27.12.2009
Stable release 0.8.1

Today i'am releasing the new stable version 0.8.1, after one year of development with several alpha and beta versions. During this period of time TV-Viewer evolved from a simple Gui, able to change stations, to a stand-alone TV Application.
The most important features are listed here, and please note the screenshots.

An important hint for all users of TV-Viewer < 0.8.1a1. Please delete the configuration directory "~/.tv-viewer" und create a new stations list and check the configuration before you install the new version. Otherwise problems can be expected.

As always if you find errors or you have something else on your mind, please contact me.

Best regards
Christian


16.12.2009
Releasing a third beta for 0.8.1

This time the third beta is not necessary because of too many bugs, but I decided to add some minor new features.

• Installer now checks for dependencies
• xdg-utils are now mandatory
• Improved routines to suppress the screensaver
• Log-Viewers do now have sorting capabilities
• Decreased cpu load
• Save timeshift video files permanently

There will be no new features for this development branch. In about one week I will release a new stable version based on this release. Download the new version here.

Best regards
Christian


25.11.2009
Second Beta of 0.8.1

In the first Beta some errors slipped in. This is why it took more time to complete the second Beta 0.8.1b2. There are also some new things.

• All MPlayer options now configurable.
• Improved zoom.
• Improved readability of the logfiles.
• Increased speed of the lirc binding and other parts of the program.

The last point of the "new features" is reached by using tclsh. If you have installed more than one version of Tcl, it might be necessary to adapt the symlink /usr/bin/tclsh like you have to do with the symlink wish. But one thing for sure, it pays the effort.
As always you'll find the new release in the download section.

Regards
Christian


20.09.2009
Version 0.8.1b1 ready

After three more months of development it has finally been done. The first beta of version 0.8.1 is ready. This means all features are included and only bugs will be fixed if necessary. As always fixed issues in this release can be found via the Bugtracker.
New Features:

• Timeshift
• Reworked Record-Wizard
• Improved OSD
• Beautified GUI
• Unix man pages
• New file selection dialoges
• Support for vdpau and xvmc
• Many minor things

I'am no longer maintaining the Changelog. TV-Viewer is now managed by a VCS. Changes in the source code can be traced on sourceforge. Who always wants to have the latest code on his machine may use bazaar. How bazaar works is described here. The best way to report issues is by using the bugtracker, the new release can be found in the download section.

Best regards
Chrstian


13.07.2009
TV-Viewer irc channel

As of late there exist a irc channel for TV-Viewer. In this channel you may ask questions, express wishes or report bugs. I will be in this channel as often as possible, but of course not always. In order that i get notified about your post you have to mention my nickname.
For example:
saedelaere, i need help...

The channel #tv-viewer can be found on irc.freenode.net, if you don't have an irc client, you may use webchat.freenode.net.

Regards
Christian


03.06.2009
New alpha release 0.8.1a1

First of all I have decided to skip the stable release 0.8. This is because lots of people wanted to have the possibility to schedule recordings. Therefore I was working hard for the last two month to integrate this and many other features. Now it is time to release the first ALPHA of version 0.8.1. All bugs reported for version 0.8b1 have been fixed.

New features:

• Record Wizard to manage and schedule recordings.
• Improved Station Editor.
• Station search can now perform a full frequency sweep and you can search on all available video inputs.
• Changing stations by typing in numbers via keyboard or remote control.
• Right-Click menu for video window.
• Parts of the interface are now resizable.
• Video window can stay on top and started in full-screen mode.
• Autozoom 16:9

Known issues:

• Timeshift is still not working.
• OSD for changing stations via remote control.

As always the changelog provides complete overview of the changes that were made. As you can see many things have been changed or were implemented.
There is one important thing for users using 0.8b1. The station list has been changed slightly. Please start the station editor after the installation and safe your station list once. If you find any bugs, use the bugtracker please. Go to the download section to get the new release.

