| XMMS DVB Input Plugin V0.5.0
This package contains the source code for a XMMS input plugin that enables XMMS to directly play MPEG-1 Layer II audio streams received by a DVB-S PCI-Adapter compatible with the driver available from http://www.linuxtv.org/
At this point it is a rather basic piece of code, more or less a quick-and-dirty kinda hack of some code I had floating around. But it does the job I need it for, so for now it'll have to do.
Aside from the installed DVB driver the pluging uses libmp3lame, so LAME should be installed on your system. See http://lame.sourceforge.net/ for details.
To make it work, install the plugin and open a location in your XMMS with an URL of the following syntax:
dvb0://SA/11836H/27500/Auto/3001
or dvb0://SA/11836H/27500/Auto/SID=28120
where the individual components are:
'dvb' - indicating that the DVB plugin should be used to play
this address.
'0' - device number of the adapter to open.
'SA' - indicates a 'S'atellite URL and selects LNB 'A' using
DiSEqC. This will probably be replaced with a more
flexible DiSEqC implementation at some point, similar to
the one used in VDR.
'11836H' - the transponder frequency and polarization to use.
'27500' - the symbol rate of the transport stream.
'Auto' - FEC mode of the transport stream; in theory can be None,
1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8 or Auto. Leaving it at 'Auto'
should be just fine, though.
'3001' - PID of the audio stream to play. Can either be in
decimal or hexadecimal notation; in the latter case it
needs to be prefixed with '0x'
or alternatively
'SID=28120' - SID of the audio stream to play. As with the PID, it can
either be specified in decimal or hexadecimal notation.
So far, only the first audio stream is taken into
consideration. So if a service consists of more than one
audio stream, the remaining streams of the service can
only be referenced by specifying their PIDs.
If a service is referenced via SID, the plugin will
attempt to retrieve the service name from the SDT and
display it within XMMS. This process may take up to
several seconds.
| In order to create a channel list, simply put the URLs into a file and | load it into XMMS as a playlist (e.g. .m3u-file). Once you have | selected a service, its info will be updated and saved along with the | URL whenever you choose to save the playlist from XMMS. An example | of such a playlist is provided in the 'examples'-directory.
Aside from feeding the stream to XMMS the plugin can also record the original received MPEG-1 layer II stream while playing it. See the plugin's configuration dialog for details -- it should mostly be self-explanatory. Recording can be enabled/disabled while playing as well as changing the filename of the recording file. Optionally the plugin can automatically split the recording file at regular, configurable intervals. In this case the filename should contain a printf()-style format string that enables the plugin to insert a sequence number into the recording file's name.
From version 0.3.0, XMMS-DVB also provides the possibility for automatic splitting of the recording file by energy, i.e. a new file is started whenever the sound level drops below a configurable level for a configurable amount of time. In addition, a minimum length of the recording file can be specified to avoid fragmentation of the recording into too many files.
For this, the analysis of the audio data is suspended for a configurable number of seconds after a new recording file has been started. At this point the recorded file may be up to a second shorter than the specified duration though. I hope to fix this eventually.
Starting with version 0.4.0, audio is retrieved 'as such' from the DVB adapter. The advantage of this is that scrambled audio services will be handled correctly, given that an appropriate CAM and smart card are used for the service in question. Please, keep in mind that so far no specific CAM support is included with the plugin, so you cannot use the 'link layer' firmware for the adapter if you want to receive subscription services. You MUST use the 'icam' firmware instead!
In addition, I moved in some code I hacked up some time ago that extracts track information from the OpenTV stream of the 'MAD Music' channels offered by the greek Nova (NetMed) subscription service on Hotbird (13° east). Through this, XMMS will display the artist and title of the song currently playing while you listen to one of these channels. Note that most of these are, obviously, greek, so you need to select an appropriate (ISO 8859-7) font for XMMS for display.
| To enable this (which really only makes sense if you have a Nova | subscription and the appropriate CI-CAM) just check 'MADMusic | OpenTV Application' under "Information retrieval" in the options | dialog before you start listening to the service.
(On a side note: a split level of -42.8 dB with a duration of 360 ms seems to work just fine on these channels to get individual files for most songs played.)
| Version 0.5.0 introduces basic EPG support. So if a DVB service | provides EPG information, it can be retrieved and displayed by | XMMS. If you want EPG data displayed for the current broadcast | event, simply activate 'Electronic Program Guide' in the | "Information retrieval" section of the options dialog. This has | to be done before selecting a service.
For installation just make sure the prerequisites are met (see above) and do the usual configure/make/make install orgy. Configure should check for the presence of libmp3lame, but not the driver -- sorry, but I'm not exactly a big fan of the autoconf/automake stuff. But you never know, this might change someday ...
If you find the plugin useful, let me know. If you have some suggestions on how to improve it, let me know. Just don't count on my implementing anything in the blink of an eye -- unless of course you pay me for it.
If you find a bug, send me a detailed bug description, preferably on how to reliably reproduce it, and I will see what I can do to fix it.
Best regards,
Chris.