vdr-plugin-satip/README

This is an SAT>IP plugin for the Video Disk Recorder (VDR).

Written by:                  Rolf Ahrenberg
                             < R o l f . A h r e n b e r g @ s c i . f i >

Project's homepage:          https://github.com/rofafor/vdr-plugin-satip

Latest version available at: https://github.com/rofafor/vdr-plugin-satip/releases

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as
published by the Free Software Foundation.
See the file COPYING for more information.

Requirements:

- Libcurl >= 7.36.0 - the multiprotocol file transfer library with RTSP support
  http://curl.haxx.se/libcurl/

- PugiXML - Light-weight, simple and fast XML parser for C++
  http://pugixml.org/
  or
  TinyXML - a simple, small, C++ XML parser
  http://www.grinninglizard.com/tinyxml/

- Glibc >= 2.12 - the GNU C library (recvmmsg)
  http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/

Description:

This plugin integrates SAT>IP network devices seamlessly into VDR.
You can use any SAT>IP channel like any other normal DVB channel for
live viewing, recording, etc. The plugin also features full section
filtering capabilities which allow for example EIT information to be
extracted from the incoming stream.

Installation:

tar -xzf /put/your/path/here/vdr-satip-X.Y.Z.tgz
make -C satip-X.Y.Z install

Configuration:

The plugin accepts a "--devices" (-d) command-line parameter defaulting
to two. This parameter defines how many simultaneous transponders can
be received, if there are available SAT>IP tuners.

The plugin accepts also a "--server" (-s) command-line parameter, that
can be used to manually configure static SAT>IP servers if autodetection
via UPnP somehow can't be used. Multiple service entries can be given
separated by a semicolon:

[<srcaddress>@]<ipaddress>[:<port>]|<model>[:<filter>]|<description>[:<quirk>];...

- srcaddress (Optional)  Source address can be used to define used
                         networking interface on a host, e.g. 127.0.0.1.
- ipaddress              IP address of SAT>IP server, e.g. 127.0.0.1.
- port (Optional)        IP port number of SAT>IP server, e.g 443.
- model                  Model defines DVB modulation system (DVBS2,
                         DVBT2, DVBT, DVBC) and number of available
                         frontends separated by a hyphen, e.g. DVBT2-4.
- filter (Optional)      Filter can be used to limit satellite frontends
                         to certain satellite position, e.g. S19.2E.
- description            Friendly name of SAT>IP server. This is used
                         for autodetection of quirks.
- quirk (Optional)       Quirks are non-standard compliant features and
                         bug fixes of SAT>IP server  defined by a
                         hexadecimal number. Multiple quirks can be
                         defined by combining values by addition:

                           0x01: Fix session id bug
                           0x02: Fix play parameter (addpids/delpids) bug
                           0x04: Fix frontend locking bug
                           0x08: Support for RTP over TCP
                           0x10: Support the X_PMT protocol extension
                           0x20: Support the CI TNR protocol extension
                           0x40: Fix auto-detection of pilot tones bug
                           0x80: Fix re-tuning bug by teardowning a session

Examples:

vdr -P 'satip -s 192.168.0.1|DVBS2-2,DVBT2-2|OctopusNet'
vdr -P 'satip -s 192.168.0.1|DVBS2-4|OctopusNet;192.168.0.2|DVBT2-4|minisatip:0x18'
vdr -P 'satip -s 192.168.0.1:554|DVBS2-2:S19.2E|OctopusNet;192.168.0.2:8554|DVBS2-4:S19.2E,S1W|minisatip'

The plugin accepts a "--portrange" (-p) command-line parameter, that can
be used to manually specify the RTP & RTCP port range and therefore
enables using the plugin through a NAT (e.g. Docker bridged network).
A minimum of 2 ports per device is required.

