[outleradam]

Harry, I would like you to keep this thread updated please. I am subscribed. Comskip is the highest form of media augmentation.

If you come across any code which could be the root of comskip v1 not being on-time, please post. I can do java and vb and some c#. When it comes to looking at the svn, I'm like... What does this do?

I suspect comskip 1, which does not include a framerate, is using ffmpeg or similar calculated framerate at the start of the show, but not compensating for dropped or mislabeled framerate. It may skip counting frames in it's cutlist. Either way the problem is cumulative and the margin of error becomes greater toward the end of the video. It is always too early.

[Harry Muscle]

I've updated the trac ticket with the latest patch. It's setup to do exactly what dteierney and I have talked about in the last few days on here. I've also improved error handling a bit, by being more robust and not totally discarding the whole file if only one line has an issue. This will be especially useful since unlike the other EDL file formats supported that are usually created by other applications, this EDL file format we're talking about will most likely be created by hand and would be more prone to human error, etc.

Check it out: http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/10182

Thanks,
Harry

[outleradam]

Harry, I noticed that this is directed towards the user rather then "generated" jobs. Is there a problem with adopting the format into future releases of mythicalLibrarian?

I would like to see a example or a format like laid out here in this link http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=EDL...rt#Comskip

Since you are basically setting a new standard, an ISO of sorts, this should be very well documented. Please consider starting a new wiki page like I did here for cleanliness of the mythcialLibrarian documentation. http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Myt...n_UserJobs

The only real example I've found is this:

Code:

1234 1:23:45.678 av
33.444 123456798 c
9999 s
1111 2222 av
3333 4444 c
5555 s
23.978 f

It leaves questions like; Is framerate required? What is the extension?

Basically, this looks like a combination of MythTV EDL (framerate) and MPlayer EDL (Time), with the user friendliness of using letters instead of numbers.

So, from what I'm seeing here, it looks like it would be easy to do something like this. Basically, let me get this straight.

Say, commerical is from frame 10000-20000, I could go like this:

Code:

9940 s
9980 20000v
10000 20000c

Which should first give the user a visual warning that a commercial is being skipped, then skip the commerical. If the user decides that the commercial is skipped in the wrong spot, he/she can hit the previous button and jump to the scene marker?

Now, assuming that the commercial was not there, and the user decided that they did not want to skip that part, is there a provision that upon second execution, the Video blank and the skip will not be executed?

[Harry Muscle]

Harry, I noticed that this is directed towards the user rather then "generated" jobs. Is there a problem with adopting the format into future releases of mythicalLibrarian?

I would like to see a example or a format like laid out here in this link http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=EDL...rt#Comskip

Since you are basically setting a new standard, an ISO of sorts, this should be very well documented. Please consider starting a new wiki page like I did here for cleanliness of the mythcialLibrarian documentation. http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Myt...n_UserJobs

The only real example I've found is this:

Code:

1234 1:23:45.678 av
33.444 123456798 c
9999 s
1111 2222 av
3333 4444 c
5555 s
23.978 f

It leaves questions like; Is framerate required? What is the extension?

Basically, this looks like a combination of MythTV EDL (framerate) and MPlayer EDL (Time), with the user friendliness of using letters instead of numbers.

So, from what I'm seeing here, it looks like it would be easy to do something like this. Basically, let me get this straight.

Say, commerical is from frame 10000-20000, I could go like this:

Code:

9940 s
9980 20000v
10000 20000c

Which should first give the user a visual warning that a commercial is being skipped, then skip the commerical. If the user decides that the commercial is skipped in the wrong spot, he/she can hit the previous button and jump to the scene marker?

Now, assuming that the commercial was not there, and the user decided that they did not want to skip that part, is there a provision that upon second execution, the Video blank and the skip will not be executed?

The format you mention is what I had originally intended to implement, but dteirney thought it would be best to not create yet another EDL file format since there's already 4 (although granted, none of them are as flexible as the one I proposed ). If you look back a few posts I had a conversation going back and forth between the two of us where we decided it would probably be best to expand the existing MPlayer EDL file format to allow specifying frame numbers (since it's already the most flexible of the formats it made sense to add any new features to this file type). Currently as things stand, the new format would be identical to what's detailed in wiki on MPlayer EDL, but it also would allow specifying HH:MM:SS.sss instead of just seconds and frame numbers by preceeeding the frame number with the # symbol (ie: #1234). Also I've added some error correction code so that if a user specifies only one time for a scene marker it won't fail (since only one time is actually needed).

