This is a "plugin" for the Video Disk Recorder (VDR).
Written by: Petri Hintukainen <phintuka@users.sourceforge.net>
Project's homepage: http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/xineliboutput
Latest version available at: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/xineliboutput/
See the file COPYING for license information.
Description
X11 and Linux framebuffer front-end for VDR.
Plugin displays video and OSD in X/Xv/XvMC window,
Linux framebuffer/DirectFB/vidixfb or DXR3 card.
Support for local and remote frontends.
Built-in image and media player supports playback of most known
media files (avi/mp3/divx/jpeg/...), DVDs and radio/video streams
(http, rtsp, ...) directly from VDR.
Requirements
- vdr-1.6.0 or later (use "1.0.x" branch for older vdr versions)
(vdr is required only at server side)
- xine-lib 1.1.1 or later
(xine-lib is not required for server in network-only usage)
- Enough CPU power and memory to decode streams
(PII 400Mhz + 64M should be enough with Xv or DirectFB)
Optional:
- X server with Composite and Xrender extensions,
compositing window manager or composite manager (xcompmgr).
(Required for HUD OSD to blend high-quality OSD using graphics hardware)
- X server with OpenGL support
(Required for OpenGL video output and OpenGL HUD OSD)
- libextractor 0.5.20 or later (http://libextractor.sourceforge.net).
(used for media file metadata extraction in media player)
- libjpeg for grabbing in JPEG format
WARNING
Remote (network) mode should be used only in firewalled
environment; it gives anyone full control to VDR !
Full access is granted to all hosts listed in allowed_hosts.conf.
By default only connections from localhost (127.0.0.1) are allowed.
Multicast streaming can flood your internet connection and/or
wireless LAN. If there is no router (or intelligent switch ?)
all multicast packets will be broadcasted to all network links.
This will flood slow network links:
- Internet connection if outgoing bandwith is < 10 Mbit/s
- Wireless LAN (11 or 54 Mbit/s).
By default multicast TTL is set to 1 so multicast packets should
be stopped to first router regardless of network configuration.
Git
Latest fixes are available from sourceforge.net public GIT repository.
GIT checkout command:
git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/xineliboutput/git xineliboutput-git
Public CVS
CVS is not updated anymore.
Buildtime options
VDR, X11 and xine-lib are auto-detected by the build system.
By default all possible plugins and executables are build.
Default configuration can be overridden by running configure
script manually. List of all configurable features can be
acquired by running
./configure --help
For long-time use it is preferred to set configure options
in Make.config file. Make.config is first read from VDR source
directory and then from xineliboutput plugin source directory.
Basic Make.config entries:
enable/disable building of VDR plugin:
XINELIBOUTPUT_CONFIGURE_OPTS += --enable-vdr / --disable-vdr
enable/disable X11 frontends:
XINELIBOUTPUT_CONFIGURE_OPTS += --enable-x11 / --disable-x11
enable/disable framebuffer frontends:
XINELIBOUTPUT_CONFIGURE_OPTS += --enable-fb / --disable-fb
enable/disable xine (input)plugin:
XINELIBOUTPUT_CONFIGURE_OPTS += --enable-libxine / --disable-libxine
It is possible to compile only remote frontends with command
"make frontends". Building frontends is possible without VDR.
Only xine-lib and corresponding development package or headers
are required.
Installing - IMPORTANT
XINE'S DYNAMIC LIBRARIES AND FRONTEND EXECUTABLES ARE NOT
INSTALLED AUTOMATICALLY.
It is important to copy required libraries to right place
either by hand or by executing "make install" in plugin's
source directory.
Installing binaries and libraries usually requires root
permissions.
PLUGIN WILL NOT WORK UNLESS ALL FILES HAVE BEEN INSTALLED !
To be able to use remote frontends each client's IP address
must be defined in VDR's svdrphosts.conf.
Full access is allowed to all hosts listed in svdrphosts.conf.
