DvbViewer Pro (All versions)

DVBViewer Pro 6.1.5

Change Log DVBViewer Pro 6.1.5

• Added: Picture in Picture: New items in the PiP context menu:
• Favorite Plus/Minus: Switches PiP playback to the next / previous favorite that is available for PiP. The items are only visible if favorites are configured.
• Channel List: Opens/closes the channel list window or puts it to the front in full screen mode. The window allows to select the channel for PiP playback by right-clicking it and selecting “Picture in Picture” in the context menu (provided there is a tuner available for additionally playing the channel).
• Show in a Separate Window: Switches PiP display to a separate (independent) video window or back to the window embedded in the DVBViewer main window. The separate window can be moved freely to any screen position. Since it redirects keyboard input to the main window, PiP can be controlled as usual with the OSD, particularly with the OSD context menu that appears after pressing OSD Blue (by default F8).
• Full Screen: This item is only available in “separate window” state. The command switches PiP to full screen or back to window mode. The same can be achieved by double-clicking the PiP area. When changing to full screen mode, PiP audio playback is automatically switched on and main window audio playback off. This can be toggled at any time by using the “Picture in Picture Audio on/off” context menu item or clicking the PiP area with the middle mouse button.
• Change: Picture in Picture: Faster channel swapping between Picture in Picture and the Main Window by avoiding unnecessary device deallocation and reallocation if different devices are used. The Channel Plus/Minus items of the OSD context menu for PiP now respond to the “Favorites based OSD navigation” tweak (see Tweaker.exe) by changing to Favorite Plus/Minus.
• Fix: Picture in Picture Options: PiP playback was not rebuilt after a change in the PiP options (e.g. a different decoder). In a new DVBViewer installation PiP used the wrong video renderer as default, though the PiP options displayed the correct one as selected, causing no picture under Windows 10.
• Added: Channel Editor: Picture in Picture tool button and context menu item that plays the selected channel as Picture in Picture. The function is disabled if there is no tuner available for (additionally) playing the channel.
• Fix: Recorder: When recording in MPG format a flag in the video header (sequence parameter set) was changed erroneously, particularly affecting video editing software (see here).
• Fix: Recording Timers: Timers with weekly repetitions for programs that start at or a short time after midnight with a lead time extending into the previous day were not handled correctly and not displayed in the EPG as already scheduled.
• Change: Timer Recordings: DVBViewer omits a forced channel switching caused by a starting timer recording for which the tuner is needed, if timeshift is active and the playback position is in the past (also in pause mode). Although Timeshift recording has to be stopped, the timeshift file is kept, so that timeshift playback can continue. This also applies, if DVBViewer is configured as Media Server client and the server can't deliver the current channel anymore due to a starting timer recording.
• Fix: Media Server Client: If timers were delegated to the Media Server, editing them always let the selection jump to the last added timer in the Timer Recordings window instead of keeping it. Options → DVBViewer Media Server → Download channel logos from the server did not work with logo filenames containing blanks (see here).
• Added: RTSP Client: Automatic port detection if Tvheadend as server uses the non-standard port 9983 for RTSP, because port 554 is not available due to missing Linux root rights. Additionally DVBViewer tries the alternative RTSP standard port 8554, if the “Automatic RTSP server IP:Port correction” tweak is switched on and the configured server is unreachable via the RTSP standard port 554.
• Added: Hardware Options: “Scan Sat>IP Servers” button. It lets DVBViewer search for Sat>IP (RTSP) servers in the home network and automatically insert RTSP network device entries for all tuners (DVB-S/T/C) reported by the server at the top of the device list. Please note that this button is disabled if DVBViewer is configured as Media Server client (see Options → DVBViewer Media Server). In this case the search should be performed in the Hardware Options of the associated Media Server, followed by Help → Media Server Wizard in the DVBViewer client for updating the RTSP network devices, if necessary.
• Change: Hardware Options: Selecting a server in the RTSP Sat>IP settings dialog automatically sets the tuner type to a type offered by the server, if the information is available. Previously it was always set to “Satellite” as default for newly added devices.
• Change: Hardware Options: The “Status” drop-down list (previously offering “Do not use” and “Normal”) has been replaced by a simple “Use device” checkbox below the device list.
• Fix: Hardware Options: After hardware configuration changes DVBViewer did not recalculate if timers can be executed.
• Change: Media Server Wizard: The Wizard does not delete RTSP devices from the device list entries anymore that belong to other Sat>IP servers than the associated DVBViewer Media Server, but only disables them by switching “Use Device” off.
• Added: Main Window: Help → Change Log menu item that displays the DVBViewer change log in the browser. It contains hints for new or changed functions. By using the search function of the browser (Ctrl + F) you can find topics that you are interested in.
• Fix/Change: Recording/Device Statistics Window: Some adjustments on the Device Status tab (automatic adjustment of the column width to the window width, useless device status display removed, the device list did not respond to auto-creation of a new TS Stream device).
• Change: Channel List / Playlist: Enhanced handling of M3U import if additional information preceding the channel name in #EXTINF tags contains commas. Now DVBViewer assumes that the channel name begins after the first comma outside of double quotes.

