diff --git a/UPDATE-1.2.0 b/UPDATE-1.2.0 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..473d042a --- /dev/null +++ b/UPDATE-1.2.0 @@ -0,0 +1,274 @@ +This is a summary of the changes in VDR 1.2.0 since the last stable +version 1.0.4. It only contains things that are of actual importance +to the user and doesn't mention the many fixes and improvements that +have been made "behind the scenes". + +See the file HISTORY for a detailed list of all changes. + +Plugins: + +- Implemented a universal plugin interface. See the file PLUGINS.html + for a detailed description. The man page vdr(1) describes the new options '-L' + and '-P' used to load plugins. + See http://www.cadsoft.de/vdr/plugins.htm for a list of available plugins. +- Rearranged the remote control key handling to allow plugins to implement + additional types of remote controls (see PLUGINS.html, section "Remote Control"). + The previously used files 'keys.conf' and 'keys-pc.conf' have been replaced + by the file 'remote.conf', which holds the key definitions of all remote controls. +- The new plugin 'sky' can be used to integrate a Sky Digibox into the VDR system, + using a Kfir MPEG2 encoder card (see PLUGINS/src/sky/README for details). + +Remote control: + +- If a PC keyboard is used as remote control, the string entry fields in the + menus now accept character input directly (however, this works only for keys that + are not otherwise defined as remote control keys). Also, plugins can switch the + cKbdRemote class into "raw mode", where all keyboard input will be made available + through the new 'kKbd' key code and none of it will be processed as normal remote + control functions. +- The LIRC remote control keys are now handled just like the keyboard and RCU keys. + This means that you can use the lircd.conf file as is for your remote control, + without the need of editing it to make the key names the same as used in VDR. + When first starting VDR it will go into the "Learning keys" mode and ask you + to press the various keys. The resulting key assignment will be stored in + the file 'remote.conf'. +- While learning the remote control keys it is now possible to press the 'Menu' + key to skip the definition of keys that are not available on your particular + RC unit. +- Implemented additional dedicated keys for "Play", "Pause", "Stop", "Record", + "FastFwd", "FastRew", "Channel+" and "Channel-". If your remote control supports + any of these keys you can delete your 'remote.conf' file and restart VDR to + go through the key learning procedure again in order to assign these new keys. + See MANUAL for more information. +- Implemented new keys to directly access the VDR main menu functions "Schedule", + "Channels", "Timers", "Recordings", "Setup" and "Commands". If your remote + control provides keys you want to assign these functions to, you can delete + your 'remote.cof' file and restart VDR to go through the key learning procedure + again in order to assign these new keys. See MANUAL for more information. +- The new configuration file 'keymacros.conf' can be used to assign macros to + the color buttons in normal viewing mode, as well as to up to 9 user defined + keys. See MANUAL and man vdr(5) for more information. The default 'keymacros.conf' + implements the functionality of the old "color button patch". +- Macros in 'keymacros.conf' can now use "@plugin" to directly access the main menu + function of a given plugin (see man vdr(5) for details). +- The keyboard is now by default always active to control VDR. The 'make' option + REMOTE=KBD is therefore obsolete. When compiling VDR with REMOTE=RCU or REMOTE=LIRC, + the keyboard can thus now be active together with the remote control. If you want + to build VDR without keyboard support you can set NO_KBD=1 in the 'make' call. + Since the keyboard codes are now different from the ones used previously (which + were mapped by the 'ncurses' library) you will need to go through the "Learning + keys" procedure again. To do so, either delete the file /video/remote.conf or + remove the KBD.* entries from it before starting this version of VDR. +- The "Left" and "Right" buttons now set the cursor to the first or last list item + even if the list consist only of a single page, like, for instance, the Main menu. +- The red ("Record") and yellow ("Pause") button in the "Main" menu are no longer + available when replaying. + +Devices: + +- If the primary device (as defined in setup.conf) doesn't have an MPEG decoder + (and thus can't be used as a primary device) VDR now scans all devices at + startup and uses the first one (if any) that actually has an MPEG decoder. + That way this will also work automatically if the primary device is implemented + by a plugin. +- If no device with an MPEG decoder can be found at startup, the first device + is now used as primary device (just to have some device). +- Now turning off live PIDs when replaying. This avoids short spikes from other + channels when switching between Transfer Mode channels, and also lets an ongoing + replay continue even if a recording is started on the primary device. +- Now switching to the channel used by the most recently started timer in case + the original current channel becomes unavailable due to a recording on a + different transponder. If this fails, a channel up/down switch is attempted as + a fallback solution. +- Changed the DEFAULTPRIORITY in device.c to -1, so that the primary device + will be used for FTA recordings in case the CAM is connected to a non-primary + device. +- The actual tuning is now done in a separate thread, which makes zapping through the + channels a lot faster and no longer gets stuck on channels that don't broadcast. + This also makes "Motor-DiSEqC" work. Since switching channels now no longer + explicitly waits for a channel lock in