Connections from any other hosts are rejected.
Usage examples (VDR plugin)
If no arguments are given, both X11 and framebuffer frontends are tried.
First working frontend is used with best available video driver.
Complete list of available command-line arguments can be obtained
with "vdr --help".
Only local frontend, X11/Xv video, alsa audio:
vdr -P"xineliboutput --local=sxfe --video=xv --audio=alsa --remote=none"
Only local frontend, (slow) X11 video, oss audio:
vdr -P"xineliboutput --local=sxfe --video=xshm --audio=oss --remote=none"
Only local frontend, DirectFB:
vdr -P"xineliboutput --local=fbfe --video=DirectFB --remote=none"
Only remote frontend(s):
vdr -P"xineliboutput --local=none --remote=37890"
Local and remote frontends:
vdr -P"xineliboutput --local=sxfe --remote=37890"
or
vdr -P"xineliboutput --local=fbfe --remote=37890"
Using remote frontends
Two remote frontends are included, vdr-fbfe for framebuffer and
vdr-sxfe for X11.
Complete list of available command-line arguments can be obtained
with "vdr-??fe --help".
Frontend should find server automatically (from local subnet)
and negotiate best available transport. If frontend does not
find server (or specific transport should be used), mrl must
be given on command line.
NOTE: RTP is used only when requested with rtp: mrl or --rtp command-line option.
Examples:
Search for VDR (xineliboutput) server, connect to it and
negotiate best available transport. Use best available audio
and video driver.
vdr-fbfe
or
vdr-sxfe
Connect to 192.168.1.3 default port and negotiate best available transport
vdr-fbfe xvdr://192.168.1.3
Connect to 192.168.2.100, port 12550 and use TCP transport
vdr-fbfe xvdr+tcp://192.168.2.100:12550
Automatically search for VDR server and use UDP transport
vdr-fbfe xvdr+udp:
or
vdr-fbfe --udp
Available transports for video/audio
pipe Use local pipe; server and front-end must be running on
same machine.
rtp Use RTP/UDP multicast for data and TCP for control.
Multiple frontends can receive same stream.
udp Use UDP unicast for data and TCP for control.
tcp Use TCP protocol for control and data. Both channels
use same server port and are opened by client.
Forwarding lirc keys to server
Use option --lirc with optional lircd socket name to
forward LIRC commands from client to server.
Audio driver
Use alsa:
vdr-fbfe --audio alsa
Use alsa (and specific card/sub-device):
vdr-fbfe --audio alsa:plughw:1,1
Video driver (and display / device):
With X11 frontend (vdr-sxfe):
vdr-sxfe --video [xshm | xv | xvmc | xxmc | vidix | vdpau |
XDirectFB | opengl | sdl | none [:display]]
Examples:
--video xv
--video xvmc:127.0.0.1:1.0
With framebuffer frontend (vdr-fbfe):
vdr-fbfe --video [fb | DirectFB | sdl | vidixfb | dxr3 | aadxr3 | none [:fb_device]]
Examples:
--video DirectFB
--video fb:/dev/fb/1
--video vidixfb
--video aadxr3
De-interlacing
If deinterlacing post plugin options are not given at command line,
deinterlacing is controlled by VDR plugin configuration menu settings.
De-interlacing can also be forced on or off with command-line option --post tvtime.
Examples:
vdr-sxfe --post tvtime:method=Linear,cheap_mode=1,pulldown=0,use_progressive_frame_flag=1
vdr -P"xineliboutput --post=tvtime:method=Linear,cheap_mode=1,pulldown=0,use_progressive_frame_flag=1"
Disable deinterlacing:
vdr-sxfe --post tvtime:enable=0
VDPAU
All video scaling, cropping, and postprocessing options must be disabled
if the VDPAU output device is used.