DVBViewer Pro 6.1.6

Added: Subtitle Options: Checkbox “Use teletext font for teletext, ATSC and ISDB subtitles” (default unchecked). If switched on, DVBViewer uses the (usually mono-spaced) font specified on the Teletext Options page for the mentioned subtitle types, which are typically output in a grid with fixed character positions. If switched off, DVBViewer uses the font selected on the Subtitle Options page and particularly displays teletext subtitles with variable spacing in case of a proportional font, thus enhancing the appearance and readability. However, not aligning the output to the teletext character grid may also have disadvantages (see here).

Added: Subtitle Options: Settings for adjusting the synchronization of subtitles with video. The value in the delay input line lets the subtitles appear x milliseconds later, or earlier in case of a negative delay. Checkboxes allow to separately switch the delay on and off for different subtitle types. A change takes effect immediately, but is reset on channel switching, stopping the video or if the Options Window is closed, unless clicking Apply makes it permanent.

Removed: Subtitle Options: Checkboxes in the Appearance section for switching shadow, outline and background transparency off. This can as well be achieved by moving the sliders to their leftmost position.

Removed: Teletext Options: Sliders for adjusting background transparency and outline of teletext subtitles. The functionality is now covered by correspondent sliders on the Subtitle Options page.

Fix: Hardware Options: Updated device list entries were not marked as available after “Scan Devices”, causing tuners, that were displayed in red due to a wrong device name, to remain red, though the name was corrected. “Scan Devices” did not add the SRx1000 entry (read from an updated hardware database) to an already existing DVB-C tuner in the file hardware.xml.

Added: Hardware Options: The TS Stream device settings dialog contains a new input line “Replace in URL”, allowing to vary the processed URL per device. It applies to HLS, internet radio and transport streams wrapped in HTTP(S). The syntax is [placeholder]=[device specific string], e.g. @@=usernameassword. A use case is described here (IPTV provider requiring x different accounts for receiving x streams simultaneously).

Fix: Hardware: If TBS 5520/5580 multistandard devices were configured and used for ISDB-T reception, DVBViewer switched the tuners to DVB-T mode on tuning (see here).

Fix: EPG: The erroneous “\n” inserted by some Austrian providers as line break indicator is now automatically replaced by a DVB compliant line break on EPG data reception.

Change: EPG: Auto-detection of the ISO 6937 and ISO 8859-2 character sets for some East European countries (particularly Poland, Romania, Hungary) where providers indicated them wrongly in the past years. DVBViewer now first assumes ISO 6937 and then tries to find a proof for ISO-8859-2 (previously the other way round). This handles true ISO 6937 always correctly, but may fail in certain cases where ISO-8859-2 is used with missing indication (see here).

Fix: EPG Window: When opened for the first time between 00:00 and 00:15 o'clock, the timeline showed an empty EPG for Saturday, 30 December 1899 (see here).

Fix: Channel Editor: Issues when using the New button while an audio sub-node is selected or after it was selected. The input form was not adjusted to the parent reception type or controls remained deactivated though a category was selected subsequently.

Added: TS Stream: Support for channels broadcasting via internet in HLS format with audio tracks provided as separate streams.

Added: TS Stream: Tweak “Receive all audio tracks of HLS streams” (→ launch Tweaker.exe). If switched on DVBViewer fetches all available audio tracks of HLS streams from the server, thus occupying more bandwidth. If switched off only the main audio track (marked as default by the provider) is fetched.

Fix: DVD Playback: Resuming playback at the last position could fail due to potential timing issues when retrieving the Disc ID.

Fix: Recorder. Lazy program response caused by uselessly repeated tune attempts once per second in case of a whole transponder recording, if the allocated device was not usable for this purpose. This particularly applied to all RTSP network devices, that by default are not configured for delivering a whole transponder. DVBViewer did not realize this until tuning was performed. Now only devices are allocated for such recordings, that either deliver the whole transponder anyway (most BDA devices) or can automatically be configured for it (unused RTSP network devices). However, whole transponder recording with RTSP devices may still be hindered by servers that do not support the pids=all parameter or by insufficient network bandwidth.

Fix: Main Window: Horizontal resizing of the Radio Window did not work correctly, if the mode was selected manually in the View menu (not by Options → TV/Radio → Auto-switch to TV/Radio Window.... ).

Added: Zoom Presets: Tweak “Number of zoom presets” (→ launch Tweaker.exe). It can be used to change the number of zoom presets. Four presets are set up by default. The Preset #x button in the Settings -> Zoom window or the "Zoom Next Preset" action switch over to the next preset.

