Re: [vdr] How do I listen to a channel's soundtrack and it's audio description at the same time?
Hi, John Robinson schrieb: > One member of this list very helpfully > suggested that, to switch between the programme's main sound track and > the audio description track, I can hit the 'Audio' key, then the right > cursor key and then the 'Audio' key again. This does, indeed switch > from the main programme sound track to the audio description track, but > it only lets me hear one or the other, not both. Maybe I told you too much details of the audio menu so you got a bit confused. Your key sequence 'Audio', 'right cursor', 'Audio' may indeed do, what you experience. Let me explain: 1.) 'Audio' opens the audio menu. 2.) 'right cursor' selects the right channel of the current stereo track. 3.) 'Audio' switches to the next track (audio description) but stays at right channel of the audio description track. At the moment, there is no programme running where I could verify my conclusions, but for me it looks like that (referencing the explanations of my previous email): the audio description track provides two mono channels which appear as left and right channel of the stereo audio description track. The left channel seems to provide a mono audio signal of the main programmes sound track, while the right channel provides audio description only. So simply omitting step two 'right cursor' from your key sequence should do the trick and present both mono channels at the same time. The only drawback of the current solution is, that you hear the main programme sound track only on the left side of your audio equipment and the audio description only on the right side. Mixing both mono channels together and presenting the result as a stereo signal is feasible by output plugins but would require some way to tell the output plugin to activate this mode. The best would be if VDR's user interface would allow to select such a mode and provide that selection to the output plugin. Suggestion for extending the user and output plugin interface: In the audio menu, the left and right keys select between left, stereo and right channel. A further mode 'combined' should be added which can be reached by pressing 'right' when the right channel is selected. The current audio channel selection is provided in the output plugin interface via the method SetAudioChannelDevice. The parameter values 0, 1 or 2 represent stereo, left or right channel. A further parameter value 3 would represent 'combined' mode. For compatibility and the most common use case, 'combined' mode should need to be activated in VDR's setup menu, i. e. it is not available by default. Maybe Klaus can drop a few words about this extension. Bye. -- Dipl.-Inform. (FH) Reinhard Nissl mailto:rni...@gmx.de ___ vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Re: [vdr] How do I listen to a channel's soundtrack and it's audio description at the same time?
On 02.09.2009 07:49, John Robinson wrote: I would very much like to hear the main programme's soundtrack and the audio description track at the same time, but at the moment, I can only hear one or the other - not both. Hmmm, interesting task. However, I don't think that this is possible currently. Output devices are currently designed to handle one audio channel, not multiple at the same time. Mixing them to one would require decompressing and re-compressing them and would probably introduce timing issues. There may be a quirked solution like playing back the second channel externally, like connecting to it using mplayer+streamdev, however thats not very comfortable. The best solution is probably a dedicated plugin that connects to live view and plays the secondary audio track in parallel. However I don't think that such a plugin exists currently. Cheers, Udo ___ vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Re: [vdr] Replay Problems with Extension HD
Op Za, 5 september, 2009 18:11, schreef VDR User: > -- SNIP -- > It sounds like the eHD is the most expensive solution in all areas; > time, money, patching, etc. Whereas, vdpau seems to be at the other > end of the spectrum being the least expensive, easiest, and so on. > Depends on how you look at it. I got mine for almost 1,5 years now and I've been able to see and hear HDTV without problems. Yes, the other plugins for mediaplayback seem to have problems with a vanilla VDR setup. But currently I use ReelVDR anyway and it works like a charm and without the problems I have with a vanilla VDR setup ;) > I've got 3 boxes running vdpau, all with different hardware and my > experience has been the same with each setup.. It was a piece of cake > and took almost no time to get going. Now I guess it's the guy who > had a horrible experience turn to tell his story. ;) > I've been experimenting with VDPAU for a while. And yes, it's the next big thing when it comes to hardware accelerated playback. But since I need to put in an additional NVIDIA based videocard with Purevideo HD capabilities, I rather use my onboard intel for X.org and stick to my eHD until I have the money to get me a Atom based device with an ION chipset :) > Regards, > Derek > Regards, Niels Wagenaar ___ vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Re: [vdr] Replay Problems with Extension HD
On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 8:26 AM, Gavin Hamill wrote: >> I'm not sure why you think vdpau is stupid if you want an HD stb. >> Using vdpau gives you the ability to have HD on systems that normally >> wouldn't have a chance at all, and it provides this at a very lost >> cost. The cheapest I've paid so far is $20 ($30-$10 MIR) for an >> 8400GS pci-e. So for a mere $30 on average, your old system that >> couldn't handle HD now can. Stupid is the last thing I would describe >> that as. > > Hm, I'd be happy to pay $150-200 for a hardware output card, similar to > the good old FF technotrend cards, if it could save me hours of messing > around with SVN bleeding edge code and trying to run exotic deinterlace > filters :) I think there's a misconception about using vdpau. While there are a small few who have problems (as is the case with any software/hardware), most users are able to get vdpau working with little or no hassle at all. For me it takes <1min to download xine-vdpau, 7 minutes to compile it, <1min to download xine-ui cvs, <1min to compile it. Nvidia drivers take about 2mins to download and <1min to install. Less then 15 minutes _no patching_ is all it takes. Actually there is one patch come to think of it since I use xine-lib 1.1 instead of 1.2, it's xine-0.9.3/patches/xine-lib.patch... In any case it's never taken hours of time. Been really straight forward and simple for the most part. When I bought my first nexus-s, I bought it for the exact reason you