De-interlacing can be enabled with command-line option --post tvtime:
Examples:
vdr-sxfe --video vdpau --post tvtime:method=use_vo_driver
vdr -P"xineliboutput --video=vdpau --post=tvtime:method=use_vo_driver"
HUD OSD
HUD OSD implements high-quality OSD using modern graphics hardware.
OSD is scaled and blended using hardware, so it adds no extra CPU
overhead. OSD is always blended to output (display) resolution,
so it remains sharp and detailed even with low-resolution video.
It can also support transparency in the same way as full-featured
DVB cards.
HUD OSD must be enabled with command-line option (--hud). Scaling
options can be configured in xineliboutput plugin setup menu,
OSD settings page.
There are three possible configurations for using HUD OSD. First one
is to use a X server with composite / Xrender extensions and a composite
manager. This is the default when the hud is enabled with --hud. The
second one is to use a X server with XShape support. This configuration
is enabled with the --hud=shape option. The third one is to use a
X server with OpenGL support. The option --hud=opengl enables this
configuration.
The first configuration requires a composite manager to get transparency
support. The second configuration can be used if the composite manager
slows down the video play back. The HUD OSD has the same quality, but
does not support transparency.
The third configuration does not require the composite/Xrender extension.
Hence, it can also be used with VDPAU NVIDIA graphic cards that produce
video tearing with enabled composite extension. OpenGL is only used if
the OSD is displayed. For video playback, the normal output to a window
via the xine-lib is used. Therefore, normal video playback is as smooth
as the xine-lib playback allows. OpenGL playback requires additional
computing power from the cpu and graphic card, and can result in
occasionally frame drops. If your hardware configuration is powerful
enough, you can also try to use the --opengl option. It does both pure
video playback and OSD drawing via OpenGL. The advantage is that there
are no frame drops if the OSD opens and closes, because there is no
switching between window-based and OpenGL-based playback.
Requirements:
- First configuration (--hud):
- X server with Composite and Xrender extensions.
Composite extension must be enabled in Xorg config.
- Composite window manager (compiz, beryl, or properly configured xfce4, metacity, ...)
or separate composite manager (xcompmgr) for transparency support.
- Second configuration (--hud=xshape)
- X server with Composite, Xrender and XShape extension.
- no window manager required.
- Third configuration (--hud=opengl or --opengl)
- X server with OpenGL support
- no window manager required.
- Compatible graphics hardware and drivers.
HUD OSD has been tested with:
nVidia GF FX5700LE (driver version 169.09)
Intel G965 (GMA-X3000) (driver version 2.2.1, textured XVideo)
nVidia GT 425M (driver version 290.10, VDPAU)
metacity 2.23.2
xcompmgr 1.1.3
NOTE:
- Drawing video (even without OSD) may be slower when composite
extension is enabled.
- A composite window manager can also slow down the video playback. In
case of problems, switch off the window manager to see if playback
improves.
- Try to adjust OSD size and offsets to get rid of possible graphical
corruption.
- For true HD-resolution OSD VDR needs to be patched.
- OpenGL-based HUD requires that the xine-lib video out driver
supports redirecting video frames to a pixmap. VDPAU is known
to work (tested with changeset 11949:0e68b56727d6 from 2011-12-21 of
xine-lib 1.2). XV does currently not support it.
- If you see black frames when opening the HUD with the --hud=opengl
option: The video out driver frees all resources when the
request to switch to a pixmap arrives. This clean up can also
include clearing the window, resulting in a black frame until the
OpenGL drawing takes over. The VDPAU output drivers behaves in
this way. There are two options to fix this: Either enable the
BackingStore of the X-Server (Option "BackingStore" TRUE in the
Device Section for NVIDIA cards) or patch the xine-lib to not
immediately free the resources. There is an example patch for VDPAU
included in the patches directory (xinelib_vdpau_black_frame.patch).
Please note that enabling the backing store might also require
to enable the Composite extension.
- Tearing free OpenGL playback / HUD requires that the "Sync to VBLank"
option is set. For nvidia cards, this can be done via the command
"nvidia-settings -a SyncToVBlank=1"
HUD OSD was contributed by Antti Seppälä and Rolf Ahrenberg.
