[vdr] VDR developer version 1.3.5

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

VDR developer version 1.3.5 is now available at

    ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/vdr/Developer/vdr-1.3.5.tar.bz2

Probably the most important new feature in this version is support
for VPS ("Video Programming Service") controlled timer recordings.
This work is actually in a pretty early state, and there is most
likely still a lot to be tested and improved - but so far it appears
to work pretty good, so I thought I'd let it out now.

Please read the file README.vps for more information about how this
works, and what still has to be done.

*** BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN USING VPS CONTROLLED TIMERS!
*** IT MIGHT BE A GOOD IDEA TO PROGRAM BOTH A VPS CONTROLLED AND
*** A "NORMAL" TIMER (WITH A DIFFERENT START TIME AND MAYBE A SOMEWHAT
*** DIFFERENT FILE NAME) IF YOU WANT TO RECORD SOMETHING REALLY IMPORTANT.

With all that said, I would appreciate if many of you could test this
new and long awaited feature and report any bugs or unexpected behaviours
you might encounter.

One funny side note: when I tried to test the VPS function with yesterday's
"Wetten, dass...?" it actually ended exactly in time - now who would have
expected _that_? ;-)

WARNING:
========

Before using this version, please make sure you read the file
README.developer (which is contained in this archive). Also, please
don't use this version in your "productive" environment (unless you
know what you're doing ;-), because it automatically changes the
'channels.conf' file and the changed file might not work with older
versions of VDR.

Note that due to the new transponder scanning the number of channels
may increase dramatically, and so may the amount of EPG data.
Set the "Setup/DVB/Update channels" option to a smaller value if you
don't want to get new transponders or channels.

The changes since version 1.3.4:

- Fixed reading the EPG preferred language parameter from 'setup.conf'.
- Fixed switching to a visible programme in case the current channel has neither
  a video nor an audio PID.
- Fixed editing channels (SID now range checked) and creating new channels (NID,
  TID and RID are now set to 0).
- Fixed transponder handling to make it work with satellites that provide two
  transponders on the same frequency, with different polarization, like Hispasat
  at S30.0W (thanks to Thomas Bergwinkl for pointing this out). See man vdr(5)
  for details about the enhanced channel ID format.
- Since there appears to be no general solution for the UPT error yet, a recording
  now initiates an "emergency exit" if the number of UPT errors during one
  recording exceeds 10 (suggested by Gregoire Favre). Since the UPT error doesn't
  happen on my system, this has not been explicitly tested.
  The "preliminary fix" for the UPT error in VDR/dvbdevice.c has been disabled
  by default, since it makes channel switching unpleasently slow. If you want
  to have that workaround back, you can uncomment the line
  //#define WAIT_FOR_LOCK_AFTER_TUNING 1
  in VDR/dvbdevice.c.
- Adapted the 'sky' plugin to use the actual channel IDs, and to fetch EPG data
  from www.bleb.org.
- Limited automatic retuning to devices that actually provide the transponder
  (necessary for the 'sky' plugin).
- Fixed handling receivers in the 'sky' plugin, so that a recording on the same
  channel won't interrupt an ongoing Transfer Mode.
- Added subtable ID and TSDT handling to 'libsi' (thanks to Marcel Wiesweg).
- Fixed some Russian OSD texts (thanks to Vyacheslav Dikonov).
- Added the 'running status' to the EPG events. This is necessary for implementing
  the VPS function for recording.
- Removed the obsolete 'present' and 'following' handling from the EPG data.
- The EPG data is now always kept sorted chronologically in the internal data
  structures. This also means that any EPG data retrieved through the SVRDP
  command LSTE is guaranteed to be sorted by start time.
- Now using the 'running status' in the channel display, so that a programme
  that has an end time that is before the current time, but is still running,
  will still be shown in the display (provided the broadcasters handle the
  'running status' flag correctly). This also applies to programmes that have
  a start time that is in the future, but are already running.
- Implemented an "EPG linger time", which can be set to have older EPG information
  still displayed in the "Schedule" menu (thanks to Jaakko Hyvätti).
- Added PDCDescriptor handling to 'libsi'.
- Implemented handling the VPS timestamps (aka "Programme Identification Label")
  for full VPS support for timers (provided the tv stations actually broadcast
  this information). The VPS time is displayed in the event info page if it exists
  and is different than the event's start time.
- Extended the SVDRP command LSTE to allow limiting the listed data to a given
  channel, the present or following events, or events at a given time (thanks to
  Thomas Heiligenmann).
- Fixed a typo in libsi/si.h (thanks to Stéphane Esté-Gracias).
- Timers can now be set to use the VPS information to control recording a programme.
  The new setup options "Recording/Use VPS" and "Recording/VPS margin", as well as
  the "VPS" option in the individual timers, can be used to control this feature
  (see MANUAL for details).
  Note that this feature will certainly need a lot of testing before it can be
  called "safe"!
- The "Schedule" and "What's on now/next?" menus now have an additional column
  which displays information on whether there is a timer defined for an event,
  whether an event has a VPS time that's different than its start time, and
  whether an event is currently running (see MANUAL under "The "Schedule" Menu"
  for details).

The DVB driver I am currently using can be found at

  ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/vdr/Developer/linux-dvb.2003-11-08.tar.bz2

which is the CVS 'HEAD' version from 2003-11-08, made available as a complete
archive for your convenience. Of course, you can also use any newer version from
the CVS.

Have fun!

Klaus


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