the foreground thread, the "panic level" + mechanism is no longer used. + +Time Shifting: + +- Changed device handling for being able to do simultaneous recording and + replay on the same device (Time Shifting). In order for this to work you need + to use a driver with a firmware version that has this feature implemented. +- It is now possible to do simultaneous recording and replay with a single DVB + card, even with encrypted channels. This requires the use of the Link Layer + firmware, version 2613 or higher; the -icam firmware is still limited to live + encrypted channels only. Finally we have time shift for encrypted channels on + single card systems! +- Implemented "pause live video". You can now press "Menu/Yellow" or "Pause" on + your remote control while watching live video to start an instant recording + of the current programme and immediately start replaying that recording. +- Implemented separate PausePriority and PauseLifetime parameters for the recordings + created when pausing live video. + +Channels: + +- Modified channel handling to cover all parameters necessary for DVB-C and DVB-T + (see man vdr(5) for the meaning of the additional parameters stored in the field + previously named 'polarisation'). + If you have a system with different kinds of DVB cards, like DVB-T and DVB-C, + for instance, there is no more need to distinguish the channels through the + 'Ca' parameter in order to assign them to the various DVB cards. This is now + taken care of by the "source" parameter. So a channel marked as "terrestrial", + for example, will only be received on DVB-T cards. +- Updated channels.conf files. +- Switching through channels with the 'Up' and 'Down' keys now skips channels + that are currently not available (for instance because all devices are + recording and these channels are on different transponders). +- The new configuration file 'sources.conf' contains the various signal sources + (satellites, cable and terrestrial) which are used in 'channels.conf' and + 'diseqc.conf'. +- The 'diseqc' parameter in the channel definitions has been redefined to hold the + "source" of the given channel (which can be either a satellite, cable or terrestrial). + For compatibility with channels.conf files from older versions, numeric values in + this parameter will be tolerated, but they have no meaning. If you want to use + DiSEqC you will need to replace these old values with the proper source identifiers + defined in the new configuration file 'sources.conf'. See how this is done in the + 'channels.conf' file that comes with the VDR package. +- The new configuration file 'diseqc.conf' can be used to set up the individual + diseqc configuration (see man vdr(5) for a description of the file format). +- The "Edit channel" menu has a new entry "Source:" in which the source of this + channel can be selected (either a satellite, cable or terrestrial). The set of + parameters at the end of this menu will change according to the type of source. +- The "Use DiSEqC" parameter in the "Setup/LNB" menu has been moved to the beginning + of the list and disables the rest of the parameters when set to "yes", since these + are now only meaningful if DiSEqC is not used. +- Group separators in 'channels.conf' may now be given like ':@201 My Channels', + where '@201' indicates the number to be given to the next channel. This can be + used to create 'gaps' in the channel numbering (see 'man 5 vdr'). BE CAREFUL + TO UPDATE YOUR 'timers.conf' ACCORDINGLY IF INSERTING THIS NEW FEATURE INTO YOUR + 'channels.conf' FILE! +- Frequency values for cable and terrestrial channels in 'channels.conf' can + now be given either in MHz, kHz or Hz. The actual value given will be multiplied + by 1000 until it is larger than 1000000. +- First step towards a "unique channel ID". The channel ID is a human readable + string, made up from several parameters of the channel's definition in the file + 'channels.conf' (see man vdr(5) for details). + In order for the "unique channel ID" to work, all channel definitions now must + be unique with respect to the combination of their Source, Frequency and SID + parameters. You may have to fix your 'channels.conf' manually if there are error + messages in the log file when loading it. BE SURE TO MAKE A BACKUP COPY OF YOUR + 'channels.conf' AND 'timers.conf' FILE BEFORE SWITCHING TO THIS VERSION, AND CHECK + VERY CAREFULLY WHETHER YOUR TIMERS ARE STILL SET TO THE RIGHT CHANNELS! + When reading an existing 'timers.conf', the channels will be identified as before + by their numbers. As soon as this file is written back, the channel numbers will + be replaced by the channel IDs. After that it is possible to manually edit the + 'channels.conf' file and rearrange the channels without breaking the timers. + Note that you can still define new timers manually by using the channel number. + VDR will correctly identify the 'channel' parameter in a timer definition and + use it as a channel number or a channel ID, respectively. Also, the SVDRP commands + that return timer definitions will list them with channel numbers in order to + stay compatible with existing applications. + The channel ID is also used in the 'epg.data' file to allow EPG information from + different sources to be stored, which would previously have been mixed up in case + they were using the same 'service ID'. Note that the contents of an existing + 'epg.data' file from a previous version will be silently ignored, since it doesn't + contain the new channel IDs. When inserting EPG data into VDR via SVDRP you now also + need to use the channel IDs. + Currently the EPG data received from the DVB data stream only uses the 'Source' + and 'Service ID' part of the channel ID. This makes it work for channels with + the same service IDs on different sources (like satellites, cable