Hi All,
I have installed Gentoo linux on a dedicated pc to be the foundation of my PVR. I have an Hauppage pvr-350
My goal and thought process goes like this. I would like to make a small PVR appliance. I have digital cable and it is my understanding that I could get a DVB card that captures an MPEG stream but most of the content is encrypted and to my knowledge no one has figured out how to decrypt it. Since I want the premium content I need the cable companies settop box to decrypt it.
I have also noticed that frequently the listings from zap2it do not match what is actually on. This and the fact that I wan't to keep the PVR lean lead me to choose a solution that does not download the programming schedule from the internet. Since I will be using the set top boxe's on screen display through the PVR means the PVR should keep latency to a minimum.
The setup I currently have is like this DVD player and settop box connected to Hauppage pvr-350 via its SPDIF connectors. stereo amplifier and TV connected to pvr-350 via its TVout connector.
ivtv is installed and working. I can watch TV two different ways 1. "ivtvctl -d /dev/video1 -K1" 2. "cat /dev/video1 > /dev/video16" Recording and playback are similar to command 2. When watching TV via method 1 the audio gradually seems to loose sync with the video. I don't really notice but my spouse does. When watching TV via method 2 there is enough lag to make using the set top boxe's on screen display hard to use.
Of all the solutions I am aware of VDR looks to be the best match for my requirements.
MythTV seems too big, requires a database and X Mplayer seems too big and requires X VLC seems to big and requires X
VDR can run as a deamon, has onscreen display and can use the Hauppage remote control I believe I can use the VDR OSD in conjuntion with the cable companies settop box OSD to control things nicely.
I have installed the following ivtv 0.8.0 vdr 1.4.4 vdr-pvr350 0.0.4_pre1 vdr-analogtv 1.0.00-r1
I can't figure out how to get VDR running localhost media-video # /etc/init.d/vdr start * Preparing start of vdr: * config files ... [ ok
* Some plugins could not be loaded! * Waiting for prerequisits (devices nodes etc.) ... * could not start vdr: dvb device not found [ !! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------- localhost media-video # cat /var/vdr/vdr-start-log Startlog for VDR I: vdr-pvr350: plugin not found ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------- localhost plugins # ls -al /etc/vdr/plugins/ total 8 drwxr-xr-x 2 vdr vdr 4096 Jan 21 11:46 . drwxr-xr-x 6 vdr vdr 4096 Jan 21 15:59 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 vdr vdr 0 Jan 20 17:53 .keep_media-video_vdr-0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 45 Jan 21 11:39 libvdr-analogtv -> /usr/lib/vdr/plugins/libvdr-analogtv.so.1.4.4 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 43 Jan 21 11:46 libvdr-pvr350 -> /usr/lib/vdr/plugins/libvdr-pvr350.so.1.4.4 localhost plugins #
Can someone give me a clue or point me at some documentation that will help me?
Another thing I would like to be able to do is play avi files, wmf and other video file formats through the tv-out. Is VDR the correct tool? Is my throught process sound?
Please Advise,
russ@else.net
Le dimanche 21 janvier 2007 à 21:19 -0500, Russell Treleaven a écrit :
A mail with correct subject line! Congratulations! =:-D
Is VDR the correct tool?
I am not sure that vdr is the best tool for recording/time shifting/whatever encrypted analog video. It is the best tool for digital (DVB-S, DVB-T...) by far.
I feel that the best tool for encrypted analog video is a set top box with PVR functionality. This is a personal opinion not shared by all here I guess.
The best way to play the other media - avi etc - is xine.
Have you checked the MMS project?
Cheers
Tony
On Mon, 22 Jan 2007 09:54:40 +0100 Tony Grant tony@tgds.net wrote:
Is VDR the correct tool?
I am not sure that vdr is the best tool for recording/time shifting/whatever encrypted analog video. It is the best tool for digital (DVB-S, DVB-T...) by far.
Agreed.