Best regards

Christian


23.03.2009
TV-Viewer 0.8b1 released.

TV-Viewer 0.8b1 (BETA) is out and brings many improvements compared to version 0.8a3. All things that were missing in the last release have been integrated. If you are interested in the bugs that were fixed in this version have a look here.

New features:

• More options in the preferences.
• Integrated support for docking the app into the system tray. This means you don't need kdocker anymore.
• Support for remote controls.
• User guide and german translation.
• Improved logviewers.
• TV-Viewer now has it's own "On screen Display". So the dependency xosd is obsolete.
• The application also works without tkimg (libtk-img). In this case lower quality gif images will be used for the icons.

If you want see all changes have a look at the changelog. So far TV-Viewer was installed into /usr/share. This has been changed to /usr/local/share so a manual installation does not interfere with the package manager of your distribution.
From now TV-Viewer is in a code-freeze so there will be no new features for version 0.8, only bug fixes. I will wait about one week to release the next stable release. All bugs reported in this period will be fixed. If you want to file a bug please use the bugtracker on sourceforge.net.

See the download section on how to get the new version.

Best regards

Christian


4.03.2009
Third Snapshot of the 0.8.x Development branch.

After one month of development, I'am releasing today version 0.8a3 of TV-Viewer. In this time many things have changed and decisions in principle have been made. The most important thing is, that TV-Viewer no longer supports different Videoplayers. From now on there is an integrated Player based on MPlayer.

New Features:

• Integrated Player, based on MPlayer.
• Many new options in the Configuration-Wizard.
• Smaller improvements in the Station-Editor
• Logviewer for MPlayer and TV-Viewer.
• New Key Sequences with a corresponing overview.
• Hundred of smaller things.

Known issues:

• No user guide.
• Tooltips only available fo the Configuration-Wizard.
• No translations.
• Support for remote controls is still broken.
• No scheduled recordings, only direct recordings using the GUI.
• Sound issues when resizing the player window.

All known issues will be fixed in version 0.8b1. However the scheduler will no longer be part of TV-Viewer, because it would be to much work to reintegrate and it is planned to introduce a corresponding GUI with 0.8.1, which will be released in april. (Roadmap)

Here you can download the new version, to see a detailed of overview of what has been changed have a look at the Changelog.
I recommend everyone already using an alpha version to upgrade to this release.

Best regards

Christian


31.01.2009
TV-Viewer 0.8.a2

Because there are some severe bugs in the first alpha release of the 0.8.x development branch, I decided to roll out another alpha version.

Bugfixes:

• Recording feature has been completely rewritten. Should work much better now.
• The Configuration-Wizard did not store all options into the config file.
• Mplayer did not work as Video-Player.
• Many smaller things.

I recommend to upgrade to the new Alpha2 to everyone who is using the Alpha1. But of course all the others are also invited to test the new version. :)
Here you can download the new version, to see a detailed of overview of what has been changed have a look at the Changelog.

In addition I've made some Screenshots so everybody can see what the new version looks like.

Best Regards

Christian


30.01.2009
First public development snapshot of TV-Viewer 0.8.x

Two months I made myself scarce, to lift TV-Viewer to a new level. What will catch everybodys eyes instantly are the optical changes. TV-Viewer has been given a new look which can be influenced by the user. In the end I have rewritten all files from the scratch. Only small parts were taken over from version 0.7.7

New Features:

• All-new Interface.
• Choose among different themes.
• Supporting all Video Inputs.
• Start a recording from within the GUI.
• Jump between the last two stations.
• Programmable button to retrieve the television program.
• Choose the time interval to query if there are news about TV-Viewer.
• Set the bitrate of the Video Stream.
• "On Screen Display" may be configured entirely now.
  

Known Issues:

• Only available in english.
• No help files.
• Timeshift does not work.
• Tooltips will not be displayed.
• Old stations list can no longer be used. The program can't convert them into the new format, but you can do it manually.
• Remote controls are not supported.
• Recordings only available from within the gui. No scheduled recordings.
• Controlling volume via v4l2 not implemented so far.

