Investigation into getting Chinese EPG in OpenPLi/enigma2

[i1646tvk84423]

Look at my msg #3 above. See the pix. Set EPG Lang 1 and 2 as English.

[Deep Impact]

I've succeeded in getting Chinese EPG (specifically from SG Starhub) on OpenPLi 2.1 & enigma2, and I thought I share what I found and did. I'm a newbie on the scene so don't take what I say as the absolute truth. I'm still investigating and learning.

Side note: I understand cnigma2 (created by http://freedmx.net/?79) is a mod of enigma2 to support Chinese, but all I can find are .nfi binary images. Called me paranoid but I simply don't trust software from the scene without source code. (This is the reason I chose OpenPLi in the first place.)

-- Part 1 --

Now, embedded in the DVB streams is something called DVB-SI (service information), which I read up @ http://www.dvb.org/technology/standa...468v1.12.1.pdf.

Side note: From section 5.2.5, you can see how your STB get its time. Using dvbsnoop (dvbsnoop - DVB Stream Analyzer, MPEG Analyzer), I observe a TDT (time and date table) packet every 3 seconds.

Using dvbsnoop (see dvbsnoop - A DVB Stream Analyzer Tool, Example: Event Information Table for EIT (event info table) examples), for a Chinese programme, I see SH broadcast two short event descriptors (see section 6.2.37), one for English and one for Chinese. The ISO639 lang code for Chinese is "chi".

For non-English (or non-Latin lang), the "event_name_char" and "text_char" are to be encoded as specified in Annex A.

In Annex A.2, it says that if the first byte is less than 0x20, it denotes the encoding to be used, otherwise it is normal data.

SH violates this aspect. When the data is Chinese, it is sending it as UTF8 without putting a extra "0x15" byte (see table A.3) in front. Our STB, adhering to the spec, (including dvbsnoop) simply assumes it is normal data and uses Latin charset (ISO8859) to display it.

Example: The character "ju" is, as shown in Unicode codepoint lookup/search tool is encoded by three octets: 0xe5 0x89 0xa7. If the STB is aware they're UTF8, it will display these three octets as a single character; if it doesn't it will display these three octets as three separate characters, which is the case currently.

-- End of Part 1 --

Hi TS, great to see Chinese EPG in OpenPLi image I'm using OpenPLI gjstroom for my DM800SE as well, i read ur post but i'm not really good in edit stuff and frankly speak, i don't understand at all how u get this done can u guide me for a-z or can u upload all the necessary file that i can just use DCC to copy & overwrite existing file to get it work ? for ur info my current PLI image with all plugin @ 43~44mb.... and can u let me now all the directory for file replacement if possible... TQ

[i1646tvk84423]

1. Get gjstroom's OpenPLi 2.1 DM800se image dated 2013-Jan-15 here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/39vuaxhszg...im2-ssl84b.nfi
   If your gjstroom image is not dated 2013-Jan-15, there is a chance it might not work. The further the age of your image is from 2013-Jan-15, the higher chance it will not work, cos things might have changed.
2. Click the POWER button on your remote, to put DM800se into standby.
   This is needed, cos we don't want enigma2 to be running while we're doing all these.
3. Download https://www.dropbox.com/s/vkh7glxoiviy8z8/encoding.conf
   FTP this file "encoding" to DM800se in directory /etc/enigma2/
4. Download https://www.dropbox.com/s/q2aiiuvu84xheus/enigma2
   FTP this file "enigma2" to DM800se in directory /usr/bin/
5. Download https://www.dropbox.com/s/qabfprzj9h...UsageConfig.py
   FTP this file "UsageConfig.py" to DM800se in directory /usr/lib/enigma2/python/Components/
6. If you like bigger fonts for your EPG, download https://www.dropbox.com/s/30rg0xg6gkiia6o/skin.xml. Otherwise, to stay with the normal sized fonts, download https://www.dropbox.com/s/p453i96xgwzqayo/skin.xml.
   FTP this file "skin.xml" to DM800se in directory /usr/share/enigma2/PLi-HD/
7. Download http://code.google.com/p/kingfont/do...iHei%20Pro.ttf
   1. Rename the file from "LiHei Pro.ttf" to "liheipro.ttf"
   2. FTP this file "liheipro.ttf" to DM800se in directory /usr/share/fonts/
   
