New firmware VDR-NG-EM 0.7

Introduction
Spanish team have released a new version of our firmware with exciting novelties.

With large number of corrections made, it is even faster and includes new features like to record HD channels, DLNA and NFS servers to play remotely multimedia files (DivX/Xvid, JPG, MP3, ...) or VDR recordings from TV, PC or any device with a DLNA or NFS client.

For compatibility with other players, you can make recordings in MPEG-TS format including teletext and DVB subtitles (configurable) but at this time VDR player only works properly in normal mode (fast/slow forward and rewind do not work correctly), so we recommend only using it to record programs that are not going to see in VDR, such as HD or streaming.

There are some usability improvements as restructuring of menu, unifying timer and record interface and directories management, to select, create new, delete and edit when creating or editing data in a timer or record.

There is also a new version of web interface with enhancements and corrections, and allows CSS themes to change appearance.

Undoubtedly, it is a version that update technologically to M7x0.

Enjoy it.

Note: The aim of this version are spanish users and many texts are hardcoded in scripts and source code.
If you want help translating or reporting errors in other languages can send a message here.
We do not have M750S hardware, so that can not ensure that work on it (read this post in german for recover data in case of error).
This firmware is distributed without warranty of any kind.
You assume all responsibility for the use of it.

Download
Download Windows wizard to generate firmware VDR-NG-EM 0.7
Download extra plugins for firmware VDR-NG-EM 0.7
Download SAMBA server for firmware VDR-NG-EM 0.7

Manuals
Compilation in Linux (includes additional info about project) (only in English)
Firmware Installation (only in Spanish)
SAMBA configuration guide (only in Spanish)

What's new in VDR-NG-EM 0.7 revision 1227 (is SVN revision)
Changelist is so great that here only is shown the most significant improvements, but if anyone is interested in all the detailed changes can review Trac log here (descriptions only in Spanish).

Errors fixed in firmware
- In a few M7x0 could not set MAC in factory reset and network did not work.
- Script for format hard drives was using scientific format and with some amounts was incorrect, making impossible to format the disk.
- Various fixes in uClibc 0.9.30.3, including error with daylight saving time.

General
- Toolchain updated with binutils 2.22 and gcc 4.7.0 (using gmp 5.0.4, mpc 0.9 and mpfr 3.1.0 libraries) with LTO (Link Time Optimization) and Graphite (optimization loops) support (some programs in firmware use Graphite and some also LTO).
- Updated programs included in firmware: BusyBox 1.19.4, e2fsprogs 1.42.2, dropbear 2012.55 and vsftpd 2.3.5.
- Various optimizations to improve performance and reduce binaries size.
- Size of all binaries and libraries in firmware have been reduced considerably using "sstrip" tool.
- /etc directory is saved directly in JFFS2 and RootFS will have as little as possible to start (with configuration files to make factory reset), so first boot after installing the firmware will be faster.
- You can mount USB hard drives before running VDR (make sure that disks are mounted prior to export on NFS or DLNA servers and we can also save EPG on them).

Kernel
- Fixed small bug in LZO decompressor.
- Speed up LZO compressor and decompressor and therefore increase performance in JFFS2 (read is similar, but write is 17% faster).
- USB and network drivers are no longer modules to avoid problems discussed by some users in forum.
- Improve performance and reduce kernel size a bit allowing the compiler to optimize memset, memcpy and memcmp.
- Reduce kernel size disabling FPU emulator code.
- Reducing gzip level compression (from 5 to 3) of kernel in Pro version.

