Thema: SmartDVB 0.3.5 Final erschienen

[Jürgen]

Google it?
Better not, as else all the secret services might get alarmed.
This is not a joke these days...

However, in fact SmartDVB is behaving pretty well, and so there is no need for any immediate changes.
If possible, let us all try to enjoy the summer season (if ever arriving  ).
Meanwhile for sure there may be found quite enough different things to take care of, technical or not.

For example, I am working on my DiSEqC motorized dish, once I find the time and it's not raining that day.
As the main purpose of that system is, to be used by a PVR ready STB, first of all the moving curve must be adjusted perfectly, to allow using GoTo_X only. Once that's done, the time may come, to alternatively try to use the computer tuner and SmartDVB on it. Main reason is, I must avoid to store positions from two different tuners, because this is known to mix things up severly. Tried this with three different STBs already, and none of those allowed me, to reliably re-use already fine aligned and stored positions of any other. Mixing up some position addresses at each and every try...

I am pretty sure, (only) SmartDVB would not interfere badly then, but anyhow I will be going exactly one step after the other.
In the end, of course, I would really like to combine DiSEqC 1.1 (uncommitted) with DiSEqC 1.3/USALS for one tuner, and along with this, allow up to three other tuners, to share that extra position already moved to, without a chance to irrtitate that motor then.   
That's why I already placed a Quad on that second dish.

Of couse I'm still mainly focussed on DVB by STB these days, as the computer eats far to much electrical power (for my bill), to use it for watching and recording TV by default any further.
But it will certainly always be kept ready for testing, comparison and a lot more.
At least as long, as it may take, to get DVB(-S2) running well on some Raspberry Pi desktop distro.
About several years this is, not just a few days, I am afraid...
And even if (ever), SmartDVB might get in contact with Wine then, I hope 

Well, we also need ideas for the long term, don't we?

Best regards

Jürgen

[jackjavo]

you're totally correct about google, such a shame..
good to know you're here with your tech knowhow/projects.
I don't have the resources atm for such techn setups etc i'm afraid, but i would like to get a rotor setup here soon though. Quite interesting these stb's ofcourse, if you don't object  i'd like to know which stb's model you prefer at the end, might also look at that myself then.

People have queried me before about wine. I have run sdvb myself with vmware (it also runs ok with virtualbox i've been told), only real issues there r the renderers, i've only been able to use the 'overlay mixer renderer' to get good video. XP/vmware even produces fluent video with me so i would imagine it should be possible with wine,
provided they would have some 'good' renderer (device?) support, beit evr/vmr, but i would imagine that would not be the first priority for virtual machine coders (who would run video etc at the non native system?)? I might look at wine some time myself, just lack the resources /time for such extra projects atm.

I agree about the power consumption, that's why i use notebooks for quite a while now, with usb dvb seems like a low power solution too (not at the level of the pi ofcourse). I've seen NAS devices with built in dvb record tools for these purposes. I would imagine building a low power bare bone like pc with some low power mb with onboard gpu , coupled with xp, should also be a good NAS solution,  usb for dvb or whatever other devices one might like to install also allowing sdvb or whatever to be run (while xp's supported ofcourse, might not be the same low power like current NAS devices, but who knows what occurs some years from now). Ofcourse one could try the same with w7, but xp even runs quite quick like mentioned with vmware. That would be a nice project i would like to try if i had the means/time atm, to see what power usage one could achieve like that. Ofcourse with the support loss of xp from ms one could wonder about future dvb devices/drivers support, but that's also the main issue atm with raspberry pi/linux (most often no good driver support from the manufacurer itself ofcourse, but lots of coders there ofcourse). But even w8 now runs on tablets/phones etc, i would imagine the power consumption of something like that would not be too high too? So who knows what would be there some years from now, i would imagine it would not be to odd to see some low power w8 media devices alike raspberry pi's (why not if the stuff runs on phones, with built in dvb for stb usage or whatever?).

