vdr February 2009

vdr@linuxtv.org

76 participants
71 discussions

Question about SetPlayMode()
by Christian Gmeiner 07 Mar '09

07 Mar '09

Hi all, at the moment I am working to tight up vdr-plugin-dxr3 and found something to verify. Is about cDevice::SetPlayMode with pmExtern_THIS_SHOULD_BE_AVOIDED. If pmExtern_THIS_SHOULD_BE_AVOIDED is used, a device plugin gives the control of its device to e.g. mplayer or xine. In this state it is not possible to call PlayVideo, etc., as the plugin has no control about its device. Can it happen hat vdr or any vdr-plugin calls PlayVideo, etc in this state? -- Christian Gmeiner, B.Sc.

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Options for deinterlacing (or not)
by Scott Waye 06 Mar '09

06 Mar '09

I want to replace my UK Sky digital box with VDR (I only want the free to air channels) for watching/recording TV over HDMI on my plasma. So far everything is working OK, I have vdr 1.7.3 and xine running on an ASUS M2N VM-HDMI (nvidia) mobo with the s2-liplianin drivers for my Nova SD2 card. My problem is interlacing. I've googled back through the archives and got a lot of info from there, however I still have one question and one request. If X is put into an interlaced mode (1920x1080i @ 50Hz), and I do not do any de interlacing in xine, why is this not the same as what my digibox does? I'm guessing it has something to do with xine outputting a complete frame when the broadcast sends each field? What I'd hope happen (for interlaced material) is that xine receives a field from VDR, scales it to the X resolution (halfed vertically of course) and sends it to the the graphics card which just passes it on to the TV which draws that field. That doesn't seem to happen so where have I gone wrong? There's a lot of options for tvtime in xine, TomsMoComp and full framerate seem popular. What settings are others using? -- Scott

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Vote your VDR patches
by zulu＠zulu-entertainment.de 02 Mar '09

02 Mar '09

Hi, we have start a poll at http://www.nmsweb.de/vdr/patch.php where you have the possibility to vote for your favorite VDR patches. The result should show the most used ones to give Klaus an overview about our burning desires. In the hope of intense attendance Marc

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information about "NO signal"
by Goga777 28 Feb '09

28 Feb '09

Hi is it possible to implement in VDR the feature as that - If there is NOT any LOCK to write about it like "Channel doesn't found" Goga

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DVB-C(T) output plugin
by LM DOWL 28 Feb '09

28 Feb '09

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eHD experiences with VDR
by Antti Hartikainen 28 Feb '09

