What's the url for this plugin? I would definitely like to try it!

Does it also have a built-in media player? Does it support an HD osd?

I've always used xine-lib-1.2 vdpau + vdr-xine and the mplayer plugin for media playback. Then recently tried xineliboutput because it has a built-in media player.

Thanks

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 8:07 AM, fnu vdr@auktion.hostingkunde.de wrote:

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Does it support an HD osd?

Where ist the difference? Plugin does support OSD size up to display resolution ...

How about the new truecolor osd VDR has now?

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 8:55 AM, fnu vdr@auktion.hostingkunde.de wrote:

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How about the new truecolor osd VDR has now?

Well, you did ask regarding a "HD OSD" which isn't automatically a true color OSD ...

Sorry, I had two questions. 1) does it support HD resolution, and 2) does it support truecolor. I should have been more clear. Sounds like the answer is yes to both though.

Whereas AFAIK true color OSD is also possible with SD (576i) output, e.g. xine/xineliboutput. The main problem, there isn't any real true color OSD skin out there, to use it ...

I've made several truecolor themes for yaepghd but bball (the author) never added support for it so I've been hoping for another option to use them. Do you know of any VDR skinning tutorial? Maybe my work can be used afterall.

But the skins I did test, looked impressive with softhddevice :-)

I've now tried softhddevice and upon first impression, I like it! However, I do have some things to say...

- I haven't figured out how to enter fullscreen mode. The README.txt does say you need a windows manager but that installs too much crap I don't need/want. Fullscreen mode should be possible _without_ a windows manager.

- There's a lot of junk logging, such as:

video: 23:29:31.541 +833 432 206/\ms 3 v-buf video: 23:29:31.541 +833 432 206/\ms 3 v-buf video: 23:29:31.561 +853 432 206/\ms 3 v-buf video: 23:29:31.561 +853 432 206/\ms 2 v-buf video: 23:29:31.581 +843 545 206/\ms 7 v-buf video: 23:29:31.581 +826 529 206/\ms 7 v-buf video: 23:29:31.601 +813 495 206/\ms 7 v-buf

If this is useful for debugging or dev work, it should only be enabled with a debug switch or something, but spamming the log with info that appears useless to a regular user is bad behavior.

- Helpful logging is missing. For example, I didn't see anything telling me I'm using VDPAU. I didn't see anything telling me what the current deinterlacer being used is. These types of infos _are_ useful imo and should be present in the log.

- I didn't see an option to toggle between surround sound and surround-to-stereo mix anywhere. This is very useful to people who don't leave their receiver and surround sound speakers on 24/7. And also for people who watch channels with surround sound but only have stereo speakers.

All our systems are minimal. All using VDPAU. All using audio+video over HDMI. No windows/desktop/etc, only xserver -> only because vdr-xine/xineliboutput/xine-lib need it to create video output. All systems are installed on usb stick or sdhc card.

I'm not sure how (un)stable the plugin is yet but I'd like to continue using this plugin while it matures.

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 11:05 AM, fnu vdr@auktion.hostingkunde.de wrote:

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• I haven't figured out how to enter fullscreen mode.

Well, AFAIK this is mentioned in the README. There are a couple of switches/options for the plugin start, one of them is "-f" for full screen. An other one is "-d" for the correct display and "-x" to start xorg by the plugin. And no, there is no need for a display manager, I wonder where you got this information ... most of us do test the plugin on existing Linux desktop installtion, because there's quit a way to go ...

From "vdr -h":

softhddevice (0.4.7) - A software and GPU emulated HD device

-a device audio device (fe. alsa: hw:0,0 oss: /dev/dsp) -p device audio device (alsa only) for pass-through (hw:0,1) -d display display of x11 server (fe. :0.0) -f start with fullscreen window (only with window manager) -g geometry x11 window geometry wxh+x+y -x start x11 server -s start in suspended mode -w workaround enable/disable workarounds no-hw-decoder disable hw decoder, use software decoder only no-mpeg-hw-decoder disable hw decoder for mpeg only alsa-driver-broken disable broken alsa driver message

See -f.. "only with window manager".. Also, with the -g option, what is "wxh+x+y" supposed to mean exactly? wxh(resolution?)+x(x position for top left corner of the window?)+y(y position of top left corner of the window?)...? That's just a guess -- it should be made more clear imo.

