Hi,
I would like to share the options I know about building a vdr box as unattended server + clients (Analog TV/LCD Display) versus having the vdr box close to the TV/Monitor (I guess most of you have), so It can help others. I appreciate if you add your comments.
VDR unattended server with clients (Analog TV or LCD Display) =============================================================
IN dvb-* | | Normal +--------+ Antenna | vdr | _/// +-| box | |\\ | +--------+ | | | | O IR | | | /RF net tvout/audio / | +-+-------+ / | |modulator|_/ | +-+-------+ | | | | +------+ | antenna | TV | remote+ | cabling--| | + IR/RF | +------+ | +------+ +-|vdr | |client|+-------+ +--+---+|Monitor| +----+or TV | +-------+
I have this setup because I want my vdr box in a separate central site (i.e. in the garage) and want to see the selected channel in any of the house's TV's. Remote control is done using IR to RF converters (1 base station at server site).
Option (A) is the most simple/cheap I've found, it's based on reusing the antenna cabling of your house. Connect the tvout+audio into a modulator and add the signal into a selected vhf or uhf channel, then select that channel into any of the TV's. Obviously quality is the bad thing here, but it's simple and all of the vdr capabilities/features work (osd, menus)...
For Option (B) there are several options and all based on using the ethernet or wireless network of the House.
B.1: Where the "VDR client" is a Hauppauge MVP. http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/products/data_mediamvp.html http://www.linuxtv.org/vdrwiki/index.php/Mediamvp-plugin (note, I'm not doing any advertising here, just sharing info, any other suggestion regarding a cheap vdr client network based, wireless enabled, and eventually with a DVI or VGA output instead of a scart connector, is welcome)
You need an extra box (small) close to your TV, connected to the network and to the tv via SCART. It's a bit challenge to install but I'm pretty happy with this solution. It's almost like having the original VDR close to your TV. It has it's own menus and you can access video +audio, mp3, videos, pictures in the vdr box.
The advantage versus (A) is the quality, which is almost perfect (SCART). The disadvantage I've found is that It can't use the original menus from vdr.
B.2: Where the 'VDR client' is a Win/Mac/Linux and MPlayer or similar. The you need the vdr-streamdev plugin (http://www.magoa.net/linux I recommend the CVS version).
In this case you simply connect your MPlayer(or similar) to http://yourserver:3000/channel and output on your your laptop/pc/... monitor or you use the VGA/DVI out to a LCD.
This option is the one with the best quality, however I've found it a bit unusable due to: 1) you need a PC close to your TV 2) for non- experience users (i.e. kids) as you don't have the OSD Menus and channel change is slow, then it's difficult to use.
B.3: Where the 'VDR client' is again Win/Mac/linux and you use alternative streaming technologies
1.- vlc (http://www.videolan.org/). In this case you have two options: - Run VLC server in the VDR server together with streamdev - Have 'FF Card' and Run VLC server in the VDR server without streamdev The problem is that with streamdev you loose again the OSD menus and without it you need a FF Card. In both cases similar disadvantages as in B.2
---and info received recently by Stephan, that I haven't study yet--- 2. ffserver+ffmpeg: http://vdrportal.de/board/thread.php? threadid=17160&sid=&hilight=ffserver+vdradmin I have tried this but with no success :-( If you get this working: Please tell me!
3. xawtv: It can display the decoded picture of your FF-card. That works, but without sound.
4. kvdr: http://www.s.netic.de/gfiala/ It can display the decoded picture of your FF-card, too. That works only on the same machine where the FF-card is located and additionally can control VDR. Very smart solution!
luis
On Wed, 15 Feb 2006, Luis Palacios wrote:
[...]
IN dvb-* | | Normal+--------+ Antenna | vdr | _/// +-| box | |\\ | +--------+ | | | | O IR | | | /RF net tvout/audio / | +-+-------+ / | |modulator|_/ | +-+-------+ | | | | +------+ | antenna | TV | remote+ | cabling--| | + IR/RF | +------+ | +------+ +-|vdr | |client|+-------+ +--+---+|Monitor| +----+or TV | +-------+
i have the same problem like you. i am searching/waiting for a streaming-solution which gives the complete picture, including osd, and maybe a solution for transporting the remote-control-commands back to the server. i think a lot of people want to have a fat-server/thin-multiple-client -solution. i wonder how people get enough cables from antenna to nearby the tv. i have only one cable, so i can not put in more than 1 card.
olli
Oliver Joa ojoa@gatrixx.com writes:
On Wed, 15 Feb 2006, Luis Palacios wrote:
[...]
