occasional ShowAnalyzer failure to find commercials and write cuts

[ehlfg]

I use DirMon2 to run ShowAnalyzer automatically, and I occasionally find abbreviated output files that don't list any cuts. If I run ShowAnalyzer on the same file again (either directly or using DirMon2), it seems to work.

For example, here's an an example of a recent VideoReDo-format abbreviated file without any cuts.

<Version>2
<Filename>S:\Video\SageTV\TheDailyShowWithJonStewa rt-2878487-0.mpg
<InputPIDList>
<VideoStreamPID>17</VideoStreamPID>
<AudioStreamPID>20</AudioStreamPID>
</InputPIDList>
<SceneMarker -256>263930000
<SceneMarker -255>565560000

And here's the result of re-running ShowAnalyzer on the same file, this time finding commercials and producing cuts. Any idea on what might be going wrong with the first run?

<Version>2
<Filename>S:\Video\SageTV\TheDailyShowWithJonStewa rt-2878487-0.mpg
<InputPIDList>
<VideoStreamPID>17</VideoStreamPID>
<AudioStreamPID>20</AudioStreamPID>
</InputPIDList>
<SceneMarker -1717987072>263930000
<SceneMarker -1717987071>565560000
<SceneMarker -1717987070>5593250000
<SceneMarker -1717987069>5664330000
<SceneMarker -1717987068>5965290000
<SceneMarker -1717987067>6116110000
<SceneMarker -1717987066>6266930000
<SceneMarker -1717987065>6567560000
<SceneMarker -1717987064>6868530000
<SceneMarker -1717987063>7021020000
<SceneMarker -1717987062>10693360000
<SceneMarker -1717987061>10845170000
<SceneMarker -1717987060>11146470000
<SceneMarker -1717987059>11447440000
<SceneMarker -1717987058>11748410000
<SceneMarker -1717987057>12050050000
<SceneMarker -1717987056>12346680000
<SceneMarker -1717987055>12648310000
<SceneMarker -1717987054>12954280000
<SceneMarker -1717987053>13105100000
<SceneMarker -1717987052>17125790000
<SceneMarker -1717987051>17277270000
<SceneMarker -1717987050>17578240000
<SceneMarker -1717987049>17878540000
<SceneMarker -1717987048>18180180000
<SceneMarker -1717987047>18331990000
<SceneMarker -1717987046>18483140000
<SceneMarker -1717987045>18650310000
<Cut>0:565230000
<Cut>5593250000:7020680000
<Cut>10693360000:13104770000
<Cut>17125790000:19102100000

[Jere_Jones]

While I'm not 100% positive, I can hazard a guess.

ShowAnalyzer has the ability to work on shows as they are recorded. To do this it reads to the end of the file, waits a second, and then looks for more data. If it finds more data (because more show has been recorded) then all is good and it reads until the end of the file and waits a second. This is continued until there is no more data after waiting (probably because the show has ended and there is no more data to write).

Write-caching can play havoc with this. Some users have reported periods as long a 6 minutes between writes. What you can do is configure the amount of time that SA will wait for more data. The setting is called "Live Detection Delay" and is in the Miscellaneous section of the settings.

Oh, while I wouldn't recommend starting with 360 seconds, you may want to try 60.

Give that a try and see if it makes a difference.

Jere

[ehlfg]

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

[cmhughes]

Originally Posted by Jere_Jones

What you can do is configure the amount of time that SA will wait for more data. The setting is called "Live Detection Delay" and is in the Miscellaneous section of the settings.

Oh, while I wouldn't recommend starting with 360 seconds, you may want to try 60.

Give that a try and see if it makes a difference.

Jere

OMG that totally fixed my isssue! For some reason this was set to -1 by default. For weeks SA had been starting to create an edl file but dumped out every time with no breaks marked. I tried every setting I could find (and understand) and ran it through Schoolhouse a dozen times, but nothing worked. I just figured the whole thing was buggy and broken until the next release! Thanks Jere!