[vdr] HOWTO: Installing VDR/Mandrake9.1/WindowsXP on Shuttle SN41G2

[Ari Huttunen <ari.huttunen@f-secure.com>]

These are instructions on how to set up VDR on a machine with
Mandrake 9.1 and Windows XP. The example machine is Shuttle SN41G2.
The difficulty level is medium to advanced. You will need a lot
of patience. You will need to google as well.

These instructions were written by Ari Huttunen. For any questions,
send mail to the VDR mailing list, and not to me directly.

Step 0: Why?
============

Your computer probably already came with Windows XP. You will want
to retain it as it's easier to use than Mandrake. Much software
is also only available for Windows. (Like most games!)

You have obtained a DVB (digital tv) card. By far the best
recording program is only available for linux, it's called VDR.
With VDR you can record many channels at the same time (with limitations),
and cut out commercials (manually). You may wish to look now at:
	http://www.cadsoft.de/vdr/index.htm

Unpaid commercial: Check http://www.dvbshop.tv/ for DVB products.
I have the TT DVB-C 2.1, plus remote control. I'm using the IR reception
module with my Sony TV's remote control.

Step 1: OS Installation
=======================

Install Windows XP *first*. At this stage you need to leave
space on your disk for Mandrake. Assuming a 120 GB disk, I suggest
the following disk partitioning. Only Windows XP needs a primary
partition.

   10 GB NTFS       = Windows XP is installed here
   20 GB FAT-32     = FAT-32 is the only common filesystem for both Windows
                      and linux, this is for common files
   <1 GB LINUX SWAP = Swap partition for Mandrake
   10 GB EXT-3      = Mandrake is installed here
   80 GB EXT-3      = This is for storing digital TV recordings, do not use
                      FAT-32 for this purpose

   (If you need to repartition later, do *not* use Windows XP's
   repartitioning tools.)

Download Mandrake 9.2 ISO images from the following location, and
burn them on CD-RWs.
	http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/ftp.php3

Install Mandrake. Select the installation of development tools, since
you will need to compile software later.
If you have SN41G2, or another machine with Nvidia's Nforce 2 chipset,
follow these additional instructions:
- Select VESA video drivers at installation, do *not* autodetect
  Nvidia drivers as they probably won't work.
- Download graphics drivers and nForce drivers from the following
  location. The nForce drivers are needed for Ethernet.
    http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux.html
- Install those according to Nvidia's instructions.

After installation, format and mount the partition for VDR recordings
using Mandrake Control Center.

Step 2a: TechnoTrend/Hauppauge Cabling (optional)
======================================

Currently only composite video output from TechnoTrend DVB cards
is 'officially' supported, meaning that only composite video
output is available at the back of the PCI card. You won't want
to use this, since its quality is not very good. Consider building
a cable that enables S-video or RGB output from the card. You may
also wish to build an S/PDIF cable for audio.

Instructions for building cabling are available in this web site, click on 'Howtos, Scart':
	http://www.vdrportal.de/board/portal.php?styleid=4

Making the S-video cable is the easiest one, you only need cables
and connectors, and some way of soldering them together.

Step 2b: Shuttle SN41G2 silencing (optional)
=================================

Change the 80mm fan to a 120mm fan at the back of the case,
connecting it with a 80mm->120mm connector. Change the power
supply fan as well. Google or http://forums.sudhian.com/ for more.

BTW, it's very hard to make TT DVB-C 2.1 fit inside. You'll need sidecutters.. :(

Step 3: VDR Installation
========================

You should join this VDR related mailing list in English:
	http://www.linuxtv.org/mailinglists.xml

Download VDR software from this web site, click on 'Downloads':
	http://www.vdrportal.de/board/portal.php?styleid=4

The software you need includes:
- VDR
- Driver
- Subtitles Plugin (to get movie subtitles working for some channels, optional)

  Typically software installation in linux is done by opening a console as root (su root),
  going to directory /usr/local/src, and opening a downloaded source package
  (tar xzvf xxxxxxx.tar.gz, or tar xjvf xxxxxx.tar.bz2). Then you read README or
  INSTALL and follow the instructions. RPM-based installation is also possible,
  but for some software like VDR or MPlayer it is best to compile from sources.

  For installing VDR, I originally used the instructions found
  on the following pages (they're in German):
	http://linvdr.org/projects/vdr/index.php
  You can translate these to English by using Babelfish:
	http://babelfish.altavista.com/
  (If all goes well, you don't need to read them..)