As you can see the list of the known issues is still quite long. This will definitively change until the next stable release. 
I beg all of you, which feel like, to test this alpha release. If you don't like something or you encounter bugs then contact me. Only then I will be able to improve the program and to fit it to your needs. Unfortunately I did not maintain the changelog during the last four weeks so it will reflect only recent changes.

Download

Enjoy the new version.

Christian


27.11.2008
New stable release 0.7.7

After a long beta period, with five beta versions, it is time for the next stable release.
Many things have been changed since 0.7.6.2 Please note the bugfixes and new features mentioned below refer to version 0.7.6.2 and not to the last beta.

Bugfixes:

• Removed some mistakes and crudities in the text passages.
• The scheduler produced an error if the video device node was already in use and did not try again to finish the job.
• Minor things in the source code.

New Features:

• Now using frequencies instead channels. This will allow you to use finetuning.
• Automatic station search no longer depends on scantv or a working VBI device node. Now all users should be able to use it.
• Update-Daemon is now a News-Reader.
• Videocard control options (Hue, saturation...) and video standard (Pal, secam, ntsc) will only be changed if necessary.
• Splash screen.
• You may now dock TV-Viewer into the system tray (Does not work on Ubuntu).
• Added an entry field to the Station-Editor. It may be used to get the frequency of a specific channel.
• The record wizard is now able to parse output files with blancs.

If you want to have a more detailed overview of what has changed since 0.7.6.2, have a look at the changelog.
Here you can download the new version. Please note, that some system requirements have been changed!
Older configuration files and station files (< 0.7.7b1) will no longer work with this release. Create a new configuration with the "Configuration-Wizard". Use the "stations-editor" (Options --> convert stations) to convert old station files to the new format.

With this release I'am finishing the 0.7.x development branch. Only if there will be grave bugs i will make a bugfix release.
The planning for 0.8.x is mostly completed. So it is quite sure what will be included in the development branch and how to implent them. Nevertheless most of the code has still to be written. I'am looking forward to release a first alpha version within the next weeks.

Enjoy the new version

Christian


16.11.2008
Release of version 0.7.7b5

Due to some more important changes I'am releasing one more beta version.

Bugfixes:

• There were problems with the video standard. From now on you may only choose between PAL, Secam and NTSC. I hope this fixes some problems regarding the station search and picture quality.
• The installer of TV-Viewer now changes file permissions.

New Features:

• You may now dock TV-Viewer into the system tray (Does not work on Ubuntu).

Everybody using the beta releases please update and report back if the automatic station search works and if there are still problems with picture quality.
Here you may download the new release.

Best regards
Christian


8.11.2008
Release of version 0.7.7b4

The next stable release (0.7.7) is in sight. This should be the last beta release.

Bugfixes:

• Installer produced an error. FIXED
• If there is a station configuration file, but empty, TV-Viewer produced an error. This has been fixed.
• Some optical improvements to the main interface.
• Command line option "--twinview" now suppresses the centering of the splash screen.
• Command line option "--v4l2audio" did not work. FIXED
• Reworked automatic station search.

New features:

• Added an entry field to the Station-Editor. It may be used to get the frequency of a specific channel.
• The record wizard is now able to parse output files with blancs.

As you can see I changed a lot of things. Special thanks to Martin Dauskardt, who gave me the crucial hint for the automatic station search.
Please report back if you find any new issues.

You can get the new version in the download section.

Regards


30.10.2008
TV-Viewer 0.7.7b3 released

And the story goes on. Sorry but there is major bug in the Station-Editor so it can't execute.

Bugfixes:

• Station-Editor is not executing due to a corrupted command.
• If the automatic stations search can non find any station it is no longer possible to save the empty list.
• Some more translation issues.

Hopefully the most awful bugs are eliminated now and you can use the software again. :)

You may find version 0.7.7b3 in the download section.

Regards


29.10.2008
TV-Viewer 0.7.7b2 released

There are several bugs in the latest beta version.

Bugfixes:

• TV-Viewer couldn't be executed if there is no config file. FIXED
• The main interface didn't get initialized if there is no stationlist. From now on the Station-Editor does not execute automatically. 
• Smaller things in the text.

As you can see these are serious bugs. With this bugfix release it should be possible to use TV-Viewer again :)
Here you may find the new version.

Regards


28.10.2008
Release of version 0.7.7b1

The first beta version for public use. It brings some new features as well as some bugfixes. Nevertheless it is beta release. So there could be some problems :)

Bugfixes:

• Translation issues.
• The scheduler produced an error when the video device is already in use.
• Minor things in the code.

New features:

• Now using frequencies instead channels. This will allow you to use finetuning.
• Automatic station search no longer depends on scantv or a working VBI device node. Now all users should be able to use it.
• Update-Daemon is now a News-Reader.
• Videocard control options (Hue, saturation...) and video standard (Pal, secam, ntsc) will only be changed if necessary.
• Splash screen.

In fact I've changed hundred of lines of code. Not all changes are visible to the user, but it should be worth to upgrade. Note that TV-Viewer now depends on Tcl/Tk version 8.5 or higher. If this version is not provided by your distribution you may use ActiveTcl from ActiveState.
These new features are a preparatory work for version 0.8.x.
Normaly BETA versions are only announced on the website and with the News-Reader of TV-Viewer. As this version brings lot's of changes I will announce it the same way as always.

See the download section on how to get this version.

Some ultimate words to the last version of TV-Viewer. Until today sourceforge.net registrated 154 downloads of this version. This is far more as I expected and it motivates me to begin as early as possible with the 0.8.x development branch.

Regards
Christian


14.10.2008
Release of version 0.7.6.2.

Here it is. The probably last version of the 0.7.x development branch. Nevertheless there will be one more version (probably beta), which allows the use of frequencies instead channels. This is because some users asked for it and with this feature you may be able to finetune your stations.
But now to the new version. There are no big changes this time.

Bugfixes:

• After an automatic station search the tv-card gets muted. Fixed.
• Smaller things in the source code.

New features:

• A standard "cat" is now used to perform recordings. This means mencoder is no longer needed.
• If you try to start TV-Viewer Gui while a recording you'll be asked if the recording should be canceled.
• Command line option --vresolution replaces --vaspect in tv-viewer_rec. You may now specifie the resolution of the recording.

The project is now also hosted on sourceforge.net. But this websites will stay active. I mainly use sourceforge to host the downloads and to provide a forum and a bugtracker.

Work on Version 0.8.x suffers at the moment from my lack of time. Check back for any news on this version.

But for now you may want to enjoy version 0.7.6.2

Best regards

Christian


01.09.2008
Changelog online, Bugs in 0.7.6.1

From now on you may a find a changelog in the download section. The changelog records the development of TV-Viewer and will be constantly updated. From version 0.7.6.2 on the changelog will be shipped with TV-Viewer and can be found in "/usr/share/tv-viewer/help/".

Two smaller bugs have been discovered in version 0.7.6.1.
After the automatic station search some devices are automatically switched to silent. A restart, of your system, should fix this issue.
Some check files are not deleted while executing the configuration wizard. Tis shouldn't cause any troubles.
Both bugs will be fixed in the upcoming version 0.7.6.2.

From version 0.7.6.2 on I will release beta versions of the current state of development. The update daemon will not inform you about this versions if you've installed a final.
If you're happy to try out things you'll find this versions in the download section.

It might be that this project will be hosted on sourceforge.net in the future.

Regards
Christian


24.07.2008
TV-Viewer 0.7.6.1 released

Today I make a new version of TV-Viewer available. Actually the next planed release was Version 0.8. But the new gui is'nt ready yet and this may take a bit more time. Meanwhile lot's of users asked for a record function so I decided to bring the development of this feature forward.

Bugfixes:

• TV-Cards which do not provide a VBI device node could no longer be used. This problem has been solved.
• The tool v4l2-ctl was not recognized by the configuration wizard from version 1.2.0 (ivtv) upwards. Fixed.
• Some text improvements.
• Smaller things in the source code.

New features:

• Record wizard, which can be operated from a terminal. Time controlled recordings  and many more.
• TV-Viewer was previously installed into the users home directory. This has been changed. Now only the configuration files are located there.
• Diagnostic routine is now part of TV-Viewer and can be started from within the GUI.
• New installer.
• Packages for various distributions.

The installation has changed, more informations in the Download section and in the user guide.
The record-wizard only supports recordings from the tuner of the tv-card. This will be changed soon see roadmap.
New Screenshots are available soon.
If you encounter any problems, or you have improvement suggestions, contact me.

Best regards
Christian


24.06.2008
Diagnostic routine for TV-Viewer

I've written a diagnostic routine for TV-Viewer. This tcl script collects all necessary data which could help me to support users which encouter problems with TV-Viewer.
This data will be stored in a file that you could send me via e-mail with a detailed error description.
Since this is a tcl script, Tcl >= 8.4 has to be installed.
The program only works with the latest release of TV-Viewer. In the future it will be part of the program.

My hope is, that with this program debugging will be much easier for me and this will result in a quicker and more specific way of support.
Download the script here.

Besides I'am working on the new version 0.8. But at this point there is nothing new to announce.
If everything goes well there will be the promised screenshots this week.

Best regards
Christian


28.05.2008
TV-Viewer 0.7.5-2 released

This is a bugfix release.

Bugfixes:

• Activation of "Increase Bitrate" in the "Configuration-Wizard" resulted in a serious bug. The main interface did not start anymore.
• Automatic station search did not work on some systems because it was not possible to define the VBI device node. For that reason I added a corresponding option in the "Configuration-Wizard".
• With Tcl/Tk 8.5 installed the font"DejaVu Sans Mono" could not be recognized though it is installed.

New features:

• Update-Daemon and search for updates manually

Although there is a code freeze for version 0.7.5 , I decided to add a new feature.
Now TV-Viewer has got an "Update-Daemon". The daemon checks for a new version every 7 days.
This option may be disabled in the Configuration-Wizard. Within the menu item "Options" in the main interface you can search for updates manually.
I revised the user guide in some sections to give some more informations about the usage and the installation of the program.
Installing of TV-Viewer did not change. If you already used TV-Viewer all stations will be taken on, but not your settings.
Download the new version here.

Work on 0.8 just began. At the moment i'am working on the new configuration dialogue and the appearance of the main interface. I will post some screenshots soon so you can see what I mean.
I want to point out that I'am still searching for a new name for TV-Viewer because this is more a hypernym.
One suggestion was to rename it to "mattscheibe".  This is a german demotic apprehension for a television set.
If you want to make your one proposal just contact me.

Best regards
Christian


14.05.2008
2 Bugs in TV-Viewer

Several users informed me about two Bugs in TV-Viewer.
The first one concerns the option "Increase bitrate" in the Configuration-Wizard. If selected the main program no longer starts.
Workaround:
Do not use this option. This issue will be fixed in the next version.
If already did start TV-Viewer with the command line option "--wizard". Then the "Configration-Wizard" will be started directly. Disable the option and TV-Viewer should run again.

The second issue isn't really a bug it is more a missing feature. On some Systems the Vbi device "/dev/vbi" doesn' exist. In this case it is not possible to perform an automatic station search. Since there is no possibility to define the VBI device in the Configuration-Wizard I will add one in the next release.
Workaround:
None
If all runs well i will release Version 0.7.5-2 on Friday 16.05..

Best Regards
Christian


23.04.2008
TV-Viewer 0.7.5-1 released

So here is the first release of TV-Viewer in english. It took me much longer to finish it as I expected.
To learn more about the programm please read "General Info", "Download" and "User Guide" sections.
To get an idea of TV-Viewer refer to the screenshots section.

Bugfixes:

• If TV-Viewer was started with a symlink, the remote control did not work any more with the program.
  
• Minor things, with focus on stability.

New features:

• "Vlc" video-player is now supported.
• The soundsystem has been completely redsigned. Now it's possible to choose the audio channel that is used to control the volume. Additionally sound intensity will now longer be set to 100% at the start or end of the program. (Initial volume control)
• TV-Viewer now has it's own command line arguments which you can see with "--help".
• Status messages will be displayed in a shell.
• As of now stations can be added manually, and you can activate or deactivate them with the "Station-Editor". 
• Language support (german, english)
• Minor, in most cases not visible changes.

In order to install TV-Viewer, download the archive and execute the file "tv-viewer_install.sh" in a shell.
The main focus on this release was to increase stability and to provide a language support. I suppose this is succesful. Unfortuantely the documentation of the code is still poor.
i had the opportunity to make further more tests with Tcl  8.5 and TV-Viewer. They work perfectly together, so feel free to use it.
How is it going on now? If there are bugs in the current release they'll be fixed as soon as possible. Apart from that the work on version 0.8 begins, which will have a new appearance and some new functions. This work seems to be comprehensive, so don't expect it so soon. I'll announce news of the stage of developement here.

Enjoy the new version!

Greetings
Christian


31.03.2008
New Homepage online.

Today I'am launching the new Homepage with a complete new design and an english translation. Older news concerning former releases of TV-Viewer will not be translated as these versions were in german only.
The upcoming version 0.7.5-1 of TV-Viewer is the first one that will ship with a build in support for different languages. At the moment these are german and english.
Still there are some things on my "to do list" before i can release it.
I will announce it here, on the ivtv mailing list and some different forums.

Greetings
Christian


27.02.2008
TCL/TK 8.5

The release of Tcl / Tk 8.5.1 was already some days ago. Since i'am running different linux distributions on my desktop using VirtualBox I realized, that you can find this new version in the ubuntu gutsy backports repository. Up to this point I hadn't had the chance to test my program with this new version as OpenSuse 10.3 ships with version 8.4 and I didn't want to compile it myself.
In a virtual machine most hardware can't be accessed but the gui runs after you comment out some lines of code.
I was happy to see, that TV-Viewer seems to work pretty good with this new release of Tcl/Tk. It appears the widgets fit in modern desktop environments much better. However TV-Viewer has to be tested further more with it. With version 0.8 I will completely change to 8.5.
If you're happy to try out new things you can install Tcl 8.5 besides Tcl 8.4. In order to use it you have to displace the line:
exec wish "$0" "$@"
by:
exec wish8.5 "$0" "$@"
In the files:
tv-viewer.tcl, wizard.tcl, channel_edit.tcl und videocard_control.tcl

This necessary if the symlink wish points at wish8.4
I want to point out, that at this moment there is no official support for Tcl 8.5

Regards
Christian


25.02.2008
Website statistics on 4stats.de

Since 6.02.2008 the home page of TV-VIewer has it's own website statistics provided by 4stats.
This is made by a small java script that places a cookie on every visitors computer to registrate if he / she is here in return or a new visitor.
This service is free of charge without advertising on this website. This service seems to work reliable so I absolutely recommend it. In the future I will integrate the statistics in my website so everybody may have a look at it.

Regards
Christian


6.01.2008
Homepage online

Today the Homepage of TV-Viewer goes online.
In the future, everybody who is interested, may inform himself about the progress of TV-Viewer here.
On purpose the design of the website is plain. It was created using Kompozer.

Happy new year to everybody.
Christian