# Ad Detective



## mkstretch (Apr 11, 2005)

How accurate is Ad Detective?


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

It's decent, but not accurate enough for me. I find that I always have to tweak the cut points anyway, so I just do the edits manually.

I use it mainly when making DVDs to find the points I want to put scene markers at.


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

Comskip -- integrated into kmttg -- is more accurate.

If you have VideoRedo, you can use kmttg to run VideoRedo Quickstream fix (to eliminate any stream errors), run comskip to detect commercials, and then cut the commercials with VideoRedo...all as part of the download process.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

bkdtv said:


> Comskip -- integrated into kmttg -- is more accurate.
> 
> If you have VideoRedo, you can use kmttg to run VideoRedo Quickstream fix (to eliminate any stream errors), run comskip to detect commercials, and then cut the commercials with VideoRedo...all as part of the download process.


I've crafted some additional comskip.ini files for specific series' that I record, so comskip has the benefit of being customizable as well...


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## mkstretch (Apr 11, 2005)

bkdtv said:


> Comskip -- integrated into kmttg -- is more accurate.
> 
> If you have VideoRedo, you can use kmttg to run VideoRedo Quickstream fix (to eliminate any stream errors), run comskip to detect commercials, and then cut the commercials with VideoRedo...all as part of the download process.


How would I go about that?


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

mkstretch said:


> How would I go about that?


Learn about and download kmttg from this site: http://code.google.com/p/kmttg/

It's pretty easy to setup and use. :up:


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## msmart (Jan 3, 2007)

Ad-Detective is good, but I find comskip better. I download shows using TiVo Desktop and automatically process it with TVAP (search for it) using comskip to scan commercials.

comskip considers audio not just black frames giving it better results. VRD Ad-Detective is supposed to get audio capabilities, but they busy with H.264 development right now so it could be a long while before that happens.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

msmart said:


> ...comskip considers audio not just black frames giving it better results...


comskip also considers presence of closed captioning, channel logo, and changes in aspect ratio, with the importance of each adjustable via comskip.ini options.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

msmart said:


> Ad-Detective is good, but I find comskip better. I download shows using TiVo Desktop and automatically process it with TVAP (search for it) using comskip to scan commercials.
> 
> comskip considers audio not just black frames giving it better results. VRD Ad-Detective is supposed to get audio capabilities, but they busy with H.264 development right now so it could be a long while before that happens.


TVAP (link in signature) integrates, and is distributed with, Comskip, with the default comskip.ini file.

I haven't used Comskip other than to test its integration with TVAP. There is a comskip forum **here** which seems to be fairly active but a quick search found almost nothing about tuning comskip.ini for TiVo captures.

If anyone using comskip was willing to share their ini files along with a short discussion of what kind of capture(s) they are optimized for and what parameters were modified from default, that would be useful to others. If it seems to make sense, I will include several examples in the TVAP installation package and incorporate the descriptive comments in the TVAP-readme.pdf documentation.


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## mkstretch (Apr 11, 2005)

msmart said:


> Ad-Detective is good, but I find comskip better. I download shows using TiVo Desktop and automatically process it with TVAP (search for it) using comskip to scan commercials.
> 
> comskip considers audio not just black frames giving it better results. VRD Ad-Detective is supposed to get audio capabilities, but they busy with H.264 development right now so it could be a long while before that happens.


so you let TVAP auto mark and cut out commercials? does it ever cut out the wrong part? or does it always get every commercial?


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

dlfl said:


> TVAP (link in signature) integrates, and is distributed with, Comskip, with the default comskip.ini file.
> 
> I haven't used Comskip other than to test its integration with TVAP. There is a comskip forum **here** which seems to be fairly active but a quick search found almost nothing about tuning comskip.ini for TiVo captures.
> 
> If anyone using comskip was willing to share their ini files along with a short discussion of what kind of capture(s) they are optimized for and what parameters were modified from default, that would be useful to others. If it seems to make sense, I will include several examples in the TVAP installation package and incorporate the descriptive comments in the TVAP-readme.pdf documentation.