The best way to play the other media - avi etc - is xine.
Have you checked the MMS project?
Unlike MPlayer, My Media System and Xine don't support ivtv output without X, but I'd also say that MMS and Freevo are worth taking a look at if you are willing to run a lightweight X session (it's not that heavy anyway; ten years ago I used X happily on ~ 100 MHz Pentium machines and 64 MB RAM).
Niko Mikkilä
On Sun, 21 Jan 2007 21:19:27 -0500 "Russell Treleaven" russ@else.net wrote:
I would like to make a small PVR appliance. I have digital cable and it is my understanding that I could get a DVB card that captures an MPEG stream but most of the content is encrypted and to my knowledge no one has figured out how to decrypt it. Since I want the premium content I need the cable companies settop box to decrypt it.
So the digital television standard your cable company uses is really DVB-C, but content scrambling is not based on DVB-CA (Conditional Access)? Interesting, what company is it and which system are they using then?
MythTV seems too big, requires a database and X Mplayer seems too big and requires X VLC seems to big and requires X
Well, MPlayer and VLC are not necessarily that big and I think you can compile MPlayer without X support (or you can install X headers and libraries to compile MPlayer, if it can't be done otherwise). In any case, running these programs doesn't require running an X server. I wouldn't use MPlayer as the primary media frontend though, just as a video player.
I have installed the following ivtv 0.8.0 vdr 1.4.4 vdr-pvr350 0.0.4_pre1 vdr-analogtv 1.0.00-r1
I can't figure out how to get VDR running localhost media-video # /etc/init.d/vdr start
- Preparing start of vdr:
- config files ...
[ ok
- Some plugins could not be loaded!
- Waiting for prerequisits (devices nodes etc.) ...
- could not start vdr: dvb device not found
[ !!
localhost media-video # cat /var/vdr/vdr-start-log Startlog for VDR I: vdr-pvr350: plugin not found
Seems that there were problems loading both the analogtv and the pvr350 plugin, since VDR complains about the DVB device. Perhaps analogtv is not configured properly. The pvr350 problem is probably packaging-related (as in a bug in the ebuild).
Another thing I would like to be able to do is play avi files, wmf and other video file formats through the tv-out. Is VDR the correct tool?
Not exactly, you need to use MPlayer through the vdr-mplayer plugin to play those files.
Regards, Niko Mikkilä
no one has figured out how to decrypt it. Since I want the premium content I need the cable companies settop box to decrypt it.
So the digital television standard your cable company uses is really DVB-C, but content scrambling is not based on DVB-CA (Conditional Access)? Interesting, what company is it and which system are they using then?
Rogers cable and I am just paraphrasing what I read elsewhere cable ATSC (QAM-256) I have heard from multiple sources that most of the digital channels are encrypted. Also I would not be able to "pay per view" or "on demand" stuff
MythTV seems too big, requires a database and X Mplayer seems too big and requires X VLC seems to big and requires X
Well, MPlayer and VLC are not necessarily that big and I think you can compile MPlayer without X support (or you can install X headers and libraries to compile MPlayer, if it can't be done otherwise). In any case, running these programs doesn't require running an X server. I wouldn't use MPlayer as the primary media frontend though, just as a video player.
I would like to make the system very small.
Le lundi 22 janvier 2007 à 19:54 -0500, Russell Treleaven a écrit :
I would like to make the system very small.
Because you asked... Here you are rambling up the wrong track. Sorry! Read the page carefully, do you see HTPC or PVR? No. Gentoo embedded works for firewalls routers and whatever.
A video appliance is a good idea but you want loads of RAM and acceleration for your video decoding. It can be done with specialised hardware (I use a VIA EPIA-M) or in software with a fast CPU.
With VDR you can have a video server which uses a low power CPU because the machine is just writing DVB streams to disk or to the network. The client will need the power to decode the stream however.
Cheers
Tony
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Niko Mikkila -
Russell Treleaven -
Tony Grant