Converting recordings using MCEBuddy

[wazzageek]

I have recently been trying to use MCEBuddy to convert my recordings to a compressed format (Xvid or H.264) while also removing the commercials.

So far I have been able to manually convert the recording to TS using WizFZ and then MCEBuddy will automatically convert the TS files to whatever I choose. The problem is I just can't seem to get it to remove the ads. MCEBuddy uses another program called Compskip which does the commercial detection. It requires some tuning of the compskip.ini file to get it work. Unfortunately I have been unable to tune it properly.

I was wondering if anyone out there has successfully used this program? If so, could you please share your compskip.ini file?

Regards
Warren

[Gully]

Did you try searching for comskip (helps searching with the correct spelling )?

There are only a few topics that come up including some where people talk about having used it.

Also make sure you use Display results as posts and it will even find the actual posts.

[tonymy01]

Use projectX on the TS files to cut the file, in "toTS" or "toM2P" mode (you have to manually select the cut points of course).

[netmask]

I explored Comskip and similar programs and came to the conclusion that you spend so much time refining the tuning file and ini's that you may as well use decent editing programs and be done with it. As Tony mentioned ProjectX can be used to edit out commercials and in demux mode will clean up quite a few transmission errors.

Likewise Womble MPEG Wizard DVD will produce a DVD conforming MPEG2 file from the demuxed video and audio tracks.


VideoRedo and Womble both have ad detecting software but I can wiz through ProjectX quicker and have all the advantages that program bestows. The problem with ad detection program is the stations sometimes do cross fades into the commercial with the video level remaining at least at 60% and then some movies have fades to black within them that can confuse automatic detectors. Womble's ad detector gets thrown when there is a fade to black but the audio continues etc etc...

[prl]

MPEG Streamclip is also quite good (and its user interface is a bit less of a challenge than ProjectX) for editing and conversion from MPEG-2 Transport Stream (Beyonwiz recording format) to MPEG-2 program Stream (what's accepted by most DVD-Video burning tools). Windows and OS X versions are available.

Handbrake and ffmpeg (ffmpegX on OS X) are quite good for conversion to various container forms with H.264 content, but they're not editors and don't convert to MPEG-2 formats.

[j s]

I use comskip and find it very useful - especially for the footy (AFL) with its many short (30 sec when a goal is kicked) ad breaks.

The first thing I do is top & tail the recording with VideoReDo (which also converts it to .mpg PS file)

For current footy broadcasts the score widget etc confuses the logo detection so for each network I extract a 5 min clip from the game preamble (no score widget) and run that thru comskip to dtecet the logo which I then save for future use. The normal logo also often doesn't appear during the opening graphics etc. The networks sometimes also vary the logo so I end up with a small library of logos. I then run comskip against the full trimmed recording using the appropriate logo.

Comskip rarely fails to find the ads this way but it usually does get the cut points quite right so I use VideoReDo (again) to skip thru to the detected cut points and adjust them as necessary, save the project, then output the "clean" recording (still mpg) ready for archiving, conversion, etc.

For the older Flashback games there are no score widgets to confuse things so I just run comskip against the trimmed file (with auto logo detection).

Movies and othe shows are also usually OK though I don't do many of these. I do recommend trimming the file (especially the start) before using Comskip as the logo detection only scans the the first few minutes.

My comskip.ini is little changed from the default apart from output choice options...