Fix: HbbTV: Issues with Swiss HbbTV (see here) and other channels using erroneous JavaScript or broadcasting a HbbTV Application Information Table (AIT) with more than one section (particularly“Das Erste” in Germany).

Fix: HbbTV: If the tweak “Use browser cache for HbbTV” (see Tweaker.exe) was switched off, DVBViewer failed to clear the HbbTV cache completely, because files were still in use. Clearing the cache is now done right after DVBViewer start.

Fix: Component Downloader: Bug causing error code 406 in the server response on DVBViewer installation and when using the downloader separately.

DVBViewer Pro 6.1.6.1 (Hotfix Release)

Fix: Component Downloader: The bug causing error code 406 was still present due to a wrong file version in the 6.1.6 setup.

Fix: TS Stream: In case of channels broadcasting via internet in HLS format with separate audio streams audio was not played correctly under certain timing conditions.

Fix: TS Stream: The host field in the HTTP header was not set correctly, possibly causing an error message from the server.

DVBViewer 7.0.0

Change Log DVBViewer Pro 7.0.0

Overview

Please note: DVBViewer Pro 7.x contains major changes. If DVBViewer is associated with a DVBViewer Media Server (full or basic version), it should be updated to version 3.x, because there may be compatibility issues with older Media Server 2.x versions. “Associated” means in this context, that Options → DVBViewer Media Server → Enable support for the DVBViewer Media Server is switched on and the Media Server in question is selected on this page.

A brief overview of the main changes:

Streaming: MPEG Dash is supported as new streaming format. The support for HLS has been enhanced, particularly the playback of files that are provided as HLS stream.

Channel List: All kinds of media streams and files can now be included in the channel and favorites list, thus giving it playlist functionality.

Recording has generally been reworked and harmonized with the DVBViewer Media Server, plus several functional and UI enhancements. More settings can now be set up individually per timer in the Timer Recordings window. The recorder engine enables the download of files from streaming sources (e.g. HbbTV) and storing them as recording, by just clicking the Record button.

Timeshift has been redesigned completely. Timeshift recordings are now performed by the recorder engine, not by the playback engine anymore, which involves several enhancements. If you decide to keep a timeshift file, it gets fully integrated as recording. Ongoing recordings are automatically used for timeshift. Multi-timeshift enables switching between two or more channels with timeshifted playback.

Media Server Support: Particularly the cooperation with a DVBViewer Media Server as background recording engine has been elaborated further and harmonized in several respects.

Keyboard / Remote Control: The Options → Input page has been reworked, particularly for making it more convenient and self-explanatory. It provides extended facilities for organizing the assignment of keys to DVBViewer functions.

Option pages have partly been moved to another tree view position, renamed, redesigned or merged, in order to achieve a more reasonable and understandable structure.

Streaming

Added: TS Stream: Support for the streaming format MPEG Dash. Usually the URLs have the filename extension .mpd and refer to an XML manifest. The general handling is similar to HLS. MPD URLs for Dash streams can be used in Playback → Open URL, in the playlist and channel list. Additionally they may be selectable on HbbTV pages (requires HbbTV add-on). Please note the following limitations:

Supported codecs are H.264 and HEVC video and AAC, AC3 and EAC3 audio.

The only supported container format is the mostly used segmented MP4 base media format (which is internally transcoded to TS). Some rarely used MPEG Dash options are not supported.

The current implementation does not support playing encrypted / DRM-protected streams.

Added: TS Stream: Support for HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) with

AC3 and EAC3 audio (previously only MP3 and AAC).

segments in MP4 base media format (previously only segmented transport and audio elementary streams). DVBViewer internally converts it to a transport stream.

master playlists that offer streams with different video/audio formats (e.g. H.264 and HEVC). The desired format can be selected by appending ?codec=… to the URL (or &codec=… if there is already a query part). The codec selection is not sent to the server, but processed and removed by DVBViewer. The specified codec must be a sub-string of (or equal) the CODECS attribute in the master playlist, e.g. codec=avc1

Added: File Playback: Files provided by the server as HLS or MPEG Dash stream can now be played as files by using the DVBViewer Filter, including support for jumping to another position. All HLS/Dash URLs originating from Playback → Open URL or the Playlist are handled in this way. If they are actually live streams, jumping is disabled. HLS/Dash URLs from the channel list are only played as file, if “Play as file” is checked in the Channel Editor.

Added: Playback Components Options (former DirectX options): Two additional checkboxes on the DVBViewer Filter tab: Use DVBViewer Filter for *.m3u8 (HLS) and *.mpd (MPEG Dash). They specify whether the DVBViewer Filter shall be used for HLS / MPEG Dash file playback or a third party source filter, provided a suitable component is registered in the system. HLS can also be played with the LAV source filter, if installed. However, no alternative is currently known for MPEG Dash.

