[HOWTO] HDTV with Karmic Koala (Ubuntu 9.10) using VDR, Xine or Xineliboutput

Posted on by acme

Installation
Install these packages on the command line:

aptitude install libxine1 libxine1-bin libxine1-console libxine1-ffmpeg libxine1-misc-plugins libxine1-plugins libxine1-vdpau-plugins libxine1-x libxine1-xvdr libxineliboutput-sxfe vdr xine-ui xineliboutput-sxfe alsa-utils nvidia-190-libvdpau nvidia-glx-190 xorg

Decide now if you want to use the xine- or xineliboutput plugin. For xine install:

  • aptitude install vdr-plugin-xine

for the xineliboutput plugin do:

  • aptitude install vdr-plugin-xineliboutput

You can always reconsider and perform a aptitude remove vdr-plugin-xxx, if a method works better for you than the other. Both start methods are described below, so don’t worry.

But make sure, VDPAU support is really available, by performing this at the command line:

# xine --help | grep vdpau

You should get this line back with vdpau listed, if not something’s wrong.

vdpau dxr3 aadxr3 xv XDirectFB DirectFB opengl SyncFB xshm aa caca xxmc none sdl fb xvmc

Configuration
Both versions shown below requires a ~/.xine/setup adjustment. Check if these lines are present in this config file. Especially the engine.buffers.video_num_frames:22 is very important.

audio.device.alsa_front_device:default
video.processing.ffmpeg_thread_count:4
engine.buffers.video_num_frames:22
engine.performance.memcpy_method:sse

I also configure both methods in a way, you can use the client on a remote machine. Useful if your server hosts your DVB-S2 card, and your client is an other machine somewhere else in your house.
Here are the two methods:

  • vdr-plugin-xineliboutput
    • Perform an aptitude install vdr-plugin-xineliboutput.
    • modify /etc/vdr/plugins/plugin.xineliboutput.conf in a way it looks like this: 
      --local=none
--primary
--remote=0.0.0.0:37890

      Note: Everybody can connect.

    • Add this content into /etc/vdr/remote.conf, if you want to control your VDR client with your keyboard.
    • In /etc/vdr/svdrphosts.conf I do uncomment the last line (0.0.0.0/0), don’t know it it’s necessary, but everybody can connect, if this line is commented out. Undo this, if it works for you without this change, because it’s a security risk.
  • vdr-plugin-xine
    • Perform an aptitude install vdr-plugin-xine.
    • modify your /etc/vdr/plugins/plugin.xine.conf. It should only consist of
      -r -p
      The -p enables the remote network connection
    • You’ll need a keymap file in your ~/.xine directory, in order to use your keyboard to control VDR. If it conflicts with the default settings, you have to resolve it manually with the GUI Xine offers you for this purpose.

Read on the next page about Launching, Tips, Known Issues, etc.

Pages: 1 2 3 4

11 thoughts on “[HOWTO] HDTV with Karmic Koala (Ubuntu 9.10) using VDR, Xine or Xineliboutput”

  1. Hello acmelab68,
    Really nice Howto. I used it myself and it works great. Could you please refresh the Repositorys cause Hotzenplotz merged his Repositorys with the-vdr-team together these one are depreciated.

  3. Hello,

    I added each ppa you described, but I get always these messages:

    Konnte kein Paket finden, dessen Name oder Beschreibung auf »libxine1-vdpau-plugins« passt.
    Konnte kein Paket finden, dessen Name oder Beschreibung auf »nvidia-190-libvdpau« passt.
    Konnte kein Paket finden, dessen Name oder Beschreibung auf »libxine1-vdpau-plugins« passt.
    Konnte kein Paket finden, dessen Name oder Beschreibung auf »nvidia-190-libvdpau« passt.

    These packages couldn’t be found. What can I do?

  4. @herman
    1) You’ve got to use now the repo from the vdr-team, like Diable mentioned. Look up here the repo you are interested in: http://www.henningpingel.de/vdrstuff/vdr_trendy_features_matrix.html

    2) If you should decide to take https://launchpad.net/~the-vdr-team/+archive/vdr-ubuntu-karmic , then there won’t be libxine1 any longer. It’s libxine2. And libvdpau is 195+ meanwhile.

    Simply perform a
    aptitude search libxine
    aptitude search libvdpau

    and install the appropriate packages.

    Good Luck

  6. @herman
    you are right. One cannot mix the versions of libxine – but the dependencies should be resolved automatically – if I remember correctly.

  7. hi
    thanz for HOWTO
    I received this error
    Couldn’t find any package whose name or description matched “libxine1-vdpau-plugins”
    Couldn’t find any package whose name or description matched “libxine1-vdpau-plugins”
    which repo should I use?

  9. I’m using on Lucid this PPA-repo:
    deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/yavdr/testing-vdr/ubuntu lucid main
    and this is what dpkg -l | grep yavdr returns:

    root@server:~# dpkg -l | grep yavdr
ii  liblircclient-dev                    0.8.6-0yavdr6                                    infra-red remote control support - client library development fi
ii  liblircclient0                       0.8.6-0yavdr6                                    infra-red remote control support - client library
ii  libxine-dev                          1.2.0~hg20100615-0yavdr1                         the xine video player library, development packages
ii  libxine1-xvdr                        1.0.6+cvs20100602.1715-2yavdr1                   Xine input plugin for vdr-plugin-xineliboutput streams
ii  libxine2                             1.2.0~hg20100615-0yavdr1                         the xine video/media player library, binary files
ii  lirc                                 0.8.6-0yavdr6                                    infra-red remote control support
ii  vdr                                  1.7.14-8yavdr1                                   Video Disk Recorder for DVB cards
ii  vdr-dev                              1.7.14-8yavdr1                                   Video Disk Recorder for DVB cards
rc  vdr-plugin-burn                      0.1.0~pre22-ff1-11yavdr1                         Plugin for vdr that implements dvd conversion and writing
ii  vdr-plugin-femon                     1.7.7-3yavdr1                                    DVB frontend status monitor plugin for VDR
ii  vdr-plugin-fritzbox                  1.3.3-0yavdr1                                    VDR plugin to access certain functions of an AVM Fritz!Box
ii  vdr-plugin-skinenigmang              0.1.1-2yavdr1                                    Skin plugin for VDR
ii  vdr-plugin-skinsoppalusikka          1.7.1-3yavdr1                                    Skin plugin for vdr
ii  vdr-plugin-text2skin                 1.3.1-0yavdr1                                    Plugin to vdr that loads and views skins
rc  vdr-plugin-xine                      0.9.3-7yavdr1                                    Plugin for "software only" playback using xine
ii  vdr-plugin-xineliboutput             1.0.6+cvs20100602.1715-2yavdr1                   VDR plugin for Xine based sofdevice frontends
ii  vdr-plugin-yaepghd                   0.0.2~beta-1yavdr2                               Rewrite for Yaepg
ii  vdr-skin-anthra-1920-os              080510-0yavdr1                                   Anthra 1920-overscan Skin for VDR's text2skin plugin
ii  vdr-skin-blackandblue-os             0.0.1-2yavdr1                                    Black and Blue Overscan Skin for VDR's text2skin plugin
ii  vdradmin-am                          3.6.7-1yavdr2                                    Web-based administration tool for vdr
ii  xineliboutput-sxfe                   1.0.6+cvs20100602.1715-2yavdr1                   Remote X-Server frontend for vdr-plugin-xineliboutput

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