VDR
- Some backports from VDR 1.7.18.
- Record and play in MPEG-TS format including teletext and DVB subtitles.
- Added "vdron" tool to execute commands minutes before starting a timer, for example to turn on a NAS, update EPG, ...
- VDR close a few seconds faster.
- Unified interface for timers and records. "Blue" button is used to make changes in timer or recording selected and "Info" shows details of recordings and schedules.
- Manage directories selection, create new, delete and edit them to create/edit a timer or recording (directory structure is saved in /etc/vdr/folders.conf and will also be used by EPGSearch plugin to select directories).
- Show progress bar when we change sound volume and there is something in OSD.
- Updated parental control code (fixed some menus that were not properly controlled to lock with pin plugin).
- Added a new command (fix-vdr-groups) to properly regroup TV channels and radio in their respective groups in channels.conf.
- VDR was not turning off TV out by user inactivity.
- TV out only is activated if M7x0 is started by a user or is a reboot.
- When VDR is turned off, TV out is disabled (by pressing Power button or inactivity) but really stays on with background tasks (recording, editing, hot stand-by, ...) tuner with live TV shall be released with a dummy player.
- You can set if want to enable video output on startup when no signal yet.
- When we launched the cutter process in a record and VDR is editing another is added directly to queue.
- Set a higher value for default channel limit (EPG Channel Modes) and all passing this limit will use inverse mode.

Plugins
- Fix many bugs and add improvements identified by cppcheck in most plugins.
- Plugins updated: scheduler 0.1.5, pin 0.1.10 and EPGSearch 1.0.0.
- Added devstatus 0.4.1 plugin (show detailed information for each tuner).
- tinyxml used by setup plugin is updated to 2.6.1 and instead of using its implementation for strings, STL is used which is faster and waste less memory.
- In channelscan plugin now you can change channels type to search.
- cridplayer plugin did not erase files.
- teletext plugin could not find some pages.
- Now channelscan plugin set Pids for HD channels and Dolby Digital Plus.
- help plugin hung VDR by several memory leaks, performance is enhanced and shows a single text with scroll.
- setup plugin only allowed Germans characters to edit text and now should depend of language set on VDR.
- Improved default configuration for fepg plugin (PAL, set window to screen, horizontal columns and small font. Buttons: red for record, green page up, yellow and blue show details info).
- Disabled debugging on some plugins because it increases binaries size and log unnecessarily.

Pro version only (Network)
- Add NFS server in kernel space using UDP protocol.
- Added mediatomb 0.12.1 as DLNA server (using sqlite 3071000 and expat 2.0.1) with support to view VDR recordings.
- Optimize dropbear compilation parameters to reduce its size and speed up in symmetric ciphers and hash algorithms.
- Allow authentication in wget to run commands on routers and NAS.
- Reduce SAMBA binary size removing log and printer management.

Web interface (Pro version only)
- Several optimizations and bug fixes.
- Added support for CSS themes.
- Updated to Klone 2.4.0.
- Reduce binary size no incrusting unnecessary files and using OptiPNG + advpng + pngout to reduce the size of png files and YUI Compressor to reduce size of javascript and css files.

Firmware generator for Windows
- All binaries are recompiled with cygwin 1.7.11.
- JFFS2 image use rtime compressor (besides of LZO) to increase performance and reduce size.
- Reduce tainted drivers size removing unnecessary sections.
- The network parameters changed in generator were not established in firmware generated.
- You can set if want recordings names compatible with FAT32, if recordings hard drive is FAT32 or want to access them via SAMBA.
- wget binary without UPX compressor to avoid problems with antivirus.
- Verify maximum RootFS size permitted in M7x0 to avoid generating firmware erroneous.

Contributors
Thanks to people who have actively contributed in this release:
· Developers: atinar, bittor, Posix, Videre and zjuanma.
· Betatesters: axel2, gotarron, jb, pjllaneras, solrac and yeahhh.

bittor escribió:
For compatibility with other players, you can make recordings in MPEG-TS format including teletext and DVB subtitles (configurable) but at this time VDR player only works properly in normal mode (fast/slow forward and rewind do not work correctly), so we recommend only using it to record programs that are not going to see in VDR, such as HD or streaming.
[...]
VDR
- Some backports from VDR 1.7.18.
- Record and play in MPEG-TS format including teletext and DVB subtitles.