Also, if softhddevice can start an xserver, it should be able to do it in fullscreen mode so I see no reason at all for windows manager requirement.

Btw, most of the users I know don't use a Linux desktop, they have dedicated systems connected directly to their tv. I think it's good to consider at least the most common setups.

But VDPAU is IMHO closed to be ready for production use, but not VA-API or even XvBA ...

That's good news since I'm a VDPAU-only user. ;) I did want to build an i5-based VDR test box just for fun though so eventually I do plan on trying the other option.

Since author "johns" AFAIK isn't dealing with this mailing list, you could place your questions here in this tread:

http://www.vdr-portal.de/board17-developer/board21-vdr-plugins/109700-softhd device-software-vdpau-va-api-cpu-decoder-und-ausgabe-plugin/?s=b83100f9ae841 a9015a5769eb450a5611c1c7cb8

Don't worry just post in english, you'll get the answer also in english. Or feel free to open a new one in english, you will get answers in english ... ;-)

Thanks, I just send him a private message providing a link to this thread and asked that he read it when he has a few free minutes so I don't have to copy&paste.

I do see some promise with this plugin and it's _great_ that one finally exists which will offer different HW accelerated options, and not require xine-lib.

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 11:48 AM, Gerald Dachs vdr@dachsweb.de wrote:

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Thanks, I just send him a private message providing a link to this thread and asked that he read it when he has a few free minutes so I don't have to copy&paste.

He told already in the vdr-portal that he wouldn't like to subscribe to this list. Generally it might be better if you would have a little bit more work doing cut&paste than the plugin author, because he is very busy working on the plugin.

There's a large non-german speaking VDR population that wouldn't know that because of the fact. I've noticed in the past that people at vdr-portal seem to get annoyed when someone asks them to repeat what they've already said in german, but again in english. :\

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 12:21 PM, fnu vdr@auktion.hostingkunde.de wrote:

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-f            start with fullscreen window (only with window manager)

Hmm, AFAIK xorg does come with a build in window manager, I'm not 100% sure, but I guess it's called "xwm".

Xorg comes with a ton of useless dependencies. It's a complete waste when only xserver is needed. It's possible xorg comes with xwm but I'm certain that xserver doesn't.

This provides just basic window work and I did use just pure xorg over years with the "softdevice" plugin. There was no need to install openbox, fluxbox etc.

You don't need a windows manager with xine/vdr-xine either, but according to softhddevice own text, -f requires it.

On 8 February 2012 08:42, fnu vdr@auktion.hostingkunde.de wrote:

There was also no need to have an decoration manager to operate the old softdevice-plugin (SD), id did just run on the old herringbone desktop ... ;-)

And the source code license for softdevice allows you to rip that code out and add it to softhddevice. There's no better way to improve a project then to get involved.

On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 2:38 AM, fnu vdr@auktion.hostingkunde.de wrote:

Dudes,

did set up a basic VDR on Ubuntu Precise yesterday and it did work as expected.

Install a minimal Ubuntu from alternate installer, add "apt-get install xorg nvidia-current", VDR e.g. from our yaVDR PPA (ppa:yavdr/unstable-vdr, ppa:yavdr/main) incl. vdr-plugin-softhddevice and you're almost done. SoftHDDevice does start with this basic Xorg from Ubuntu repository, no additional WM like openbox, fluxbox, lightdm etc. needed.

I've been testing softhddevice basically since I first saw this thread. I never heard of softhddevice before that. So far it works fairly well. There are a few issues to sort out (such as issues ffw/rew h264 recordings, allowing users to set the color of the non-video area *for plasma tv users, etc) but overall it's off to a great start imo. Also, the issues I've found also existed and were fixed in vdr-xine so I'm confident they could be fixed in softhddevice as well.