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Diffstat (limited to 'UPDATE-1.4.0')
| -rw-r--r-- | UPDATE-1.4.0 | 334 |
1 files changed, 334 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/UPDATE-1.4.0 b/UPDATE-1.4.0 new file mode 100644 index 00000000..910c444e --- /dev/null +++ b/UPDATE-1.4.0 @@ -0,0 +1,334 @@ +This is a summary of the changes in VDR 1.4.0 since the last stable +version 1.2.6. It only contains things that are of actual importance +to the user and doesn't mention the many fixes and improvements that +have been made "behind the scenes". + +See the file HISTORY for a detailed list of all changes. + +Plugins: + +- The new function cPlugin::Stop() shall be used to stop any background activities + of a plugin. Previously this was done in the plugin's desctructor, but it is + better to do this in a dedicated function that can be called early when shutting + down. +- Added 'Service' functions to the plugin interface. + See PLUGINS.html, section "Custom services" for details. +- Plugins can now implement their own SVDRP commands. + See PLUGINS.html, section "SVDRP commands" for details. The SVDRP commands + of a plugin are accessed through the new SVDRP command PLUG. +- The main menu function of a plugin can now be activated through a key macro of + the form "@plugin" even if that plugin doesn't have a main menu entry. +- The main menu function of a plugin can now be called programmatically through + the static function cRemote::CallPlugin(). +- The new function cPlugin::Active() can be used by a plugin to indicate that it + is still busy and the system should not shut down or restart. +- The new APIVERSION (see config.h) now allows existing compiled plugins to be + used with newer versions of VDR, as long as there have been no changes to the + VDR header files since the last APIVERSION. +- The new function cPlugin::MainThreadHook() can be used by plugins to perform + actions in the context of the main program thread. + +Skins: + +- The entire OSD display can now be implemented via "skins". See VDR/skins.[hc], + VDR/skinclassic.[hc], VDR/skinsttng.[hc] and PLUGINS.html for information on how + a plugin can implement its own skin. By default VDR comes with a "Classic" skin + that implements the OSD display known from previous versions, and the new skin + named "ST:TNG Panels", which is also the default skin now. The actual skin can + be selected through "Setup/OSD/Skin". +- The colors used in a skin can now be configured using "themes". See PLUGINS.html + for information on how a skin can make use of themes, and man vdr(5) for the + structure of a theme file. The actual theme to use can be selected through + "Setup/OSD/Theme". + +Remote control: + +- Pressing the "Play" key in live viewing mode now resumes a previous replay + session (thanks to Mirko Dölle). +- The new "Info" key brings up information on the currently viewed programme + or recording. +- In string entry fields (like, e.g., the file name of a recording) the characters + can now be entered by pressing the numeric keys, the same way as on a + telephone keypad. +- Key macros can now be defined for all non-modeless keys. +- Switching channels with the Up/Down or Channel+/Channel- keys now works a lot + faster when the repeat function kicks in, by not actually switching the + channel every time, but rather only displaying the channel info and doing + the final switch when the key is released. +- The "Back" key now restores the original string when pressed while editing a + string item. +- The "Ok" key in the "Jump" mode of the replay progress display now confirms the + jump instead of closing the display. +- Implemented kNext and kPrev keys. +- Implemented kChanPrev. + +Devices: + +- Now waiting at startup until all DVB devices are ready. This includes having + all CAMs initialized and ready to decrypt, so that no more "channel not + available" happens if VDR is started with the current channel being an encrypted + one, or a timer on such a channel hits right after starting VDR. +- The DVB devices now retune (and, if applicable, resend the DiSEqC data) if + the lock is lost. + +EPG: + +- Added support for selecting preferred EPG languages. +- The "Red" button in the "Setup/EPG" menu can now be used to force an EPG + scan on a single DVB card system. +- Implemented an "EPG linger time", which can be set to have older EPG information + still displayed in the "Schedule" menu. +- The "Schedule" and "What's on now/next?" menus now have an additional column + which displays information on whether there is a timer defined for an event, + whether an event has a VPS time that's different than its start time, and + whether an event is currently running. +- The format of the 'epg.data' files has been extended by the new tag 'X', which + contains the stream components of an event. +- Modified the EPG