ComSkip command line help? Missed removing commercials - now want to get rid of them after the fact

Server Version#: 1.21.1.3759
Player Version#: N/A

I deleted and recreated my DVR in order to get switched over to Gracenote. All fine and dandy, but I forgot to recreate the settings to cut out commercials.

So… now I’ve got recordings that missed commercial removal, and are less than pleasant to view.

I tried to run “Plex Commercial Skipper.exe” via command line and ran into codec not supported? What the?

What am I missing here?

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server>"Plex Commercial Skipper.exe" "c:\users\myuser\Desktop\Airplane (1980).ts" --ini="c:\users\myuser\Desktop\comskip.ini"
 Comskip 0.82.005, made using ffmpeg
Donator build
The commandline used was:
        "Plex Commercial Skipper.exe"
        "c:\users\myuser\Desktop\Airplane (1980).ts"
        --ini=c:\users\myuser\Desktop\comskip.ini


Setting ini file to c:\users\myuser\Desktop\comskip.ini as per commandline
Using c:\users\myuser\Desktop\comskip.ini for initiation values.
Mpeg:   c:\users\myuser\Desktop\Airplane (1980).ts
Exe     comskip.exe
Logo:   c:\users\myuser\Desktop\Airplane (1980).logo.txt
Ini:    c:\users\myuser\Desktop\comskip.ini

Detection Methods to be used:
        1) Black Frame
        2) Logo - Give up after 2000 seconds
        3) Resolution Change
        4) Aspect Ratio


ComSkip throttles back from -0001 to -0001.
The time is now 1141 so it's full speed ahead!

Settings
--------
[Main Settings]
;the sum of the values for which kind of frames comskip will consider as possibl
e cutpoints: 1=uniform (black or any other color) frame, 2=logo, 4=scene change,
 8=resolution change, 16=closed captions, 32=aspect ration, 64=silence, 255=all.

detect_method=43
;Set to 10 to show a lot of extra info, level 5 is also OK, set to 0 to disable
verbose=10
;Frame not black if any of the pixels of the frame has a brightness greater than
 this (scale 0 to 255)
max_brightness=60
maxbright=1
;Frame not pure black if a small number of the pixels of the frame has a brightn
ess greater than this. To decide if the frame is truly black, comskip will also
check average brightness (scale 0 to 255)
test_brightness=40
;
max_avg_brightness=25
;
max_commercialbreak=600
;
min_commercialbreak=25
;
max_commercial_size=125
;
min_commercial_size=4
;
min_show_segment_length=250
;
max_volume=500
;
max_silence=100
;
non_uniformity=500
[Detailed Settings]
min_silence=12
remove_silent_segments=0
noise_level=5
brightness_jump=200
fps=22
validate_silence=1
validate_uniform=1
validate_scenechange=1
global_threshold=1.05
disable_heuristics=4
cut_on_ac_change=1
[CPU Load Reduction]
thread_count=2
hardware_decode=0
play_nice_start=-1
play_nice_end=-1
play_nice_sleep=2
[Input Correction]
max_repair_size=200
ms_audio_delay=5
volume_slip=40
lowres=0
skip_b_frames=0
[Aspect Ratio]
ar_delta=0.08
cut_on_ar_change=2
[Global Removes]
padding=0
remove_before=0
remove_after=0
added_recording=14
delete_show_after_last_commercial=0
delete_show_before_first_commercial=0
delete_show_before_or_after_current=0
delete_block_after_commercial=0
min_commercial_break_at_start_or_end=39
always_keep_first_seconds=0
always_keep_last_seconds=0
[USA Specific]
intelligent_brightness=1
black_percentile=0.0076
uniform_percentile=0.003
score_percentile=0.71
[Main Scoring]
length_strict_modifier=3
length_nonstrict_modifier=1.5
combined_length_strict_modifier=2
combined_length_nonstrict_modifier=1.25
ar_wrong_modifier=2
ac_wrong_modifier=1
excessive_length_modifier=0.01
dark_block_modifier=0.3
min_schange_modifier=0.5
max_schange_modifier=2
logo_present_modifier=0.01
punish_no_logo=1
[Detailed Scoring]
punish=0
reward=0
punish_threshold=1.3
punish_modifier=2
reward_modifier=0.5
[Logo Finding]
border=10
give_up_logo_search=2000
delay_logo_search=0
logo_max_percentage_of_screen=0.12
ticker_tape=0
ticker_tape_percentage=0
ignore_side=0
ignore_left_side=0
ignore_right_side=0
subtitles=0
logo_at_bottom=0
logo_threshold=0.75
logo_percentage_threshold=0.25
logo_filter=0
aggressive_logo_rejection=0
edge_level_threshold=5
edge_radius=2
edge_weight=10
edge_step=1
num_logo_buffers=50
use_existing_logo_file=1
two_pass_logo=1
[Logo Interpretation]
connect_blocks_with_logo=1
logo_percentile=0.92
logo_fraction=0.4
shrink_logo=5
shrink_logo_tail=0
before_logo=0
after_logo=0
where_logo=0
min_black_frames_for_break=1
[Closed Captioning]
ccCheck=0
cc_commercial_type_modifier=4
cc_wrong_type_modifier=2
cc_correct_type_modifier=0.75
[Live TV]
live_tv=0
live_tv_retries=4
require_div5=0
div5_tolerance=-1
incommercial_frames=1000
[Output Control]
output_default=1
output_chapters=0
output_plist_cutlist=0
output_zoomplayer_cutlist=0
output_zoomplayer_chapter=0
output_scf=0
output_vcf=0
output_vdr=0
output_projectx=0
output_avisynth=0
output_videoredo=0
output_videoredo3=0
videoredo_offset=2
output_btv=0
output_edl=1
output_live=0
edl_offset=0
timeline_repair=1
edl_skip_field=0
output_edlp=0
output_bsplayer=0
output_edlx=0
output_cuttermaran=0
output_mpeg2schnitt=0
output_womble=0
output_mls=0
output_mpgtx=0
output_dvrmstb=0
output_dvrcut=0
output_ipodchap=0
output_framearray=0
output_debugwindow=0
output_tuning=0
output_training=0
output_false=0
output_aspect=0
output_demux=0
output_data=0
output_srt=0
output_smi=0
output_timing=0
output_incommercial=0
output_ffmeta=0
output_ffsplit=0
delete_logo_file=0
output_mkvtoolnix=0
cutscene_frame=0
cutscene_threshold=10
windowtitle="Comskip - %s"
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\" "
[Sage Workarounds]
sage_framenumber_bug=0
sage_minute_bug=0
enable_mencoder_pts=0

