Thema: SmartDVB 0.3.0 RC

[Snoop]

Deinstalled it and the error is gone

[ritschibie]

Thx Jack for sending out one test sample for all. Hope that I can make a test run this evening  and test the timer function. Report will follow tomorrow morning. Thx again 

[Jürgen]

Just played around with the new 0612 beta a bit.

Conditions as usual, installed directly over the existing previous one, at C:\SmartDVBtst and all files inside, nothing into my personal folders.

SmartOSD TXT AR is correct at 4:3 now.

TXT page changing is NOT possible by NUM block keys for 90+ % of my tries. Just one or two times I succeeded on this, weird...
Standard MS HID compatible keyboard in use here, with all default settings and no extra software.
Number keys on the main key block always do work.
If NUM LOCK released, the arrow keys also don't work, most of the time (like left / right for page down / up).

Keep in mind, Windows treats NUM block keys separately.
That's also obvious when teaching in keyboard controls for remote

On normal TXT, NUM block controls are OK.

BTW, ho would I select a sub page, if available?

Closing SmartDVB with TXT or SmartOSD TXT open leads to a crash (and report).

How can I set the page for TXT subs on a station and really activate them then?
Can't yet be used directly from normal or SmartOSD TXT, as both don't provide full transparency for the background of that special page.  
And here the SmartOSD controls won't activate TXT subs, possibly due to the valid page number not known to the system.

DVB subs aren't in use on German stations.

More testing will follow tomorrow.

Best regards

Jürgen

[ritschibie]

Hi,

I installed the sdvbst612 (titled 0.3.02 in the program) with opton 2 to the "programs" folder, accidentally forgot to delete the smartdvb directory under "Appdata" causing program to start without asking admin rights (wonder if deleting the appdata directory results in sdvb asking at start for admin rights? Will try this later in the day.).

Test results "timer set recording": I tested this feature twice setting the "at end" option to shutdown. Smartdvb shut down the PC on both occasions. Test passed!

Test result "frequency scanning": I made a rescan of the "Hotbird" frequencies (after copying transponders from "programs" to "appdata"). It detected new channels and at a quick look I found no anomalies in the scan.

[Jürgen]

Just rescanned all five sat positions (DiSEqC 1.1 controlled uncommitted 8/1) and DVB-T, most results seem to be fine, and in any case stable.

Will concentrate on possibly missing or failing transponders soon, compare with kingofsat and lyngsat tables.
Last time I did this was many months ago, well before the London olympics.

However, I did not yet succeed on NIT scanning (on sat).
Have to look after this more intense, 'cause if I remember well, this did work before, on 0.2.5
But I forgot to write down working seed transponders then 

Best regards

Jürgen

[jackjavo]

ok gud to hear it's reasonable atm..
here's state of current issues nd queries..
num lock: i've added specific num-lock process to key process routines (to treat num-lock like specific seperate key, i gather frm ur comments u wud like the num-pd arrows to work either form? sounds odd to me nd also not how windows treats that, but right atm at current build like said num-lock is seperate now)..
nit: don't remember updating something there but also don't seem to be able to do NIT scn? Still have to tst with 0.2.5 then, cud be bug, otherwise like u maybe i'm unable to find seed frequencies too?? Code looks ok nd like said untouched...
ttx: ur right ttx subs weren't there yet i noticed (like u mention i focussed on dvb subs nd if old vmr osd's on it functions ofcourse, busy with that i think it's almost there). Nd also subpage select's not there atm (tbh ttx module never had my main focus at previous times , it now just auto scrolls them. I'll leave that atm. Oh nd btw u were right bout that exception when ttx selected, fixed with build i have here..

@edit: oh nd did nyone tst the remote yet? like also 'remote tab' fixes/alterations. Or even like 'nr' ch*nnel select (which's also been altered)...

@r*tch*b**: I found issue with installer related to admin rights exec when 'program files' (at actual fact it wud work if installed exact at 'program files', but not if fe: c:\mysmartdvb ) i think this the never functioned correct
br
ps: i'll try to not send to much seperate 'exe/bda' etc etc update, coz it might not confuse me but cud confuse researchers

[Snoop]

I have still one little nagging problem:
When starting SmartDVB I have to click on a channel, alhough the option "Show last channel on restart" is active ...

[dada]

As far as I am testing, everything is working fine (thank you, Jack). Playing with the multirecording option I have a tremendous CPU load problem. My hardware see below. Especially with HD channels plus decryption, CPU load increases by a factor of about 3 which means 100% with my old system and a "no go", stuttering, and unusable recordings. With SD, load increases by approximately a factor of 2. Can this be mended? I am thinking about the PIP function which should be not so difficult to implement now that the selected streams can be handled separately.

[Jürgen]

@ dada

You might want to think about going for a more modern graphics card, that provides full hardware support for both, h.264 and MPEG2 video decoding.