Line I modified to create a "strong logo detection" ini file:

```
logo_present_modifier=0.5           	; Bumped up from .01 to weight logo detection heavier
```
I also have a channel that airs 2 minute commercials, and upped these values:

```
max_commercial_size=130			; maximum time in seconds for a single commercial or multiple commercials if no breaks in between
min_show_segment_length=130 		; any segment longer than this will be scored towards show.
```
All other values were defaulted.
I have yet to successfully craft an .ini file to account for the 30 second snippets at the end of shows like 30 Rock, Community & Parks & Rec.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

mkstretch said:


> so you let TVAP auto mark and cut out commercials? does it ever cut out the wrong part? or does it always get every commercial?


 None of the auto-detect tools are perfect. As orangeboy stated with comskip you can fine tune for particular shows but ultimately if you want perfection you have to review the detected commercials and make manual corrections. Both kmttg and TVAP have flows which you can run commercial detection following by manual visual review of commercials which gives you a chance to correct the cut points before proceeding to the cut step.
Personally I don't use auto commercial detection as I can manually cut out commercials much faster and more accurately than the automated tools, so the flow I use in kmttg is to automatically bring up VRD GUI to allow me to define the cut points. Once I close the VRD GUI then the rest of the steps proceed automatically. In any case you have to decide for yourself which flow works best, so it's nice to have a bunch of different options available.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

orangeboy said:


> Line I modified to create a "strong logo detection" ini file:
> 
> ```
> logo_present_modifier=0.5           	; Bumped up from .01 to weight logo detection heavier
> ...


Thanks!,

What categories of TiVo captures have you had success with using these mods, i.e., HD and/or SD, Cable vs. OTA ? Analog or Digital?


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

dlfl said:


> Thanks!,
> 
> What categories of TiVo captures have you had success with using these mods, i.e., HD and/or SD, Cable vs. OTA ? Analog or Digital?


For the most part, it's SD pillarboxed to HD (reruns of ST: TNG, and South Park), and full HD (L&O: SVU). I'm OTA only, so no cable, and all digital.

Regarding the 30 second show snippets at the end of some programs, it seems an option _not_ included in the default comskip.ini may have some potential:


```
min_commercial_break_at_start_or_end=0         ; number of seconds comskip ignores commercial detection at the beginning and end of a program
```
I think setting a value of 35 may capture the last bit of show. I'll have to play with that! (/me checks TiVos for NBC shows to test play with)


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

Well huh! Added this bit into a custom comskip.ini, and watched the last "30" second snippet of Community:


```
always_keep_last_seconds=45		; Any commercial at the end shorter then this amount of seconds will be regarded as show
```
That last scene was 36 seconds, so I padded some additional time to account for variance. On to 30 Rock, and a couple others!


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## msmart (Jan 3, 2007)

moyekj said:


> Both kmttg and TVAP have flows which you can run commercial detection following by manual visual review of commercials which gives you a chance to correct the cut points before proceeding to the cut step.


Right, that's how I use TVAP.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

orangeboy said:


> Well huh! Added this bit into a custom comskip.ini, and watched the last "30" second snippet of Community:
> 
> 
> ```
> ...


Did this work as you hoped?


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

dlfl said:


> Did this work as you hoped?


For the shows I don't pad, yes! 
I've since reset my Season passes to end on time. I padded only to see if comskip would detect those short chunks of show, but those parts don't usually have the network logo, which I think plays a bigger part in the detection process. The real test will be tomorrow evening when the true show duration is recorded, and I have a good set to work with. :up:

There is a comskip.txt that is packaged with comskip that shows all(?) of the options, not just the default ones that come delivered in comskip.ini.


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## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

dlfl said:


> Did this work as you hoped?


Unfortunately, it didn't work for the NBC shows. 

It seems NBC starts a few seconds past the top of the hour, or the TiVo's clock isn't synced to NBC time. All of the ending segments bled into the next show, with The Office's being the worst, with the entirety of the last segment recorded during 30 Rock. Hmm... Maybe that's why I padded those shows?!

I think I must have gotten lucky with that Community episode I tested with last week...


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