Comskip / DVRMSTooolbox questions

[ThePaladinTech]

Seems that something about this is crashing all the time, or it's just doing a horrible job sometimes (which I kinda doubt).
Question 1. - If there is no commercial skipping I get prompted with "there is no commercial skip info would you like me to run it?" - is this message just a cruel joke as it never seems to work?
Question 2. - Similarly if it did a horrible job how can I make it re-process the show? I'm thinking there is a file somewhere I can delete (per show) and DVRMStoolbox will see it as a recording that needs processed ... but I don't know where or what that file would be named.
Question 3. - Is there a way to handle question 2 from inside the WMC interface? either natively or with an add on?

Thanks for any enlightenment!

[barnabas1969]

First off, you can't run commercial skipping software on copy-protected recordings. Check to see if the show is copy-protected by selecting the show in Recorded TV, and then press the Info button on your remote (CTRL-D on a keyboard). The info display will say "Copy protected" at the bottom if the show is copy protected.

The file you need to delete is named exactly the same as the file that contains the recording, except it has an XML file extension instead of WTV. The XML file may or may not be located in the same directory where the WTV file is located. It depends on the options you chose when you installed the commercial skipping software and DVRMSToolbox.

You will get the prompt asking if you want to scan the show for commercials if the above-mentioned XML file does not exist. The file will not be created for copy-protected shows. It will also not exist if the scan failed for some reason.

Which commercial skip software are you using - Commskip, or ShowAnalyzer?

[ThePaladinTech]

Thanks for the quick response on both posts!

I do not believe *any* of my recordings are copy protected. You are refer to the flags I can look at on the cable tuner? nothing is protected that I am aware of...
No nothing I have checked is copy protected. I mostly record ABC,NBC,CBS,FOX, Food, and History...

I'm running the donator version of comskip... And I *just now* changed DVRMSToolbox to put the files *with* my recordings.

apparently version 0.81.053. I have paid for the donator version of comskip ... not sure if that is the latest. going to check that now. as far as DVRMSToolbox I think I paid for early access there too. but I've never gone in and gotten anything newer than the public stuff as of yet. Lastly I have access to the paid version of ShowAnalyzer but it seemed comskip was working better and is more often updated these days.

[ThePaladinTech]

So I'm curious what the opinion is between comskip and showanalyzer? My Experience is with SageTV and once upon a time I like Showanalyzer way better. but it hasn't been updated in forever, and at least for sageTV recordings comskip became the way to go. it just dawned on me that that determination may be totally incorrect for WMC.

Also it looks like the Dragon Global forums no longer work - can anyone tell me if there is still a beta version which is newer than the one you can publicly download? or what the latest version is?

[barnabas1969]

A lot of people will tell you to use Commskip because it is "supported". But, I've gotta say... if it ain't broke, don't fix it. My point is this...

Showanalyzer works. Who cares if it hasn't been updated in a while? If it works... it works. Period.

Are you going to stop using Media Center because it isn't being developed anymore? It still works, right?

[muranoone]

Hey ThePaladinTech ,

If you navigate to DVRMSToMpegSettings you can suppress these pop up's its in Commercial Skip tab at the bottom Suppress Not Found and check it.
Side note, for the most consistent commercial skips at the first tab in the settings change preferred analyzer to Automatic.

Rob M.