AFAIK the cheapest GeForce types with full hardware support are 210 and 520, both also available with passive cooling, and really cheap.
Important to have is the video processing hardware version VP4.
I am not sure if all models above 210 provides this, so if in any doubt, check wikipedia for "geforce" and look before bargaining

Equivalent tech at ATI is UVD 3.0, starting with HD 6450. Excluded are the HD 67** models, that still provide UVD 2.0 only.
Also ask wikipedia for "radeon", to make sure.

At least the MS DTV-DVD decoders, provided for free for Windows 7, can and will use that hardware decoding in full.
Normally WMP would acquire them automatically, once you tried to play a .ts recording with h.264 for the first time.
As usually that file type is not registered, just open WMP and drag & drop the file from Windows Explorer.

This way I have around 6 - 7 % CPU load on h.264 in FullHD here, with all the cores running on 800 MHz idle only...

Tried GeForce 210 and 520 and Radeon HD 6450 and 6570 on my former machines, with really good results.
The slowest one used a single core Sempron 140 then, 2,7 GHz.
The oldest one had an Athlon (64) x2 6000 at 3.1 GHz and an old nForce 550 chipset.
All results were excellent, once the hardware decoding was used.

Using pure software decoding instead, always lead to an enormous load and often more than 100 Watts extra AC power draw, plus all the annoyances of reaching CPU load limits, you've just mentioned...

Sorry, I just don't like to translate all this into German now, but I am sure, I did post all this more than once already.

@ Snoop
Let us know about your install path and mode (extra files in personal folder or inside of the install folder).
Here, all in C:\SmartDVBtst, the last used station comes up automatically, on the tuner last used, of course.

[Snoop]

Config goes to install folder, C:\Program Files (x86)\SmartDvb

[jackjavo]

@d*d*: like jurgen mentions indeed hw accel's might provide assistance. But, beside that there r possible improvements but not major one´s with current architecture, other solutions wud require much more work so i´ll have to suspend that for now (coz otherwise it'll be endless beta cycles like previous year . But like u mention, my fingers 'r itched to implement some of the features u talk about. coz ur right there

[dada]

Thanks Jack and Jürgen,

I was afraid, my ancient hardware could be a problem

I guess, I will get myself a christmas present

br, dada

[jackjavo]

i've sent current build to all (i hope). Took some time coz ttx s*btitles needed to be made (with new SmartOSD), needs to be looked at still. While at it also added s*bpages (up/down kb at ttx).
Also mdapi decrypt with multi rcrds been altered to try to improve speed, d*d* cud u look at that?
Mdapi alterations r rather low level, but if stuff´s broken it´s easy to revert, still might be worth the trouble...

Otherwise just fixes...

br
Jack

[dada]

Hi Jack,
what a tremendous difference with respect to multirecording. Whatever I tried, SD, HD, encrypted or not, CPU load increased at the most by 10%. I do not know what you did, but you did the right thing .
However, interestingly, with respect to future PIP, when playing back the recordings (using TS player from DVBViewer) and SDVB was running at the same time there was some stuttering in the previously encrypted played back recordings. When Smart was not running, they were perfect!
Tell me what I can test to help resolve this issue! I will try some other combinations of SD HD encrypted or not channles and report.
Thanks for this dramatic improvement, Jack!

[Jürgen]

I have just tested Teletext a bit more, on the new build:

- once I have closed any of the TTX versions, then opening it or the other version, it does not bring up any content, until I restart SmartDVB. Even station change does not help.

- how would I select between sub pages, once they are cached? I can see them coming in on the new bottom line, but I don't find a way for random access.
BTW, my receiver caches all sub pages in the background (up to the hardware limits of cacheable area, around 1500 pages, which is not really enough).
It seems , SmartDVB does not cache sub pages before a page is selected.
Well, modern computers should not suffer from RAM shortage anymore

- still I can't control SmartOSD TTX pages from my keyboard's NUM block, whatever I try.

- still no idea, how I could set the TTX subs page. SmartOSD TTX subs function complains about no page being set...
From my point of view, this should be part of channel properties, as in fact, the page used does vary between stations and providers.
For example, on German ARD stations normally they are on P 150, on ZDF stations on P 777.

- in fact, DVB subs have arrived some German stations now, like "Das Erste HD" and "ZDF HD".
After some seconds, the SmartOSD DVB subs function displays the DEC ID, but it won't show the content.
Can't make a screen shot of this now, as Irfanview won't capture SmartOSD 
May well be I have to play around with renderers again... 

- semi graphic pages seem to have display or decoding issues, as behind that special symbols would repeat up to the end of the line or tthe next valid symbol.
The screen shot attached is meant to show this.
Obviously this does not effect all of that special symbols, as you can see on the station title.
Does not depend on the font in use, in any way.

Best regards

Jürgen