Hi,
I think it is a great feature that VDR will update channel parameters and add newly found channels automatically if UpdateChannels is set to value 5 in setup.conf.
But my impression is currently that VDR might fail to find new channels on a satellite transponder in the special situation that the transponder has changed it's broadcasting "method" from DVB-S to DVB-S2.
Of course, prior to changing the method, a transponder might be scraped from any channels so that there will be nothing on the transponder any more for a couple of days or weeks (this of course totally depends on the habits of the provider).
And this tackles another small problem: I think that VDR doesn't delete any channels from the channels.conf in any case. So outdated channels have to be removed manually. Has there been an attempt to offer a functionality that VDR makes a note of those channels that get the line "frontend timed out while tuning to channel X" in the syslog and offers those channels for manual deletion via the OSD in a special OSD page called "Outdated channels"?
My questions are based on the experience when two transponders switched from DVB-S to DVB-S2 in 2011: 1) On S28.2E the transponder containing the BBC HD channels did this. 2) On S19.2E the transponder now containing the Sonnenklar.HD TV did this.
In both cases VDR wasn't able to add the new DVB-S2 channels to the channels.conf automatically as long as not all predecessor channels had been manually removed from the channels.conf.
It would be nice if this could happen automatically and users could remove outdated channels from the channels.conf easily.
Regards, Henning
P.S.: My own special situation is that I use my VDR as a channel list provider for the Channelpedia project and I want to make it easier for me and other people to contribute their channel lists to this directory. (http://channelpedia.yavdr.com/)
Am 11.09.2011 11:37, schrieb Henning Pingel:
There's currently no 'official' method to track down channels that are no longer announced. There's a trick however: Modify your channels.conf so that all channel names start with [outdated], then start VDR and wait for a full transponder scan to finish. All existing channels will be renamed back to their proper names, and all remaining [outdated] channels can be dropped after some grace period.
I use a more advanced variant using a small patch and a plugin, both currently not publicly released: The patch tracks a 'last seen' timestamp to all channels, where 0 means 'not seen since VDR start'. A matching plugin holds a second channel list and periodically syncs with the regular channel list, with the additional info 'first seen' and 'last seen' tracked persistently across VDR sessions. Also, the plugin renames channels that are gone for some time so they can be identified and deleted.
This has however two downsides: First, a VDR that hasn't been running for some time will instantly mark all channels gone, and the same thing happens if a source is temporarily unavailable - for me, DVB-T is regularly not plugged, so all DVB-T channels are usually marked as gone.
Cheers,
Udo
Al 11/09/11 13:49, En/na Udo Richter ha escrit:
My actuator plugin has menu options to mark, unmark and delete marked channels. The idea is, you mark the channels, do a complete satellite scan, then delete the (still) marked channels. Even if I wrote that specifically to get rid of obsolete channels, I never use it, because there are some channels that are not advertised in the nit. As a result I now have a channel.conf with more that 7000 channels and most of the entries are rubbish.
Bye
Am Sonntag, den 11.09.2011, 14:32 +0200 schrieb Luca Olivetti luca@ventoso.org:
Hi,
Can actuator be used by people without a "motor" behind their dish?
Cheers, Henning
Al 13/09/11 11:09, En/na Henning Pingel ha escrit:
Can actuator be used by people without a "motor" behind their dish?
Yes, with the -s option it will just offer the channel scanning functionality.
Bye
Am Sonntag, den 11.09.2011, 13:49 +0200 schrieb Udo Richter udo_richter@gmx.de:
That sounds like a handy trick. I will try to use this as a workaround.
That sounds *very* interesting to me. If I can assist you in going public with this patch + plugin, please let me know. I currently don't see a reason to reset the timestamp to zero on VDR start, but I probably just don't get your concept yet.
More examples: Multiswitch/DiSEqC/cable malfunction.
It would potentially be possible to check a list of channels that are considered to be outdated against a web service like Channelpedia (as long as it offers many concurrent users to send in their own channel list at the same time - and Channelpedia doesn't do that yet...).
Thanks!
Cheers, Henning
Am 13.09.2011 11:03, schrieb Henning Pingel:
Minimal invasive. The patch has less than 2k size and adds 8 lines of code. For persistent storage it would need either a modification to channels.conf or a separate conf file. Thats why I moved all that to a plugin.
Maybe I'll polish and upload the code some time, but the next 3-4 weeks are blocked.
Cheers,
Udo
Hi,
Am 11.09.2011 11:37, schrieb Henning Pingel:
From VDR 1.7.20 announcement:
Regarding Sonnenklar.HD TV: it appeared automatically in my channels.conf without further modifications. I have developed this patch for 1.7.17 so I haven't modified my channels.conf by hand since then. In case this transponder change has happened since 1.7.17, it seems that VDR 1.7.20 should be able to add the new channel automatically.
Bye.
-
Henning Pingel -
Luca Olivetti -
Reinhard Nissl -
Udo Richter