Change: File Playback: DVBViewer can now play files with HTTPS URLs by using the DVBViewer Filter, even if the server uses a self-signed certificate or a certificate with unknown issuer. Previously playback failed in this case due to the underlying WinInet API, so that the LAV Source Filter had to be used as fallback.

Channel List

Added: Channel Editor: Possibility to include all kinds of media streams and files in the channel list and start playback from there (previously only live streams belonging to the TS Stream type). The Channel Editor enables it in the following ways:

Drag and drop media files and folders from the explorer into the Channel Editor. Multi-selection is supported. Only media files are added (see Options → Movies/Music/Images for media file extensions). The drive letter is used as root folder name and the directory name as category.

Select media files in the Import Dialog (after switching to the “All Files” type).

Add a single item by clicking New → Stream. Enter the URL or file path in the Address input line and the stream name in the Name input line. Finally click the Add button. You can preselect the position where the new item shall be inserted by first selecting an existing category folder or channel list item.

Such items can also be included in the favorites. Channel +/- or Favorite +/- can be used to switch between them, and DVBViewer stores them as “Last Channel”. However, using the number or up/down keys for switching is not possible, because they have another function for file playback. Please note that there are drawbacks due to the channel list file format. Names may get shortened after restarting DVBViewer. Furthermore items with Unicode characters that are missing in the local character set are not handled correctly.

Added: Channel Editor: Checkbox “Play as file” on the Channel/Stream Data page for (TS) Stream items. It decides which internal DVBViewer branch takes over playback:

If “Play as file” is unchecked, the TS Stream branch intended for live streams is used. It only covers transport streams (TS) and streams that DVBViewer can convert to a transport stream (like MP3/AAC audio or MPEG Dash). Seeking/jumping is disabled.

If “Play as file” is checked, the file playback engine is used. However, it can also handle some live stream formats, that are not covered by the TS Stream branch, particularly if the LAV Filters are installed. If the source has a finite length, seeking/jumping is enabled, otherwise disabled.

In many cases DVBViewer recognizes the type automatically and sets/resets the “Play as file” checkmark accordingly. If an item is clearly not playable with the TS Stream branch, the checkbox is checked and disabled. However, in some cases DVBViewer cannot distinguish “live” and “file” by examining the URL (without asking the server), so a manual adjustment may be necessary. This particularly applies to URLs for MP3, AAC, TS, HLS or MPEG Dash Streams.

Added: Channel List: New “Playlist Settings” sub-menu in the context menu of all channel list representations (except OSD and Channel Editor), including the Popup Channel List and the Channel Lists in the EPG and Timer Recordings window. The sub-menu contains the following items:

Playlist Mode: Switches the mode on/off. In playlist mode file entries in the channel list are played consecutively. When playback of a file is finished, DVBViewer automatically switches to the next one. It skips all channels and streams that are not recognized as file or not marked with “play as file” in the Channel Editor (see above).

Endless Playback: Switches endless mode on/off. In endless mode DVBViewer continues with the first file entry after the last has been played.

Across Categories: If switched off, DVBViewer regards each category as a separate playlist. It stops playback if the last file entry in the current category has been played, or continues with the first entry within the category in endless mode. If “Across Categories” is switched on, DVBViewer regards all file entries in the channel list as a single playlist.

Added: Channel List: “Only File Entries” item in the Filter sub-menu of the context menu. It activates/deactivates a filter for only showing file entries in the channel list. Since file entries don't contain video/audio format information, the H.264/HEVC and AC3 filter options are ignored in this case.

Recording

Change: Main Window: The red record button now also signals an ongoing timer recording of the currently played channel by changing its color to blue-gray (previously only in case of manual instant recordings). By this the record menu, that appears after clicking the blue-gray button, is also applicable to timer recordings. If there are two or more ongoing recordings of the channel, an additional submenu level allows to select the recording that shall be targeted by commands like “Stop” or “Delete”. Please note that in two cases the end time of ongoing recordings cannot be changed via the record menu (e.g. by “Stop in 30 Minutes”):

Timer recording with weekly repetition on certain days, because it would affect all future recordings triggered by this timer.

Timer recordings that are stopped in the Media Server by the EPG status.

Added: Main Window: Tweak “Record button only for instant recordings” (→ launch Tweaker.exe). Switching it on lets the record button behave like in previous DVBViewer versions, so that the button and associated menus in the main window only respond to ongoing (manual) instant recordings, not to timer recordings. The default is off. Please note that the action “Record” (by default assigned to the R key) always refers to instant recordings, independently from the tweak. This enables to start instant recordings, even if a timer recording of the currently played channel is already going on. If an instant recording is going on, the action opens the OSD record menu.

