VDR is quite a handy HTPC software, but comes with the worst documentation ever. Here is a quick guide:
Hardware:
- MSI K8MM-V Socket 754 micro-ATX motherboard
- AMD Athlon64 with silent Nexus fan
- ASUS S/PDIF bracket (modified to fit MSI motherboard)
- Terratec Cinergy 1200 DVB-C PCI card
- 200Gb Seagate SATA harddrive
- Aopen slim MicroATX case
- Actisys 220+ serial IrDA module
Software:
- Ubuntu Linux 5.10
- Kernel 2.6.14.3
- VDR 1.3.41 (developer version, but quite stable)
- LIRC 0.8.0
- Harman/Kardon AVR235 remote control.
VDR
First download, unpack and prepare VDR for plugin installation.
# wget ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/vdr-1.3.41.tar.bz2
# tar xfvj vdr-1.3.41.tar.bz2
# ln -s vdr-1.3.41 VDR
# mkdir /video
ffmpeg
Must compile from source, package will not do.
# apt-get install cvs g++ dvbutils
# cvs -z9 -d:pserver:
:/cvsroot/ffmpeg co ffmpeg
# cd ffmpeg
# ./configure –enable-shared \
–enable-pp \
–enable-gpl
# cd libavcodec/libpostproc
$ make
# mkdir -p /usr/local/include/postproc
# install -m 644 postprocess.h /usr/local/include/postproc/postprocess.h
# cp libpostproc.a /usr/local/lib
$ cd -
$ make
# make install
# ldconfig
DVB subtitles patch
Subtitles are quite commonly used in my country. You’ll need this plugin if you wish to see “real” DVB subtitles. Note that this plugin will not be neccessary for subtitles that are “burned” into the video stream.
$ wget http://virtanen.org/vdr/subtitles/files/vdr-subtitles-0.3.10.tgz
$ tar xfvz vdr-subtitles-0.3.10.tgz
$ ln -s subtitles-0.3.10 subtitles
$ cd /usr/local/VDR
$ patch -p1 < PLUGINS/src/subtitles/DVBsubs.patch
softdevice
softdevice is needed for output in X. I need this, because my card is a so called “budget” card, without hardware MPEG decoding.
$ wget http://download.berlios.de/softdevice/vdr-softdevice-0.2.1.tgz
$ tar xfvz vdr-softdevice-0.2.1.tgz
$ ln -s softdevice-0.2.1 softdevice
$ cd softdevice
On AMD64 you need to add -fPIC to CXXFLAGS in the Makefile, cannot compile otherwise.
SC & FFdeCSA
DISCLAIMER: This is here for educational purposes only. De-scrambling transmissions using software may be illegal in your country.
And no, I will not tell you “where to get keyfiles”.
$ cd /usr/local/VDR/PLUGINS/src
$ tar xfvz sc-0.5.4.tar.gz
$ ln -s sc-0.5.4 sc
$ cd /usr/local/VDR
$ patch -p1 < PLUGINS/src/sc/patches/vdr-1.3.38-ffdecsa-0.1.3.diff
$ patch -p1 < PLUGINS/src/sc/patches/vdr-1.3.38.diff
$ cd /usr/local/VDR
Edit Makefile where it says FFdeCSA, change from:
CPUOPT ?= pentium PARALLEL ?= PARALLEL_32_INT
to:
CPUOPT ?= athlon64 PARALLEL ?= PARALLEL_128_SSE
VDR cont.
Let’s compile VDR along with the plugins.
$ make
$ make plugins NAGRA=1 SECA=1 CONAX=1 SHL=1 VIACCESS=1
LIRC
Compile lirc as in the documentation.
Copy the following script to /etc/init.d/, chmod it +x and symlink it to /etc/rc2.d/S01lirc.
NOTE: on my system /dev/lirc0 was created instead of /dev/lirc.
Testing
Let’s fire it up! Open a console in X and type:
$ ./vdr -P”softdevice -vo xv:full” -P subtitles -P sc –lirc=/dev/lircd
LANG is needed because Ubuntu is UTF-8, and VDR doesn’t (yet) like UTF very much.