I'm wondering how accurate it can get w/comskip. I know it will never be 100%
It seems like even if you have a custom comskip for every channel you record, they will never be 100% since things change and it's a continual cat and mouse game to keep up with the changes.
That's why I like Channels making them chapter skip points instead of cutting out the blocks that may not be the blocks we want cut out.
I know it'll never be 100%. That's why I'm uninterested in it actually splicing-out the areas it "thinks" are commercials. I don't mind hitting a "skip" button.
My problem is the beta version of Channels DVR I installed for test purposes is worse than the stable version it replaced.
My reply wasn't directed to you, it was just another of my posts on the thread.
I agree and that's why I use VRD TVSuite to cut for archives only.
I would like to be able to revert to the latest stable release if a beta causes issues, is there a way to do that without uninstall/reinstall that you know of?
There's a new build out now which I am in the process of testing.
To switch versions you can change the latest symlink in the install directory. For instance, on Synology:
cd /volume1/@appstore/ChannelsDVR/channels-dvr/
ln -nsf 2019.01.01.0000 latest
then stop and start the DVR service.
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Just migrated my Channels DVR from old to new NAS and when installing on new one it picked up the beta DVR v2019.03.01.2325.
Noticed the only change since v2019-02-12-0028 is the addition of
lowres=1
;Enables resolution reduction, setting to 10 makes comskip choose the best value automatically
;;This only works for certain types of video encoding, may not work for h.264 encoded video and may deliver bad results when used with hardware_decode=1
Will try this with future recordings starting tonight on the new nas.
[Update] So far so good, Discovery show processed was spot on.
We are actively researching several ways to make commercial detection more consistent and accurate. Chances are that in the long term we will be moving away from comskip towards our own solution.
The latest DVR pre-release from today has a new "Edit Commercials" feature- it will show what segments were detected in the recording, and let you fix any mistakes. There are three main goals for this new experimental feature:
-
Provide more insight into what comskip is doing, so we can notice patterns when it fails.
(For example, you can see what logo was detected and which segments contain a logo match.) -
Let users fix their commercial markings when comskip fails, for a better viewing experience.
(You can even fix commercials on phone/tablet via web UI while you're watching an episode on the TV, and the app on the TV will automatically load the new markers as soon as you save). -
Help us collect commercial detection results data from a variety of users/channels/programs/locations in order to build a more accurate detector.
(This is one of our areas of research, and future DVR pre-release builds will likely contain a button allowing you to upload all your fixed commercial markers to us for analysis).
Here's a quick look at how the new feature works:
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I think this is an excellent idea.
The changes to the comskip settings have had mixed reviews, and I'm always hesitant to run beta versions for software that other family members are going to use. But allowing for corrections, as well as incremental improvements is a very nice touch.
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Wow! This is so freaking cool! I just had a play around with this tonight and it's pretty quick and easy to do. Man, I am stunned.
The things you guys do and come up with amaze me sometimes!
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When you make the changes where are they saved? I looked in the comskip directory, but it looks like those files are untouched after the save in the Web UI. I was hoping to be able to correct some commercial and rerun an ffmpeg script to pick up the changes.
Please consider also propogating commercial fix-ups to other users who will later watch the same show.
A suggestion for a feature extension, for either comskip or another method of marking commercial segments, is to add a selectable ability to "auto-skip" past the commercial during playback. A windows-based dvr I used in the past, NextPVR, implements comskip and allows the user to select, at the client level, "auto-skip", where the playback will automatically skip over commercials without the need to skip via the remote. Nice thing about this approach is that one can turn it on or off, and nothing is ever "cut out" of the recording. In fact, on the rare occasion the skipping is innacurate, one can use the remote to navigate to the piece of the stream recording that was erroneously marks as "keep" or "skip". Worked well enough that the wife now misses it with Channels.
This is what channels does in the latest beta. See this thread https://community.getchannels.com/t/beta-automatically-skip-commercials/14140
Only in the database. If you have the edl hack enabled then it will generate an updated edl next to the mpg. I can update the video.edl in the comskip directory too if that's useful
Thanks. I am wondering how that might help. Currently, I am using ffmpeg and video.ffmeta file to add the chapter markers for a recording. Do you know how I could use the .edl file in place of the video.ffmeta in the ffmpeg command?
I was watching a recording and I came across an example where commskip got fooled. During a commercial break commskip marked the end of the commercial break early because a commercial had a brand logo in the lower third. Does commskip do any OCR type processing on the logos it comes across or just a test for exists or not exists? The brand is called, shoedazzle.
Please screenshot the commercial editor showing the issue. The logo detector only works on specific logos, and you can mouse over the "logo found" to see what the detected logo was.
I don't know how to mouse over the "logo found", but I am providing a couple of screenshots. One screenshot shows the beginning if the commercial that comskip thinks is the end of commercial segment you can see the logo. Second screenshot show the section of the commercial editor. To fix my problem I would need the 150s commercial segment int the middle to be broken into a 30s and 120s. Where the previous 30s would be added to the first commercial segment and the 120s segment be added to the show segment next.
Logo detection was not used for that recording if it doesn't say Logo found at the top.
All three screenshots from the 150s segment look like ads (taken 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 through). Are you sure the last two minutes are part of the show, because it doesn't seem like it. The problem is the 150s set of ads got marked as a show, because the system thinks anything longer than 2 minutes together is part of the show.
So here is a screenshot of where I think the 150s segment should end but it doesn't its about 37s into the 150s segment. I am assuming the grey areas in the timeline represent commercials and the solid represent showtime. You can see in the showtime timeline that there is a commercial. thought it was related to comskip finding the brand logo, but I guess it is something else. Anyways, is there away through the editor to adjust the 150s segment? Only option is Is Commercial or Is Show? Not the ability to adjust the start and stop times.
Beginning of 150s showtime that should still be a commercial
Middle of 150s segment should be the end of commercial at 37s not in the middle of show timeline
real beginning of show timeline after commercials (37s in)
Okay. I think I am gettin this all confused. So, if I mark the 150s segment as a commercial segment it seems to work correctly. What setting is comskip is looking at the length of commercial segments?
So, it seems that if the last thumbnail looks like a commercial and it is selected as a show timeline, then it is probably safe to mark it as a commercial timeline instead?