Change: Recording Options: The elements on the “Recordings” and “Recording Timers” pages (former “Recorder” and “Recordings”) have been re-sorted:

The Recordings page contains settings that are applied to recordings when they are started by DVBViewer (not by the Media Server, that uses its own set of corresponding settings).

The Recording Timers page contains settings that serve as default for recordings that are executed by DVBViewer or delegated to the Media Server. The settings can be changed individually per timer in the Timer Recordings window (see below).

Added: Recording Timers Options: New Placeholders button. It opens a tool window that enumerates all placeholders that can be used in the File Naming Scheme. Double-clicking a placeholder or selecting it and pressing the Return key inserts it at the current position in the input line.

Added: Timer Recordings Window: Possibility to adjust the recording format, the included streams and the file naming scheme individually per timer. This entails several internal adjustments. The file timers.xml has a new forwards and backwards compatible hybrid format. Besides timer data in the previous format the same data plus additional fields is written in a more flexible format close to the one used by the DVBViewer Media Server in its svctimers.xml. This avoids weak points of the old format. Now semicolons can be used in the timer name/description, semicolons in channel names do not corrupt timer data anymore.

Change: Timer Recordings Window: Deactivated timers (without checkmark) are now displayed grayed (previously in italics). If “Send timers to the server” is configured, remaining DVBViewer timers are displayed in italics. Additionally the hint for such timer list entries contains “DVBViewer Recording!” (previously no indication).

Change: Timer Recording Window: The tuner type icons in the timer list now also indicate with a small yellow key if the to be recorded channel is encrypted. If no channel can be assigned to the timer, so that DVBViewer cannot execute the recording, the icon is replaced by a red cross. However, this does not apply to timers that are delegated to the Media Server, because DVBViewer does not know whether the server can assign a channel (its channel list may be different).

Fix: Timer Recording Window: The timer list now displays a channel name, even if no channel can be assigned to a timer, since the name can also be taken from the timer's channel ID. Additionally the timer can now be edited in case of a missing channel assignment (previously the Apply button was disabled).This particularly applies to Media Server timers for which no matching channel is present in the DVBViewer channel list.

Added: Recording Statistics Window: Bottom panel buttons for stopping, deleting and playing recordings. Previously the commands were only available in the context menu. The Title column of the Recordings tab shows the EPG title plus the EPG subheading (if present) separated by a hyphen (previously only the title). The list views on the Recording Status and Recordings tab now show entries as hints on mouse over if they exceed the column width.

Added: Recorder: If the currently played file is referenced by an URL and not located on the local hard disk, it can be downloaded by clicking the red record button. This particularly applies to HbbTV videos from media libraries (HbbTV add-on required). Basically DVBViewer handles the download like a normal recording:

The progress can be viewed in the Recording Statistics Window.

The file is named according to the user defined scheme (as far as possible without EPG) and stored in a recording directory

The download is included in the recording database and listed as recording.

Since the download is performed independently from playback, it will usually be finished before playback is completed. The feature also applies to files that have been added as channel list entries (see “Channel List” section). This allows to schedule the download by creating a timer recording. It stops when the download is finished, or at the latest when the end time is reached.

Fix/Change: Recorder: Henceforth DVBViewer will log recordings in the file rec.log (no more in svcrec.log), in order to avoid access clashes with the Media Server.

Change: Recorder: The “Delete and Restart” command, available in the he context menu on the Recording Status tab of the Recording Statistics windows and in the Record Menu of the Main Window, now shifts the start time of the restarted recording to “Now” (except in case of timers with weekly repetition), but keeps the duration. Previously the end time was not shifted accordingly, thus shortening the restarted recording.

Change: Recorder: Enhanced synchronization between the channel and timer list. Every relevant change in the channel list (e.g. renaming of a channel) immediately updates the assignment of channels to timers. Deleting channels from the channel list lets the timer list create a temporary copy of the channel data, so that the timers can still be executed until DVBViewer is closed. Adding channels lets the timer list check if lost links can be restored. This avoids wrong channel assignments and drifting apart of timers and corresponding channel list entries.

Change: Recorder: If Options → DVBViewer Media Server → Send timers to the server is switched on, as well as Options → Recorder → Use Windows Task Scheduler, DVBViewer timers, that are executed by DVBViewer, are still synchronized with the Windows Task Scheduler. Previously any synchronization was prevented by the “Send timers to the server” option.

Timeshift

Change: Timeshift: The handling of timeshift recordings has been reworked and changed completely:

Timeshift recordings are now performed by the recorder engine, not by the playback unit anymore. The settings on Options → Recordings / Recording Timers apply to it, except the recording format, that is always TS, because it is required for the “recording from timeshift buffer” feature.

“Rebuild Playback” does not cancel timeshift recording and playback anymore. The same applies to switching to another audio track, if Options → Recording Timers → Include All Audio Tracks is ticked. After the action playback is continued at the position where it has been stopped.