HUD OSD XShape and OpenGL extensions were contributed by Matthias Grünewald.
Using with xine-ui (xine, fbxine, gxine, ...)
Examples:
xine "xvdr://127.0.0.1#nocache"
xine "xvdr+tcp://127.0.0.1:37890#nocache"
xine "xvdr+udp://127.0.0.1:37890#nocache"
"#nocache" should always be appended to end of mrl.
Remote mode must be enabled in VDR plugin.
Some configuration options are not available when using
third-party frontends.
Using with other media players (mplayer, vlc, ...)
Primary device video and audio (without OSD or subtitles)
can be streamed from plugin control port to almost any media
player using http or rtsp.
Session Announcement Protocol (SAP) compatible players
should detect stream automatically and add it to playlist
or bookmarks when RTP transmission is active (tested with vlc).
Tested players:
Linux: mplayer, vlc, xine
Windows: vlc
Examples:
mplayer http://192.168.1.3:37890
vlc http://192.168.1.3:37890
vlc rtsp://192.168.1.3:37890
vlc rtp://@224.0.1.9:37890
Controlling VDR
With local frontend, vdr-sxfe and vdr-fbfe:
Keyboard input from console is mapped to VDR keyboard input.
If VDR was compiled or configured without keyboard support,
console keyboard input does not work.
Keyboard input from X11 window is mapped to XKeySym remote.
Keys are mapped to VDR keys in remote.conf file. Simple example
of X11 key mappings is included in examples directory.
It should be possible to use VDR's remote controller learning
mode by pressing some key just after VDR has been started.
Learning mode does not work with remote frontends.
Keyboard input can be disabled in configuration menu. There
are separate entries for local and remote frontends.
With xine-ui:
Keyboard shortcuts and remote events from xine menus are
automatically forwarded to VDR and translated to VDR keys.
Translation to VDR keys is static and defined in xine_input_vdr.c.
Frontend key bindings
Esc Close frontend (vdr-fbfe / fdr-sxfe)
Mouse left button double-click
Toggle between fullscreen / window mode (vdr-sxfe only)
Mouse right button click
Toggle between normal window / always on top /
borderless window (vdr-sxfe only)
Close Window
Close frontend (fdr-sxfe only)
Image viewer key bindings
Left/Prev Previous image
Right/Next Next image
Up/Down Jump 5 images forward/backward
Yellow Delete current image
Back Return to image list
Stop/Blue Exit image viewer
Play Start slide show
Pause Stop slide show
FastFwd/FastRew Start slide show; Increase/decrease slide show speed;
Change slideshow direction
Ok Toggle replay display mode
Media player key bindings for video files
Back Return to file list
Red Open playlist if more than one file in the playlist,
otherwise jump to beginning of file
Green Jump 1 min back
Yellow Jump 1 min forward
Stop/Blue Stop replay
User7 Random play / normal play
1, User8 Jump 20 s back
3, User9 Jump 20 s forward
2 Move subtitles up
5 Move subtitles down
Down/Pause Pause replay
Up/Play Play
Ok Toggle replay display mode
Next Skip to next file when replaying playlist
Prev Skip to previous file when replaying playlist
FastRew/Left Play slower
FastFwd/Right Play faster
Media player key bindings for audio files
Back Return to file list
Red Open playlist
Green Jump 1 min back
Yellow Jump 1 min forward
Stop/Blue Stop replay
0...9 Use to select a file from the playlist
according to its position on the playlist
Down/Pause Pause replay
Up/Play Play
Ok Toggle replay display mode
Next/Right Skip to next file
Prev/Left Skip to previous file or restart the currently playing file
if more than three seconds has been played back already
FastRew/FastFwd Play faster/slower
User7 Random play / normal play
If media file includes multiple subtitles (DVD, .mkv file, ...),
subtitle language can be selected with VDR Subtitle key or from
DVD subtitle menu.
