diff --git a/HISTORY b/HISTORY
index 5627c491..4f080a98 100644
--- a/HISTORY
+++ b/HISTORY
@@ -6843,3 +6843,4 @@ Video Disk Recorder Revision History
   This change actually broke handling symbolic links (see
   http://www.vdr-portal.de/board1-news/board2-vdr-news/p1047199-announce-vdr-developer-version-1-7-23/#post1047199).
 - Fixed a high load in case a transponder can't be received.
+- Improved the way DVB_API_VERSION is checked.
diff --git a/dvbdevice.c b/dvbdevice.c
index fa7306b1..7a6c7508 100644
--- a/dvbdevice.c
+++ b/dvbdevice.c
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  * See the main source file 'vdr.c' for copyright information and
  * how to reach the author.
  *
- * $Id: dvbdevice.c 2.57 2012/01/16 12:43:33 kls Exp $
+ * $Id: dvbdevice.c 2.58 2012/01/16 12:52:01 kls Exp $
  */
 
 #include "dvbdevice.h"
@@ -1130,7 +1130,7 @@ bool cDvbDevice::QueryDeliverySystems(int fd_frontend)
      LOG_ERROR;
      return false;
      }
-#if DVB_API_VERSION > 5 || DVB_API_VERSION_MINOR >= 5
+#if (DVB_API_VERSION << 8 | DVB_API_VERSION_MINOR) >= 0x0505
   dtv_property Frontend[1];
   memset(&Frontend, 0, sizeof(Frontend));
   dtv_properties CmdSeq;
diff --git a/dvbdevice.h b/dvbdevice.h
index 96dfa421..b8e0e2df 100644
--- a/dvbdevice.h
+++ b/dvbdevice.h
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
  * See the main source file 'vdr.c' for copyright information and
  * how to reach the author.
  *
- * $Id: dvbdevice.h 2.21 2012/01/13 11:32:45 kls Exp $
+ * $Id: dvbdevice.h 2.22 2012/01/16 12:51:39 kls Exp $
  */
 
 #ifndef __DVBDEVICE_H
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 #include <linux/dvb/version.h>
 #include "device.h"
 
-#if DVB_API_VERSION < 5 || (DVB_API_VERSION == 5 && DVB_API_VERSION_MINOR < 3)
+#if (DVB_API_VERSION << 8 | DVB_API_VERSION_MINOR) < 0x0503
 #error VDR requires Linux DVB driver API version 5.3 or higher!
 #endif