After changing to a currently recorded channel or when a recording of this channel starts, DVBViewer automatically uses the file for timeshift, allowing to jump back in time. This also applies to recordings with MPG or MP2, AC3 etc. as format. Using recordings for timeshift can be limited or switched off by the tweak “Use ongoing recordings for timeshift” (→ launch Tweaker.exe): 0 = don't use recordings, 1 = only timer recordings, 2 = only manual (instant) recordings, 3 = all recordings.

When switching away from such a persistently recorded channel, DVBViewer saves the current (timeshift) playback position and restores it when returning to this channel. This enables switching between two or more channels with time-shifted playback (multi-timeshift), provided enough tuners are available for receiving the channels simultaneously.

TV/Radio → Keep Timeshift File is no general permanent setting anymore, but specifies the recording status of the currently played channel. The menu item is disabled if no recording of the channel is going on. It is checked in case of a normal (persistent) recording and unchecked in case of a volatile timeshift recording, that is deleted automatically when not needed anymore. Clicking “Keep Timeshift File” changes the recording status from volatile to persistent and vice versa. DVBViewer prompts for confirmation when “Keep Timeshift File” is switched off.

Volatile timeshift recordings are not signaled as recordings. REC indicators are not visible and the record button remains red, so that recordings from the timeshift buffer can be started. Furthermore volatile timeshift recordings are not included in the recording database, so they don't appear in the list of recordings, unless “Keep Timeshift File” is switched on before they are deleted. However, timeshift recordings are listed in the Timer Recordings window and on the Recording Status tab of the Recording Statistics window (similar to manually started instant recordings), where they can be controlled by using context menu commands. In contrast to persistent recordings they are displayed in blue, not in black.

The Options → Timeshift page has been removed. Two settings have been moved to the TV/Radio page (start timeshift automatically, warning on timeshift termination), other settings are now covered by the Recordings and Recording Timers page. The Directories section provides a new checkbox “Use for timeshift”, allowing to direct timeshift recordings to the selected recording directory. If no directory is assigned to timeshift, DVBViewer takes the first usable directory from the top for it.

If DVBViewer is configured as client of a DVBViewer Media Server on the same PC and Options → DVBViewer Media Server → “Send timers to the server” is switched on, it is possible to activate the tweak “Delegate timeshift recordings to the Media Server” (→ launch Tweaker.exe). It lets the Media Server execute timeshift recordings and include them in its recording database, if “Keep Timeshift File” is switched on in DVBViewer (see above). Please note that in this case the Media Server settings apply to timeshift recordings, not the ones in DVBViewer.

Media Server Support

Change: Media Server Client: When DVBViewer sends timers to the Media Server, it now includes all settings that are visible on the Options → Recording Timers page and in the Timer Recordings Window, thus allowing DVBViewer clients to specify timers more individually than before. However, some of the Media Server’s per-timer properties (EPG Monitoring, Task after Recording, Series, Priority) cannot be controlled in DVBViewer. The Media Server uses default values for them, that are specified in its options.

Added: Media Server Client: If “Options → DVBViewer Media Server → Send timers to the server” changes from off to on, DVBViewer timers (supposed to be executed by DVBViewer) are moved to the Media Server. If “Send timers to the server” is already active on program start, but there are DVBViewer timers that previously could not be sent to the server, DVBViewer tries to send them again after loading its timer list (timers.xml).

Change: Media Server Options/Wizard: If “Connect to the server's timer list” gets switched off, DVBViewer also switches “Send timers to the server” off, in order to prevent adding of timers without any feedback and control in DVBViewer.

Change: Recorder: DVBViewer is now able to delegates timer recordings to the Media Server, even if the channel belongs to the TS Stream reception type and has an URL that refers to the Media Server itself (HTTP transcoded/non-transcoded or RTSP). Previous DVBViewer versions executed such timers themselves, because the server cannot work as its own client. For circumventing this problem, DVBViewer now changes the Channel ID of the timer to the one of the original Media Server channel (retrieved from the URL) when sending the timer and changes it back to the TS Stream Channel ID after having received the timer list from the Media Server.

Change/Added: Media Server Client: More consistent and extended error handling when using the Media Server API. If the server is unreachable or responds with a HTTP error code, DVBViewer displays an error message (OSD or message box), particularly “Cannot reach the Media Server”, “Function unavailable” (404 Not Found), “Missing or wrong user name and password” (401 Unauthorized), or the error code in other cases.

Change: Recorder: If Options → DVBViewer Media Server → Send timers to the server is switched on, but the server is not reachable or responds with an error code to adding a new timer, a DVBViewer timer (executed by DVBViewer) is created as substitute, if possible.