28 Feb '09

Hello list! I had a thought to write about my experiences with eHD and VDR, to share my findings and to get some help/hints about some problems. For the begining I will tell that I'm a not software developer, and I don't know how to debug crashes, find crashing code etc. About one week ago I upgraded my VDR computer to DVB-S2 and HDTV time. Before I had it running with 2x DVB-T USB, 2x DVB-S budget and Technotred DVB-S full featured 1.5 card (only as decoder/tv-out card, no tuner was used). So currently I'm running my vdr with: - 2x Terratec Cinergy T2 USB (DVB-T) - 2x TechnoTrend S2-3200 PCI (DVB-S2) - Reel Extension HD as decoder/tv-out card Drivers and software in use: - VDR-1.7.0 with loads of patches to support S2API, H.264, teletext subtitles, reelbox plugin (TrueColorOsd) etc: - vdr-1.7.0-h264-syncearly-framespersec-audioindexer-fielddetection-speedup.diff - vdr-1.7.0-s2api-07102008-h264-clean.patch - vdr170-h264-rmm-svn9403-patch.diff - vdr-1.7.0-liemikuutio-1.21.diff S2API patch didn't work with my DVB-T tuners so i needed to change tuning code from dvbdevice.c a little bit (to do it like scan-s2 did, as tuning worked fine with it) - DVB driver is latest from s2-liplianin mercurial (http://mercurial.intuxication.org/hg/s2-liplianin) - Reel drivers/plugin r10768 (testing branch) from reelbox.org svn (svn://reelbox.org) - Some plugins, like osdteletext, ttxtsubs, epgsearch I also tried vdr-1.7.4 with following patches, without any plugins (except reelbox plugin): - vdr-1.7.4_reelbox.10388.diff (found from mailinglist, to patch OSD code to work with reelbox plugin) - vdr-1.7.4-liemikuutio-1.23.diff - and "1.7.4" patch for reelbox plugin (allowing audio track id 0) With VDR-1.7.4 things doesn't work so well as heavily patched 1.7.0. There is lots of more "freezes" than with 1.7.0. Some packets are lost every now and then (vdr: [2163] ERROR: driver buffer overflow on device 2). And sometimes VDR gets in state when there is about 99% of packet loss (femon plugins shows about 0.10 Mbit/s data rate for channel, while it should be like 5 Mbit/s for SD and 16Mbit/s for HD). This could be driver problem too. And note for ttxtsubs users: I also tried to put teletext subtitles patch on 1.7.4. Latest patch exist only for 1.7.2. As only failed hunks were in recorder.c (propably because of TS recording), I gave it a try. Subtitles worked fine with live view. So that's for the configuration and patches, now for the problems I've encountered (both with 1.7.0 and 1.7.4): 1) Subtitles are out of sync. DVB Subtitles are shown about 2-3 seconds too early. It varies between different channels. Teletext subtitles work fine in live view, with recordings need to set subtitle delay to maximum. I have tried the "set analog audio to soundcard -workaround" but it had no affect at all. 2) Lots of crashes and freezes. I think they are mostly related to reelbox-plugin, as usually vdr still keeps recording if such happens. OSD will be frozen and no video/sound. 3) Choosing different audio language in left/right speakers doesn't work. Choosing left or right doesn't make any difference, both are played always. (I have tried only with S/PDIF from mini-din). 4) Fast forward/rewind problems. Skipping with green/yellow buttons have about 2-3 second delay before anything happens. FF/FRWD with left/right buttons work.. mm.. just poorly, never can know in which point of recording it will start playing again when pressing play. 5) No automatic aspect ratio changing. I have connected eHD to my TV via HDMI. This is propably The feature I miss the most from FF card. Always need to change aspect ratio manually from TV between 16:9 and 4:3. This can be TV problem too (that's why I wrote this message, to get experience from other users too, if something works for them what doesn't work for me). So here's my one week observations of VDR with eHD. On average use everything is working fine, I can watch SD channels, HD channels, recordings, get AC3 sound over S/PDIF to my home theater receiver, get MPEG sound as PCM over S/PDIF. So most of the things are working like before, and how it should be.

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eHD and DVB subtitles sync
by Antti Hartikainen 28 Feb '09

28 Feb '09

I had a little time to track down the issue with reelbox plugin and DVB subtitle sync. Subtitles works fine when using MPEG audio track, with live and recorings (i have set analog audio to soundcard from settings as suggested here earlier) When changing to Dolby Digital audio track, subtitles don't even get displayed. Problem seems to be how reelbox plugin returns STC. I copied line -- CLIP -- dbgconverter("PTS: %lld STC: %lld (%lld) timeout: %d\n", sb->Pts(), cDevice::PrimaryDevice()->GetSTC(), Delta, sb->Timeout()); -- CLIP - in dvbsubtitle.c to just before if (Delta <= MAXDELTA) (because STC is wrong and delta is more than MAXDELTA, and it would never be shown). With Dolby Digital track reelbox plugin always returns same STC: -- CLIP -- Converter PTS: 7576263738 GET STC c0bdfd77 GET STC c0bdfd77 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7576263738 STC: 3233676663 (529108) timeout: 8 Converter PTS: 7576688500 GET STC c0bdfd77 GET STC c0bdfd77 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7576688500 STC: 3233676663 (533828) timeout: 3 Converter PTS: 7576696884 GET STC c0bdfd77 GET STC c0bdfd77 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7576696884 STC: 3233676663 (533921) timeout: 6 Converter PTS: 7581177356 GET STC c0bdfd77 GET STC c0bdfd77 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7581177356 STC: 3233676663 (583704) timeout: 7 Converter PTS: 7581486822 GET STC c0bdfd77 GET STC c0bdfd77 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7581486822 STC: 3233676663 (587142) timeout: 3 -- CLIP -- With PCM audio everything is working fine (note that "GET STC" doesn't appear here): -- CLIP -- Converter PTS: 7591193232 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296037783 (2090) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296045463 (2005) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296056983 (1877) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296064663 (1791) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296076183 (1663) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296080023 (1621) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296091543 (1493) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296103063 (1365) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296106903 (1322) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296118423 (1194) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296129943 (1066) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296133783 (1023) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296141463 (938) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296149143 (853) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296160663 (725) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296168343 (639) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296176023 (554) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296187543 (426) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296195223 (341) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296206743 (213) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296214423 (127) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296222103 (42) timeout: 6 Before delta <= MAXDELTA: PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296225943 (0) timeout: 6 Got 1 bitmaps, showing #1 PTS: 7591193232 STC: 3296225943 (0) timeout: 6 -- CLIP -- So next i checked out from where this "GET STC" is from. It's from reelbox plugin ReelBoxDevice.c: -- CLIP -- int64_t ReelBoxDevice::GetSTC() { UInt stc = stc_; if (audioPlayerHd_) { printf("GET STC %x\n",HdCommChannel::hda->player[0].stc+stc_); return HdCommChannel::hda->player[0].stc+stc_; } return (stc == 0) ? -1LL : stc; } -- CLIP -- So i hope someone who has more experience with coding and with VDR can continue from here and try to find cure for this.I tried to comment whole "if (audioPlayerHd_)" statement but it didn't help, wrong STC will be returned always anyway.