IN dvb-* | | Normal+--------+ Antenna | vdr | _/// +-| box | |\\ | +--------+ | | | | O IR | | | /RF net tvout/audio / | +-+-------+ / | |modulator|_/ | +-+-------+ | | | | +------+ | antenna | TV | remote+ | cabling--| | + IR/RF | +------+ | +------+ +-|vdr | |client|+-------+ +--+---+|Monitor| +----+or TV | +-------+
i have the same problem like you. i am searching/waiting for a streaming-solution which gives the complete picture, including osd, and maybe a solution for transporting the remote-control-commands back to the server. i think a lot of people want to have a fat-server/thin-multiple-client -solution. i wonder how people get enough cables from antenna to nearby the tv. i have only one cable, so i can not put in more than 1 card.
Here I don't have analog tv nor analog tvout, but I have 2 dvb-s cards.
For me the perfect solution would be a mix of xine+net and streamdev. Ideally vdr-xine (+ network) would allow several clients to connect independently. It would use multicast to send the video and use tcp to get command from the client.
I could run 2 vdr processes and have a vdr-xine+network per vdr. but it's not handy on the client side. (sure, there're always solutions...) (either 1 dvb card per vdr, or the 2 cards for the 1st vdr and the 2nd vdr connected to the first with streamdev vtp)
There might be constraints in vdr or/and vdr-xine not allowing this more easily, i'm don't really know. I guess vdr 1.5 could be even more modular ! :)
hi,
I've a problem with vdr and the premiere pay-tv
usualy, it works fine, but after an vdr restart the vdr tunes to the premiere channel and got all EPG information, but no audio and no video
if that happens I have to switch several times to the current channel and then it works
this happens also if the vdr starts on "ARD" and I switch the first time to a premiere channel the first switch does not correctly init the channel (no audio no video)
I'm using a TT dvb-c v2.1 with alphacrypt light kernel 2.6.13 and firmware 2622
is this a known problem?
thanks
marco
Marco Skambraks wrote:
hi,
I've a problem with vdr and the premiere pay-tv
usualy, it works fine, but after an vdr restart the vdr tunes to the premiere channel and got all EPG information, but no audio and no video
if that happens I have to switch several times to the current channel and then it works
this happens also if the vdr starts on "ARD" and I switch the first time to a premiere channel the first switch does not correctly init the channel (no audio no video)
I'm using a TT dvb-c v2.1 with alphacrypt light kernel 2.6.13 and firmware 2622
is this a known problem?
Haven't heard of such a problem.
You might want to try the latest firmware (F62623).
Klaus
hi, On Fri, 17 Feb 2006, Klaus Schmidinger wrote:
Marco Skambraks wrote:
hi,
I've a problem with vdr and the premiere pay-tv
usualy, it works fine, but after an vdr restart the vdr tunes to the premiere channel and got all EPG information, but no audio and no video
if that happens I have to switch several times to the current channel and then it works
this happens also if the vdr starts on "ARD" and I switch the first time to a premiere channel the first switch does not correctly init the channel (no audio no video)
I'm using a TT dvb-c v2.1 with alphacrypt light kernel 2.6.13 and firmware 2622
is this a known problem?
Haven't heard of such a problem.
You might want to try the latest firmware (F62623).
OK; thnaks I'll try it
I guess it's a tming problem of the driver if I load the dvb modules and wait 8-10 scons vdr comes up correctly on my premiere channel
...loading modules sleep 10 ./vdr ...
this works fine, but with this method my boot sequence takes 10 seconds more than I want :-( OK, I'll update the firmware and try again
thanks
marco
Klaus
Marco Skambraks wrote:
hi, On Fri, 17 Feb 2006, Klaus Schmidinger wrote:
Marco Skambraks wrote:
hi,
I've a problem with vdr and the premiere pay-tv
usualy, it works fine, but after an vdr restart the vdr tunes to the premiere channel and got all EPG information, but no audio and no video
if that happens I have to switch several times to the current channel and then it works
this happens also if the vdr starts on "ARD" and I switch the first time to a premiere channel the first switch does not correctly init the channel (no audio no video)
I'm using a TT dvb-c v2.1 with alphacrypt light kernel 2.6.13 and firmware 2622
is this a known problem?
Haven't heard of such a problem.
You might want to try the latest firmware (F62623).
OK; thnaks I'll try it
I guess it's a tming problem of the driver if I load the dvb modules and wait 8-10 scons vdr comes up correctly on my premiere channel
...loading modules sleep 10 ./vdr ...
this works fine, but with this method my boot sequence takes 10 seconds more than I want :-( OK, I'll update the firmware and try again
Which version of VDR are you using?
Since version 1.3.30 VDR waits until all CAMs are ready. With this it is possible to start VDR on an encrypted channel.
