Mods for h.264 HD Comskip, latest mpeg4 capabilities, load balancing with Turbo.264 HD

See: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4002294

I use EyeTV HD and Turbo.264 HD to record and transcode h.264 shows for 
playback on a Mac, Apple TV, iPad, iPhone. I also use a self-modified version 
of etvcomskip to detect and mark commercials, which are then automatically 
skipped at playback. This makes tv viewing a lot more pleasurable and 
efficient, and is especially helpful controlling advertiser access to children. 
In case this is useful to others, I've outlined the steps here:
 
Go donate $10 or more at Eric Kaashoek's website Comskip and download his 
HD-capable Comskip software. "Commercial" commercial-skipping companies 
(ReplayTV, TiVo, Dish, etc.) are quickly sued out of existence or into 
submission, even if they simply provide a basic "30-second skip" feature. 
Comskip is open source beerware that you can download, install, and use 
yourself, and you can't sue anyone for publishing source code. And rather than 
providing a simple 30-second skip feature, it detects, marks, and provides that 
capability for automatic commercial skipping.
Comskip a Windows executable, so you'll need WINE (WINdows Emulator) on OS X to 
run it. First, download and install Xcode (free from the Apple App store), then 
download and install and install Macports, then in Terminal, run "sudo port 
selfupdate; sudo port install wine-devel". Finally, make sure that 
/Applications/Utilities/X11.app is added to your list of applications to run at 
login (WINE uses X11 to display Windows windows). Yes, this is windows 
emulation, but on a half-decent box you'll see that commercial skipping runs at 
around twice real-time for h.264 HD recordings.
Download and install etvcomskip (and PyeTV if you want EyeTV to work with Front 
Row). The 2010 version of etvcomskip doesn't work with Comskip's latest HD 
capabilities, and the latest Comskip mpeg libraries do not allow live tv 
processing, so install these files to get everything working. Once you done 
this, you'll have a commercial-skipping HD DVR box on your Mac that can stream 
to Apple TV, iOS, or export to iTunes.
Comskip software

This lives in the directory /Library/Application Support/ETVcomskip.
 
Edit the file ./comskip/comskip.ini to use these HD-tuned settings, tailored 
for US cable:
 
detect_method=127   

;1=black frame, 2=logo, 4=scene change, 8=fuzzy logic, 16=closed captions, 
32=aspect ration, 64=silence, 128=cutscenes, 255=all
max_avg_brightness=21   

;maximum average brightness for a dim frame to be considered black (scale 0 to 
255) 0 means autosetting
non_uniformity=50   

; Set to 0 to disable cutpoints based on uniform frames
max_volume=20   

; any frame with sound volume larger than this will not be regarded as black 
frame
logo_at_bottom=1    

; Set to 1 to search only for logo at the lower half of the video, do not 
combine with subtitle setting
intelligent_brightness=1    
; Set to 1 to use a USA specific algorithm to tune some of the settings, not 
adviced outside the USA
volume_slip=150
output_dvrmstb=0    

; Set to 1 if you're running DVRMS-Toolbox
live_tv=0   

; set to 1 if you use parallelprocessing and need the output while recording
live_tv_retries=4   

; change to 16 when using live_tv in BTV, used for mpeg PS and TS
 
Edit the file ./MarkCommercials.app/Contents/Resources/MarkCommercials.py to 
use WINE to run comskip.exe nicely. Grep for these changes:
 
EyeTV.launch()
 
msg = 'Error: unable to communicate with %s\n' % options.app
 
#cmd = '"/Library/Application 
Support/ETVComskip/Wine.app/Contents/Resources/bin/wine" "/Library/Application 
Support/ETVComskip/comskip/comskip.exe" --ini="/Library/Application 
Support/ETVComskip/comskip/comskip.ini" "%s"' % MpgFile
# MacPorts 64-bit wine
#cmd = '"/Applications/Wine.app/Contents/Resources/bin/wine" 
"/Library/Application Support/ETVComskip/comskip/comskip.exe" 
--ini="/Library/Application Support/ETVComskip/comskip/comskip.ini" "%s"' % 
MpgFile
cmd = '"/opt/local/bin/wine" "/Library/Application 
Support/ETVComskip/comskip/comskip.exe" --ini="/Library/Application 
Support/ETVComskip/comskip/comskip.ini" "%s"' % MpgFile
 