   
   
8. Change your EPG language 1 to Chinese, and EPG language 2 to English, as shown:
9. Reboot DM800se

For extra credits, you can edit bouquet to use Chinese for Chinese channels. As far as I can tell, DreamboxEdit does not support UTF-8, so you've to use another editor.



Note: I've enlarged the fonts to cater to old folks like myself.

[Deep Impact]

1. Get gjstroom's OpenPLi 2.1 DM800se image dated 2013-Jan-15 here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/39vuaxhszg...im2-ssl84b.nfi
   If your gjstroom image is not dated 2013-Jan-15, there is a chance it might not work. The further the age of your image is from 2013-Jan-15, the higher chance it will not work, cos things might have changed.
2. Click the POWER button on your remote, to put DM800se into standby.
   This is needed, cos we don't want enigma2 to be running while we're doing all these.
3. Download https://www.dropbox.com/s/vkh7glxoiviy8z8/encoding.conf
   FTP this file "encoding" to DM800se in directory /etc/enigma2/
4. Download https://www.dropbox.com/s/q2aiiuvu84xheus/enigma2
   FTP this file "enigma2" to DM800se in directory /usr/bin/
5. Download https://www.dropbox.com/s/qabfprzj9h...UsageConfig.py
   FTP this file "UsageConfig.py" to DM800se in directory /usr/lib/enigma2/python/Components/
6. Download https://www.dropbox.com/s/30rg0xg6gkiia6o/skin.xml
   FTP this file "skin.xml" to DM800se in directory /usr/share/enigma2/PLi-HD/
7. Download LiHei Pro.ttf - kingfont - LiHei Pro - king????? - Google Project Hosting
   1. Rename the file from "LiHei Pro.ttf" to "liheipro.ttf"
   2. FTP this file "liheipro.ttf" to DM800se in directory /usr/share/fonts/
8. Change your EPG language 1 to Chinese, and EPG language 2 to English, as shown:
9. Reboot DM800se

For extra credits, you can edit bouquet to use Chinese for Chinese channels. As far as I can tell, DreamboxEdit does not support UTF-8, so you've to use another editor.



Note: I've enlarged the fonts to cater to old folks like myself.

thanks for your prompt reply.... appreciate
Just wanna check with you few more things :

(1) if i don't need the big fonts size, i don't need to ftp the part (6) right ?

(2) may i know where is openpli download chinese EPG from...? i mean be default source it can get chinese EPG after mod or i still need to download some Cnigma plugin like epg helper (EPG***21161;***25163;?)

(3) DreamboxEdit does not support UTF-8... do you know any others software can support UTF-8 on english version window ?

Thanks again

[i1646tvk84423]

Step 6 does two things: 1. Use the liheipro.ttf as the font. 2. Make font bigger. If u don't want bigger size, I'll have to give u another skin.xml

Above 9 steps is all that's required, no other plugins required. The Chinese EPG data comes from SH thru the cable. By default, your DM800se is just not showing them to u.

I've tried so I know DreamboxEdit doesn't work. Fed up, I manually edit lamedb myself. I've no answer for u hence this is a bonus activity perhaps others have a better answer.

[Deep Impact]

Step 6 does two things: 1. Use the liheipro.ttf as the font. 2. Make font bigger. If u don't want bigger size, I'll have to give u another skin.xml

Above 9 steps is all that's required, no other plugins required. The Chinese EPG data comes from SH thru the cable. By default, your DM800se is just not showing them to u.

I've tried so I know DreamboxEdit doesn't work. Fed up, I manually edit lamedb myself. I've no answer for u hence this is a bonus activity perhaps others have a better answer.

thanks bro.... actually i want to try it on my china satellite 6A 6B...

