Comskip

Comskip is a commercial detector. It is a windows console application that reads a mpeg or h.264 file and analyses the content based on a large amount of configurable parameters. After analysis it generates a file in various possible formats containing the location of the commercials inside the video file. The formats include input files for interactive video editors (VideoRedo, Cuttermaran,Mpeg2Schnitt...) command line video cutters (mpgtx, cuttermaran, mencoder) and video players (zoomplayer, mplayer, ...). Comskip can read MPEG PS, TS, DVR-MS and WTV files upto HD resolution (max 2000x1200) at various framerates (PAL and NTSC). Comskip can NOT read copy protected recordings.

Documentation

Comskip Manual
Tuning Guide
Release History

Donations

This projects can only continue its support through your donations. Donation is simple using paypal or credit card and the button below


Using Comskip

Comskip can be used standalone or integrated in a PVR application

SageTV 
GBPVR
MCE
MediaPortal
BeyondTV
MCEBuddy2x - Convert and remove ads from your recorded TV and videos
Attention MCEBuddy Users: After downloading the Donator version of Comskip, please following the instructions at https://discussion.mcebuddy2x.com/t/how-to-speed-up-commercial-detection-comskip/64 on how to integrate Comskip Donator with MCEBuddy to speed up your commercial detection

Comclean

For automatic removal of the detected commercials from the mpeg PS recording you can use comclean. Comclean comes in 4 versions

  1. Comclean uses mpgtx to do the cutting. Mpgtx cuts on GOP level and creates a broken timeline. Some MPEG players will freeze or stutter. Cutting is very fast. You MUST set the correct framerate in the comclean.bat!!!! Otherwise the cutting will be done in the wrong places.
  2. Comclean2 uses Cuttermaran. Cutting is done on GOP boundaries but the timeline is correct.
  3. Comclean3 uses Mencoder. Cutting is done on I frames and the timeline is correct.
  4. Comclean4 uses Mpeg2Schnitt. Cutting is done on I frames and the timeline is correct

Next to using Comclean you can also select other Comskip output formats and use Womble MPEGVCR or VideoRedo or you can use a MPEG player that can read one of the output formats of Comskip. Eamples are Zoomplayer and Mplayer
For manual running, create a shortcut on the desktop to one of the comclean versions, make sure comskip has detected the commercials and drag and drop the .mpg file onto the comclean shortcut.

For cutting DVR-MS files you can use DVRCut found in dvrcut.zip. Comskip can generate the .bat file to run DVRCut

Support

Support for both Comskip and Comclean is available in the
Comskip Support Forum

Download

The Comskip and Comclean distribution zip files for Windows are available through this link
Comskip and Comclean files for downloading
The source of Comskip is available through svn

Screenshots

The debugwindow in action showing the timeline with the detailed analysis of the audio and video and the location of the detected commercials.
The white rectangle encloses the detected logo.
 

The debugwindow can also show the detailed analysis of the various aspects of the video such as brightness and sound level. Through the zoom and unzoom keys is possible to have both an overview and zoom into certain transitions.
The vertical white line is the current frame location. The white segments in the red, green and blue graphs and the  small black bar at the top signal a so called "black frame". The main cutpoints for the video. The F1 key displays the small help text shown at the left. Clicking on the timeline repositions the current frame