# nice the wine command
cmd = "/usr/bin/nice -n 14 " + cmd
 
EyeTV software

EyeTV uses the triggered AppleScripts RecordingStarted and RecordingDone in the 
directory /Library/Application\ Support/EyeTV/Scripts/TriggeredScripts. Open 
these using the AppleScript Editor and use these scripts instead. You will 
probably have to Save As... on your desktop, then copy the updated script back 
into the correct directory to avoid permissions issues.
 
RecordingStarted.scpt
 
on RecordingStarted(recordingID)
    delay 10
    -- comskip81 uses ffmpeg and does not support live tv; put this in 
RecordingDone.scpt
    --    set cmd to "export DISPLAY=:0.0; /usr/bin/nice -n 5 
'/Library/Application 
Support/ETVComskip/MarkCommercials.app/Contents/MacOS/MarkCommercials' --log " 
& recordingID & " &> /dev/null &"
    -- display dialog cmd
    -- set cmd to "env > /tmp/etv_test.log &"
    -- do shell script cmd
 
    --disable this if you do not want a logfile written
    write_to_file((short date string of (current date) & " " & time string 
of (current date)) & "Recording Started run for ID: " & recordingID & (ASCII 
character 13), (path to "logs" as string) & "EyeTV scripts.log", true)
end RecordingStarted
 
on write_to_file(this_data, target_file, append_data)
    --from http://www.apple.com/applescript/sbrt/sbrt-09.html
    try
        set the target_file to the target_file as string
        set the open_target_file to open for access file target_file 
with write permission
        if append_data is false then set eof of the open_target_file to 0
        write this_data to the open_target_file starting at eof
        close access the open_target_file
        return true
    on error
        try
            close access file target_file
        end try
        return false
    end try
end write_to_file
RecordingDone.scpt
 
-- Run the python MarkCommercials script for the given recording
-- this must be run with the RecordingStarted script
-- it will check if there were multiple PIDs for the recording and runs 
MarkCommercials for each pid
-- requires updated MarkCommercials which allows specifying the pid
-- by Ben Blake, September 2009
 
-- modified for latest Comskip, which cannot be run until after recording is 
finished; waits for Turbo.264 HD to stop running as well
-- S.T.Smith
 
global LogMsg
 
on RecordingDone(recordingID)
 
    set ProcessName to "Elgato H.264 Decoder"
    set DelayTime to 60
    set MaxDelays to 4 * 60 -- four hours
 
    -- delay until the process slows down or stops running
    repeat MaxDelays times
        delay DelayTime -- delay at least once to give it a chance to 
start
        set pcpu to CPUPercentage(ProcessName)
        if pcpu is equal to "" or pcpu < 2.0 then exit repeat -- break 
out of delay loop if it's not running
    end repeat
 
    delay 10
    -- comskip81 uses ffmpeg and does not support live tv; take this from 
RecordingStarted.scpt
    set cmd to "export DISPLAY=:0.0; /usr/bin/nice -n 5 
'/Library/Application 
Support/ETVComskip/MarkCommercials.app/Contents/MacOS/MarkCommercials' --log " 
& recordingID & " &> /dev/null &"
    -- display dialog cmd
    -- set cmd to "env > /tmp/etv_test.log &"
    do shell script cmd
 
    set LogMsg to ""
    CheckMultiplePIDs(recordingID)
 
    --disable this if you do not want a logfile written
    if (count of LogMsg) > 0 then
        write_to_file((short date string of (current date) & " " & time 
string of (current date)) & LogMsg & (ASCII character 13), (path to "logs" as 
string) & "EyeTV scripts.log", true)
    end if
end RecordingDone
 