scan so that it uses the primary device if it is + replaying and is the only device that provides the given transponder, and that + a forced EPG scan works even if EPG scan timeout is set to 0. +- Removed EPG bugfix #0, because it removed actually important data. +- No longer removing superfluous hyphens in EPG data - would become too + language dependent to handle all kinds of exceptions. +- EPG events that are no longer in the currently broadcasted data stream are + now automatically deleted. +- Schedules are now cleaned up once every hour (not only at 05:00). +- The "Red" button in the "Schedule", "What's on now/next?" and "Event" menus + now immediately creates a timer for the selected event and marks it with 'T'. + If the event is already marked with 'T', the "Red" button opens the "Edit + timer" menu for that timer. +- Pressing '0' in the "Schedule" menu now rotates through displaying "This event on + this channel", "This event on all channels" and "All events on all channels". + This can be used to find reruns of a given show, or the episodes of a series. + Note that if there are many channels in your channels.conf, displaying the + "All events on all channels" page may take a while. +- The epg.data file is now written when VDR exits. +- The 'event id' in EPG data has been extended to 32 bit, so that external tools + can generate ids that don't collide with those from the DVB data stream. +- The status changes of EPG events are now logged for all channels that have timers. + +OSD: + +- Changed font handling to allow language specific character sets. +- Adopted the small font character set from the "Elchi" patch +- Increased the maximum number of possible OSD colors to 256. +- Now using the 'running status' in the channel display, so that a programme + that has an end time that is before the current time, but is still running, + will still be shown in the display (provided the broadcasters handle the + 'running status' flag correctly). This also applies to programmes that have + a start time that is in the future, but are already running. +- The new setup option "OSD/Use small font" can be used to control the use of + the small font. +- The new OSD setup parameters "Left" and "Top" can be used to define the top left + corner of the OSD. +- The OSD size prameters are now in pixel (as opposed to formerly characters). + When reading a 'setup.conf' file from an older version of VDR, the OSDwidth + and OSDheight values will be converted to pixel automatically. +- The OSD is now fully device independent. See the comments in VDR/osd.h and the + description in PLUGINS.html for information on how a plugin can implement an OSD + display on arbitrary hardware. +- The OSD (actually its cBitmap class) can now handle XPM files. There are several + XPM files in the VDR/symbols directory which can be used by skins (some of these + have been taken from the "elchi" patch). +- Due to the changes in the OSD handling the DEBUG_OSD option for a textual OSD + has been dropped. A textual OSD can now be displayed with the "skincurses" + plugin. +- Single shot timers and events now show the day of week. +- The new setup option "OSD/Channel info time" can be used to define the time after + which the channel display is removed if no key has been pressed. +- The "Summary" button in the "Recordings" menu has been renamed to "Info", and + the page it brings up now shows the recording's information, much like the EPG + event page. +- The new setup option "OSD/Scroll wraps" can be used to activate wrapping around + in menu lists. +- The main menu now dynamically updates its contents in case an instant + recording or replay stops, etc. +- The new option "Setup/OSD/Timeout requested channel info" can be used to turn + off the automatic timeout of the channel display in case it was invoked by + a press of the "Ok" key. + +Channels: + +- Channel data is now automatically derived from the DVB data stream +- Channel names in 'channels.conf' can now have a short form, as provided + by some tv stations. +- There can now be up to 32 audio and 16 Dolby PIDs. +- The audio and Dolby PIDs in 'channels.conf' now can have an optional language + code. +- Fixed transponder handling to make it work with satellites that provide two + transponders on the same frequency, with different polarization. +- Now storing the name of the service provider (aka "bouquet") in the channel + name, separated by a semicolon. +- The "Channels" menu can now be sorted "by number" (default), "by name" and + "by provider". While in the "Channels" menu, pressing the '0' key switches + through these modes. +- Added support for circular polarization. +- When reading the channels.conf file, duplicate channels (i.e. ones that have + the same channel ID) are now automatically deleted and only the first one is + actually stored. +- In the "Channels" menu the numeric keys now position the cursor to the channel + with the given number. +- The "Mark/Move" function in the "Channels" menu now also works in the non-numeric + sort modes. +- The "Update channels" parameter in the "Setup/DVB" menu has been extended to + allow updating only the PIDs. + +Timers: + +- The '0' key now toggles the "Day" item in the "Timers" menu between "single + shot" and "repeating". The keys '1'...'7' can be used to toggle the individual + days ('1' is monday). +- The day of a timer is now stored as a full date in ISO notation ("YYYY-MM-DD") in + 'timers.conf' and for the result of the SVDRP command LSTT +- The timer status now has a new bit that is set when that timer is currently + recording. +- The 'summary' field of a timer definition has been renamed to 'aux', and is now + only used for external applications to store auxiliary information with a timer, + which has no meaning whatsoever to VDR itself. + The contents of the 'aux' field of a timer is copied into the recording's + 'info.vdr' file, using the tag character '@'. +- The description of a recording is now taken exclusively from its related EPG + data. If an application wants to use a different description it needs to set + it with SVDRP/PUTE and use table ID 0x00, so that it won't be overwritten (as + a side effect, however, this also disables VPS for such an event). +- There is no more "Summary" menu when pressing "Ok" in the "Timers" menu. + The "Ok" key now always opens the "Edit timer" menu. +- The upper 16 bit of a timer's "flags" are no longer treated specially when a timer + is modified in the "Edit timer" menu. If an external application needs to know if + a timer was modified, it has to keep a copy of the timer's data and compare that + to the actual data. +- The option "Setup/OSD/Sort timers" has been removed. Timers are always sorted + by their start time and priority. +- The "Blue" key in the "Timers" menu now displays the EPG info of the event the + selected timer will record (if available). The "On/Off" function has been shifted + to the "Red" button. Editing a timer is done by pressing "Ok". + +Recording: + +- Implemented handling the VPS timestamps (aka "Programme Identification Label") + for full VPS support for timers (provided the tv stations actually broadcast + this information). The VPS time is displayed in the event info page if it exists + and is different than the event's start time. +- Timers can now be set to use the VPS information to control recording a programme. + The new setup options "Recording/Use VPS" and "Recording/VPS margin", as well as + the "VPS" option in the individual timers, can be used to control this feature +- Now preferring budget cards when selecting a DVB device for recording. +- The file 'summary.vdr' has been replaced with 'info.vdr' and now contains the + information about a recording, in the same format as the events are stored in + 'epg.data'. +- Recordings are now only started if there is at least 300MB free disk space. +- No longer using characters 0x01 and 0x02 for mapping single quote and slash in + recording names. + The single quote is not mapped at all, and the slash is interchanged + with the tilde. Existing recordings will be handled like before, so there is + no need to actually rename them. + +SVDRP: + +- The new SVDRP command 'SCAN' can be used to force an EPG scan on a single + DVB card system. +- Extended the SVDRP command LSTE to allow limiting the listed data to a given + channel, the present or following events, or events at a given time. +- The SVDRP command LSTR now lists the recording information in the same tagged + format as the LSTE command lists the EPG data. +- The new SVDRP command PLAY can be used to start replaying a recording. +- The new SVDRP command EDIT can be used to start the editing process of a recording. +- The new SVDRP command PLUG can be used to call a plugin's main menu function. +- Implemented the SVDRP command MOVC. +- The SVDRP command GRAB now determines the image type (JPEG or PNM) from the + extension (".jpg", ".jpeg" or ".pnm") of the given file name. The explicit + 'jpeg' or 'pnm' parameter is still accepted for backward compatibility, but + has no meaning any more. +- The SVDRP command GRAB now writes the image data to the SVDRP connection + (encoded in base64) if the given file name consists of only the file + extension (".jpg", ".jpeg" or ".pnm"), or if only "-" is given as file + name. +- The new command line option '-g' must be given if the SVDRP command GRAB + shall be allowed to write image files to disk. The parameter to this option + must be the full path name of an existing directory, without any "..", double + '/' or symlinks. By default, or if "-g- is given, grabbing to files is + not allowed any more because of potential security risks. +- The SVDRP command