Question regarding VDR, linux V4L drivers, lirc, & Freebsd.

[Bernhard Froehlich]

 On Mon, 27 Dec 2010 18:37:46 -0800, VDR User wrote:
> Hi.  I've been think of putting something new on one of my test boxes
> (for htpc use).  I've never used Freebsd before but a friend of mine
> used to rave about it.  I'm wondering if anyone is successfully
> running VDR along with the Linux V4L drivers for dvb devices?  Also,

 Jürgen Lock is currently working on a VDR port and looking for testers. 
 FreeBSD currently only supports very few PCI cards but almost all USB 
 devices work if there is a v4l driver for it. You need 
 multimedia/webcamd for that.

 http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-multimedia/2010-November/011368.html


> if lirc is used for accessing serial or usb based remote controls?  
> If

 Our lirc port is very outdated and i'm not sure if it works at all. It 
 needs definitely some love and work.


> so, is there any work on the user end to get this stuff running?  I'm

 Sure! We have quite good MythTV support, VDR is almost ready, XBMC will 
 be committed this week. But there is a lot more work to be done to get 
 remote controls working properly in webcamd and lirc.


> not in any need of a desktop or gui as the box is dedicated to 
> testing
> dvb/media replay.  For that matter, there's no keyboard, mouse, etc.
> connected either.  I typically access the box only through SSH, with
> the boxes audio/video output over HDMI.  Does Freebsd have support 
> for
> Nvidia VDPAU hardware decoding?  If so, how well does it work?  I

 Yes, vdpau is supported with x11/nvidia-driver and MythTV has an port 
 option to enable vdpau. I just talked to Jürgen yesterday and he is 
 currently looking for vdpau testers for the VDR port. So it should be 
 working with VDR but someone needs to confirm that with nvidia hardware. 
 XBMC also supports vdpau but needs ffmpeg with enabled vdpau - but i 
 already have a patch for that.

 So overall vdpau support is there but you need to compile the ports 
 yourself with VDPAU option enabled.


> prefer to install OS + software onto sdhc cards or usb flash.

 SD cards are no problem at all and USB is also no problem with recent 
 FreeBSD versions.


> I appreciate any insight since I'm completely new to Freebsd, and
> apologize if this is not the correct mailing list for such questions.

 We probably should create a wiki page or some document to cover the 
 current situation. I'll put it on my todo for next year.

-- 
 Bernhard Froehlich
 http://www.bluelife.at/