Hi folks,

this patch is relevant for the following people:

People receiving the same tv program on different channels (DVB-C and analog via pvrinput, or HD and SD cards, or DVB-C and DVB-T, and ...)

Here is my use-case: I have a dvb-c and some pvrinput devices. If the dvb-c card is occupied by a recording, i have to switch to a pvrinput channel.

An example:

My channels are configured as follows:

1 - RTL (DVB-C) 2 - Sat1 (DVB-C) 3 - RTL2 (DVB-C) ... 101 RTL (pvrinput) 102 Sat1 (pvrinput) 103 RTL2 (pvrinput)

The channel 1 and 101, 2 and 102, 3 and 103 are receiving the same programme.

In case the DVB-C device is occupied, i have to switch to the channels 101, 102, 103...

The DVB-C device can be occupied by a timer, streamdev and so on.

With the patch you can configure: 101 is an alternative for 1 102 is an alternative for 2 ...

If you have configured this, vdr behaves as follow: when watching channel 1 and the dvb-c card also receives channel 1:

when pressing CH+, then the vdr switches to channel 2. Channel 2 cannot be received by the dvb-c device, because 1 and 2 are not in the same "stream": vdr displays the epg data of channel 2, but showing the pictures and sound of channel 102. The ChannelControl-OSD shows: 2 (102) Sat1. The first number is the channel selected, the second number (in parenthese) the channel receiving.

When selecting the channel 2 by pressing the "2"-Key, the same happends.

When a timer is starting on channel 2, but the dvb-c device is occupied, then channel 102 gets recorded.

How does this patch works ?:

Add your alternatives under menu -> Settings -> Alternative

For live view: a device gets searched for the given channel. It doesn't matter whether receivers have to be detached or not. if no device is found, then a device for the alternative channels gets searched. It also doesn't matter whether receivers have to be detached or not.

if still no device could be found, the channel is not available

For non-live-view:

a device gets searched for the given channel. Only devices where no receiver has to be detached are taken into account. if no device is found, then a device for the alternative channels gets searched. Only devices where no receiver has to be detached are taken into account. if no device is found, then a device gets searched for the given channel. It doesn't matter whether receivers have to be detached or not. if no device is found, then a device for the alternative channels gets searched. It also doesn't matter whether receivers have to be detached or not.

Why the difference for live tv and non-live tv ?: With live tv there are receivers which can be detached at any time (like osdteletext). Live-tv has normally the least priority, so live tv can on push live tv aside. If in the first step live view isn't allowed to detach other receivers, an alternative will be taken every second channel switch.

What about streamdev ?:

I have tested streamdev only a little bit. The patch has to be applied on the client. In my test (only with "never suspend") it works.

A note about pvrinput: If you use pvrinput with this patch, you also have to patch pvrinput. Otherwise pvrinput devices always returns the need for detaching other receivers.

Because of lack of a ff-card and a cam module, i could test it only in transfer mode and without any encryption => testers are welcome.

I havn't add any translations yet. If the patch gets merged into the development branch, i will provide the translations at least for german and english.

Regards, Rainer