[NULL @ 03771cc0] ignoring invalid SAR: 40/33
Input #0, mpegts, from 'c:\users\myuser\Desktop\Airplane (1980).ts':
  Duration: 01:59:54.76, start: 1.400000, bitrate: 2052 kb/s
  Program 1
    Metadata:
      service_name    : Service01
      service_provider: FFmpeg
    Stream #0:0[0x100]: Video: h264 (High) ([27][0][0][0] / 0x001B), none(top first), 704x480 [SAR 40:33 DAR 16:9], Closed Captions, 29.97 fps, 29.97 tbr, 90k tbn, 90k tbc
    Stream #0:1[0x101](eng): Audio: ac3 ([129][0][0][0] / 0x0081), 48000 Hz, stereo, s16p, 192 kb/s
Unsupported codec!
Could not open video codec
c:\users\myuser\Desktop\Airplane (1980).ts: could not open video codec

C:\Program Files (x86)\Plex\Plex Media Server>

I know there’s got to be somebody out there that’s gone this route… :slight_smile:

Bumpety bump bump bump…

image

You’ll need to set at least one environment variable to run Plex Commercial Skipper.exe manually: FFMPEG_EXTERNAL_LIBS:
set FFMPEG_EXTERNAL_LIBS="%LOCALAPPDATA%\Plex Media Server\Codecs\367b3d4-3654-windows-x86\

The last part of that path could vary from system to system, I think. However, running it this way it just going to produce an EDL file. It won’t actually strip the commercials or place markers in the file’s database entry. What you may want to try instead is configuring the library to generate ad markers for all recorded items:

In order for that setting to be available in your library’s advanced settings, you must have your DVR configured to detect commercials and mark for skip:

With these set, it should begin analyzing your recorded media for commercials during the time period defined in scheduled tasks.

1 Like

Drat, I didn’t realize that ComSkip didn’t actually create a modified file. :confused:

I use PMP on Windows as my main streaming application, as I need a 10’ UI for my TV sets. Plex for Windows isn’t suitable for this environment. As PMP doesn’t support marked commercials for skipping, this unfortunately won’t work in my situation.

Guess it’s time for me to break out the scalpel and manually trim the commercials out. Ewww.

Thanks for your additional help. I was wondering if there was an environmental variable that wasn’t being called up, but that was well over my head.

Edit - apologies, saw someone already put this above. I should have read the whole thread!

Plex has an option at the library level to run commercial removal for existing recordings. I haven’t tried it, but it may address your need.

Yep, that would work, if PMP were updated to skip detected commercials. As that’s my current player on my TVs, this solution doesn’t work for me. I’ve got need for the 10’ UI in PMP, that isn’t available in Plex for Windows.

Bummer…

Wish they’d update PMP!

AFAIK, comskip generates chapter markers in Plex. And you can skip to the next chapter in PMP.

Hmm… I’ll take a look at that. Thanks Otto. :slight_smile:

In case you missed this in the new release:

You should now be able to click Analyze on a single episode, season, or show and have commercial skipper run on the item(s).

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