roboTV VDR server plugin

roboTV is a Android TV based frontend for VDR. This is the VDR server part.

Build requirements

• VDR 2.4.x
• GCC 4.9 (or higher)

Repository Branches

• master -> Sources for VDR 2.4.x
• dev -> Development Branch based on "master"

roboTV docker image

The "robotv" docker image is a turn-key solution to deploy a headless VDR server and all required plugins to connect roboTV clients.

Prerequisites

• Docker installation is required, see the official installation docs
• DVB card or SAT>IP server needed

Running roboTV Server

roboTV can run with various configurations. This sample configuration uses local DVB devices and the dvbapi plugin to access your smartcard but can be configured completely different (see examples below). It also sets an URL clients will use to fetch channel icons (Enigma Picons). The roboTV TCP/IP port must always be exposed.

• Create the data directories on your server

sudo mkdir -p /srv/robotv
sudo mkdir -p /srv/video

• Start the robotv container

docker run --rm -ti \
    --cap-add=SYS_NICE \
    -e DVBAPI_ENABLE=1 \
    -e DVBAPI_HOST=192.168.100.200 \
    -e DVBAPI_PORT=2222 \
    -e ROBOTV_PICONSURL=http://192.168.16.10/picons \
    -v /srv/robotv:/data \
    -v /srv/video:/video \
    -p 34892:34892 \
    --device=/dev/dvb \
    pipelka/robotv

Docker Volumes to store data

Host Location	Container	Description
/srv/robotv	/data	VDR cache data and configuration
/srv/video	/video	Space for recordings

You can change these directories to meet your requirements.

Configuration variables

Variable	Default	Description
DVBAPI_ENABLE	0	enable / disable the dvbapi plugin
DVBAPI_HOST	127.0.0.1	dvbapi host
DVBAPI_PORT	2000	dvbapi host port
DVBAPI_OFFSET	0	dvbapi device offset
SATIP_ENABLE	0	0 - disable / 1 - enable SAT>IP plugin
SATIP_SERVER		SAT>IP server configuration ([:]
SATIP_NUMDEVICES	2	number of dvb devices to open on the server
SATIP_ENABLEEITSCAN	1	0 - disable / 1 - enable EIT scan
SATIP_PORTRANGE		range of UDP ports to use (from-to)
SATIP_TRANSPORTMODE	0	transport mode (0 - UDP / 1 - multicast / 2 - TCP)
SATIP_ENABLEFRONTENDREUSE	1	frontend reuse (0 - disabled / 1 - enabled)
ROBOTV_MAXTIMESHIFTSIZE	4000000000	Maximum timeshift ringbuffer size in bytes
ROBOTV_PICONSURL		URL for the enigma channel icons
ROBOTV_SERIESFOLDER	Serien	Folder for TV shows
ROBOTV_EPGIMAGEURL		URL for EPG images
VDR_LOGLEVEL	2	0 = no logging, 1 = errors only, 2 = errors and info, 3 = errors, info and debug
VDR_UPDATECHANNELS	5	0 = disabled, 1 = channel names only, 2 = pids only, 3 = channels names and pids, 4 = add new channels, 5 = add new transponders
VDR_DISEQC	0	0 = DisEqC disabled
VDR_EPGSCANTIMEOUT	5	The time (in hours) of user inactivity after which the DVB card in a single card system starts scanning channels to keep the EPG up-to-date. A value of '0' completely turns off scanning on both single and multiple card systems.
TZ	Europe/Vienna	Timezone to use

Ports in use

Port	Description
34892	roboTV port for client communication (must always be connected)
6419	VDR svdrp port

Examples

• connect to SAT>IP server (autodetect)

docker run --rm -ti \
    --cap-add=SYS_NICE \
    -e SATIP_ENABLE=1 \
    -v /srv/vdr:/data \
    -v /srv/video:/video \
    --net=host \
    pipelka/robotv

• connect to SAT>IP server with 4 devices

docker run --rm -ti \
    --cap-add=SYS_NICE \
    -e SATIP_ENABLE=1 \
    -e SATIP_SERVER="192.168.100.201|DVBS2-4|Triax SatIP Converter" \
    -e SATIP_NUMDEVICES=4 \
    -v /srv/vdr:/data \
    -v /srv/video:/video \
    --net=host \
    pipelka/robotv

• enable dvbapi with server 192.168.100.200 on port 2222 and pass dvb devices to the container

docker run --rm -ti \
    --cap-add=SYS_NICE \
    -e DVBAPI_ENABLE=1 \
    -e DVBAPI_HOST=192.168.100.200 \
    -e DVBAPI_PORT=2222 \
    -v /srv/vdr:/data \
    -v /srv/video:/video \
    -p 34892:34892 \
    --device=/dev/dvb \
    pipelka/robotv

• use SAT>IP with dvbapi and set picons url

docker run --rm -ti \
    --cap-add=SYS_NICE \
    -e DVBAPI_ENABLE=1 \
    -e DVBAPI_HOST=192.168.100.200 \
    -e DVBAPI_PORT=2222 \
    -e SATIP_ENABLE=1 \
    -e SATIP_SERVER="192.168.100.202|DVBS2-2|minisatip" \
    -e ROBOTV_PICONS=http://192.168.100.202/picons \
    -v /srv/vdr:/data \
    -v /srv/video:/video \
    --net=host \
    pipelka/robotv

Building the image

To keep the generated docker image as small as possible it is built upon alpine linux. The dockerfile contains 2 stages for building the image

• build the VDR and plugin binaries in a development "robotv-server-build" image
• install the generated binaries in an alpine:3.6 production environment

To build the image you just need to:

./docker/build.sh

The script will generate the image:

REPOSITORY                    TAG                 IMAGE ID            CREATED             SIZE
pipelka/robotv                0.14.0              ed28e2a9b390        2 minutes ago       19.6MB
pipelka/robotv                latest              ed28e2a9b390        2 minutes ago       19.6MB