if there's enough demand for it...

along those lines, what other functionality does everyone want?

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DVRMSToolbox, Recording Broker, LcdWriter, and more software
babgvant.com

Just trying out (or rather, getting ready to) the new skip functionality.  I've got a couple of files running through, but while I'm waiting had a couple of suggestions:

1.  The GUI still seems to expect you to specify an output filename, even though one doesn't appear to be required for the action to create commercials xml file.

2.  As you won't necessarily know if a file has been processed for commercials when you're watching recorded TV, could the addin display a small symbol when it's a) playing back a file that has been processed and b) in a section detected as a commercial?  Appreciate that everyone might not want this so maybe an option somewhere to specify it.

Any thoughts?  Is this even possible??

Thanks again for all the effort on this tool - it's excellent already!

 

Tom

when processing just for commercials, the output file isn't used... enter any value you want, it's ignored...

I didn't remove the requirement that something is entered because I didn't want the tool to validate that it was collecting the right inputs per profile...

If you hit the up or down button for a show that doesn't have a commercials file, the add-in will tell you that the file doesn't exist. If the file does exist, and you click up or down in an area that isn't defined as a commercial the add-in assumes that it was a mistake and does nothing. I wanted to send the least amount of messages to the interface as I can...

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DVRMSToolbox, Recording Broker, LcdWriter, and more software
babgvant.com

Thanks - I still think some indication would be nice.  As it stands you'll only know if it's a 'processed' file if you manually processed it yourself via the GUI.  Even if you have the watcher running, you don't know if the file has finished processing.  I'm not so much suggesting a message as just a small symbol (maybe an up arrow to suggest that you can hit up arrow to skip forward?)

Incidentally just tried it out on my first file and it works great.  Of course the commercial detection isn't perfect yet, but suspect this will improve over time.  It also works much better on certain channels and/or certain programs - guess this has a lot to do with aspect ratio.

Thanks for listening,

Tom

MCE limits the type of interaction that the add-in can have with MCE to dialog boxes... as far as I know there's no way that the add-in can add a symbol, maybe in the next rev of MCE...

if you use DVRMSFileWatcher to automatically process the files, it has a log file that you can look at by right clicking on the icon in the system tray.

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DVRMSToolbox, Recording Broker, LcdWriter, and more software
babgvant.com

babqVant,

Sorry..I can't seem to find dvrmst2mpegstreams anywhere in the GUI, nor do I see it documented anywhere other than the first post which just say's it's there.

Again, sorry for my stupidity, but I'm clueless how to utilize this action.

 

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Ghostlobster
Very happy convert to SageTV! Finally, watching ESPN-HD in real HD on my HTPC without having to deal with the CableCARD fiasco!

Whoa!   My bad!  It's there automatically and just flat out WORKS!   It's chugging through a file now, I'll let you know the result!

 

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Ghostlobster
Very happy convert to SageTV! Finally, watching ESPN-HD in real HD on my HTPC without having to deal with the CableCARD fiasco!

OK, maybe I am the blind one now...

dvrmst2mpegstreams??

Where do I find this... I am so confused...

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Travis Bell
themoviedb.org | The open movie database

babqVant,

Question: On the DVRMSFileWatcher, what is the Output Directory for? Not sure what to enter there.

Also, I'm wondering if you or somebody else could help me to create a Profile that would try to cut out the commercials but if that fails, still make use of the XML file to be able to skip commercials while watching.

Also, any chance this XML plugin works with Extenders or just a main MCE unit?

Randy

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Randy Harris
http://www.MacSeven.com

Maybe I'm imagining things, but in 1.0.9.0 it seems all profiles that remove commercials are actually missing the "Cut Commercials from DVR-MS" action!

I tried "Cut commercials, output to DVR-MS and move to Recorded TV" earlier and it dies right after finding commercials. It seems like it dumps to mpeg, runs comskip, then deletes the temp files. That's it.

So I put "Cut commercials from DVR-MS" in between "Find commercials" and "Delete temp files" and it worked. Well, it hangs splicing DVR-MS, retries, and hangs again, but I know about that issue.

I checked all the other profiles that cut commercials and they are missing the same action. I thought I might have had some corrupted profiles, so I deleted the DVRMSToolbox folder fromn Program Files and reinstalled it. Still missing the action in every profile that needs it.

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If you can't see the fnord, it can't eat you.

Not sure if anyone else has noticed this or not, but with the new plug-in to skip commercials turned on, it tries to skip commercials no matter what module you are in... like the Radio module, My pictures, etc.  Every time you try and choose another channel in the My Radio, it says "file not found."  Turning off the plug-in fixes it and I know it's a simple fix, but just thought I'd let you know.

Also, if the plug-in is turned on (I'm still testing this to see if it happens all the time or if it is just a coincidence) and you have the My Movies Plug-in, they are incompatible... open the My Movies, and use the down arrow to move to a different cover and the machine locks up... I'm still testing this; I'll try the same combo on a different MCE machine and see if it hangs up there too or if it is just a quirk of my machine.

Tim

 

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My setup:  MCE 2005, Intel D865GBF  MB, 1 PVR-500 (dual tuner) 2 WinTV-PVR-150 , 1 Avermedia A180  HDTV card,  PNY6200 Video, 2 GB DDR Mem, 2-250GB SATA (RAID 0) data and 1-120GB system drive.

Hi All, quick question

I am currently trying out the software, but it seems to be taking a hell of a long time to convert. I have tried the ad's detection only and it is taking up to six hours for a 30 min program. I can't but help think this is a bit long. I have a reasonably high spec machine so i don't think it is that. But at least it is now working, if not a bit slowly

Cheers for the work guys.

Gareth

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Sony VAIO VGX-XL100 - Vista Home Premium
Intel PentD 920, 1GB Ram, Gforce 6600 128mb, Sigmatel HD Audio CXD9872RD, Nova-T-500, Aver A16C DVB-T, 1x250GB, 1x200GB
Drivers:
Nvidia 6600-160.03(Beta), Sigmatel-6.10.0.5290, NovaT-4.3.25080.0, A16C-3.6.0.7

Something is off.  I can convert and remove commercials from an hour show (recorded @ best setting) in about 45 mins... I have a 3 Ghz P4 and 1.5GB ram... but I can't see it taking 6 hours...

The longest conversion I've done is a 3 hr television show that I've converted and it took about an hour and half or so...

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My setup:  MCE 2005, Intel D865GBF  MB, 1 PVR-500 (dual tuner) 2 WinTV-PVR-150 , 1 Avermedia A180  HDTV card,  PNY6200 Video, 2 GB DDR Mem, 2-250GB SATA (RAID 0) data and 1-120GB system drive.

babqVant,

Bad news...I let this process run last night...after running comskip, it started writing the final .mpg file out to the proper directory.  Unfortunately, the file stopped growing in size after it reached at 56MB.  I went up to the machine and saw in the dialog box within the GUI just a string of "%" descending down the screen with no other data and dvrmstompg was chewing up about 50% of the CPU.  I let it run overnight, came back to it this morning and saw the same behavior...the file had not grown and the GUI just showed a string of %.

Any clues?

 

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Ghostlobster
Very happy convert to SageTV! Finally, watching ESPN-HD in real HD on my HTPC without having to deal with the CableCARD fiasco!

DVRMS2MPEGStreams has replaced the old dvrmstompeg action in all of the profiles.  So it is already there.

If you want to add it to a profile you can select it from the action list

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DVRMSToolbox, Recording Broker, LcdWriter, and more software
babgvant.com