It's such a quick pace world atm this, quite interesting too to see how it develops. I'll just make sure to hold on to my baby for some time, still too much to do 'nd who knows what the future might hold..

best regards, onto more tsts soon after this non-summer
(edit: btw i remember some time ago u queried about DAB support, i looked at that but it seems BDA does not have a provision for such devices, so one would depend on specific sdk's which would have to be made public, there were some sdk's for some realtek chipsets if i remember correct, but ofcourse this would be specific to device type's)..

[Jürgen]

Regarding DAB(+) devices, you have to live with both, proprietary drivers / driver tricks and license issues.

For sure these days you have to use an original Fraunhofer codec set, to cover all audio modes already used over here.
Original software would not hand over that codecs to the system, so they can't be used by 3rd party software.

Seen from MS system, both my DAB+ USB tuners are just ordinary DVB-T devices. MS does not even know about their L-band capabilities...
Some time ago I've already reported using a Noxon DAB+ USB tuner for DVB-T on SmartDVB, and one day a new driver came out, to disable this undocumented feature.
The other one I have, a Terratec ran stick, officially provides both, DAB+ and DVB-T. Still BDA only sees a DVB-T device, technically. Device names don't matter there, as nothing but plain text they are.



Regarding my favourite STBs, right now I can't provide you with a really good hint, for a weird quality reason.
Having two pieces of Xoro HRS 8500 here for years, and they are working excellently indeed.
But after some time both developed an ugly high frequency noise from their onboard PSUs.
Same goes for my DVB-T STB HRT 7500, that in fact only differs on the tuner pack.
There are many reports throughout the net on this issue.
Had to deeply soak the switch mode transformers with epoxy to get rid of it finally.
No idea, if the direct follower models HRS 8520 / 8530 still do have that issue.

The recent model HRS 8750 CI+ does not seem to have it any more, but I only had a couple of days to play around with one of those.
Had to give it away to the friend I've ordered it for, just before my motor arrived.
Power supply unit is different there anyhow.
I am indeed thinking about getting one more for myself, but as I am very short on money ATM, this may take quite some time.
And waiting for a really good bargain on eBay, you know you should not hold your breath...

Best regards

Jürgen

[jackjavo]

Tx for the data. Been a while for me too since i bought some stuff at ebay, indeed like you mention real cheap stuff seems more difficult to find (compared so some years ago). I'm more inclined to look at some of those chinese ecommerce sites (also seen lots of dvb/stb stuff there, ofcourse quite vague tech specs so you don't really know what you're getting, but price wise it might be interesting to snoop around there, i'm quite sure i don't need to mention the main site i use for that here, if not i'll pm u). My problem here is more space wise, ever since i forcibly needed to move from where i lived i'm constrained by that. I'm afraid going back to that house's no option no more for me, had i not done that 0.3.0 would quite sure not have existed. At hindsight my programming skills there had structurally been lowered, having been at a more calm social environment, with some time to recuperate from the situation there my mind clearly's better with respect to being able to concentrate to program (concentration which ofcourse's essential for such mental work, which ofcourse suffers a lot when confronted with lots of outside stress or even a bad sleep pattern etc (not to mention other risk factors which exist when confronted with extreme purposely maintained stress/aggrevation, the body suffers, immune system's affected, at long run all kinds of illnesses could occur ofcourse (diabetes, deafness or even cancer etc), it's all documented ofcourse).

Btw i've been been using a tbs 5925 usb dvb device here (since my prof 7500 broke down, i'd been using vmware to test when i smelled quite some odd smell from the prof7500, by accident i initiated smartdvb outside vmware while also using the device at vmware. I'd also had the prof7500 blindscan patches so that might not've been a good idea. So i guess one needs to be cautious with virtual machines/devices ).
I have not a single issue with the 5925 stability wise etc, it doesn't tune super quick like the prof7500 (which tuned quick for me comparable to something like technotrend 3200).

best regards,
JackJavo (aka Jack)

[Jürgen]

I don't deal with China directly, for several reasons, that don't have to be discussed here.
Instead I am dealing with German refurbishers quite often, with limited warranty for far less than half the price, or in special cases declared as defective for almost nothing.

For example, the HRS 8750 CI+ came in for EUR 10,45 +P&P, box damaged but content in excellent state from an online store short term return, German warranty 12 months.

