andy vt's tools & blog

Having had success with using comskip to mark the adverts with MPEG2 WTV recordings I now would like to use it to mark the adverts on HD H264 WTV recordings. I've tried using the "convert to DVRMS, scan for commercials, delete DVRMS" profile I used on the MPEG2 WTV files but unfortunately WTVConverter doesn't seem to work with H264. I've tried downloading Showanalyzer but it doesn't find any ads so I'd rather stick with comskip if I can. I do have the early access H264 version of comskip but it doesn't like WTV files so I need to convert them to something it does like. Thanks in advance! Kevin

Try using toDVRMS.  You should find several posts on the site to help get it setup.  Also, there is a blog entry from when babgvant first released it.  Let me know if you need more help.

toDVRMS won't work - you can't have h.264 inside a dvr-ms file, it isn't supported by the container. That is part of the reason they started using the WTV container. Besides, Comskip's h.264 detection only works on h.264 .ts files so you will need to get them into that container. VideoRedo's $100 beta software is the only software I know that can easily remux directly from .wtv to .ts, but there could be something I'm not aware of. You could probably do it using free tools if you took a couple steps (remux to mkv then remux to ts).

Is there a FAQ on how to call an external file from the toolbox? I have VideoReDo so can call that to do the conversion. I tried toDVRMS which started to convert the file using activemovie before exiting after a few seconds.

There is a plugin option in the profile editor named RunExternal that you can use to run an external file.  I use it to call the wtvconverter built in to Win7.  You can also use something like Metadatawait (I think that's what it's called) before you use call the throttle in order to make it wait to start the conversion until after the files is done recording. 

 Just make sure you have the beta version (4) of VideoRedo that can handle h.264 files. The released version cannot. You can find it on their forums.

http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/forumdisplay.php?f=39

You could also try this free converter from here

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/p/61538/455143.aspx#455143

 

Should be able to convert to a .ts file with this

Thanks for the help. I tried the tool but ended up with video and no sound. As I've got VideoReDo with H264 I'm going to use that. I just need to perfect the command line as I'm getting no video on the converted file although it works a charm using the GUI. So far I've taken the "convert to DVRMS, scan for commercials, delete DVRMS" profile and am modifying it to use VideoReDo instead of WTVConverter, I'll post the profile once I've perfected it so others can use it.

No prob,

If you don't mind taking the time you could post over to that thread at thegreenbutton with a 50 MB chunk of your file.  The author is actively fixing bugs right now.  He managed to fix a problem I had within a day.  All the instructions are there.

Glad VideoRedo is working out for you, I'm sure that will help others too.

File chopped and posted. Profile almost working too ;-)

sheppy99:

Thanks for the help. I tried the tool but ended up with video and no sound. As I've got VideoReDo with H264 I'm going to use that. I just need to perfect the command line as I'm getting no video on the converted file although it works a charm using the GUI. So far I've taken the "convert to DVRMS, scan for commercials, delete DVRMS" profile and am modifying it to use VideoReDo instead of WTVConverter, I'll post the profile once I've perfected it so others can use it.

 I'd love to have a copy of that profile Sheppy as I'm trying to do much the same thing. The only thing that's keeping me from success is being able to call video redo through the profile :-)

I'm having problems with it too. I can call it from the command line just fine, and I see it get called using RunExternal inside the profile what seems to be properly (the correct command line ends up in the DTB log), but the process doesn't seem to get kicked off so I get no output.

It's really unfortunate that people don't post their profiles. I wouldn't be surprised if the vast majority of them fit other user's needs.

Instead it seems that everyone has to keep re-inventing the wheel....

OK, I've attached it. it consists of 4 files, the profile "remuxtool2.dpc" a batchfile that runs VRD "vrd.cmd," "sleep.exe" which is a microsoft resource kit file that makes the batch file wait and a token file "VRDRunning.txt"
Create the following folders:
C:\TV
C:\TV\Tokens
C:\TV\Comskip
C:\Batch
place VRD.cmd, sleep.exe and VRDRunning.txt in c:\batch
You then need to edit the batch file to
The batchfile will need editing to change where the token is placed - currently C:\TV\tokens and also where the temporary Mpeg2 file is put once it is processed.
The batch file does the following:
1) Checks that the temporary file doesn't already exist and exits if it does
2) Checks that the temporary file doesn't exist in G:\TV_Processing - my profile at one stage put the files here once comskip had finished in case I wanted to tweak it
3) Checks that VRD isn't already running by looking for c:\tv\tokens\VRDRunning.txt
4) Copies VRDRunning.txt before it starts VRD
5) Deletes VRDRunning.txt once it's done 

The profile needs copying to where your DVRMSToolbox profiles live, and then needs editing to reflect where your working folders are.
variables:
TempMpeg is what the temporary MPEG is called including it's path
commercialsxml is the XML file from comskip including it's path
cutDvrmsFile is the wtv file you are processing
E:\TV|Processed Tv" is where my TV lives once it has completed recording
I record to my C: drive which is a SSD so once it has finished recording it is moved to a hard disk before VRD runs
I also use a different comskip.ini for each TV channel which is referenced in the line that calls comskip.

The run order of the profile is as follows:
1)Wait until it's finished recording
2)Move it from my SSD to one of my hard disks
3)Set the variables that are passed to VRD
4)call the VRD batch file with the variables
5)Run Comskip using a custom ini file based on the channel it recorded from
6)Fix the duration - this may not be necessary for unprocessed WTV files
7)Delete the temporary MPEG2 file to save disk space

Have fun, and good luck! Please let me know how it works out