vdr-addon: Make DVBAPI command-line option "-B" accessible via OpenELEC gui

[Ra72xx]

I use vdr-addon (vdr/xvdr) as plugins to view TV with OpenELEC. TV card is a KNC One TV Station. This TV card (though "budget_av") also features a hardware CAM decryptor.

When using software CAM instead of the hardware CAM, OE's OSCAM plugin 3.0.2 is the last version I was able to use to decrypt channels. All later versions don't give errors, however descrambling fails completely.

Basically this looks like the issue described here (hardware CAM getting in the way of the software CAM): https://github.com/manio/vdr-plugin-dvbapi/issues/13

It would be great to get the switch for "forced softcam" into the OpenELEC gui configuration. Here is the relevant part from the DVBAPI-doc:

---

Some budget card drivers provide a CA device (eg: /dev/dvb/adapter0/ca0). This leads the plugin to detect the card as a full-featured one, thus disabling software CSA. You should use commandline option -B to force detection as a budget card in such a case. If you want to enable budget mode on adapter 0 and 1 you need to run vdr like this:

vdr -P"dvbapi -B0 -B1"

[stefansaraev]

can you try rebuilding vdr-addon with dvbapi updated ( see latest commits ) and see if it works ?

[Ra72xx]

I'll do so as soon as my HTPC is no longer occupied by "normal users" :) .

[Ra72xx]

I compiled OE again at the time of your comment. Unfortunately, oscam/vdr-addon still does not work, encrypted channels are not displayed. Reverting to oscam addon 3.0.2., which I keep safely around, reproducable gets oscam working again. However, there seems to be a lot of activity at the moment concerning vdr, as after this build there were more commits in the repo.

[stefansaraev]

which build of OE you are using? Ill build a vdr-addon for you

[Ra72xx]

I'm using a custom build for AMD LLano 64 bit (usually similar to Fusion builds).

[stefansaraev]

try this one: http://saraev.ca/service.multimedia.vdr-addon-3.0.4.zip (built for Fusion x86_64)

[Ra72xx]

Thanks for your efforts - unfortunately not (yet?) working:

vdr-addon 3.0.4 + oscam 3.0.6 = FTA OK, encrypted N/A I.e. the same effect as with stock config: vdr-addon 3.0.3 + any oscam > 3.0.2

vdr-addon <3.0.4 + oscam 3.0.2 = FTA OK, encrypted OK That's the config I have to use since about December '12, works flawlessly

Just for the record:

vdr-addon 3.0.4 + oscam 3.0.2 = FTA OK, encrypted N/A Very instable when switching to encrypted stations! That's a bit what I feared: My "antiquated" oscam version might get out of sync with recent vdr-addons?!

[stefansaraev]

ok, what happens if you change this in vdr.start

if [ "$ENABLE_SOFTCAM" == "true" ] ; then
  VDR_ARG="$VDR_ARG -P $SOFTCAM_PLUGIN"
fi

to

if [ "$ENABLE_SOFTCAM" == "true" ] ; then
  VDR_ARG="$VDR_ARG -P 'dvbapi -B0 -B1'"
fi

^^ try this with vdr 3.0.4 + latest oscam

EDIT: weird, I can't reproduce here.

EDIT2: or try this: http://saraev.ca/service.multimedia.vdr-addon-3.0.5.zip without modifying vdr.start

[stefansaraev]

have you tried 3.0.5 ?

[Ra72xx]

Sorry. I had no time to play around this weekend. Give me 24h more :-)

[stefansaraev]

sure ;)

[Ra72xx]

I did a quick test run with vdr-addon 3.0.5 and oscam 3.0.7 - and yes, descrambling worked again for me :-) !

I had no time for longer zapping- and stability-checks, but it looked good. Zapping time seemed slightly improved in comparison to my previous setup. might be imagination, however.

Thanks, hopefully that will be in master in soon! Was the change just the "forced budget-av detection" or more?

[stefansaraev]

that's great. thanks much and yes, it was just "always force softcsa". will be available in next vdr-addon (3.0.4 official, so you may have to downgrade and clear addon download cache if you want it autou-pdated)

about the stability. for me xvdr is a bit unstable and crashy, I would recommend vnsi

[Ra72xx]

Thanks for the quick fix.

As for xvdr/vnsi: For me atm xvdr seems to be more stable. And it has one great advantage: I can set audio to "prefer mp2 tracks". As my TV does only recognize mp2 tracks, this is the best setting for "casual" TV watching without turning on the AVR. xvnsi always seems to prefer ac3 tracks, which is awkward when zapping ;).

Am Montag, 18. Februar 2013, 01:29:38 schrieb Stefan Saraev:

that's great. thanks much and yes, it was just "always force softcsa". will be available in next vdr- addon (3.0.4 official, so you may have to downgrade and clear addon download cache if you want it autou-pdated) about the stability. for me xvdr is a bit unstable and crashy, I would recommend vnsi — Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub.

[Ra72xx]

Now that vdr-addon 3.0.4 has hit the repo, I tried the "official" vdr-addon with the fix included. Unfortunately, it is again not working! I also don't have an option in the addon settings for activating the softcam. Am I missing something?

[stefansaraev]

as I said, clear your package cache and re-install the addon:

find /storage/.xbmc/addons/packages/ -iname "*.zip" -exec rm -f {} \;

EDIT: and 3.0.4 is not in the repo yet. will be there in few hours

[Ra72xx]

Sorry to bring this up again, but is it possible that there is still no updated vdr-addon available? I still can get oscam only to work with your custom "3.0.5." vdr-version, the official 3.0.4-version in git master does not offer any additional options for dvbapi.

[stefansaraev]

b031e48 official 3.0.4 is 1:1 as my custom 3.0.5. no additional options are required for it to work, softcsa always forced. thats it.

EDIT: this (Fusion x86_64) and clear your package cache.

[Ra72xx]

That's strange as I just compiled OE, and reproducable the included 3.0.4 package does not descramble the channels, while an "update" to 3.0.5 all at once again enables me to view encrypted channels. Maybe the problem is with my compilation of OE, some old stuff lying around or so, I think I'll try with a clean git-clone this weekend.

[stefansaraev]

again, is this a "clean" install, and if no, do you clean up the package cache ?

[Ra72xx]

I regularly compile all of OE from git-master (updated by "git-pull") and update the resulting KERNEL and SYSTEM as by standard OE procedures. Then I clean the package cache as you described above, take vdr-addon and oscam, also compiled from git-master, and install these addons from ZIP. Then a restart of OE, as in my experience OE does not play well with updated pvr packages without a restart. According to package info, 3.0.4 is installed after that procedure, however, seemingly without your patch, as no encrypted channels are displayed. Update to 3.0.5 zip - everything works again. I only can imagine that my local git repo mirror has a strange inconsistency concerning the vdr-addon. Therefore I'll delete everything and start with a fresh clone of the repo... takes some time however. Thanks for your support.

[Ra72xx]

Got it working: Problem was that currently vdr-addon does not compile correctly as http://www.tntnet.org/download/cxxtools-2.1.1.tar.gz is not available. I got it working by manually downloading this file from another site. If this problem is permanently, you might consider getting cxxtools from a working download site within the OE build system.