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vod vs. dvb-t

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 03:56
by multifake
Hi fellow VLC users,

after upgrading from a very old version (0.8.6a on Debian Etch) to something more recent (1.1.3 on Squeeze) it seems I'm facing a very different behaviour of VLM.

Before, it worked that way (I'm shortening to two channels here), despite possible mistakes:

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new DVB-T-Das-Erste vod setup DVB-T-Das-Erste input "dvb-t://" setup DVB-T-Das-Erste option dvb-inversion=2 setup DVB-T-Das-Erste option dvb-bandwidth=8 setup DVB-T-Das-Erste option dvb-fec=2 setup DVB-T-Das-Erste option dvb-fec=1 setup DVB-T-Das-Erste option dvb-modulation=16 setup DVB-T-Das-Erste option dvb-transmission=8 setup DVB-T-Das-Erste option dvb-guard=8 setup DVB-T-Das-Erste option dvb-hierarchy=-1 setup DVB-T-Das-Erste option program=14 setup DVB-T-Das-Erste option dvb-frequency=522000000 setup DVB-T-Das-Erste option dvb-srate=1401 setup DVB-T-Das-Erste enabled new DVB-T-EinsExtra vod setup DVB-T-EinsExtra input "dvb-t://" setup DVB-T-EinsExtra option dvb-inversion=2 setup DVB-T-EinsExtra option dvb-bandwidth=8 setup DVB-T-EinsExtra option dvb-fec=2 setup DVB-T-EinsExtra option dvb-fec=1 setup DVB-T-EinsExtra option dvb-modulation=16 setup DVB-T-EinsExtra option dvb-transmission=8 setup DVB-T-EinsExtra option dvb-guard=8 setup DVB-T-EinsExtra option dvb-hierarchy=-1 setup DVB-T-EinsExtra option program=15 setup DVB-T-EinsExtra option dvb-frequency=522000000 setup DVB-T-EinsExtra option dvb-srate=1501 setup DVB-T-EinsExtra enabled ...
These are my first two channels only, altogether there were about 30. When started with the according options (vlc -v 2 -I telnet --extraintf http --http-host 0.0.0.0:8080 --telnet-password abc123 --vlm-conf vlm.conf), it made VLC briefly scan all defined channels, and after about 1 min it was ready to respond to RTSP requests coming from a different computers VLC, used as client to watch TV.

With the new version this does not work any more. As I read in stdout and stderr, VLC gets stuck after tuning the first channel and keeps decoding or demuxing that one, dumping more or less continuous EPG data.

For reference, here my current config on Debian Squeeze. I'm using the same hardware, a Pinnacle 72e. I had to regenerate the configuration, because some channels have been reassigned, and in Squeeze, VLC requires a different calling scheme.

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new DVB-T-RTL-Television vod setup DVB-T-RTL-Television input "dvb://" setup DVB-T-RTL-Television option dvb-inversion=2 setup DVB-T-RTL-Television option dvb-bandwidth=8 setup DVB-T-RTL-Television option dvb-fec=2 setup DVB-T-RTL-Television option dvb-fec=1 setup DVB-T-RTL-Television option dvb-transmission=8 setup DVB-T-RTL-Television option dvb-guard=8 setup DVB-T-RTL-Television option dvb-hierarchy=-1 setup DVB-T-RTL-Television option dvb-frequency=506000000 setup DVB-T-RTL-Television option dvb-srate=27500000 setup DVB-T-RTL-Television option dvb-modulation=16 setup DVB-T-RTL-Television option ts-es-id-pid setup DVB-T-RTL-Television option programs=16405 setup DVB-T-RTL-Television enabled new DVB-T-RTL2 vod setup DVB-T-RTL2 input "dvb://" setup DVB-T-RTL2 option dvb-inversion=2 setup DVB-T-RTL2 option dvb-bandwidth=8 setup DVB-T-RTL2 option dvb-fec=2 setup DVB-T-RTL2 option dvb-fec=1 setup DVB-T-RTL2 option dvb-transmission=8 setup DVB-T-RTL2 option dvb-guard=8 setup DVB-T-RTL2 option dvb-hierarchy=-1 setup DVB-T-RTL2 option dvb-frequency=506000000 setup DVB-T-RTL2 option dvb-srate=27500000 setup DVB-T-RTL2 option dvb-modulation=16 setup DVB-T-RTL2 option ts-es-id-pid setup DVB-T-RTL2 option programs=16406 setup DVB-T-RTL2 enabled ...
When I start VLC with this configuration (vlc-wrapper -vv -I telnet --extraintf http --http-host 0.0.0.0:8080 --rtsp-host 0.0.0.0:8554 --telnet-password abc123 --vlm-conf vlm.conf) it never comes to tuning into the second defined channel - "DVB-T-RTL2" never shows up in stdin/stderr. The RTSP port is becoming available, but RTSP DESCRIBE gets a 404 response even for the first defined channel.

Any idea what's happening here? Can somebody confirm a change in the VOD behaviour? Maybe I should follow a different approach?

I'd really love to be able to migrate my network TV system and would therefore appreciate any hint. Thank you for reading, and maybe helping me.

Andreas

Re: vod vs. dvb-t

Posted: 11 Aug 2011 04:15
by multifake
two things to add:

a) It reminds me a bit of an attempt to combine vod with a multicast source and transcoding - it made VLC start transcoding from the beginning (I think) and never unsubscribed from the multicast subscription after initial channel setup. Without transcoding it did.

b) I wonder myself for what reason I ended up with a different srate value. I do not even properly understand that value. My approach was to convert an ordinary channel.conf file which should be appropriate for my region (Berlin) using a script. Can somebody tell me, which version looks more appropriate?