KRadio4 for KDE4.x snapshot-2009-02-20

[Ernst Martin Witte]

Name: KRadio4 for KDE4.x
Version: snapshot-2009-02-20
Type: KDE Sound Application
Depend: KDE 4.x
License: GPL
Homepage:
http://www.nocabal.de/~emw/kradio/index.html
More Info:
http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php?content=28097

Description:
 KRadio is a comfortable  KDE4 application for
AM/FM radio cards supported by V4L/V4L2. It has a
lot of valuable features such as RDS decoding,
pre-recording, timeshift playback, recording (wav,
mp3, ogg), PVR support, versatile alarms, LIRC
support, and much more (see below).

This snapshot is one more iteration step towards
the first beta of KRadio4:) The previous snapshot
has already been really usable (hopefully;-), this
one improves some cosmetic stuff and a few minor
bugs. For details please have a look into the
ChangeLog. I hope that KRadio4 is now really
usable. A first beta release will be published
very soon if no more sever bugs pop up. 

Your help is needed!

Please test and report success and problems!

Since there is still lot of work todo with KRadio
and since time is always short and my test
equipment in terms of radio cards is quite short,
namely exactly one ancient line-loopback radio
card, here are some suggestions, how to
contribute:

Become a contributer or sponsor of KRadio!

    * translations
    * source code patches
    * build system improvements
    * graphics enhancements (e.g. SVG icons!)
    * sponsor radio/tv cards to allow the coders
extensive testing of your not yet properly
supported cards!
    * ... what ever you want to contribute!

How?

    * Just write an email and you will get SVN
write access!
    * Just contact me by mail, icq, jabber, etc.
if you have some questions how the things work
internally in KRadio, how you could contribute,
...!

Why?

    * KRadio will improve much more and faster!
    * Your name will be in the list of KRadio
authors/sponsors!


Current Features:
* RDS support
* Shortcuts support
* now with PVR (/dev/video24) support by general
purpose streaming plugin
* Pre-Recording - no longer worry about starting
recording too late: The last seconds before the
decision are captured, too
* Improved Timeshift playing - just press pause
when you get interrupted
* Active Playback: For cards that don't use the
line-in loop the sound can be captured from a
special device and played back on the sound card
* ALSA Plugin
* support for V4L and V4L2 based radio card
drivers
* MP3 and Ogg/Vorbis recording (libmp3lame and
libogg/libvorbis required)
* database with station preset files, station
search
* lirc support
* alarms (weekday specific if you wish), stations
and volume may be assigned, types: start/stop
play, start/stop recording
* sleep countdown functions
* docking menu, includes menu entries for
preferred stations
* quickbar, toolbar with buttons for preferred
stations
* icons for stations in quickbar, display, etc.
* error logging window instead of nerving
messageboxes:)
* dynamic plugin library architecture, kradio is
ready for new radio types (e.g. internet radio),
your own radio display, etc.


Changelog:
 2009-02-20
- fix: canceling kradios config dialog
unnecessarily opens sound device, even if nothing
changed
- feature: improve device information on radio
device in v4l config dialog (hints for
permissions, etc)
- some tuning in alsa config mixer settings
- fixed packing of tar.bz2/gz files
- some icon changes to comply more with standard
icon sets
- fix: mute playback channel on power off worked,
but unmute at power on afterwards failed:)
- fix: removed cause of "QPainter::begin: A paint
device can only be painted by one painter at a
time"-msg appearing on some Qt versions
- fix: added some checks in shortcuts and lirc
code
- fix: c&p error in default shortcuts resulted in
shortcut ambiguity
- as long as we are not using the old style
per-plugin-about-stuff, we have the standard KDE
about dialog in place now.
- improved pause handling a lot, it is now
explicit if the system is paused or not


2009-02-19
- polish: give description for "active capture" in
config dialog... perhaps use tooltips?
- polish: provide some PVR-help as tooltips and
normal labels in v4l config and streaming config
- fix: default tab for alsa config is mixer level
settings, should be device selection
- fix: default tab for v4l is options, not devices
- fix: kglobalaccel crashes again on kradio start
 - fix: PVR mode: when recording is switched on
without switching on power before, kradio consumes
100% cpu time (50% system)
- write README.PVR for PVR users
- test streaming plugin (with /dev/urandom as
quasi emulation)
- fix: consistent use of KUrl in Streaming Plugin
- fix: many crashes in stream config possible
- fix: icon for widgets in taskbar broken
- fix: short cuts are not yet well in place
- beautify cmake output of supported features
- fix: quickbar / float does not restore size
properly (size policy has been missing in
quickbar)
- fix: icons for v4l, quickbar
- fix: rename kradio icon to kradio4 like the
application name or let kradio still be named
kradio not kradio4
- fix: docking menu titles
- fix: quickbar behaves strange after config
update, works again after moving mouse over
quickbar window
- fix: pause button crashes if temp file is not
writable
- fix: recording monitor: add makers for dB
numbers
- fix: (re-;-) enable seconds in alarm config page
- fix: set alsa buffer size to 64 kb by default
- fix: time annotation for recorded data does not
work properly (was: buffer management of meta data
in encoder.cpp was broken)
- fix: button "recording" in monitor fails if
power is off
- fix: recording monitor does not notice file name
when recording, does not notice power state
changes, etc...
- fix: applying config changes stops recording
monitor updates (was: bug in prerecording buffer
handling caused stop of capture)
- fix: recording causes buffer overflows (was
caused by broken recording directory extration in
config dialog)
- fix: some states are not stored in kradiorc,
e.g. current station
- fix: standard view does not correlate frequency
with stations correctly (fixed in v4lradio
systematically)
- fix: Config Dialog seems to be parent for many
other widgets / main window (something to do with
"group leader window" ? see KWindowInfo)
- fix: detect strange frequency range settings and
reset to default. might be caused by misbehaving
radio card
- fix: storing of window positions seems not to
work (hide/show stuff)
- fix: why is v4l2 not detected if available?
- fix: v4l2 support always enabled, selectable
explicitly by GUI radio buttons
- add reset button for config dialog
- option for display window type (entry in taskbar
or toolbar window)
- 32kHz support

2009-02-15
- Initial version of RDS support, tested with
dummy data since my card does not have RDS
support. Currently, station scan and the standard
gui and systray icon support RDS Station Names and
RDS Radio Text.
- Initial shortcuts support

2009-02-08                         
   After a long time of silence, this is an
initial port
   to KDE4. It is not intended for productive use,
   however for developers who want to contribute
   fixes/patches and brave users who want to 
   report excessive errors ;-). Please test and 
   report problems and patches!