Is the TS-Recording format compatible to the new vdr recording format introduced in vdr 1.7.x ?

TS recording is in old format with .vdr extension and index.vdr, resume.vdr, ...
There are still restrictions as 255 files and 2 GB by file.

You can not play records from VDR 1.7.x in M7x0 and I think can not play recordings from M7x0 in VDR 1.7.x, although if you rename .vdr to .ts without a index file VDR 1.7.x should generate it and play it.

Now I am testing TS Play to use TS recordings from VDR-1.7.x with hybrid index file support, files of 1 TB and to 65535 files for TS record.
It is not very tested but seems to work, although I have not changed anything in TS player yet.

Here you can read the backports added.

Bittor, thx for quick reply.

It is possible to play m7x0 recordings with vdr 1.7.x, because 1.7.x can still play old pes recordings for compatibility reasons. I use vdr 1.7 on a pc in my living room.

I tried udo richters ts-play patch some times ago, but there are to much conflicts with o7o vdr, so I gave up.

I am *very* interested in having vdr 1.7.x recording support for my m7x0 boxes.

glotzi escribió:It is possible to play m7x0 recordings with vdr 1.7.x, because 1.7.x can still play old pes recordings for compatibility reasons. I use vdr 1.7 on a pc in my living room.

PES records from M7x0 are ok in VDR 1.7.x, but in this moment TS records from M7x0 will be detected as PES because use 001.vdr and index.vdr files and this is incorrect.
I was referring only to TS recordings, but if you rename extension and delete index file should work.

glotzi escribió:I am *very* interested in having vdr 1.7.x recording support for my m7x0 boxes.

85% is done, but I have to change some plugins as streamdev because do not compile with this patch.
I hope to have it complete and tested in 1 or 2 months, but I can not guarantee in this time that TS player work well in fast/slow-forward/rewind modes (at least now work still picture).

Hi,
after upgrade to 0.7 my box is not starting at all. Only LED is flashing, no menue no nothing is available. Factory Reset has been done after each flash.
I can flash back to 0.5 or the Original 2.1 without any problems, flashing the 0.7 version via wsw or ofi, I always have the same result :-(
Flashing does not show any errors at all.
I'm using the Windows Firmware Builder and I also created images with a current channel.conf, static IP-Adress and even with english language.
So far I had no success :-(
What else could I try ?

Thanks,

Rainer

Rainer

Firmware must be generated incorrectly, can you attach "firmware-builder.log" file from "firmware-builder.bat" directory?

Hi bittor,

nevermind, the problem was with my Virtual XP Workstation.
I compiled again on a different workstation and now everything is fine :-)
I'll test and see how everything is going....
Thanks,

Rainer

Hi biitor,

flashing wsw or ofi Firmware is working now and the Box is running fine so far.
One of my main reasons to switch to the new firmware is mediatomb. Is there,
besides the officlal doku, any doku specific to the M740 ?

Regards,

Rainer

Hi,

just one question: Why did you disable the bootmenu and how
can I get it back ?

Regards,

Rainer

Hi, RainerW.

Here nobody used it, so bittor removed it. Out of curiosity, what do you use it for?

(I'm not sure how to get it back, sorry).

Hi solrac,

it's sometimes very useful to start the system, without starting the vdr.
Then you can change certain settings etc. or try other things with the system
without the vdr running.......

Regards,

Rainer

Hi,

I'm missing 2 Plugins (fritzbox & nordlichtsepg)
I copied them from my 0.6 Version, however they do not work :-(
Where or how can I get them ?

Regards,

Rainer

Things not used here have been deleted in this version as bootmenu and some plugins.

If you want to add it, will have to compile firmware from Linux.

For plugins, you can copy it from unstable branch as commented here with extrecmenu using patch files and bootmenu can be added editing .config file, but you'll need to change startup script /etc/rc.local.
See changes made to delete bootmenu here and you have to do the opposite.