LSTT now accepts the new option 'id' to have the channels + of the timers listed with their unique channel ids instead of their numbers. + +Audio: + +- AC3 audio can now be output directly over the full featured DVB cards. +- The new remote control button "Audio" can be used to switch between different + audio tracks. The "Green" button in the "Main" menu has been changed from "Language" + to "Audio", since it now also controls switching between normal and Dolby Digital + audio tracks. +- The description of the audio tracks is now taken from the "component descriptors" + that are broadcast in the EPG data. However (as no big surprise), not all channels + actually provide useful data here, so there are now some additional EPG bugfixes, + which can be activated by setting the "EPG bugfix level" to 3. +- The new setup option "DVB/Audio languages" can be used to control which audio + language shall be selected in case a channel broadcasts in different languages. +- The "Left" and "Right" keys in the "Audio" menu can be used to switch between + the left and right stereo channels in case there are different audio tracks + in these channels. +- The setup option "Recording/Record Dobly Digital" has been renamed and moved to + "DVB/Use Dolby Digital". It now controls whether Dolby Digital is recorded and + whether an available DD audio track will appear in the "Audio" menu. +- Recording and Transfer Mode now handle more than 2 audio PIDs. + +Conditional Access: + +- Improved CAM handling. +- The file 'ca.conf' has been removed. VDR now automatically detects which + device contains a CAM that can decode a channel. +- Removed the now obsolete CaCaps stuff. The Setup/CICAM menu now displays the + actual CAM type as reported by the CAM. +- The Setup/CICAM menu now only contains the devices that actually have a CI and + dynamically detects the number of slots a CI provides. +- The CAM menu now automatically updates itself in case of a progress display (as + used, for instance, when updating the firmware via satellite). +- Improved the CAM enquiry menu. + +Internationalization: + +- Added Russian language texts. +- Added Croatian language texts. +- Added Estonian language texts. +- Added Danish language texts. +- Added Czech language texts. + +Misc: + +- Changed thread handling to make it work with NPTL ("Native Posix Thread Library"). +- The list of recordings is now kept statically in memory to avoid long delays + when opening the "Recordings" menu. As a side effect, external modifications to + the video directory are no longer immediately reflected in the "Recordings" menu. + If a plugin manipulates the video directory in any way, it can call the function + Recordings.TriggerUpdate() to trigger an update of the list of recordings. + If some external tool manipulates the video directory, it can touch the file + '.update' in the video directory to trigger an update of the list of recordings. +- The new setup option "DVB/Video display format" can be used to define which display + format to use for playing wide screen video on a 4:3 tv set. +- Added the command line options '--lirc', '--rcu' and '--no-kbd' to allow setting + the remote control at runtime. +- Pressing Ok while entering a channel number now immediately switches to that + channel, without waiting for further input. +- The new command line option '--vfat' can be used to make VDR encode special + characters in recording file names, even if it wasn't compiled with VFAT=1 + The compile time option VFAT still exists and creates a VDR that always behaves + as if it were called with '--vfat'. +- Replaced the ':' delimiter between hour and minute in recording file names with + a '.' under Linux, too. Existing recordings with ':' as delimiter will still work. +- The list of recordings is now read in a separate thread, resulting in a faster + startup if there are a great many of recordings, or the disk(s) have to spin up. +- When displaying the amount of free disk space, the space consumed by + recordings that have been "deleted" but not yet actually "removed" is now + taken into account. +- Removing deleted recordings is now done in a separate thread. +- When started as user 'root' VDR can now switch to a lesser privileged user id, + keeping the capability to set the system time. The 'runvdr' script has been + changed to use the new '-u' option. +- The Makefile now reports a summary of failed plugins. +- Removed the "buffer reserve" in Transfer Mode - it's no longer necessary with + recent driver/firmware versions. +- The initial channel and volume can now be defined in the "Setup/Miscellaneous" + menu. +- In order to make sure that plugins are compiled with the same DVB driver header + files as VDR itself, the definition of DVBDIR has been removed from the VDR + Makefile. It can now be defined, if necessary, in Make.config. |