mentioned. Wanted a simple fast solution that didn't involve much (or any) work on the linux side since I'd never used linux before. And at the time a nexus was also cheaper then building a new pc. However, those days are gone. You're willing to pay $150-$200 for a dedicated card that does only one thing. I recently paid $130 total for an Nvidia Ion system that will become my completely silent and fanless main HDTV VDR box that's about the size of a Nintendo Wii. That's where the market is going. You'll see less and less dedicated cards (especially FF DVB cards) because the cost to produce them is too high and the market for such a product too small. There's no profit to be made. That's a conversation for a different thread however. ;) > I think that's what Lauri is getting at - the statement 'vdpau is > stupid' is perhaps a little inflammatory, but there must be more > time-efficient ways (other than the eHD card which is now hard to > obtain) It sounds like the eHD is the most expensive solution in all areas; time, money, patching, etc. Whereas, vdpau seems to be at the other end of the spectrum being the least expensive, easiest, and so on. I've got 3 boxes running vdpau, all with different hardware and my experience has been the same with each setup.. It was a piece of cake and took almost no time to get going. Now I guess it's the guy who had a horrible experience turn to tell his story. ;) Regards, Derek ___ vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Re: [vdr] Replay Problems with Extension HD
On Sat, 2009-09-05 at 08:18 -0700, VDR User wrote: > On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 6:24 AM, Lauri Tischler wrote: > > Somewhat related question is, is there some solution to have > > HD-VDR without X, other than eHD ? > > Not that I'm aware of but by no means have I researched that question > in depth. ;) > > > All this hullaballoo with vdpau/X/xine etc.. is somehow stupid > > if all you want is HD-STB. > > I'm not sure why you think vdpau is stupid if you want an HD stb. > Using vdpau gives you the ability to have HD on systems that normally > wouldn't have a chance at all, and it provides this at a very lost > cost. The cheapest I've paid so far is $20 ($30-$10 MIR) for an > 8400GS pci-e. So for a mere $30 on average, your old system that > couldn't handle HD now can. Stupid is the last thing I would describe > that as. Hm, I'd be happy to pay $150-200 for a hardware output card, similar to the good old FF technotrend cards, if it could save me hours of messing around with SVN bleeding edge code and trying to run exotic deinterlace filters :) I think that's what Lauri is getting at - the statement 'vdpau is stupid' is perhaps a little inflammatory, but there must be more time-efficient ways (other than the eHD card which is now hard to obtain) gdh ___ vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Re: [vdr] Replay Problems with Extension HD
On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 6:24 AM, Lauri Tischler wrote: > Somewhat related question is, is there some solution to have > HD-VDR without X, other than eHD ? Not that I'm aware of but by no means have I researched that question in depth. ;) > All this hullaballoo with vdpau/X/xine etc.. is somehow stupid > if all you want is HD-STB. I'm not sure why you think vdpau is stupid if you want an HD stb. Using vdpau gives you the ability to have HD on systems that normally wouldn't have a chance at all, and it provides this at a very lost cost. The cheapest I've paid so far is $20 ($30-$10 MIR) for an 8400GS pci-e. So for a mere $30 on average, your old system that couldn't handle HD now can. Stupid is the last thing I would describe that as. ___ vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Re: [vdr] Replay Problems with Extension HD
Klaus Schmidinger wrote: Maybe it's ok if I use this opportunity to ask if somebody could point me to a "complete idiot's guide to installing the eHD software" (meaning the necessary software that goes into the eHD itself, as well as the latest version of their plugin). I know, I could search for this myself, but I'm sure there's somebody out there who knows exactly where to find these ;-) Maybe I'll find the time to actually bring up my eHD and adapt the plugin to the latest developer version of VDR... Somewhat related question is, is there some solution to have HD-VDR without X, other than eHD ? All this hullaballoo with vdpau/X/xine etc.. is somehow stupid if all you want is HD-STB. ___ vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr
Re: [vdr] Replay Problems with Extension HD
On 03.09.2009 12:10, Falk Spitzberg wrote: > Am Mittwoch, den 02.09.2009, 08:49 -0700 schrieb VDR User: >> Sounds like your question is more appropriate for the vendors customer >> support of that product. > > Definitly not, because my question ist only about the VDR core. I am > just trying to find out what VDR does different when it transfers data > to a device in live TV compared to replay from disk. That's completely > independent from any device that's in use. > > Maybe that the eHD card is the only output device that crashes on VDR TS > replays. The following is related to recent developer versions of VDR 1.7.x. In live mode (i.e. "Transfer Mode", since the eHD has no tuner) the TS data stream is written into a ring buffer by the receiving device (e.g. a DVB-S(2) card) and from there it is sent to the output device (the eHD plugin) through a call to PlayTs(). In this case every TS packet is sent to the output device separately. During replay data is read from disk and stored in a ring buffer that holds entire "frames", which are just a sequence of TS packets that make up one video frame (including audio). The output device's PlayTs() is called with an entire frame. The only real difference between live mode and replay I can see is that in live mode TS packets are sent individually to the output device, while in replay mode larger blocks of data are sent. However, I don't see why this would cause the problems you observe. AFAIK the Reel plugin requires several patches to the core VDR code, so there may well be things I simply don't know of, because I haven't looked into the Reel code (yet). Maybe it's ok if I use this opportunity to ask if somebody could point me to a "complete idiot's guide to installing the eHD software" (meaning the necessary software that goes into the eHD itself, as well as the latest version of their plugin). I know, I could search for this myself, but I'm sure there's somebody out there who knows exactly where to find these ;-) Maybe I'll find the time to actually bring up my eHD and adapt the plugin to the latest developer version of VDR... Klaus ___ vdr mailing list vdr@linuxtv.org http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr