[SF8008] Openvix & DAB+ feeds?

[Joe_90]

@Joe_90, testing at 28.2 East now. On all english radios I have not the "40-seconds muting" issue found at 7 East.
But I have EXACTLY the same problem you mentioned. Music sounds a little bit "slowly", and commentator voice is "dropped" and sometimes "skipped".
This occurs the same using the older codec I shared last week and the one shared by @Adrian70 that I installed following his procedure.
Using the codec originally installed by Openvix I have no sound on Classic FM and on all AAC960 coded stations. Very bad luck.
Again, hoping that the Openvix developers will be able to address this very annoying issue.

@Clemente - I have tested OpenATV 7.4 on my Ax 61HD without any improvement in sound. My understanding from @Adrian70 is that we can use the ATV 7.4 image without any codec changes, providing the libav plugin is removed using the advanced software management menu and without installing serviceapp. I have done this but I'm still getting breakup and skipping on Classic FM. I'm out of ideas at this stage - I haven't got deep enough knowledge. I doubt if the Vix devs would prioritise any work in this area, though - it's a very "edge" case. Most main UK channels are available as standard radio streams on 28.2. maybe @twol or @Huevos would have a view on this?

 

[Clemente]

Well, I don't like Openatv image. It is too messy. Openvix is lighter and has a very well organized menu structure.
So, if you noted no or very few improvements I do not see the reason for changing my main image.
Also, you said that most radios are available in normal DVB transponders. This is true only for english and (maybe) french radios, not for all countries. So the DAB+ reception is not so secondary in my opinion.

 

[Joe_90]

I've played about with the various DAB/DAB+ ensembles on 28.2E and seem to be able to play them all with varying degrees of success. I've also tried the D1 National ensemble on 9E and can play them all continuously (no issue with the stream stopping or going silent after a period). However, even on OpenATV having uninstalled the libav plugin, I have sound issues, particularly on Classic FM. This plays perfectly for me if I use dablin on my desktop, so it is an audio player/codec issue for sure. The dablin player uses the faad2 decoder and has perfect audio. See console output:

EnsemblePlayer: playing sub-channel 28 (DAB+)
SDLOutput: silence started...
EnsemblePlayer: format: HE-AAC, 32 kHz Stereo @ 64 kBit/s
AACDecoder: using decoder 'FAAD2'
SDLOutput: silence ended (3072 bytes)

Resolution of this issue needs a dev to confirm what audio codec libraries are being used by the enigma player for "4097" streams. If ffmpeg is in use, then I think this might be the issue as the standard ffmpeg build does NOT support the AAC960 format. As far as I can see by googling, several patches were developed for ffmpeg but were not implemented in the mainline code. The SatGR devs seem to be using a version of ffmpeg that does include these patches. There are various posts on different forums suggesting the use of particular libavcodec versions, but any that I've tried don't seem to work. I don't even know if the internal player in enigma even uses libavcodec and ffmpeg??? If it uses faad, then maybe the issue might be resolved by ensuring faad2 is in use (as per the dablin code)?

 

[DimitarCC]

4097 does not use ffmpeg. 4097 is gstreamer or hisilicon depending on the box type.
Sf8008 uses hisilicon player with unknown capabilities since its closed source....

 

[Joe_90]

4097 does not use ffmpeg. 4097 is gstreamer or hisilicon depending on the box type.
Sf8008 uses hisilicon player with unknown capabilities since its closed source....

Thanks for confirmation! I personally thought/understood that gstreamer (4097 player) did NOT use ffmpeg libraries. That is why I was a bit confused by the various posts on different forums pushing the use of a specific version of libavcodec. Further, the fact that my box (AX 61HD) is HiSilicon and seems to have box-specific player/codec libraries, was confusing the playback issue for me. I thought that maybe if I could use a particular 5001 (gstplayer) or 5002 (exteplayer3) setting for the DAB/DAB+ bouquets, then I could force proper decoding of AAC960 audio. I understand that exteplayer3 uses ffmpeg, but I don't think that will work unless the patched version of ffmpeg is used. The faad2 decoder seems to work - certainly it does for dablin.

 

[Clemente]

@Joe_90, what could be the final solution (if any)?
If I understand correctly, the main problem is adding the right codec/player in enigma2, but my linux knowledges are very far from that.
My best result was obtained using Openvix and the libav codec that I took from the SatdreamGR image, all others are worse for me.
Also, maybe I will have the chance to test a Vu+ box, but in no less than 2 or 3 weeks.
So, if you will reach any progress please let us know. Thanks.

 

[twol]

With all this talk of libavcodec & ffmpeg versions…… just want to emphasise that if its an OE-A image(e.g. OpenViX, OpenATV), then the basic built in software is the same, with most of the differences in the E2 python code. Also don’t expect older versions to be applied, the OE-A build platform is periodically updated which usually means new versions e.g ffmpeg on OE-A 5.5 (openViX currently uses OE-A 5.4).

 

[Clemente]

With all this talk of libavcodec & ffmpeg versions…… just want to emphasise that if its an OE-A image(e.g. OpenViX, OpenATV), then the basic built in software is the same, with most of the differences in the E2 python code. Also don’t expect older versions to be applied, the OE-A build platform is periodically updated which usually means new versions e.g ffmpeg on OE-A 5.5 (openViX currently uses OE-A 5.4).

So, what can we expect?

 

[Joe_90]

With all this talk of libavcodec & ffmpeg versions…… just want to emphasise that if its an OE-A image(e.g. OpenViX, OpenATV), then the basic built in software is the same, with most of the differences in the E2 python code. Also don’t expect older versions to be applied, the OE-A build platform is periodically updated which usually means new versions e.g ffmpeg on OE-A 5.5 (openViX currently uses OE-A 5.4).

@twol - thanks for chipping in also. I too, feel that using "rogue" (or non-mainline) versions of codecs is not the way forward, either. The standard build of Vix/ATV needs to be used. A lot of the discussion about DAB/DAB+ seems to have come from the SatDreamGR forum. But they have a dedicated radio player that works with RTL-USB sticks for example. which allows you to tune AM/FM/LSB/USB radio over a range of frequencies and modulations and also use dedicated codecs to handle decoding of AAC960 for DAB+. Other experimenters seem to have had success on various enigma builds using particular codecs or using specific players like exteplayer3. But, anything that requires hacking of key system components is not going to work for the majority of users.

Maybe the solution might lie in using a specific plug-in or codec for audio playback which is triggered from dabstreamer and included with the eti-tools package or triggered by using a specific code in the bouquet (not 4097, 5001 or 5002)? The playback of these DAB streams from satellite is very much an edge case, I feel.

The eti-tools package certainly works with a standard build for many of the available ensembles. It's just that there are audio issues in some cases on DAB+ specifically. It would be useful if the eti-tools package was built for a MIPS processor such as my GB Quad Plus, where I could experiment with a decent audio playback system.

@Clemente - I feel that I have reached the limit of my understanding of how the process works and possibly the way forward for you is to continue with @Enosat or other specialists on other forums and see if there is a usable solution that way.

 

[Joe_90]

In the SDL National mux:
PremierCristian, Talk, Kerrang! do not work.

Possibly these non-working channels are defined but not trasmitting yet?
...

@Clemente - I'm quoting from post #63 which is some way back in the thread! You had kindly posted some of your DAB bouquets from 28.2E, but said you had issues receiving some of the channels. From my experimentation with 28.2E and with 9E I discovered the problem with the "missing" channels. It's because the http URL strings are not escaped properly. The ":" character (colon) is not always handled properly where URLs are referenced in bouquets. You need to replace the ":" with "%3a" in order to safely substitute it. Here is a sample:

Replace
#SERVICE 4097:0:2:1:1:1:0:0:0:0:http://localhost:5237/ts2na/1:0:C:295E:90B:3B:11A0000:0:0:0/1063/12/0xc6cf:Kerrang
#DESCRIPTION Kerrang

with

#SERVICE 4097:0:2:1:1:1:0:0:0:0:http%3a//localhost%3a5237/ts2na/1%3a0%3aC%3a295E%3a90B%3a3B%3a11A0000%3a0%3a0%3a0/1063/12/0xc6cf:Kerrang
#DESCRIPTION Kerrang

I have attached the SDL National bouquet from 28.2E with the corrected URL references. All of the channels work as of today 10th November. It's a normal text file. Just strip the .txt suffix when pasting it to your bouquet directory.

As regards the slow or choppy playback caused by the AAC960 codec in some DAB+ channels - I still haven't resolved that. The advice in most of the threads seems to be to use service 5002 to invoke exteplayer3, but it doesn't seem to work at all for me in my AX61. I can't test it in my GB Quad Plus as I can't find eti-tools built for the MIPS platform.

 

[Clemente]

@Joe_90, this is very interesting!!
I use Notepad++ instead of normal Windows Notepad to write my bouquets, so did not thought that any problem could occur in the syntax or ascii characters.
Thank you very much for your advice.
Regarding the player problem I'm still stuck too.
I will have the chance to test a Vu+ Duo4KSE soon, so I will make new tests with a different and more powerful receiver, and I will let you know.

 

[Joe_90]

@Joe_90, this is very interesting!!
I use Notepad++ instead of normal Windows Notepad to write my bouquets, so did not thought that any problem could occur in the syntax or ascii characters.
Thank you very much for your advice.
Regarding the player problem I'm still stuck too.
I will have the chance to test a Vu+ Duo4KSE soon, so I will make new tests with a different and more powerful receiver, and I will let you know.

Thanks for letting me know that you are still investigating. I am still pursuing this also and have even signed up to other forums to follow up on attachments and links etc., but no real luck so far.
As regards the issue with the bouquet ":" characters, it's not anything to do with the editor you use. It's more that there are particular characters that are not safe to use in URLs as they may be interpreted, so you need to use escape codes to make them safe. It's good that you are using notepad++ for editing as normal MS-windows editors can cause issues in linux scripts due to the different line-endings used.

 

[plevel]

I have Gigablue HD Quad Plus and from
about 5 years i am using SatDreamgr images with DAB+ feeds suport.
Last year i've moved to OpenVix and support of DAB interrupted unfortunately...
OpenATV also have support of dab feeds(eti-tools, dab streamer).

 

[Huevos]

I have Gigablue HD Quad Plus and from
about 5 years i am using SatDreamgr images with DAB+ feeds suport.
Last year i've moved to OpenVix and support of DAB interrupted unfortunately...
OpenATV also have support of dab feeds(eti-tools, dab streamer).

Is there a hidden question in there?

 

[Joe_90]

Is there a hidden question in there?

That's very defensive of you @Huevos i would think that maybe @plevel was just letting me know that OpenATV might be a source for eti-tools built for the MIPS box, which was a question I had asked earlier in the thread. I compiled a version of eti-tools from source using supplied make scripts from github, but they only suited the AX61 architecture.

... or maybe it was a passive-aggressive hint for you to include dabstreamer etc, in Vix feeds

 

[Huevos]

or maybe it was a passive-aggressive hint for you to include dabstreamer etc, in Vix feeds

Are there build sources?

 

[plevel]

Openvix & DAB+ feeds?

https://github.com/satdreamgr/dabstreamer

https://github.com/satdreamgr/tsniv2ni

https://github.com/piratfm/eti-tools

 

[Joe_90]

I got sources and make files from piratfm, but I didn't have the knowledge amend makefiles for MIPS platform.

 

[plevel]

Try these files.This is for Gigablue HD Quad Plus(Mips), my archive is from 2023.

https://mega.nz/file/pfpF3Tjb#Y2pzrcneQU9rgP4FtigXAxlPA4hdPLFCEp9ixrDb6qk

I successfully installed it on OpenViX 6.6.013

 

[plevel]

...error.....