[vdr] VDR developer version 1.1.9

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

VDR developer version 1.1.9 is now available at

    ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/vdr/Developer/vdr-1.1.9.tgz

This version is directed towards developers who want to implement
plugins for VDR. The "stable" version for every day use is still 1.0.4.

Please read the file VDR/PLUGINS.html, which gives an overview of the
plugin interface and how to create your own plugins.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
===============

This version still has some limitations (see below) and is considered highly
experimental! USE IT WITH GREAT CARE AND UNDER CONTROLLED CONDITIONS BEFORE
RELYING ON IT FOR EVERY DAY USE!

The changes since version 1.1.8:

- Fixed the 'newplugin' script to make it name the target for creating the
  distribution package 'dist', as stated in the PLUGINS.html documentation.
  If you have already created a plugin source directory and Makefile you may
  want to check it and replace the 'package' target with 'dist' if necessary.
- Changed device handling for being able to do simultaneous recording and
  replay on the same device (Time Shifting). In order for this to work you need
  to use a driver with a firmware version that has this feature implemented.
- cDevice::ProvidesCa() is no longer virtual. The new function
  cDevice::ProvidesChannel() is now used to determine whether a device can
  receive a given channel, and by default this function returns false. So a
  device that is a pure replaying device doesn't need to do anything here.
- Increased the recorder buffer size to 5MB in order to be able to better handle
  multiple recordings.
- Implemented cTSBuffer for better handling TS packet buffering in derived
  cDevice classes.
- Changed the interface if cDevice::GetTSPacket() to avoid unnecessary copying
  of data.
- Removed cDevice::Channel(), since this makes no more sense with devices
  receiving multiple channels.
- Switching through channels with the 'Up' and 'Down' keys now skips channels
  that are currently not available (for instance because all devices are
  recording and these channels are on different transponders).
- Implemented an SPU decoder (thanks to Andreas Schultz).
- Fixed a crash when entering an integer value outside the limits (thanks to
  Stefan Huelswitt for reporting this one).
- Added play mode pmAudioOnlyBlack (thanks to Stefan Huelswitt).

- The following limitations apply to this version:
  + The '-a' option (for Dolby Digital audio) doesn't work yet.
  + Switching between different language tracks doesn't work yet.

This version requires the driver from

  ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/vdr/Developer/siemens_dvb-0.9.4-2002-06-23.patch.tar.bz2

in order to allow simultaneous recording _and_ replay with a single (full
featured) DVB card. If you use this version with a different driver (one that
doesn't implement this feature), be sure to comment out the line

#define DVB_DRIVER_VERSION 2002090101 //XXX+

from VDR/dvbdevice.c - otherwise your VDR may not work correctly!
This is currently a little dirty, since the driver has no way of telling
its exact version date or number.

There are currently a few quirks in this area. For instance, if you are watching
a channel and start a recording on that same channel, the screen will go blank
and the recording won't start until you switch the channel. Also, every time you switch
the channel while recording on the primary device, the recording(s) may show a short
glitch.

I'll still have to do some fine tuning, but with this version it is already
possible to do "time shifting" with only a single DVB card. To do this, just
start recording the current channel (press Menu/Record), the screen will go
blank, now switch to a different channel and start replaying the current recording.
There will be a fully automated function for this in the next version, but I
didn't have enough time to implement it this weekend. So please accept that
it is currently still a little "bumpy", but at least it works :-)

Have fun!

Klaus Schmidinger
-- 
_______________________________________________________________

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
_______________________________________________________________