Bought six printers Brother DCP-195C as damaged with specified issues, between EUR 1,- and 3,50 + P&P, and five of those have a pages history between less than 100 to below 500.
Now five of those are perfect again, the last one provided the spare parts.

For the DiSEqC motor I had to pay EUR 17,51, including P&P. Damaged box, but the motor has full 24 months warranty and had never been used nor even mounted before.

As a technician I do prefer using screw drivers, soldering iron and knowledge, from anything similar to paying market prices.
Permanent learning and quite some fun included.
And if spending almost nothing, the risk of financial losses is at a minimum anyway.

Never learned programming, but technical analysis of hardware without any documentary often is quite similar, regarding complexity.
Like, today I have tried to control the DiSEqC motor behind a cheap DiSEqC 1.0 switch.
This allows, to use my fixed multiswitch system for fast access to the most important birds, plus unlimited access to the motorized dish.  
Just found out, I had to use some tricks then, for inserting some extra power (without opening it, for warranty reasons), as else the DiSEqC motor would miss the first set of commands.
So I re-used an old broken DiSEqC 2:1 switch with blown up switching transistors. But all the integrated decoupling circuitry still is OK, and that's exactly what I needed, plus 2 old diodes 1N4007. One former input now is fed from my 12 Volts multiswitch supply, and it keeps the rotor and LNB active at a minimum when not addressed by the tuner and switch.
Works perfectly now.

However, this may still not be the final solution here, as I can only use three of my four multiswitches on that line, due to DiSEqC 1.0.
My 8:1 DiSEqC 1.1 switches are not working on Horizontal this way, dropping to much DC Voltage and 22kHz signal then.
Had to learn this from system behaviour only, as the usual digital meters aren't really helpful on active LNB lines.
But the good old sat spectrum analyser does help, used in passive mode on the receiver's loop port.
This way I can easily watch my dish moving and switches working, from the living room.
Each bird has it's own set of four spectres, and after some time you learn to recognize the most important ones.

CU

Jürgen

[jackjavo]

tx for the data, i envy your tech skills, would surely save me lots of do (i'm a bit at doubt too to buy some higher value goods from china atm but it's tempting none the less).
I also think tech sklls often r similar to programming skills indeed, those type of persons often seem to be more computer savvy it seems to me. Quite probably the same mental
thought patterns r used there.

I've initiated work at SmartDVB once more should have a test version there pronto, i'll need to modify quite some low level stuff for the new features i have at mind but it should
be worth the trouble, i'd like to add PIP for the nxt version (which for sure would require quite low level modifications).
Btw recent news coverage of so called whistle blowers like Snowden's quite interesting to me, the dutch for sure r at the forefront of this i'm quite sure
(especially considering recent comments i made here, i'm happy this at least gives me more credibility concerning stuff told here which might seem increduble to some, not to mention
which is totally negated here through offical channels ofcourse, logical nobody likes to admit complicity to such issues, it's just how this current stasi 2.0 world operates .
It's no secret that a company like google's got it's main european office here the netherlands too, would almost kinda make you paranoid about that stuff here wouldn't it lol).

cu
JackJavo

[SiLæncer]

Whats new: >>

v0.3.5 Release

fixed: smartosd channel list (floating/fullscreen) seemed broken.
fixed: ms dtv-dvd video should connect better now (some other codecs like ffdshow might have less issues with no connection error
messages sometimes too).


v0.3.5 Release test

fixed: transport stream file play didn't work correctly with timeshift disabled.
added: option to scan dialog to delete stations for the current frequency. Useful to remove dead stations before a re-scan (note you'll loose all favorites/remote/custom link entries).
added: optional favorite filter to epg search (might not be very efficient atm).
modified: udp stream now restarted after making sure video headers etc have been received (could improve webinterface integration at some situations).
added: possibility to group general station list based on CAID added due to popular
demand(channel list group properties).
fixed: side by side windows event error log should be removed now.
modified: some minor cosmetic modifications to the epg search results.
added: compact list view mode to epg search.
fixed: some freesat epg process issues, freesat epg should be better now, please report remaining issues.
added: some modulation options to scanner/select menu.
added: remove dead station option to main 'channels' menu.
fixed: moved missing epg content description strings to resources.
fixed: station search with custom lists did not work.
fixed: some polsat epg issues/exceptions.
fixed: attempt to remove occasional main window tab epg duplicates.
modified: some aac modifications to smartavsrc.ax, should/could now connect better with codecs like ffdshow/lav/divx aac, please report issues.
added: aac filter option to station list properties (you need to rescan for this to work properly).
fixed: possible issues with HD PIP stations.

http://smartdvb.net/

[Joutungwu]

@jackjavo: The 0.3.5 download-link on smartdvb.net Download section is connected wrongly to the previous version 0.3.0.