-- testing code: this will not be called when triggered from EyeTV, but only 
when the script is run as a stand-alone script
on run
    tell application "EyeTV.app"
        set rec to «class Unqu» of item 1 of every «class cRec»
 
        my RecordingDone(rec)
    end tell
end run
 
-- compute the percentage CPU used by ProcessName
on CPUPercentage(ProcessName)
    set ProcessPS to do shell script ("ps -axwwc | grep '" & ProcessName & 
"' | grep -v grep || true")
    if ProcessPS is not equal to "" then
        set ProcessID to word 1 of ProcessPS
        set ProcessPS to do shell script ("ps -xwwco pid,ppid,%cpu -p " 
& ProcessID & " | tail -1")
        set ProcessCPU to word 3 of ProcessPS
        return ProcessCPU as number
    else
        return ""
    end if
end CPUPercentage
 
on CheckMultiplePIDs(recordingID)
    --check if there are multiple Video PIDs in the file
 
    tell application "EyeTV.app"
        set input_text to my read_from_file((path to "logs" as string) & 
"ETVComskip" & ":" & recordingID & "_comskip.log")
        if (count of (input_text as string)) > 0 then
            set logdata to every paragraph of input_text
            set logdata_lastrow to (item ((count of logdata) - 1) of 
logdata) as string
 
            if (items 1 thru 19 of logdata_lastrow) as string = 
"Video PID not found" then
                --multiple Video PIDs, rerun MarkCommercials 
until successful
 
                set recrdingIDInteger to recordingID as integer
                set rec to «class cRec» id recrdingIDInteger
                set LogMsg to "RecordingDone found multiple PIDs 
for recording ID: " & recordingID & ", Channel " & («class Chnm» of rec) & " 
- " & («class Titl» of rec)
 
                set PIDs to (items 44 thru ((count of 
logdata_lastrow) - 2) of logdata_lastrow) as string
                set delims to AppleScript's text item delimiters
                set AppleScript's text item delimiters to ", "
                set PID_List to {}
                set PID_List to every word of PIDs
                set AppleScript's text item delimiters to delims
 
                repeat with pid in PID_List
                    my launchComSkip(recordingID, pid)
                    repeat while (my mcIsRunning())
                        delay 5
                    end repeat
                end repeat
 
            end if
        end if
    end tell
end CheckMultiplePIDs
 
on read_from_file(target_file)
    --return the contents of the given file
    set fileRef to (open for access (target_file))
    set txt to (read fileRef for (get eof fileRef) as «class utf8»)
    close access fileRef
    return txt
end read_from_file
 
on write_to_file(this_data, target_file, append_data)
    --from http://www.apple.com/applescript/sbrt/sbrt-09.html
    try
        set the target_file to the target_file as string
        set the open_target_file to open for access file target_file 
with write permission
        if append_data is false then set eof of the open_target_file to 0
        write this_data to the open_target_file starting at eof
        close access the open_target_file
        return true
    on error
        try
            close access file target_file
        end try
        return false
    end try
end write_to_file
 
on launchComSkip(recID, pid)
    if pid = "" then
        set cmd to "export DISPLAY=:0.0; /usr/bin/nice -n 5 
'/Library/Application 
Support/ETVComskip/MarkCommercials.app/Contents/MacOS/MarkCommercials' --force 
--log " & recID & " &> /dev/null &"
    else
        set cmd to "export DISPLAY=:0.0; /usr/bin/nice -n 5 
'/Library/Application 
Support/ETVComskip/MarkCommercials.app/Contents/MacOS/MarkCommercials' --force 
--log " & recID & " --pid=" & pid & " &> /dev/null &"
    end if
 
    do shell script cmd
end launchComSkip
 
on mcIsRunning()
    set processPaths to do shell script "ps -xww | awk -F/ 'NF >2' | awk -F/ 
'{print $NF}' | awk -F '-' '{print $1}' "
    return (processPaths contains "MarkCommercials")
end mcIsRunning
Original issue reported on code.google.com by steve.t....@gmail.com on 5 Jun 2012 at 6:46
essandess / etv-comskip

Mods for h.264 HD Comskip, latest mpeg4 capabilities, load balancing with Turbo.264 HD #53