[flye]

i don't know if this is useful but here's a chinese version of dreamedit that i have found

http://db.tt/WSn02Chz

[i1646tvk84423]

thanks bro.... actually i want to try it on my china satellite 6A 6B...

I've amended step #6 in the original msg, to reflect the choice of bigger fonts.

Are u in CN or SG?

[avp3]

I am very interesting in your work. Actually I am always looking for an clone IMG supporting Chinese EPG since clone DM800C is employed by me. I have some kind comments to your work.
1. The font you used is too large. Actually some font supporting Chinese is only 2M instead of 10 M. You can find some fonts here http://www.font5.com.cn/fontlist/fontlist_1_1.html.
2. Some Chinese DM800 owners made some IMGs supporting Chinese EPG by modifying the file libdvdsi++. Only this file is modified and I had tested that it can be applied for almost all IMGs and makes them correctly supporting Chinese EPG (the recently Openpli IMG is not supported). The only drawback is that when you use it for recording operation by EPG the machine cannot restart. Otherwise there is an error information on the screen after DM800 restarts, and the recording does not take effect. When you do not restart you DM800 after the recording operation by EPG, no error happens and the recording works perfectly.

Could you please make the related files for an openpli IMG of clone DM800, thank you for your kind help in advanced. I used your files for a clone DM800C and it cannot start. Maybe the Enigma file is different from that of DM800SE.

[ppbestin]

DM500C,SINGAPORE

I've succeeded in getting Chinese EPG (specifically from SG Starhub) on OpenPLi 2.1 & enigma2, and I thought I share what I found and did. I'm a newbie on the scene so don't take what I say as the absolute truth. I'm still investigating and learning.

Side note: I understand cnigma2 (created by http://freedmx.net/?79) is a mod of enigma2 to support Chinese, but all I can find are .nfi binary images. Called me paranoid but I simply don't trust software from the scene without source code. (This is the reason I chose OpenPLi in the first place.)

-- Part 1 --

Now, embedded in the DVB streams is something called DVB-SI (service information), which I read up @ http://www.dvb.org/technology/standa...468v1.12.1.pdf.

Side note: From section 5.2.5, you can see how your STB get its time. Using dvbsnoop (dvbsnoop - DVB Stream Analyzer, MPEG Analyzer), I observe a TDT (time and date table) packet every 3 seconds.

Using dvbsnoop (see dvbsnoop - A DVB Stream Analyzer Tool, Example: Event Information Table for EIT (event info table) examples), for a Chinese programme, I see SH broadcast two short event descriptors (see section 6.2.37), one for English and one for Chinese. The ISO639 lang code for Chinese is "chi".

For non-English (or non-Latin lang), the "event_name_char" and "text_char" are to be encoded as specified in Annex A.

In Annex A.2, it says that if the first byte is less than 0x20, it denotes the encoding to be used, otherwise it is normal data.

SH violates this aspect. When the data is Chinese, it is sending it as UTF8 without putting a extra "0x15" byte (see table A.3) in front. Our STB, adhering to the spec, (including dvbsnoop) simply assumes it is normal data and uses Latin charset (ISO8859) to display it.

Example: The character "ju" is, as shown in Unicode codepoint lookup/search tool is encoded by three octets: 0xe5 0x89 0xa7. If the STB is aware they're UTF8, it will display these three octets as a single character; if it doesn't it will display these three octets as three separate characters, which is the case currently.

-- End of Part 1 --

DO YOU HAVE ANEY FLASH FOR DM500C USING IN SINGAPORE

[i1646tvk84423]

1. The font you used is too large. Actually some font supporting Chinese is only 2M instead of 10 M. You can find some fonts here http://www.font5.com.cn/fontlist/fontlist_1_1.html.

Thanks for the info. Like I said, I'm not an expert of fonts. I simply use what I've on hand.