Plugin uses VDR's preferred subtitle language settings.
DVD player key bindings
Up/Down/Left/Right/Ok/Back DVD menu navigation when DVD menu is active
Red Access DVD menu(s)
Green Jump 1 min back
Yellow Jump 1 min forward
Stop/Blue/Back Stop replay
Ok / Info Toggle replay display mode
1 / User8 Jump 20 s back
3 / User9 Jump 20 s forward
Pause / Down Pause replay
Play / Up Play
6 / Next, Next chapter
4 / Prev Previous chapter
9 Next title
7 Previous title
Info Show progress display
FastRew/FastFwd,
Left/Right Play faster/slower
DVD playback
DVD images
Media player supports playing DVDs directly from hard disk.
Found DVD folders are marked with 'D' in media player
file list.
Plugin detects folders as DVDs if there is file
Name_Of_DVD/VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO.
It is also possible to replay DVD as VDR recording by
creating empty recording directory and renaming or
symlinking .VOBs of selected title to 00?.vdr files.
DVD menus (VTS_??_0.VOB) should _not_ be copied.
Audio can be selected from main menu just as with normal
VDR recordings.
For seeking it is necessarily to create index.vdr file
with genindex or similar tool.
DVD discs
"Real" DVD discs (accessible from /dev/dvd) can be played
from xineliboutput plugin menu.
In case of remote frontend (vdr-sxfe/vdr-fbfe) DVD drive
of _remote client_ is used.
Audio track can be selected from VDR audio track menu
(keys "Menu" + "Green" or "Audio") or from DVD menu.
DVD subtitle language can be selected with VDR Subtitle key or
from DVD subtitle menu.
Plugin uses VDR's preferred subtitle language settings.
Aspect ratio setting
default Aspect ratio is calculated from display resolution.
4:3 4:3 video is scaled to fill whole window;
16:9 video has black bars at top and bottom
16:9 16:9 video is scaled to fill whole window;
4:3 video has black bars at left and right.
16:10
auto 4:3 and 16:9 are scaled to fill whole window.
(useful if TV can "smart scale" 4:3 video to 16:9)
Shortcut key macros
It is possible to change some settings and execute actions with
user-defined key macros and VDR User? keys.
Supported settings and corresponding key sequences in VDR
keymacros.conf format are:
Start replaying DVD (User? @xineliboutput Red 0)
Start replaying Title 1 from DVD (User? @xineliboutput Red 1)
<reserved> (User? @xineliboutput Red 2)
Toggle aspect ratio (User? @xineliboutput Red 3)
Toggle letterbox -> 16:9 cropping (User? @xineliboutput Red 4)
Toggle stereo -> 5.1 upmix (User? @xineliboutput Red 5)
Toggle 5.1 -> surround downmix (User? @xineliboutput Red 6)
Toggle de-interlacing (User? @xineliboutput Red 7)
Toggle local frontend on/off (User? @xineliboutput Red 8)
Start replaying default playlist or file pointed by symlink
$(CONFDIR)/plugins/xineliboutput/default_playlist
(User? @xineliboutput Red 9)
Increase audio delay (User? @xineliboutput Red Up)
Decrease audio delay (User? @xineliboutput Red Down)
Toggle the video aspect ratio (User? @xineliboutput Red Right)
Special frontend control keys
When frontend is started with --hotkeys command-line option, following
keyboard and LIRC keys are interpreted by vdr-sxfe/vdr-fbfe:
Keyboard (console and X11 window)
f, F Toggle fullscreen state
d, D Toggle deinterlacing
LIRC
Fullscreen Toggle fullscreen state
Deinterlace Toggle deinterlacing
Quit Close program
[ this run-time option replaces old build-time options
INTERPRET_LIRC_KEYS and XINELIBOUTPUT_FE_FULLSCREEN_TOGGLE ]
Xine-specific settings
All xine-specific settings can be changed by editing file
$(HOME)/.xine/config_xineliboutput.