Klaus
Hi,
On Sat, 2006-02-18 at 10:42 +0100, Klaus Schmidinger wrote:
Since version 1.3.30 VDR waits until all CAMs are ready. With this it is possible to start VDR on an encrypted channel.
Hi Klaus,
I have vdr-1.3.42 and dvb drivers from kernel 2.6.15. If I start VDR first time on encrypted channel it says "Channel not available" and turns on first free FTA channel. I have TT premium 2.1 dvb-c and conax 4.00e in CI/CAM slot. I think there isn't enough delay to setup conax? Conax CAM has some other oddities also, like sometimes there comes message saying that you don't have access to that channel, even when channel is showing at the background :)
-Mikko
Mikko Salo wrote:
Hi,
On Sat, 2006-02-18 at 10:42 +0100, Klaus Schmidinger wrote:
Since version 1.3.30 VDR waits until all CAMs are ready. With this it is possible to start VDR on an encrypted channel.
Hi Klaus,
I have vdr-1.3.42 and dvb drivers from kernel 2.6.15. If I start VDR first time on encrypted channel it says "Channel not available" and turns on first free FTA channel. I have TT premium 2.1 dvb-c and conax 4.00e in CI/CAM slot. I think there isn't enough delay to setup conax? Conax CAM has some other oddities also, like sometimes there comes message saying that you don't have access to that channel, even when channel is showing at the background :)
Are you getting a log entry like
not all devices ready after 30 seconds
when starting VDR?
You might try increasing
#define DEVICEREADYTIMEOUT 30 // seconds to wait until all devices are ready
in vdr.c.
Klaus
O Mércores 15 de Febreiro de 2006 ás 13:21, Luis dicía:
B.2: Where the 'VDR client' is a Win/Mac/Linux and MPlayer or similar. The you need the vdr-streamdev plugin (http://www.magoa.net/linux I recommend the CVS version).
In this case you simply connect your MPlayer(or similar) to http://yourserver:3000/channel and output on your your laptop/pc/... monitor or you use the VGA/DVI out to a LCD.
I'm missing here the possibility to use other vdr with streamdev-client on the laptop, so you can have the OSD. Just to know, is this solution right or perhaps it doesn't work by now? (I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to use it in the near future)
El 15/02/2006, a las 15:58, Jesus Bravo Alvarez escribió:
B.2: Where the 'VDR client' is a Win/Mac/Linux and MPlayer or similar. The you need the vdr-streamdev plugin (http://www.magoa.net/linux I recommend the CVS version).
In this case you simply connect your MPlayer(or similar) to http://yourserver:3000/channel and output on your your laptop/pc/... monitor or you use the VGA/DVI out to a LCD.
I'm missing here the possibility to use other vdr with streamdev-client on the laptop, so you can have the OSD. Just to know, is this solution right or perhaps it doesn't work by now? (I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to use it in the near future)
Hi (hola) Jesús,
Yes, it works. I didn't know it was possible, I just compile everything in another linux box and connect to my main vdr server. It works very good.
Well, I have a problem with the colors in the client box, all colors appear with a tendency to blue/green... I don't understand.
Anyway, more important, OSD works perfect. When you navigate through the menus you are seeing the server menus in your client vdr.
luis
Luis Palacios wrote:
Hi,
<delete>
5. VDR as recording slave, no Live Viewing at all, Viewing of recordings via "Streaming Client"
I use a "Pinnacle ShowCenter 200" to view my recordings, after cutting them into single-file .mpg-files. I haven't view anything live for quite some time and so i haven't spend time to create a setup with live-viewing capability.
In this setup the VDR-Machine can be anywhere you want. The VDR-machine can also act as the Server for the Clients.
For Servering the Client(s) you can use for e.g. "Linux MTPCenter"(*)
The "Missing link" (VDR-Recoding -> <cutting> -> Serving) is the cutting-process with which you can create your marks(*2) and which spits out something the Server-Part can use. I've always used my own cutting solution so i don't have a "Missing link". But i don't know what kind of help the MTPC is for this as i have only used it for a few hours myself. So cutting MAYBE a Showstopper problem in this setup.
And for the last part: Everywhere you want to watch recordings you "only" need Ethernet (alternative the device i use also has WLAN capability!) and a "Streaming Client". I bought mine for about 260 EUR which is rather cheap compared to a computer and you only need Power/Network at the TV.
*: http://www.panczyk.org/linux/mtp_center.html
*2: Unless you have access to the VDR-machine or you use part of the other solutions for accessing the VDR-machine from remote you can't use the VDR-machine for this.
-
Jesus Bravo Alvarez -
Klaus Schmidinger -
Luis Palacios -
Marco Skambraks -
Matthias Schniedermeyer -
Mikko Salo -
Oliver Joa -
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