A correct link can be found on SmartDVB forum -> Announcements -> 0.3.5 release.

[SiLæncer]

Download : Klick 

[Joutungwu]

PIP is a very nice new feature in smartDVB! Thank you, Jackjavo!  

[jackjavo]

smartdvb.net 0.3.5 url should be ok now.  Tx i also like PIP, suggestions for improvement there appreciated (do poeple like stuff like mosaic etc, i myself never use such features from pvr's or whatever)..

[ritschibie]

Hi Jack,

Jut wanted to compliment you for - as it looks to me after a few days of working with it - a very stable release 0.3.5. Of course I did a very limited testing: channel scanning, broadcast monitoring and recording mainly.

Concerning the CI I'd like to make these 2 observations:

1. If the CI has problems to decrypt a program try to manipulate the "PMT send count" switch which is in the CI settings. This worked for me every time I had difficulties with the start of decrypting taking longer than usual or wanted.
2. Don't get under the value of 4 in the "PMT send count" as it happened to me using the value 2 I got frequent interrupts in the decrypting process resulting in corrupted recordings and a black screen in the broadcast window of smart. With the value 5 it takes a bit longer (3 - 5 secs) before the decrypting begins but I have a continuos stream of pictures and (cross fingers) valuable recordings. Of course this could also be a hardware problem but since I never had this problem with the Viewer I suspect the pmt count.

Thanks for the wonderful new version

Ritschie

[Snoop]

... and merry Christmas to you, Jack! You are doing a great job with your software! Thanks for all!

[Snoop]

I think I found a little bug - nothing serious:
If the name of the capture file has the time in it, the minutes should always have two digits:
Today I made two recordings, starting time 12:00 and the name had only !..._120" (should be 1200 I think) at the end. The second recording had started at 14:07 and the filename ended with "..._147" (instead of 1407).
But as already stated: Nothing serious, just wanted to mention it. Perhaps you can fix it in the next version.

[jackjavo]

tx all, merry xms to all u here too ofcourse, best bunch of smartdvb supporters i ever seen, makes my heart pound faster pound for pound..

@ritchibie: you reported these issues before i remember, or somewhat similar, is this worsened compared to previous smartdvb builds, or did it tune quicker with the ci count settings you use now previously? I don't think it's a hardware problem. From looking at the source, ci send's (including the repeat count) done just once after the tune succeeds, which should be ok. Btw are you talking about interrupted decrypt stream after a successful tune and record start or only at the beginning of the station change/tune? If so there should be no need to resend the ci, unless the station's reloaded somehow (options like 'restart channel after freeze') which would redo the tune/directshow/ci, thus also the ci send mechanism. Btw now i think of it if the station would be re-loaded due to some directshow issue (which could occur now with the mentioned video freeze setting), it might be prudent not to re-send the CI in such situations. I query this because you mention interrupted recordings so i wonder if the ci card's been reinitialized somehow and you have stream interrupt issues after tunes and successful initial ci setup..

@snoop: tx for that bug issue report, ofcourse should not be difficult to improve that . If it's up to me i'll just continue my technical ventures into stuff like this, i simply like it too much to let go or let others divert me from such paths. I have too little time to make all my ideas here come to fruition though, perhaps i would need some employees at some future date, who knows..

Best regard and just all the best wished to you kind German folks out there (there been enuff times recently i wished my parents had emigrated to Germany instead of some other shady country)..

(btw i got issued a 'sitzungs fehler' when trying to post messages earlier here, resorted to good ole IE which seemed to have solved that issue so admin please disregard previous messsags about that)..