[raki]

Hi,

I'm a little bit confused of the different versions of vdr. Since there are many comiled packages for the different distributions I don't know which one to choose. I was looking at the yavdr ppa but the stable version seems to be for 12.04 and has the number 1.7.27-8yavdr0~precise. But isn't version already 2.x released a few months ago?

I'm running XBMXbuntu (installed last week) and I can't figure out which version I should use. It should be pretty stable and have working timeshift.

I just can't find an overview of the version and the "stable" marked version a pretty old most of the time...

Thank you!

[ursli]

I'm on 2.0.2-279 which runs perfectly stable on my end.

[raki]

You mean this ppa: https://launchpad.net/~aap/+archive/vdr? Which xbmc plugin do you use?

---

Well ok, I should have read the info at the top of the website . XVDR i guess?

[ursli]

Yes at the ppa no at plugin, I'm on vnsi because I had some trouble with xvdr. Something didnt work right with my timeshift file, channel switching is faster on xvdr though, I guess you just need to try for yourself.

Compiling plugins for vdr/xbmc is pretty straight forward though, get the vdr source from the ppa and then check http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=147852 (vdr plugin) https://github.com/FernetMenta/xbmc-pvr-...tree/vnsi4 (xbmc plugin) for a short how to on compiling vnsi.

You need to be running the xbmc nightlies for proper pvr support btw https://launchpad.net/~wsnipex/+archive/...ba-testing works nicely for me

[raki]

Thanks! But what do I need to compile? vdr itself (and the addons) will be installed via apt-get install vdr / vdr-plugin-x (after adding the ppa) right? What sources do I need in addition to that?

[ursli]

You would only need to compile the vnsi plugin if you would want to use that, I'm pretty sure if you end up using xvdr everything should be setup already with the aap ppa. Not 100% sure on the xbmc-xvdr plugin it's possible you can just install pipelkas addon repository https://github.com/pipelka/xbmc-addon-xv...positories but I'm not sure how recent that is.

edit: there is also a precompiled xbmc-xvba + xvdr plugin in the aap ppa, if you use that in combination with the vdr ppa you should be golden https://launchpad.net/~aap/+archive/xbmc-fernetmenta

[raki]

You need to be running the xbmc nightlies for proper pvr support btw https://launchpad.net/~wsnipex/+archive/...ba-testing works nicely for me

What do you mean with proper support? I'm running the xbmc version comming with the latest xbmcbuntu and live-tv runs with tvheadend. Ok, i've got some problems with timeshift but the problem regards to tvheadend.

What are the benefits of the xbmc version in that ppa? Is it a complete xbmc because it's called "xbmc-xvba".


//Edit:

edit: there is also a precompiled xbmc-xvba + xvdr plugin in the aap ppa, if you use that in combination with the vdr ppa you should be golden https://launchpad.net/~aap/+archive/xbmc-fernetmenta

And what exactly do you mean with that? I'm guite confused what xbmc-xvba stands for...Why isn't there an overview what all those shortcuts mean and how what the differences between the versions are. I mean there are stable builds, unstable builds, testing builds from different developers. How can you keep an overview? A stable version of dev1 is most of the time up to date and dev2 only uses unstable version...You know what I mean?

[ursli]

There where some improvements in the latest xbmc nightlies regarding timeshifting, timeshifting works up to some point with XBMC 12.2 but not as well as with the 13.0 nightlies.

Quote from Fernetmenta:

PVR seek functions in XBMC 12 are rather broken. We have just fixed those in master. As long as those fixes have not been backported to Frodo, you have more fun with XBMC 13 when trying this.

xvba stands for the AMD implementation of hardware acceleration, the xvba branch also got a lot of improvements for vdpau hardware acceleration (nvidia) and runs the latest audio engine, if you intend to upgrade to an XBMC 13 nightly it's a good idea to switch to that one until those fixes are pulled in the main XBMC branch. xvba thread http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=116996


So in short if you want to avoid compiling something yourself while using vdr+xvdr+XBMC and you intend to seek while timeshifting it's a good idea to get:

XBMC-xvba 13.0 + xvdr plugin: https://launchpad.net/~aap/+archive/xbmc-fernetmenta
vdr + xvdr plugin: https://launchpad.net/~aap/+archive/vdr

At least that is the latest info I've got about xbmc and timeshifting.