Change: Media Server Client: If DVBViewer is configured as client of a Media Server on the same PC, reception of all TS Stream channels (except those with localhost as source) is delegated by default to the Media Server's web server, that passes the stream on to the DVBViewer client, in order to avoid double bandwidth occupancy, e.g. if the same Internet TV/Radio channel is played in DVBViewer and simultaneously recorded in the Media Server. Please note: This feature requires DVBViewer Media Server 3.0.0 or later.

Added: Media Server Client: The tweak “Receive TS Stream via the local Media Server” (→ launch Tweaker.exe) allows to switch reception of TS Stream channels via the Media Server off, if unwanted.

Added: Media Server Client: DVBViewer is now able to establish HTTPS connections to the Media Server 3.0 or later, if it is configured accordingly. For this purpose https:// must be prefixed to the content of Options → DVBViewer Media Server → Address and port. Please note that messages from the Media Server to DVBViewer clients, e.g. for letting them update the timer list, use another protocol (UDP Multicast) which can not be changed to HTTPS. The same applies to RTSP/Sat>IP. Auto-detection of Media Servers in the network always assumes HTTP due to the underlying UPnP protocol.

Change: Timer Recording Window: Selecting a Media Server timer with EPG monitoring disables the input fields for date, start and end time, because the times are determined by the EPG.

Added: Recording Statistics Window: The Recording Status tab now provides full information about recordings executed by the Media Server by means of a new Media Server API (version 3.0.0 or later required). Previously most of the information was empty.

Change: Media Server Options / Wizard: The “Ignore local recordings” setting has been reversed and renamed to “Also show DVBViewer recordings” to make it more comprehensible. Additionally DVBViewer prevents the options “Connect to the server's recording list” and “Also show DVBViewer recordings” to be both switched off, because this combination would yield an empty recording list.

Change: Recording Statistics Window: If “Options → DVBViewer Media Server → Connect to the server’s recording list” and “Also show DVBViewer recordings” are both switched on, duplicate entries in the recording list are filtered out. Entries originating from the Media Server recording database are preferred over entries originating from the DVBViewer database. Additionally they are displayed in different colors (black = Media Server, blue = DVBViewer), so they can be distinguished.

Fix: Media Server Options: If the associated Media Server is currently executing instant or timeshift recordings, and sending timers to the server gets canceled by changed settings, the recordings are stopped after prompting for confirmation.

Keyboard / Remote Control

Change/Fix: Input Options: The input options have been reworked completely. Several issues have been fixed. Adding/Editing user defined commands is more convenient and comprehensible now. In detail:

Change: The default command list has been restructured. Some groups have been renamed (in the English and German language files), some commands have been moved to a more suitable group so they can be found easier. However, after updating an existing DVBViewer installation to 7.0.0, Options → Input will still show the previous structure, that is loaded from the file default.remote in the Remotes subdirectory of the configuration folder. For adopting the new structure, first rename this file while DVBViewer is closed, e.g. to old.remote. After starting DVBViewer, Options → Input will show the new default list. For restoring user defined commands and key assignments, click Import and select the previous (renamed) default.remote file.

Change: The “Learn On / Off” button has been replaced by a checkbox, that indicates the current state more clearly.

Fix: Added key assignments are now automatically scrolled into view.

Fix: Clicking Apply in learning mode prevented further assignment of remote control keys, though the "Learn Off" button still signaled an active learning mode. It was necessary to switch the learning mode off and on again in order to assign more remote control keys. The keyboard was not affected.

Change: “Add Group” does not open an input box prompting for the group name anymore, but adds a new group with the default name “New” and activates an in-place input line in the command list.

Change: “Add Command” does not open an input box prompting for the command name anymore. The input line is now integrated in the Command Editor, with “New” as default name.

Change: The useless “action name” input line has been removed from the Command Editor. DVBViewer did not use the name. Actions defined in the command.vbs script file (with action numbers starting from 20480) always got and still get the name “User Defined”.

Added: Changing the Action ID in the Number input line of the Command Editor or selecting an action in the “Action sequence assigned to the command” list now automatically displays the corresponding item in the “Select an action” drop-down list.

Fix: Wrong insert position when re-sorting the action sequence in the Command Editor by drag & drop.

Added: All groups can now be deleted (previously only user defined groups). Additionally they can be renamed by slowly double-clicking the name in the command list. It lets an in-place input line appear. Previously renaming was only possible for user-defined groups by deleting and recreating the item.

Added: All commands can now be deleted, renamed (by slowly double-clicking them) or edited. Previously only user defined commands could be changed, not the predefined ones that initially populate the command list. Please note: After changing the name of a predefined item it is internally regarded as user-defined. It is not translated by language files anymore.

Added: The new button “Import Default” adds missing default commands, that have been deleted or changed before, to the command list again.

