Fastest Output

[jfpro]

Wondering what the fastest Output Profile would be that would be watchable in WMC?
Am I wrong in assuming the the paid version of comskip is the fastest commercial cutter?

[marvin-miller]

I'll try this one :)

The paid versions of comskip are the ones that get all the development and they are definately worth it. If memory serves, they are the only ones that support multi-core processors and that makes a HUGE difference in speed.

Right now there's a lot of development going on at Comskip. In january alone there were 4 new releases and this month there's already been 3. It's good, it's fast and it's accurate. Erik does a lot of work for probably little return. As you can guess, I'm a big fan and use the latest - it's worth it.

Windows Media Center - I'm running Windows 7 Media Center w/Hauppauge Colossus (H.264 in .WTV). I typically see QSF scan, Comskip scan and commerical cut (new file sans commerical) in +/- 20 minutes for a 60 minute 1080 HD file w/5.1 sound. My understanding is that H.264 is one of the harder formats to scan for commercials and that other formats are faster yet.

Does that help? I'm not a pro in this stuff but I have been doing commercial cutting for about 5 years using SA & ComSkip. Comskip has come a long, long way in the last 5 months (at least, in the donator builds). SA is largely dead -it's not worth using anymore as development stopped on it about 2 years ago. Fortunately for us, ComSkip stepped up to the plate :D

There is a problem with the .vprj files though. VideoRedo changed the format at some point and Comskip has not changed (enough) yet to properly support the latest VideoRedo version. This is being worked on both at VideoRedo and at Comskip. The good folks here modified the VideoRedo code to support a 'lighter' version of the .vprj files and ComSkip is also making changes to to match. So, in short order there should be no issues.

I'm currently using the latest VAP and VideoRedo version 4.2.06.619 with the latest Comskip and it's working very well. This is a temporary measure until the new VideoRedo Beta comes out (with the new 'light' .vprj support) and ComSkip gets changed over. Your mileage might vary but the future is looking pretty bright when it comes to both VideoRedo, VAP and ComSkip :D

[jfpro]

Where did you pickup VideoRedo version 4.2.06.619?

[dlflannery]

marvin-miller's previous post is all good info. The fix changes in VRD he mentioned are promised in VRD's next beta release. The timing of these releases is quite variable. Also (per another post by marvin) getting max speed with Comskip requires adding thread_count=4 to the .ini file. I believe this only applies to the "donor" version and may only make sense if you have a Quad-core processor.

To get max speed with VRD (with or without VAP) you should select a WTV profile that has the same video type as contained in your input files, i.e., MPEG2 for MPEG2 inputs or H.264 for H.264 inputs. Dong this means VRD avoids doing a time-consuming recode, which speeds things up greatly. If you are in doubt you can determine the video codec for your input files by just loading one into VRD and hitting Ctrl-L. If you see AVC or H.264 for the video type, it is H.264.

[marvin-miller]

Where did you pickup VideoRedo version 4.2.06.619?

Good question. VideoRedo doesn't provide older releases but I happened to find this one lying around :) I am a fully registered (paid for) user though and the only reason I had to 'go back in time' was due to the .vprj issue.