[raki]

Man, thanks a lot! Things are clearer now. In fact, the PVR section in xbmc is the most important part for me, so switching to Gotham might be a good idea and since I have AMD A6-5400 I will try the xbmc-xvba version.

Beside reading github pulls everyday, is there another way to be at least a bit up to date, which branch / developer version fixes which bug or adds a feature?

Thanks!


One quick question: why is the xvdr-plugin contained in both ppas, the xbmc and vdr (the last two links you posted)?

[ursli]

I also tend to read the git commits for fernetmenta and xbmc, not sure if there is an easier way. I think those 2 are the most important branches at least when it comes to PVR in xbmc. I guess there's some clutter when you're searching for some specific fixes/features but the positive is that a lot of people can contribute to the xbmc development and in theory everything should slowly make it's way into mainline xbmc.

edit: Regarding xvdr, you need both plugins one is for your vdr backend (vdr-plugin-xvdr) the other is for xbmc (xbmc-plugin-xvdr) so xbmc can connect to vdr.

edit2: And if you need proper support on this forum you may need to think about compiling vnsi after all (if you need help with that just ask), the xvdr branch is maintained by pipelka which doesn't do support here but via google groups.

[raki]

Thank you very much for your support! I guess I need to compile xbmc anyway because I want spotyxbmc2 included and for my understanding I have to compile xbmc with this addon together. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

So I will use the ppa you recommend and try xvdr and vnsi. Beside using this unstable / new xbmc version, are their other things needed to be done for Gotham? New AMD driver?

I think I'll try the installation next week and will definitely come back to you if I have any questions / troubles.

Thank you very much!

[ursli]

I'm the wrong person to ask about AMD on ubuntu, I'm using xvba with my hd nd 22 (ion graphics), but you should check out the xvba thread I've linked earlier there is a lot of discussions going on about the latest amd cockups regarding linux drivers.

From what I can see spotyxbmc2 is still running xbmc 12.2, I'm not 100% sure if it will be easily possible to merge xvba and spotyxbmc. You may need to look for somebody with more knowledge regarding git merging/compiling. (http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid...pid1198059 this guy seems to have done it already, maybe you can get him to update his git repo to latest xbmc 13 alpha)

[raki]

Thanks again for your help. Right now I'm setting up everything for the upgrade in my htpc and also -in case I need to- compile everything. Since software development is not new to me I'm thinking about participate in the development (at least trying a bit ).

For VDR I'm going to use the aap repo (https://launchpad.net/~aap/+archive/vdr?). I think about creating my own repository on github, so I can try developing (for example if I try to merge the spotyxbmc in my current xbmc version). But which repo should I fork? Fernetmentas, Wolfgang Schupps or the original xbmc repo? As you know, I own an AMD APU, need stable timeshift. In addition to that I bought a Raspberry Pi which is used in my bed room and should use the main db from my htpc and also have stable timeshift.

Maybe you can give me a very short overview about the development "branches",etc. Since there aren't any descriptions for the different repos, it's even harder to get a clear view.

Are you on facebook or do you know somebody who could have the time for a little chat sometimes?

[ursli]

For AMD hardware you should def. use the fernetmenta repo since thats where the xvba branch is compiled from. xbmc is mainline xbmc branch so thats where everything comes together at some point. Not sure about Wolfgang Schupps, never had a closer look at that one.

I'm not using facebook, but why not use this forum it's here for questions and answers after all. Maybe somebody else can profit off of it too, you never know.

[wsnipex]

use fernetMentas master branch if you want to compile.

best place for chatting is on IRC. #xbmc and #xbmc-xvba on freenode.