Currently it's not possible to specify a frame rate in the file. There's no problem to code that feature in, but we'd have to come up with an acceptable and standardized method of doing that, that most can agree on. Although in most situations one wouldn't have to specify frame rate information, it's only needed if XBMC doesn't detect it correct and frame numbers are used instead of time.

If the latest patch gets accepted, the second example you show would look something like this:

#0 #9940 2
#9980 #20000 0
#10000 #20000 3

Explanation:
First Line: 2 = scene marker action at frame 9940, this line can also be written without the first #0 which normally gets discarded anyway
Second Line: 0 = cut action (both video and audio) between frame 9980 and 20000
Third Line: 3 = commercial break action between frame 10000 and 20000

You could also use a combination of HH:MM:SS.sss, seconds, and frame numbers if you wish so the first example you showed would now look something like this:

#1234 1:23:45.678 0
33.444 #123456798 3
#0 #9999 2
#1111 #2222 0
#3333 #4444 3
#0 #5555 2

Again, the two scene markers can be written without the first #0 and the code will compensate. Also the frame rate information was left out since it's not possible to add that yet, unless we come up with a standardized method to do that.

Hope this help a bit.

Once the patch is accepted I'll add/modify stuff on the wiki to explain the new format, etc.

Thanks,
Harry

[MacGyver]

I would use it, if it had an on-screen display, where I could click EDL mode, and an EDL OSD would come up, that allowed me to set start/stop points, and maybe even the ability to slow down the video so I could better set the points, also the ability to blank the audio or video or just skip would be cool. If your EDL file contained a hash in it of the movie file, and there was the ability to share them off to a repository, that would be cool too. Then we split the work with other like minded parents that use XBMC.
I mean the whole "Knight and Day" movie was just about fine, except for the language in one little part. I didn't mind it, but I do mind my kid hearing it.

[Nick8888]

Wow, not sure how I didnt see this thread the last few days, it certainly has grown.

@Harry Muscle, thanks for the additional edl error checking! Just to be clear, the two times I have had an invalid edl was a) when I was testing and accidently left a blank line at the end of the file and b) sometimes for whatever reason, comskip's last commercial break end time is outside the duration of the film (i think? because deleting the last line has fixed it on all occasions).

[outleradam]

If the latest patch gets accepted, the second example you show would look something like this:

That's cool! It's a merger of MDL and MythTV EDL. I know you're expanding on MDL, but XDL is an appropriate name for this format, since it is basically a merger of two existing formats. This sounds like a great idea. Have you suggested this to the Mplayer guys, or is this going to be a local only project?

[Harry Muscle]

That's cool! It's a merger of MDL and MythTV EDL. XDL is an appropriate name for this format, since it is basically a merger of two existing formats. This sounds like a great idea. Have you suggested this to the Mplayer guys, or is this going to be a local only project?

I don't use MythTV, so I'm not too familiar with their EDL setup, but I thought the EDL info comes straight from the application and not from some file? If there is indeed a MythTV EDL file if you got any info on it that would help.

Currently the plan is to just keep the .edl extension, but allow the new features already mentioned since they can coexist with all the existing .edl file stuff. Maybe if we get enough interest in creating a new more powerful format for specifying EDL info we could create a new .xdl file type, but for now we'll try to expand the existing EDL file format.

As for letting the MPlayer guys know, haven't even thought of that. I'll look into things when/if I got some time.

Thanks,
Harry

[Harry Muscle]

Wow, not sure how I didnt see this thread the last few days, it certainly has grown.

@Harry Muscle, thanks for the additional edl error checking! Just to be clear, the two times I have had an invalid edl was a) when I was testing and accidently left a blank line at the end of the file and b) sometimes for whatever reason, comskip's last commercial break end time is outside the duration of the film (i think? because deleting the last line has fixed it on all occasions).

The submitted patch currently only improves error handling for .edl files. Once that patch is approved though I'll look into making similar improvements to the error handling when reading the other file types.

