Hi,I have a question regarding the best way to extend VDR functionality to support a certain feature.
I've got a linux server running a recording software called SageTV. The server is connected to two set top boxes that feature hardware MPEG4 decoding. Although most of the functionality of SageTV is quite nice, it can't compare to VDR features when it comes to dealing with DVB-S recording. Having used VDR in my previous setup, I would like to integrate SageTV with VDR, so I get the best of both worlds, i.e. hardware decoding/user interface of sagetv, stability/DVB features of VDR.
SageTV provides a simple API for using external recorders, which requires the external recorder to listen on a TCP port and record a PS stream to a file given by sagetv.
My question is: What is the most straightforward way to implement this in VDR ?
Is it better to adapt an existing plugin like streamdev, or is it simple enough to write a plugin from scratch for this purpose?
Is there some documentation available on how to use the VDR api ?
I would greatly appreciate any hints in this matter.
Thank you, Markus
Torgeir, It's this box: http://sagetv.com/hd_extender.html. Not sure about the hardware, but it runs Linux.
From the spec:
Video format supported: MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264 up to 1080p, AVI, VOB, WMV9/VC-1 up to 1080p
I run it at the moment with a dubious shell script doing the DVB recording, and the picture is very nice and fluid.
Markus.
The HDTV playback is broken in the latest xineliboutput CVS. vdr-sxfe segfaults.
cu
gimli
Dear Pasi, Out of the box, it only works together with the SageTV server software. The GUI is rendered on the server, the device acts as a dumb terminal.
However, they released some source code, and I just found some more technical details on the MythTV wiki: http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/SageTV_HD_Extender
Markus.
2008/7/16 Pasi Kärkkäinen pasik@iki.fi:
On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 09:52:53PM +0200, Markus Ecker wrote:
Yep.. someone with access to hd_extender should do some packet capturing and/or tracing to figure out how the communication between sagetv server and hd_extender is done..
I'm not interested in using SageTV software, but I'd like to use this device with VDR.. if possible. And possibly help developing a vdr plugin :)
-- Pasi
I was reading through the streamdev source code today, and allthough I don't understand it a 100% yet,I think I can extend it to support the SageTV recorder plugin protocol.
If anyone wants to write a VDR plugin to support the device directly, I can provide network dumps of the communication between the extender and the server.
Markus
2008/7/18 Pasi Kärkkäinen pasik@iki.fi:
Hi,I've got a first version of an extension to streamdev for SageTV ready.
You can check it out here: http://trac.assembla.com/SageTV-VDR-Integration .
I watched some HDTV on the extender with it yesterday and the picture was so fluid, I am still grinning.
Markus.
2008/7/19 Pasi Kärkkäinen pasik@iki.fi
On 27 Jul 2008, at 23:09, Markus Ecker wrote:
I watched some HDTV on the extender with it yesterday and the picture was so fluid, I am still grinning.
How long delay do you get between pressing a button for a channel change until you see the actual picture?
Pasi,I think on Tuesday I will have some time to capture the network traffic. I have a gut feeling they use a modified vnc protocol for the GUI display, but we will see...
2008/7/27 Pasi Kärkkäinen pasik@iki.fi
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gimli -
Markus Ecker -
Pasi Kärkkäinen -
Torgeir Veimo