Default mpeg2 decoder (libmpeg2) can be switched to ffmpeg mpeg2 decoder
by increasing ffmpeg decoder priority:
engine.decoder_priorities.ffmpegvideo:1
(ffmpeg decoder is slower but handles errors better).
Slave mode
vdr-sxfe and vdr-fbfe implement simple slave mode. Slave mode is
activated with command-line option --slave. In slave mode program reads
CRLF-terminated commands from standard input instead of using keyboard
as VDR remote controller. Supported commands are:
HITK <vdrkey> Send key press event to VDR
FULLSCREEN Toggle fullscreen state
DEINTERLACE Toggle deinterlacing
QUIT Close program
Video can be drawn to existing X11 window with vdr-sxfe
option --wid=<x_window_id>
Distributed set-up - multiple clients and/or servers
Simple multi-head setup
When there is no need to watch different recordings / channels at
different clients at the same time, just running vdr-[sx/fb]fe at
each client is enough. In this case the same video + OSD is mirrored
to all clients and all clients control the same (shared) VDR.
Real multi-user setup
When there is a need to have multiple independently controlled
clients (each with separate video and OSD), running multiple
instances of VDR is required.
It doesn't matter if all VDR instances run at server or at each
client. However, there are some benefits when running all
instances of VDR on the same server:
- less maintenance: only one installation of VDR and plugins is required
- posibility to use simpler, diskless clients with less memory
- Faster cutting / DVD burning / ... as there is no
network between VDR and disks
- no need to export and mount /video to every client
- overall resource usage is lower
- ...
It is preferred to allow recording only at the "master" vdr.
Recording the same timer on two VDR instances will most likely
corrupt the recording. Besides that, doing all recordings directly
from DVB card (no streamdev in middle) makes things simpler and less
error prone. It is probably even impossible to do several recordings
from different transponders using single streamdev instance.
Timersync plugin disables recording on client VDRs. All timers
are still visible at each client and timers can be created/modified
at any client just as with the single VDR setup.
Timersync plugin synchronizes all timer modifications between VDR instances
and takes care that all recordings are made by the "master" vdr.
Still, all kind of autotimer plugins etc. that generate timers
should be activated only at server vdr (there shouldn't
be any reasons to run multiple instances of such plugins).
Simplified example:
(xinelibout and streamdev plugins required)
Start 3 VDRs at server:
"Master" VDR: controls all DVB cards, does all recordings,
server for client 1
vdr -c /etc/vdr \
-P"xineliboutput --local=none --remote=37890" \
-Pstreamdev-server
VDR server for client 2:
vdr -c /etc/vdr2 \
-D 10 -p 2102 \
-P"xineliboutput --local=none --remote=37892" \
-Pstreamdev-client
VDR server for client 3
vdr -c /etc/vdr3 \
-D 10 -p 2103 \
-P"xineliboutput --local=none --remote=37894" \
-Pstreamdev-client
+ all possible other options and plugins.
- Using -D 10 option for client VDR instances "forces" all DVB
cards for master VDR.
- Each VDR instance must have its own configuration directory (-c option).
- Each xineliboutput server uses different port
- Streamdev plugin is used to provide live view for client
VDR's. It is not required to just watch recordings.
To correctly configure vdr-streamdev plugin, see
streamdev plugin's README.
- Using suspendoutput plugin with some proper timeout value
in VDR instances might be good idea - it releases
streamdev VTP connection and server-side DVB devices
for other use when the client is not in use.
Starting clients:
Client 1: vdr-sxfe
Client 2: vdr-sxfe xvdr://<server ip>:37892
Client 3: vdr-sxfe xvdr://<server ip>:37894
- If RTP is used between vdr and vdr-sxfe, using separate
RTP address or port for each xineliboutput server
instance might be good idea.
VDR Logo
The VDR logo was designed by Jan Grell.