[detectads] Automatically bookmark ad breaks

[Black Hole]

Why am I getting this?



(HDR1: 1.02.20/2.20, everything else on auto-update; works fine on HDR3: 1.02.32/2.20)

 

[cfav125]

This is my first post to a forum so apologies in advance for inadvertently offending anyone's sensibilities.

I've been trying out the 'detect adverts' and 'bookmarks' options and have found that if there is an apostrophe in a file's path or name then neither will work. They are not responsive to clicking on the 'Back to Media Browser' button on their respective pages for example. On the 'detect adverts' page, the 'Analysing recording, please wait...' & 'Still working, please be patient...' spinners twirl endlessly with no progress being reported.

Looking at the source of the page, there is piece of Javascript where at least part of the problem may lie - ie too many apostrophes causing a syntax error.
eg:
<script type=text/javascript>
var initbookmarks = '';
var len = 8217;
var file = '/media/My Video/Agatha Christie's Poirot/Hercule_Poirot's_Christmas.ts';
var dir = '/media/My Video/Agatha Christie's Poirot';
</script>

If the apostrophes in the file path/name are removed then both options work as designed.

 

[njm]

@cfav125 thanks for investigating. Looks like you've found the cause of Black Hole's problem. I'll put some escaping in and send an updated package to af123 for inclusion in the main repository.

 

[Black Hole]

Could be! I was running it on a different example on HDR3 - bad experimental practice!

njm - I'm sure af has some advice about handling the variety of Humax strings, he 's seen enough!

 

[Dave F.]

Adverts start and end with short silences; clusters of these short silences indicate an ad break, which Detectads delimits with bookmarks. .

Looks really useful & will try it out ASAP.

I thought the 'silences' were actually gaps to transmit a signal specifically to indicate an ad-break so that PVRs could pause recording. It never got implemented for the obvious reason that users could skip the adverts of manufacturers of the PVRs. A clear case of shooting yourself in the foot. AFAIK that signal is still transmitted. Could that not be used?

 

[mihaid]

If it takes half the time to process an HD recording having addetect on all the time would mean it runs pretty much all the time? I have a 5hr hd rec. Does it mean it would take me 2.5 hrs to addetect?

 

[Black Hole]

If it takes half the time to process an HD recording having addetect on all the time would mean it runs pretty much all the time?

Depends how much recording you do from services that run adverts. If that's 12 hours a day, then yes!

I have a 5hr hd rec. Does it mean it would take me 2.5 hrs to addetect?

Give that man a cigar!

I thought the 'silences' were actually gaps to transmit a signal specifically to indicate an ad-break so that PVRs could pause recording. It never got implemented for the obvious reason that users could skip the adverts of manufacturers of the PVRs. A clear case of shooting yourself in the foot. AFAIK that signal is still transmitted. Could that not be used?

The " 'silences' " really are silences that separate the soundtrack of one advert from the soundtrack of the next (or the programme itself), you only have to listen to hear them (or not hear them!). As to this signal of yours, if it was transmitted somebody would be using it.

 

[mihaid]

There was a serious point with all that earlier, having auto decrypt followed by addetect would mean a lot of activity on the poor hummy processor. Also if I have to wait 2.5 hrs to get my bookmarks when I could skip the ads with 5 to 10 skip presses is it really worth it? Probably only for people who then want to crop, but then you still have the issue: has it found all the ads?

 

[Black Hole]

As said before, it's another tool in the box for those who want it. I agree with you - it's probably something I would only use on the odd occasion, but it's probably also something better not to tell SWMBO you have up your sleeve.

 

[5cr4]

Well a good way to reduce the amount of time it takes to process each file would be to break the recording audio up into chunks, have each box process the ads in only a small portion of the file and return the bookmark results to a centralised server. The server would collate them and redistribute a complete bookmark file. The server could mitigate any different starting points for recordings across different boxes (to yield a common origin for time stamps), as well as determine the size of the chunk each box would have to process (inversely proportional to the number of different boxes checking in to the server). Discrepancies between timestamps could be filtered through redundancy.

 

[Ron Taylor]

Very impressed with this package which accurately identifies all ads in my Midsomer Murders. It does however have problems with channel 5. For my sins I record both Home & Away, and Neighbours. So far detectads has consistently failed to detect any ads, putting bookmarks only at the scheduled start and finish times - I use padding on channel 5 as they rarely adhere to their schedule. Does channel 5 not follow the normal silences?

 

[Wallace]

I did a test recording on Channel 5 a little while ago and it detected all the ad breaks OK and I also have padding set on this channel (multimode package). However, detectads is not a package I plan on using as I prefer just to hit the jump forward/back button. I have programmed them to my taste.

 

[kevindickinson]

I recorded two copies of Corrie, one on ITV the other the repeat in ITV2 (well my wife did as she thought the first one had not recorded).

Detectads correctly marked ads at start middle and end on ITV but only found the ones at the end on ITV2?

 

[rowanmoor]

This has been working well for me on a number of different programs. So far I have just been running it manually. I just tried it on a couple of films and it seemed to just give up after 15-20 minutes and not add any bookmarks. Is this expected? I tried it from both an iPad and Firefox on a PC.

I noticed that someone asked if it processes all channells or just the advert ones, but didn't see a reply. Most of my recording is BBC, with a few select things from other channels. I would prefer it if it could ignore BBC recordings - I would certainly turn on automatic processing then. I am a bit afraid to at the moment. Will it try and process all the existing recordings when I turn it to automatic, or just new ones?

 

[AV_Mike]

I have the same experience as rowanmoor. If I try to run Detectads manually from WebIF on a previously recorded film - it gives up after processing about 20mins worth, there is a dialog on the screen that contains the following text:-
The page at 192.168.1.67 says:
There is nothing else in the dialog box except an OK button.
Clicking the OK button clears the dialog, and drops you back to the Detectads screen, with processing now stopped - but no bookmarks recorded, not even the couple it managed to find before stopping.
I have Detectads running automatically on recordings that remain in the My Video folder (Judge Judy, ITV3, for my mother..........................really) and there it works perfectly.
Would it be possible to allow files to be added manually to the Detectads queue instead - that seems to work fine, and allows processing to restart automatically after power cycles.
Hopefully development of Detectads will continue, along with better integration with Sweeper so that file movements can be tracked.
Regards, Mike.

 

[njm]

Good ideas, both. Here's what I'm hoping to include in the next version:

• Auto-process files that have been moved by sweeper (done)
• Resume auto-processing of a recording if it's interrupted by the box going into standby. Right now it starts over again. (partially done)
• Add a setting to ignore BBC recordings (not done)
• Queue recordings from the webif rather than processing them directly in the webif (not done)

 

[njm]

rowanmoor, if you switch on auto-processing it will only auto-process new recordings (once they have been decrypted by auto-decrypt).

 

[rowanmoor]

rowanmoor, if you switch on auto-processing it will only auto-process new recordings (once they have been decrypted by auto-decrypt).

Thanks for the confirmation. I guessed that would be the case, but didn't want to assume.

Those new features sound great. For my viewing habbits it will be perfect then.

 

[Border]

it's probably something I would only use on the odd occasion,

If detactads was added to sweeper as an option then would you be able to select which occasions to use?

but if sweeper moves the recording after it has been decrypted then it won't get processed. I use sweeper to move all my films into a folder, so right now none of my films get processed automatically.

If detectads was added to sweeper as a folder option would that get around this?

 

[Black Hole]

Not the best place to mention it, but in the same vein I would like to choose MP2 or full MP3 extraction on a case by case basis rather than as a global setting too.