2. Some Chinese DM800 owners made some IMGs supporting Chinese EPG by modifying the file libdvdsi++. Only this file is modified and I had tested that it can be applied for almost all IMGs and makes them correctly supporting Chinese EPG (the recently Openpli IMG is not supported). The only drawback is that when you use it for recording operation by EPG the machine cannot restart. Otherwise there is an error information on the screen after DM800 restarts, and the recording does not take effect. When you do not restart you DM800 after the recording operation by EPG, no error happens and the recording works perfectly.

Interesting. Did these Chinese users say how/what they change so that I can learn as well.

Could you please make the related files for an openpli IMG of clone DM800, thank you for your kind help in advanced. I used your files for a clone DM800C and it cannot start. Maybe the Enigma file is different from that of DM800SE.

DM800 and DM800se have different CPU so I'm not surprised it did not work. I can probably compile for DM800; give me a week or so during this holiday season. Cheers.

[avp3]

Thanks for the info. Like I said, I'm not an expert of fonts. I simply use what I've on hand.



1. Interesting. Did these Chinese users say how/what they change so that I can learn as well.



2. DM800 and DM800se have different CPU so I'm not surprised it did not work. I can probably compile for DM800; give me a week or so during this holiday season. Cheers.

1. The related information is here
http://www.tvrofans.org/viewthread.p...ht=dm800%2Bepg.

If you cannot read Chinese I will translate them to English later with more details. The main ideal is that most IMGs now closed their source codes. However, only one file libdvdsi++ can be applied to correctly show Chinese EPG and only that file needs to be modified. Now in the file libdvdsi++ the charts transformation function is included without other parts, for example enigma, to be modified. The unicode chart is transformed to GBK chart in this file. And I found almost all IMG (Merlin, DDD, Newnigma, Domica, Oozoon, Dream-Elite, GP3, but except the state-of-art Openpli. I love DM800 and enjoy testing different IMGs and like the abroad clone IMGs) can correctly show GBK Chinese font by applying this file. But there is one drawback in using this file, DM800 cannot restart, otherwise the planned recording will not work. This drawback makes me can not shutdown my DM800C.

Another work to successfully show Chinese GBK EPG is here
http://www.tvrofans.org/thread-25315-1-1.html
It works for most IMGs. But not all parts are correctly shown. The files including source code of py files. Maybe you can get some clues from them.

If you have problem to download these files please send message to me.

2. Whether you file support GBK Chinese font. Maybe I need the files supporting GBK EPG. I replaced "enigma" file, DM800 can boot without error. But Chinese EPG is not correctly shown. I use other way to modified other files as you mentioned.

Hope you work can solve the problem of Chinese GBK EPG showing without drawback, thus many people can obtain benefits from your work. If you success, I will introduce your works to DM800 users in China.

[flye]

Thanks for the info. Like I said, I'm not an expert of fonts. I simply use what I've on hand.



Interesting. Did these Chinese users say how/what they change so that I can learn as well.



DM800 and DM800se have different CPU so I'm not surprised it did not work. I can probably compile for DM800; give me a week or so during this holiday season. Cheers.

your files works on DM800 too, my box is not the SE



i have shared my image for here for everyone to enjoy your great work, hope you don't mind my friend.

http://www.digital-kaos.co.uk/forums/downloads/images/2/openpli-singapore-edition-2013-2476/

[avp3]

your files works on DM800 too, my box is not the SE



i have shared my image for here for everyone to enjoy your great work, hope you don't mind my friend.

Digital Kaos - Downloads - Openpli Singapore edition 2013 for DM800HD

Thank you for your kind share. I test it. Maybe it can show Chinese EPG from satellite, but it cannot correctly show GB2132 Chinese EPG from cable.

[i1646tvk84423]

I've briefly looked at the discussion on tvrofans.org. I don't fully understand how libdvbsi++ is involved. I've to spend more time on it.

At this time, my comments are:

Those guys are talking abt their situation in China right? Does it apply to SG? Even if the provider complies to DVB-SI spec, (I believe) most images do not have Unicode fonts so they will show garbage. On top of this, SG SH is not compliant, as shown in part 1 of my investigation above.