SAT>IP satellite positions (aka. signal sources) shall be defined via
sources.conf. If the source description begins with a number, it's used
as SAT>IP signal source selection parameter. A special number zero can
be used to disable the source. Otherwise, the default parameter is one:

S19.2E  Astra 1KR/1L/1M/2C
=> Signal source = 1

S19.2E  2
=> Signal source = 2

S19.2E  3 Astra 1KR/1L/1M/2C
=> Signal source = 3

S19.2E 0 Astra 1KR/1L/1M/2C
=> Source is disabled

A channel can be assigned into a specific SAT>IP frontend by giving the
identifier number in RID field of a channels.conf entry:
FE = RID % 100
Valid range: 1 ... 99

Setup menu:

- Operating mode = off        If you want exclude all SAT>IP devices
                   low        from VDR's device handling, set this
                   normal     option to "off". Otherwise, if you want
                   high       to keep SAT>IP at a low priority when
                              selecting available devices, set this
                              option to "low". Similarly, the "high"
                              value prefers the SAT>IP over the local
                              DVB cards when selecting available devices.
- Use CI extension = no       If you want to use the CI extension found
                              in some SAT>IP hardware (e.g. Digital
                              Devices OctopusNet), set this option to
                              "yes".
- CICAM #<slot> = <system>    If you want to assign a CA system into
                              a specific CI slot, set this option to
                              a named one. Use "---" for autoselection.
- Enable EPG scanning = yes   If you want exclude all SAT>IP devices
                              from VDR's EIT background scanning, set
                              this option to "no".
- Disabled sources = none     If your SAT>IP servers don't have certain
                              satellite positions available you can
                              disable them via this option.
- Disabled filters = none     Certain section filters might cause some
                              unwanted behaviour to VDR such as time
                              being falsely synchronized etc. This option
                              allows creation of blacklists of ill-behaving
                              filters. If this option is set to a non-zero
                              value, the menu page will contain that many
                              "Disable filter" options which allow you
                              to disable the individual section filters.
                              Valid range: "none" = 0 ... 7
- Transport mode = unicast    If you want to use the non-standard
                   multicast  RTP-over-TCP transport mode, set this option
                   rtp-o-tcp  accordingly. Otherwise, the transport
                              mode will be RTP-over-UDP via unicast or
                              multicast.
- Enable frontend reuse = yes Certain devices might have artifacts if
                              multiple channels are assigned to the same
                              frontend. If you want to avoid such a
                              frontend assignment, set this option to "no". 
- [Red:Scan]                  Forces network scanning of SAT>IP hardware.
- [Yellow:Devices]            Opens SAT>IP device status menu.
- [Blue:Info]                 Opens SAT>IP information/statistics menu.
- [Ok]                        Opens information menu of selected SAT>IP
                              device.

Information menu:

- [Red:General]              Opens the general information page.
- [Green:Pids]               Opens the pid statistics page.
- [Yellow:Filters]           Opens the section filter statistics page.
- [Blue:Bits/bytes]          Toggles between bits and bytes mode.

Notes:

- If you are having problems receiving DVB-S2 channels, make sure your
  channels.conf entry contains correct pilot tone setting.

- The stream id "-1" states about unsuccessful tuning. This might be a
  result of invalid channel parameters or lack of free SAT>IP tuners.

- If the plugin doesn't detect your SAT>IP network device, make sure
  your setup doesn't have firewalled the UDP port 1900.

- Stream decryption requires a separate CAM plugin that works without
  direct access to any DVB card devices. Also the integrated CAM slots
  in Octopus Net devices are supported.

- Tracing can be set on/off dynamically via command-line switch or
  SVDRP command.

- OctopusNet firmware 1.0.40 or greater recommended.

- Inverto OEM firmware 1.17.0.120 or greater recommended.
  The firmware 1.16.0.120 can be downloaded and installed
  from their webpage: http://www.inverto.tv/support/
  An update to a newer firmware should be offered afterwards.

- FRITZ!OS 7.00 or greater recommended for FRITZ!Box Cable devices.
  Older firmware versions require both PlayPids and ForceLock quirks.

- If you are experiencing glitches in the video stream, one possible
  reason can be buffer overflows in RTP receive sockets. You can verify
  this by checking "receive buffer errors" counter by running "netstat -s"
  command. If the counter increases every time a video glitch happens,
  you should try to tweak the RTP receive buffer size with the "--rcvbuf"
  (-r) plugin parameter.
  A good starting point for the buffer size is to double the operating
  system default value until errors disappear or the maximum value is
  reached. You can check these values in Linux by checking the kernel
  parameters:
  $ cat /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_default
  $ cat /proc/sys/net/core/rmem_max

Acknowledgements:

- Big thanks to Digital Devices GmbH for providing the Octopus Net
  hardware for development!