbox version may be monitoring the recordings folder & that I should put an end to that.
So, what is the normal procedure for mediaportal? Do I download a current copy of comskip, and put the full path to it in the tvserver configuration tool? Do I just put the .ini file in the same folder as comskip, and use the default settings?

 

[TLD]

Unzip the attached folder, I put it on the same hard drive / partition as my recorded TV. Activate the comskip plugin in TV server and point it to the comskip.exe file in the folder, paramiter "0" select a recorded TV file in the test drop down list and click test. a dos box should pop up and comskip will parse the file. look in the recorded TV folder and you should see "Movie Name.txt" file, that's the file Mediaportal uses to skip the commercial. I usually set the comskip plugin to run after the recording is finished it seems to work better. Good luck and please let me know how it works for you.

Ted

 

[emg178]

Unzip the attached folder, I put it on the same hard drive / partition as my recorded TV. Activate the comskip plugin in TV server and point it to the comskip.exe file in the folder, paramiter "0" select a recorded TV file in the test drop down list and click test. a dos box should pop up and comskip will parse the file. look in the recorded TV folder and you should see "Movie Name.txt" file, that's the file Mediaportal uses to skip the commercial. I usually set the comskip plugin to run after the recording is finished it seems to work better. Good luck and please let me know how it works for you.

Ted

Thanks so much. The test did fire off the new comskip, and mediaportal skipped the commercials automatically. I tested with my remote and that works too. DVRMSToolbox had an uninstall routine, so hopefully that will prevent the other version of comskip from fighting for the write access to the output files. I also found the log files to play with although I could not recognize any reports due to the poorly formatted older chapter files. the new txt files are formatted correctly.

Was that version of comskip downloaded directly with default settings?

 

[TLD]

No, It has a couple customizations.