Change: The previous “Default” button has been renamed to “Load Default”, making more clear what it does. Generally “Import” buttons add something to the list, whereas “Load” buttons replace the whole list.

Change: Winlirc: For being launched automatically on DVBViewer start, Winlirc.exe can now also be stored in a Winlirc sub-folder of the DVBViewer program directory (instead of the DVBViewer program directory itself). This avoids a conflict between the Winlirc Plugins sub-folder and the DVBViewer Plugins sub-folder.

Options

Change: Options: The Options tree view has been restructured:

The Timeshift page has been removed. Two settings have been moved to the TV/Radio page (start timeshift automatically, warning on timeshift termination), other settings are now covered by the Recordings and Recording Timers page (see Timeshift section above).

The Shutdown page has been merged with the Extended page.

The EPG, Teletext, Subtitles and Channel Logos pages are now subitems of the TV/Radio page. The Teletext page has been renamed to Teletext/HbbTV (see below).

The Weather page is now a subitem of the News page.

The Images page including its subitem has been moved down below the Movies and Music pages.

The DirectX page has been renamed to Playback Components (for making more clear what it is about).

The DVBViewer Media Server page has been moved up below the Recording pages, so it is visible without scrolling.

Change: Hardware Options: The tuner type of BDA devices cannot be changed anymore in the options, in order to prevent misconfiguration (see here). If really necessary, the type must be tweaked by editing the TunerType entry in the file hardware.xml while DVBViewer is closed (0 = Cable, 1 = Satellite, 2 = Terrestrial, 3 = ATSC).

Fix: OSD Menu Options: Missing translation of parent menu names in the list of OSD pages, missing update of the whole list after a language change and other issues.

Added: Teletext/HbbTV Options: The new HbbTV section contains HbbTV auto-start options. They are only available if the HbbTV add-on is installed (see DVBViewer help menu → Order/Unlock Add-Ons). The options specify for which channels DVBViewer shall start HbbTV automatically after channel selection. Without auto-start HbbTV has to be activated by pressing OSD Red (F5). The “Passive HbbTV mode” tweak is superseded by the new options and has been removed.

Auto-start can be activated for all channels, only radio channels, no channel or for channels whose name contains a certain character string like “(internet)” or “(connect)”. The last option particularly targets channels that use HbbTV for automatically starting an internet stream after they have been selected, like the German public internet TV channels on the DVB-T2 ARD frequency and the commercial Freenet Connect internet TV channels in substream #1 of the DVB-T2 ZDF frequency.

Please note that HbbTV auto-start may cause a temporary insert in the TV picture after channel selection, depending on the broadcaster. Activated HbbTV (even if not visible) captures some keyboard / remote keys, so that they don’t have their normal OSD function anymore. Pressing OSD Menu or Esc switches HbbTV off and lets DVBViewer return to the normal key assignment.

Miscellaneous

Fix: Recording and Device Statistics: Wrong color for unavailable tuners on the Device Status tab (gray instead of red).

Fix: Playlist: If the DVBViewer Filter handled live streams originating from a playlist, the playlist was reset to the “not playing” state, causing no item to be selected and the Previous/Next actions to be disabled (see here).

Change: TV Playback: Better handling of streams using the H.264 baseline profile, which caused problems with the LAV Video Decoder if configured for DXVA2 native. This also includes measures in the DVBViewer Filter.

Fix: Playback: Video format detection failed in case of HEVC Range Extension and High Throughput profiles (also concerns the DVBViewer Filter, see here).

Added: EPG Window: Tuner type icons on the “EPG at...” tab.

Fix: Screenshots: If Options → General → Use EPG for screenshot filename was switched off, the channel name was not included in the filename in case of TV playback, yielding a filename that only consisted of date/time.

Change: Main Window: The “Change Log” item in the Help menu has been renamed to “Release Notes”.

Added: Zoom Presets: Tweak “Number of zoom presets” (→ launch Tweaker.exe). It can be used to change the number of zoom presets. Four presets are set up by default. The Preset #x button in the Settings -> Zoom window or the "Zoom Next Preset" action switch over to the next set of zoom settings.

Change: Network Libraries / OpenSSL: Network libraries have been updated for OpenSSL 1.1.x support. OpenSSL is required for encrypted connections via HTTPS. The new OpenSSL DLLs (libssl-1_1.dll and libcrypto-1_1.dll) have been added to the setup. They carry different names than the previously used OpenSSL 1.0.2 DLLs (ssleay32.dll and libeay32.dll). DVBViewer preferably uses the new DLLs, if available, but is also able to work with the old ones.

Added: Hardware: Plugin interface that allows to support new hardware (e.g. ATSC 3.0 devices) by adding a DLL (by Christian).

Removed: Hardware: Support for Freenet DVB-T2 USB devices. If still needed the support will be added again as plugin (see above).

DVBViewer Pro 7.2.2.0

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