Open the VDR and driver packages in /usr/local/src, and create symbolic links
(ln -s directory linktoit), so that it looks a bit like the following:

lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           21 Nov 29 14:26 DVB -> linux-dvb.2003-11-08/
drwxr-xr-x    6 500      users        4096 Nov  8 18:10 linux-dvb.2003-11-08
lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           18 Nov 29 17:02 VDR -> vdr-1.2.6
drwxr-xr-x    5 500      users        4096 Nov 29 01:15 vdr-1.2.6

At this time you may wish to make a directory for the VDR recordings. Assuming
the partition for that purpose is mounted as "/data", you can do it as follows:
 mkdir /data/video
 ln -s /data/video /video

Read VDR/INSTALL and DVB/INSTALL to learn how to compile and install these
components. Since the instructions are a bit confusing, here's a summary of steps
that at least appear necessary. First make VDR work without LIRC or subtitles,
add them later.
- Install kernel sources by using Mandrake Control Center. You probably don't
  need to recompile kernel, but DVB compilation needs them.
- cd DVB; make
- cd DVB/drivers; make insmod    (checks the drivers, see console output)
- cd DVB/drivers; make install   (installs the drivers)
- cd VDR; make
- cd VDR; ./runvdr               (checks if VDR works, see output on your TV)
- cd VDR; make install
- Modify /usr/local/bin/runvdr until it works

Subtitles are installed as a plugin in /usr/local/src/VDR/PLUGINS/src, like this:
	lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           15 Nov 29 16:45 subtitles -> subtitles-0.1.0/
	drwxr-xr-x    2 root     root         4096 Nov 29 16:57 subtitles-0.1.0/
You also need to patch VDR sources with 'patch'. After that you need to recompile
VDR, with additionally "cd VDR; make plugins".

Step 4: VDR Configuration
=========================

The main part of VDR configuration is not explained, see VDR's own documentation.

To make VDR autostart when Mandrake starts, add to /etc/inittab this:
	vdr:35:once:/usr/local/bin/runvdr

To be easy to use, you will want LIRC to work together with VDR. For me this required
at least these steps. There may be easier ways.
- Compiling VDR with REMOTE=LIRC
- Recompiling the kernel so that CONFIG_SERIAL is installed as a module 'm'
  and not statically in the kernel 'y', read a kernel recompilation guide.
- Getting LIRC sources; compiling and installing them
- Adding this to /etc/inittab; that makes it start before runvdr
	ir::boot:/usr/local/sbin/lircd
- You need /etc/lircd.conf describing your remote control. I used winlirc
  on Windows XP to create this file, as it seemed the easiest way at the time.
  In any case this step involves teaching LIRC about your remote.
- You need /etc/sysconfig/lircd also.
- When you have lirc properly running, you need to teach VDR
  about your remote as well. That's done by deleting /video/remote.conf,
  so it will ask you about this when it's starting.

Step 5: Encoding to MPEG-4, and Viewing via VDR
===============================================

Download MPlayer sources from here, and follow instructions:
	http://www.mplayerhq.hu/homepage/design6/news.html
Before compiling MPlayer, install codecs that it uses, like:
	LAME = http://lame.sourceforge.net/
	XVID = http://www.xvid.org/
	DIVX = http://www.divx.com/divx/linux/
For me the tricky part was finding out the proper configuration instructions:
	./configure --enable-gui --enable-dvb --with-dvbincdir=/usr/local/src/DVB/include

Download these from vdrportal and follow instructions
- MPlayer / MP3 Plugin, and  mplayer.sh

It's better to encode with mencoder/lavc, than with ffmpeg. As of this
writing I'm unable to encode with mencoder/xvid or mencoder/vidx, as they
don't work. (Divx crashes, and xvid/mplayer doesn't compile..)

My best command line for mencoder is as of writing this. I'm not yet
quite satisfied with the results, though.

mencoder 001.vdr -ovc lavc -lavcopts 
vcodec=mpeg4:vqmin=2:mbd=2:trell:v4mv:keyint=100:precmp=2:cmp=2:subcmp=2:vbitrate=1400:vpass=1 -oac mp3lame -lameopts 
preset=standard -o foobar.avi
mencoder 001.vdr -ovc lavc -lavcopts 
vcodec=mpeg4:vqmin=2:mbd=2:trell:v4mv:keyint=100:precmp=2:cmp=2:subcmp=2:vbitrate=1400:vpass=2 -oac mp3lame -lameopts 
preset=standard -o foobar.avi

Change the bitrate as wanted. Add B-frame and qpel switches for maybe some increased
quality in return for worse interoperability. Maybe use xvid/divx instead.

There are also scripts that try to encode automatically.

Misc tip: combine VDR recordings simply by cat 001.vdr 002.vdr > combo.vdr for encoding.

Step 6: Upgrading Mandrake
==========================

You can upgrade Mandrake software by using 'urpmi'. This downloads RPMs from
the net, and installs them. You don't need a Mandrake club membership.
See Easy URPMI for how to configure it at
	http://urpmi.org/easyurpmi/index.php          (seems to be offline?)
	http://nanardon.homelinux.org/urpmi.setup/

After setting it up, you can even update the whole Mandrake with
these commands. Be careful, especially with the last one!

    urpmi.update -a
    urpmi --auto-select --no-verify-rpm --auto
    urpmi kernel





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