Code: Select all

detect_method=111			;1=black frame, 2=logo, 4=scene change, 8=fuzzy logic, 16=closed captions, 32=aspect ration, 64=silence, 128=cutscenes, 255=all
output_debugwindow=0
validate_silence=1			; Default, set to 0 to force using this clues if selected above.
validate_uniform=1			; Default, set to 0 to force using this clues (like pure white frames) if blackframe is selected above.
validate_scenechange=1		; Default, set to 0 to force using this clues if selected above.
verbose=10				;show a lot of extra info, level 5 is also OK, set to 0 to disable
max_brightness=60      			;frame not black if any pixels checked are greater than this (scale 0 to 255)
test_brightness=40      		;frame not pure black if any pixels checked are greater than this, will check average brightness (scale 0 to 255)
max_avg_brightness=25			;maximum average brightness for a dim frame to be considered black (scale 0 to 255) 0 means autosetting
max_commercialbreak=600 		;maximum length in seconds to consider a segment a commercial break
min_commercialbreak=25			;minimum length in seconds to consider a segment a commercial break
max_commercial_size=125			;maximum time in seconds for a single commercial or multiple commercials if no breaks in between
min_commercial_size=4   		;mimimum time in seconds for a single commercial
min_show_segment_length=125 	; any segment longer than this will be scored towards show.
non_uniformity=500			; Set to 0 to disable cutpoints based on uniform frames
max_volume=500				; any frame with sound volume larger than this will not be regarded as black frame
min_silence=12				; Any deep silence longer than this amount  of frames is a possible cutpoint
ticker_tape=0				; Amount of pixels from bottom to ignore in all processing 
logo_at_bottom=1			; Set to 1 to search only for logo at the lower half of the video, do not combine with subtitle setting
subtitles=0
punish=0					; Compare to average for sum of 1=brightness, 2=uniform 4=volume, 8=silence, 16=schange, set to 0 to disable
punish_threshold=1.3		; Multiply when amount is above average * punish_threshold
punish_modifier=2			; When above average * threshold multiply score by this value
intelligent_brightness=0 		; Set to 1 to use a USA specific algorithm to tune some of the settings, not adviced outside the USA
logo_percentile=1.00			; if more then this amount of logo is found then logo detection will be disabled
#logo_percentile=0.92			; if more then this amount of logo is found then logo detection will be disabled
logo_threshold=0.75
punish_no_logo=1			; Default, set to 0 to avoid show segments without logo to be scored towards commercial
aggressive_logo_rejection=0
connect_blocks_with_logo=1		; set to 1 if you want successive blocks with logo on the transition to be regarded as connected, set to 0 to disable
logo_filter=0               ; set the size of the filter to apply to bad logo detection, 4 seems to be a good value.
cut_on_ar_change=1			; set to 1 if you want to cut also on aspect ratio changes when logo is present, set to 2 to force cuts on aspect ratio changes. set to 0 to disable
delete_show_after_last_commercial=0	; set to 1 if you want to delete the last block if its a show and after a commercial
delete_show_before_or_after_current=0	; set to 1 if you want to delete the previous and the next show in the recording, this can lead to the deletion of trailers of next show
delete_block_after_commercial=0	;set to max size of block in seconds to be discarded, set to 0 to disable 
remove_before=1				; amount of seconds of show to be removed before ALL commercials
remove_after=1				; amount of seconds of show to be removed after ALL commercials
shrink_logo=5				; Reduce the duration of the logo with this amount of seconds
after_logo=0		; set to number of seconds after logo disappears comskip should start to search for silence to insert an additional cutpoint
padding=0
ms_audio_delay=5
volume_slip=20
max_repair_size=200			; Will repair maximum 200 missing MPEG frames in the timeline, set to 0 to disable repairing for players that don't use PTS. 
disable_heuristics=4		;bit pattern for disabling heuristics, adding 1 disables heristics 1, adding 2 disables heristics 2, adding 4 disables heristics 3, 255  disables all heuristics 
delete_logo_file=0			; set to 1 if you want comskip to tidy up after finishing
output_framearray=0			; create a big excel file for detailed analysis, set to 0 to disable
output_videoredo=1
output_womble=0
output_mls=0			; set to 1 if you want MPeg Video Wizard bookmark file output
output_cuttermaran=0
output_mpeg2schnitt=0
output_mpgtx=0
output_dvrcut=0
output_zoomplayer_chapter=0
output_zoomplayer_cutlist=0
output_edl=0
output_edlx=0
output_vcf=0
output_bsplayer=0
output_btv=0				; set to 1 if you want Beyond TV chapter cutlist output
output_projectx=0			; set to 1 if you want ProjectX cutlist output (Xcl)
output_avisynth=0
output_vdr=0				; set to 1 if you want XBMC to skipping commercials
output_demux=0				; set to 1 if you want comskip to demux the mpeg file while scanning
sage_framenumber_bug=0
sage_minute_bug=0
live_tv=0					; set to 1 if you use parallelprocessing and need the output while recording
live_tv_retries=4			; change to 16 when using live_tv in BTV, used for mpeg PS and TS
dvrms_live_tv_retries=300			; only used for dvr_ms
standoff=0					; change to 8000000 when using live_tv in BTV
cuttermaran_options="cut=\"true\" unattended=\"true\" muxResult=\"false\" snapToCutPoints=\"true\" closeApp=\"true\""
mpeg2schnitt_options="mpeg2schnitt.exe /S /E /R25  /Z %2 %1"
avisynth_options="LoadPlugin(\"MPEG2Dec3.dll\") \nMPEG2Source(\"%s\")\n"
dvrcut_options="dvrcut \"%s.dvr-ms\" \"%s_clean.dvr-ms\" "
windowtitle="Comskip - %s"

[wazzageek]

Thanks for all the replies. Much appreciated.

Yes it might have helped if I'd used the correct spelling of comskip. All of your replies have just confirmed for me that this is not a straight forward process.

I noticed there seems to be a common theme to convert the TS files to MPG. Is the a reason for this? I thought a TS file was already and MPG format with just a different container. What is the difference? Perhaps comskip has an issue with the TS file?

I will have a look at some of the suggested programs and see how I go. Will also give your ini file a go too JS, thanks.

My main goal is just to compress the TS files to store on my server so I can stream them. Removing the ads would be nice but not essential if I can't do it automatically.

Thanks again for all the help.

Regards
Warren

[prl]

Thanks for all the replies. Much appreciated.
...
I noticed there seems to be a common theme to convert the TS files to MPG. Is the a reason for this? I thought a TS file was already and MPG format with just a different container. What is the difference?
...

The MPEG Transport Stream format is designed for inherently error-prone media, like broadcast. The Program Stream format is designed for media with low error rates, like disk files and DVDs. The TS format has features like error correcting codes on the data. The TS format also supports multiple programs in a single stream (so all of Seven, Sevven HD and 7TWO are packed into one transport stream), while PS only supports one program (there aren't several movies multiplexed together on a DVD so you can switch between the same points in the movies as you do when changing channels on a digital receiver).

Most PVRs simply copy parts, and usually just a single program, from the received MPEG-2 TS into a file when they make a recording.

As I said in my earlier reply, many DVD-Video burn programs do not accept MPEG-2 TS files as input, but they do accept MPEG-2 PS files.