or terrestrial). + However, it doesn't work yet if the service IDs are not unique within a specific + source. This will be fixed later. +- Added three new fields to the lines in 'channels.conf': NID, TID and RID. NID and + TID are the Network and Transport Stream IDs, respectively. RID is an additional ID + that can be used to tell apart channels that would otherwise be indistinguishable. + This is typically the case with radio channels, which may have the same NID, TID + and SID, but different "radio IDs". This new field is therefore called RID ("radio + ID"). Currently NID and TID are not yet used by VDR and should always be 0. The + RID is actually used when building the "unique channel ID", so if you have channels + in your 'channels.conf' file that cause error messages when loading, you can set + the RIDs of these channels to different values. + When reading an old 'channels.conf' these new fields will be automatically + initialized to 0 and once the file is written back to disk they will be appended + to the channel definitions. +- The "unique channel ID" now contains an optional 5th part (the RID). See man vdr(5). +- Modified LOF handling to allow for C-band reception. +- The PCR PID can now be set separately from the video PID. The syntax in the + 'channels.conf' file is, for example, ...:164+17:..., where 164 is the video PID + and 17 is the PCR PID. The separator is a '+' sign, not a comma or semicolon as + with the audio PIDs, because this is not an alternate PID, but rather an + additional, necessary PID. + +Recording: + +- It is now possible to record several channels on the same transponder with "budget + cards". VDR automatically attaches a recording timer to a card that already + records on the appropriate transponder. How many parallel recordings can actually + be done depends on the computer's performance. Currently any number of recordings + gets attached to a card, so you should carefully plan your timers to not exceed + the limit. On a K6-II/450 it was possible to record three channels from transponder + 12480 with a single WinTV NOVA-S. +- Timers that record two successive shows on the same channel may now overlap and + will use the same DVB card. During the time where both timers record the data + is simply saved to both files. +- Since several channels put very long strings into the Subtitle part of their + EPG data, that string is now limited in length when used in a recording's + file name. +- Timers are now processed even if an OSD menu is open (except for menus that + explicitly handle timers). +- Implemented a "resume ID" which allows several users to each have their own + resume.vdr files. This parameter can be set in the "Setup/Replay" menu (see + MANUAL for details). +- Extended logging info when starting/stopping timers to show the channel number, + start/stop time and the file name. +- Reduced the time to wait for EPG data when starting a recording to 3 seconds. +- Checking for duplicate recordings with the same file name and disabling the + second timer. +- It is now possible to directly delete a timer that is currently recording. + +SVDRP: + +- The new SVDRP command CLRE can be used to clear the entire EPG data. +- The SVDRP command PUTE now triggers an immediate write of the 'epg.data' file. +- The SVDRP command CHAN now also accepts channel IDs. +- The new SVDRP command STAT can be used to request information about the disk + usage. +- Now taking an active SVDRP connection into account when doing shutdown or + housekeeping. + +Conditional Access: + +- Implemented "Link Layer" based CAM support. This allows access to the CAM menu + and also to reset the CAM. Furthermore the CAM can now be in any slot of any + DVB card, and there can be more than one CAM. +- If your particular CAM doesn't work with the Link Layer interface, you can + still use the old firmware version ("-icam"), which does all the CAM handling + by itself (see DVB/driver/av7110/README-firmware). + +Misc: + +- Removed compiler option '-m486' to make it work on non-Intel platforms. +- Changed setting of CXX and CXXFLAGS variables in Makefile, so that an externally + defined value will be taken if present. +- New and improved internationalized OSD texts. +- The VDR version number is now displayed in the title line of the "Setup" menu. +- Changed the VFAT handling to allow users who normally use it but have forgotten + to set it when compiling a new version of VDR to at least see their recordings + made with VFAT enabled. +- Commands in the file 'commands.conf' can now have a '?' at the end of their + title, which will result in a confirmation prompt before executing the + command. +- If a command executed from the "Commands" menu doesn't return any output, the + OSD will now be closed automatically. +- The new configuration file 'reccmds.conf' can be used to define commands that + shall be executed from the "Recordings" menu; see MANUAL and 'man vdr(5)' for + details. +- The Makefile now includes the file Make.config (if present in the VDR source + directory), which allows the user to overwrite several settings with individual + values. The VDR distribution archive does not contain this file in order to not + overwrite a user defined file. There is a Make.config.template which contains the + default values of the macros the user can overwrite. +- Extended the '-l' option to allow logging to LOG_LOCALn (n=0..7) by writing, for + instance, '-l 3.7'. +- The character '|' in description texts of EPG records is now interpreted as a + newline character. +- Now using "Doxygen" to generate source documentation. + See INSTALL for information how to do this. Some function descriptions have + already been adapted to Doxygen, more will follow. +- Added VDRVERSNUM to config.h, which can be used by the preprocessor to check the + actual VDR version.