[linux-dvb] VDR 0.80pre8

[Klaus Schmidinger <Klaus.Schmidinger@cadsoft.de>]

VDR 0.80 - The Final Countdown!

VDR is now completely adapted to the "New API" of the DVB driver.
The latest modifications can be found in

   ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/pub/people/kls/vdr/vdr-0.80pre8.diff.gz

which is a diff against the official VDR version 0.72.
If you would rather only download the diffs between the most recent
version 0.80pre7 and this one, you can use

   ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/pub/people/kls/vdr/vdr-0.80pre7-8.diff.gz

instead.

However, before I dare to release the "official" version 0.80, I would
like to get the following remaining problems solved:

1. Audio loss with Pause/SlowMotion/Continue

   If the ioctl()-sequence

     ioctl(videoDev, VIDEO_FREEZE);
     ioctl(videoDev, VIDEO_SLOWMOTION, 2);
     ioctl(videoDev, VIDEO_CONTINUE);

   is executed while replaying a recordign (no matter if there are other
   commands between them or not), the audio is lost from that moment on.
   The only way to get it back is to stop replaying and resume.
   I'm pretty sure this must be a driver problem, since the recording is
   just fine (after stop/resume it plays without problems, even over the
   point where the Pause/SlowMotion/Continue was done).

2. Audio loss during normal replay

   Every now and then during normal replay of a recording it happens
   that the audio suddenly is lost. Stopping and resuming replay brings
   it back, and then it also plays fine over the place where it dropped
   out before. After some time (several minutes, sometimes even half
   an hour) the same thing happens again.
   Since VDR just "shovels" data into the driver when replaying, and
   its replay buffer is always almost full when this happens, I suspect
   that this must also be a driver problem.

3. Audio "chopped" during replay

   Sometimes during replay of a recording the audio starts to sound
   "chopped" (can't think of a better description). It is almost as
   if the audio packets were somehow cut off, so that parts are missing.
   Imagine a continuous tone like "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa", which would
   then sound like "a a a a a a a a a a a a a a" (hope you get the idea).
   Again, stopping and resuming replay cures this - until it re-occurs
   after a while. For the same reasons as stated under "2." I assume
   a driver problem here, too.

4. A/V disturbances while recording

   On some channels (or with some broadcasts) there are audio/video
   disturbances in the *live* signal when recording, which can be observed
   on the A/V-out signal of the DVB card that is doing the recording.
   I have described this in detail in my posting

      http://linuxtv.org/mailinglists/linux-dvb/msg05119.html

   Note that when this happens, there is no OSD activity. I also tried
   turning off the EIT processor during recording, but that made no
   difference at all. Since this happens "inside the DVB card", so to say,
   I can't think of anything VDR could do - it gets distorted data, and
   that's all it can record.

   I just re-checked this with the latest CVS driver (2001-05-25) and a
   recording of a broadcast on ZDF ("blickpunkt", 2001-05-27, around 13:10).
   As soon as I started recording, the signal at A/V-out of that DVB card
   became a complete mess - heaviest video artifacts and audio disturbances
   up to the point where audio was completely lost. Again, please note that
   all this was observed on the A/V-out of the DVB card that did the recording!

5. No smooth "Fast Forward/Back"

   When replaying a recording that was done with the new driver and VDR,
   the "fast forward/back" function doesn't result in a "smooth" display
   as it used to in the old system. Interestingly, when replaying an old
   recording on the new system, this function works fine. And it also works
   when replaying a new recording on the old system.
   I'm not sure what to make of this, whether to assume a problem in the
   driver or in VDR.

I have done extensive testing and experimenting in order to see whether
these might be caused by bugs in VDR, but so far haven't found anything.
That's why I'm assuming that these are driver problems.

Klaus
-- 
_______________________________________________________________

Klaus Schmidinger                       Phone: +49-8635-6989-10
CadSoft Computer GmbH                   Fax:   +49-8635-6989-40
Hofmark 2                               Email:   kls@cadsoft.de
D-84568 Pleiskirchen, Germany           URL:     www.cadsoft.de
_______________________________________________________________


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