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Freesat EPG
by Tony Houghton 28 Feb '09

28 Feb '09

I've had a quick look at the Freesat EPG patch for VDR to try to understand how it works. I think I've read that the Freesat EPG is broadcast on Eurobird (and only on one transponder?) whereas most of the programs are actually broadcast on Astra 28.2E, but the patch doesn't seem to add anything to VDR for selecting transponders. So does VDR periodically scan all the transponders it knows for EPG etc, or when you ask it to scan, or is the Freesat EPG actually available on all the transponders in its network? I'd also like to find some more information about the Huffman encoding tables it uses. Apparently these need updating periodically. Are the tables broadcast alongside the EPG, but means to receive them hasn't made it into the VDR patch (yet)? I'd also like to know if and how Freesat's logical channel numbers are broadcast and if there are alternative SDTs, PATs and PMTs especially for Freesat instead of the BSkyB ones. If I try to search for this sort of info on Google all I seem to get are non-technical articles written before Freesat's launch, speculating on what the EPG might look like. -- TH * http://www.realh.co.uk

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[OT] Questions to VGA2SCART cable
by Paul Menzel 25 Feb '09

25 Feb '09

Dear readers, I am planning to set up a low budget VDR using the VGA2SCART patches [1]. Therefore I need a VGA2SCART cable. The distance between the VDR and the CRT TV will be probably 5 meters. There are some howtos on the WWW on how to build a cable yourself [2]. But I am not experienced in soldering, so I have the following questions. 1. Are VGA2SCART cables you can buy also suitable and do you have experiences what manufactures produce good quality cables? Searching the WWW I found the following offers but no comparison or review about the quality. http://www.amazon.de/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=vga+scart+kabel&tag=googhydr08-21&… http://www.kauflux.de/?id=FROOGLE&_artnr=8429706 http://shop.strato.de/epages/61223614.sf/?ObjectPath=/Shops/61223614/Produc… http://www.google.de/products?hl=de&q=vga+scart+kabel&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=G3Ch… http://www.supernature-forum.de/allgemeine-computerfragen/63171-grafik-gibt… http://forum.fachinformatiker.de/hardware/122150-vga-scart-kabel-tv.html inakustik claims to have high quality cables. http://www.in-akustik.com/de/KABEL/Home-Video/VGA-Scartkabel.htm 2. Are there any disadvantages in buying these cables? a) I would guess, that most of the cables do not have plugs for audio next to the VGA plug, so that I will need to either use an amplifier or have to modify the cable and solder some wires to the SCART-plug. Thanks a lot, Paul ¹ With around 10 € for a 5 meter cable they do not seem to be that much expensive. [1] http://www.linuxtv.org/pipermail/vdr/2008-July/017347.html [2] http://www.vdr-portal.de/board/thread.php?postid=742945#post742945

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[ANNOUNCE] vdr-webvideo 0.1.1
by Antti Ajanki 24 Feb '09

24 Feb '09

New version of the Webvideo plugin is available at http://users.tkk.fi/~aajanki/vdr/webvideo/ The Webvideo plugin is a tool for browsing and downloading videos from popular video sharing websites, such as YouTube and Google video, using VDR menu interface or a command line client. With the help of xineliboutput plugin the videos can be played directly without downloading them first. Important changes: - Simplified building: better Makefile, fixed instructions in README - German translation (contributed by cnc at gmx.de) - Fixed segfault when a menu title is NULL (this happened for example on YouTube search results page) - Try to start daemon process automatically if can't open a connection - Ability to cancel downloads (through the status screen) - Fixed problem with downloads never finishing if the server sends shorter file than expected Full changelog: http://users.tkk.fi/~aajanki/vdr/webvideo/HISTORY -- Antti Ajanki

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vdr February 2009