Thanks,
Harry

[Harry Muscle]

I've submitted what I'm hoping is the final revision of the patch to the trac ticket (http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/10182), so now we play the waiting game

Dteirney, when you get a moment if you could look over the patch and hopefully approve it that would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Harry

[Harry Muscle]

SNIP
Future:
4) Implement the Audio Muting / Silence functionality - no idea how, you'll have to get some input from the other devs.
5) Figure out how to integrate with the XBMC Video Bookmarks functionality for Scene Markers that are loaded from an EDL source.
6) Enhance the Commercial Break related EDL sources to automatically include Scene Markers at the end of each commercial break.

SNIP

Number 4 is done ... here's the trac ticket for it: http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/10291

As for number 5, are you referring to having scene markers show up on the Bookmarks screen? Or do you want scene markers to become bookmarks? I've never actually used bookmarks before, so I'm not too familiar with what they do, etc., but if anyone feels like expounding point number 5 so it can be a bit more clear feel free and I'll see what I can do to implement it.

As for number 6, I thought I read somewhere that the EDL code already puts in scene markers at the beginning and end of commercial skips so that you can press (I think) the up button to go back to the beginning of the part that was skipped. Or was this maybe a suggestion that was not yet implemented?

Thanks,
Harry

[Nick8888]

Regarding 6) From my own experience I don't believe it currently does. I think it just skips the normal amount ie 30sec or 10mins. This would be a nice feature because sometimes comskip programs don't get it 100% and may leave an ad or two at the start of a commercial break. Also it would maybe feed into a feature of letting the user choose what happens when a commercial break is reached. eg:

1) automatically skip it (current implementation)
2) notify the user who can then press skip forward which takes them to the scene marker after the break.

Please don't think I expect you to implement all these features I suggest. I am merely making suggestions for discussion. I think you've done a great job already!

[Harry Muscle]

Regarding 6) From my own experience I don't believe it currently does. I think it just skips the normal amount ie 30sec or 10mins. This would be a nice feature because sometimes comskip programs don't get it 100% and may leave an ad or two at the start of a commercial break. Also it would maybe feed into a feature of letting the user choose what happens when a commercial break is reached. eg:

1) automatically skip it (current implementation)
2) notify the user who can then press skip forward which takes them to the scene marker after the break.

Please don't think I expect you to implement all these features I suggest. I am merely making suggestions for discussion. I think you've done a great job already!

Thanks for the clarification. I'll have to look into this further. I was thinking though that I'll probably hold off on any further EDL related patches until those other two get accepted. I don't wanna end up with a bunch of submitted patches that are still not in the SVN and start coding stuff that might be dependant on those patches, etc.

I was thinking while I wait for the patches to be approved I'll switch focus to implementing a better solution for cataloging DVDs. I've started a thread about it here: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?p=6...post611275 (and added comments to this thread too: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?p=6...post611282).

Thanks,
Harry

[Harry Muscle]

First patch is in the SVN. Thanks Dteirney for getting it in so quickly. Also thanks for noticing my little millisecond conversation issue, oops

Thanks,
Harry

[dteirney]

Number 4 is done ... here's the trac ticket for it: http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/10291

As for number 5, are you referring to having scene markers show up on the Bookmarks screen? Or do you want scene markers to become bookmarks? I've never actually used bookmarks before, so I'm not too familiar with what they do, etc., but if anyone feels like expounding point number 5 so it can be a bit more clear feel free and I'll see what I can do to implement it.

As for number 6, I thought I read somewhere that the EDL code already puts in scene markers at the beginning and end of commercial skips so that you can press (I think) the up button to go back to the beginning of the part that was skipped. Or was this maybe a suggestion that was not yet implemented?

Thanks,
Harry

5 was just a random thought to use some existing functionality in XBMC to move between the commercial breaks. I'm not sure that it's that useful. I haven't really used bookmarks before either. Maybe the way that bookmarks are shown, e.g. thumbnails, should also be used for any scene markers in the file. That would give a nice way of jumping between the chapters in a DVD as well (outside of what the DVD itself provides) as I think when a DVD is ripped the chapter markers are typically retained. I don't really know enough about how the ffmpeg chapter support works to talk much more about this.

re 6. Yes, you are right, at the moment the EDL code does put in scene markers (at the start and end of commercial breaks). This is so the "next scene" and "previous scene" buttons (if mapped to keys on the remote) can be used to jump between commercials. There is also functionality in dvdplayer that handles this using the normal "skip" and "big skip" buttons to go back to the start of a recently skipped commercial break, and to the end of the current one. Full details on the wiki.