If you need assistance, ask.

RainerW escribió:
it's sometimes very useful to start the system, without starting the vdr.
Then you can change certain settings etc. or try other things with the system
without the vdr running.......

You can start and terminate vdr at will using the commands start-vdr and kill-vdr from a telnet session. I think this will be as useful to you as the previous bootmenu.

@videre
yes, you are right. Sometimes it's hard to get rid of old behaviors :-)
@bittor
thanx for the information. Unfortunately I don't have the time and the resource to build me a cross-compiler environment.
Anybody out there who has the time, the environment and the will to build nordlichtsepg,fritzbox and dvbmon for me ?

Thanx a lot,

Rainer

Thank you for your commitment. I would like to build me the firmware using the firmware-builders, but unfortunately I always get several error messages. See attached log file.
What do legal wrong?

Best regards,
Holger

arning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm4 as user.
warning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm5 as user.
warning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm6 as user.
warning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm7 as user.
warning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm8 as user.
warning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm9 as user.
warning:

RainerW escribió:thanx for the information. Unfortunately I don't have the time and the resource to build me a cross-compiler environment.
Anybody out there who has the time, the environment and the will to build nordlichtsepg,fritzbox and dvbmon for me ?

Here you have fritzbox and nordlichtsepg plugins for VDR-NG-EM 0.7 firmware.
dvbmon already is included in plugins pack here.

DVB-Terraner escribió:Thank you for your commitment. I would like to build me the firmware using the firmware-builders, but unfortunately I always get several error messages. See attached log file.
What do legal wrong?

I do not see attached log.

DVB-Terraner escribió:arning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm4 as user.
warning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm5 as user.
warning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm6 as user.
warning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm7 as user.
warning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm8 as user.
warning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm9 as user.
warning:

This is only a warning and there is no problem with it.

bittor escribió:

DVB-Terraner escribió:Thank you for your commitment. I would like to build me the firmware using the firmware-builders, but unfortunately I always get several error messages. See attached log file.
What do legal wrong?

I do not see attached log.

DVB-Terraner escribió:arning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm4 as user.
warning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm5 as user.
warning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm6 as user.
warning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm7 as user.
warning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm8 as user.
warning: cannot generate special file temp\unpacked_m740/dev/sdm9 as user.
warning:

This is only a warning and there is no problem with it.

The addition of the log file did not work for me (and my Spanish is zero)

The other error messages are similar ... So I will dare! ;-)

Thank you!
ciao

DVB-Terraner escribió:
The addition of the log file did not work for me (and my Spanish is zero)

If the problem is the forum interface language, you can change it in "Perfil (link bar on top) > Preferencias (tab) > Idioma del Foro (drop-down list) > Registrar (button)".

Gracias por la punta, ahora puedo ver el foro en alemán (con un poco de español)! ;-)
En cualquier caso, la instrucción era cambiar el idioma del foro genial!
[El traductor de Google ya es una gran ayuda]

English is easier but then!

Best regards,
Holger

PS: The file extension was not allowed! . log =>. txt

No problem, the firmware is successfully generated.

Hi bittor,

muchas gracias for the plugins ............,
but they do not work :-(

Código:


Jul  1 14:43:37 (none) user.info vdr: [176] loading plugin: /var/vdr/lib/libvdr-fritzbox.so.1.4.5
Jul  1 14:43:37 (none) user.err vdr: [176] ERROR: O7O Toolchain-Version mismatched
Jul  1 14:43:37 (none) user.info vdr: [176] loading plugin: /var/vdr/lib/libvdr-nordlichtsepg.so.1.4.5
Jul  1 14:43:37 (none) user.err vdr: [176] ERROR: O7O Toolchain-Version mismatched


Rainer

ops, a change in toolchain and plugins are incompatible.

can you try this new file with plugins?

Hola bittor,

sorry, but still the same error :-(

Rainer