[vdr] Announce : VDR - Teletext Subtitles Addon

[Patrick GUENEAU <pgueneau@wanadoo.fr>]

Hello,

I am pleased to announce my first addon for VDR (download patch for vdr
v1.02 to v1.04 at http://pgu.free.fr).

I have been working on Subtitles extraction for a while. This first
patch tries to enhance VDR by adding TELETEXT SUBTITLES SUPPORT.
It doesn't deal with DVB Subtitles (sort of improved DVD Subpictures
format) ; sorry for that Dave.

First, I would like to thank Klaus for the tremendous work on VDR (I
learned a lot on C++ reading your code Klaus, a real pleasure), Dave
Chapman and Peter Seyringer for providing most of the materials I used
to develop this patch. Thanks to Elsa Pekkarinen who is helping me
debugging this code.
 
The two main features are:

- Subtitles recording in text format (subviewer format) ; file is stored
in the same directory as VDR files
  It should work with MultiCards systems (I only have 1 DVB Card on my
server and haven't tested this)

- Live Subtitles display using OSD. It does only work on Primary DVB
card
  OSD display is using new fonts based on Helvetica and Lucida fonts
from 16 to 26 size. Fonts are outlined to improve reading.
  (thanks to Klaus for his gentfonfile program)

The setup is using a new (sorry for that) configuration file (sub.conf)
:

	- choose the right font size 
	- adjust Vertical and Horizontal offset
	- choose color display (white or yellow)

Teletext Subtitles page numbers can be defined for each CA you have
defined for your system.


I have done many tests on my system using french Canal+ Channels (Canal+
, CanalSat and Kiosque) and it seems to be quite stable (no segfaults,
no hangs), but I don't have acess to Hotbird Channels or other foreign
broadcasts and only use one card. Elas Pekkarinnen has tested the
Teletext extraction code and now it seems to work flawlessly on Finnish
broadcasts he tested. I haven't done any tests on other channels and,
that's why I need your help to finalize this addon.



Notes :

- I chose text file format for recordings as it is the best solution for
authoring or replaying using MPlayer. Converting to Subpictures or DVB
Subtitle format could be added using VDR "after record" script.

- I haven't tested various "Transfer mode" (remember I only have one
card) ; I don't know how it would behave. Your comments are welcome.

- Replay mode is missing ; I am working on it, using code from MPlayer.
I have to deal with PTS reset to 0 during broadcasting (MPlayer doesn't
handle that now). It will support timeshifting replay ;-)

- Plugin Support is not available. Configuration file (sub.conf) is
simple enough for the moment. As this patch changes many lines of code
inside VDR, Plugin support will only enable OSD configuration and it
wasn't my top priority.

- Due to bad Astoncrypt support in DVB driver, I still can't really use
my patch to enjoy Original Version track as I can't record alternate
Audio Language stream :-( So, for the moment i have french audio track
with french subtitles - useless)


Enjoy it and feel free to comment or improve this code. I am waiting for
your feedback !!

Regards,
Patrick Gueneau.