V 2.0.30, May 5 , 2003

• back  to old video data handling, to fix endless "Cutting video"-Bug on certain stations

V 2.0.29, April 20 , 2003

• BUG fixed in marks.vdr handling, Version 2.0.28 withdrawn

V 2.0.28, April 20 , 2003

• modified video data handling
• BUG fixed concerning autocut with marks.vdr and multi-file input

• added "autocut" of vdr-recordings (using the cuelist from marks.vdr)
• fixed problem with dreambox recordings from "new" Premiere Direkt channels

V 2.0.26, February 3 , 2003

• Win2K-problem ("unable to open audio file") fixed
• fixed problem with certain dreambox recordings

V 2.0.25, December 28 , 2002

• BUGFIX : fixed a bug in video buffer handling, which could cause PVAStrumento to crash (thanks to Linda for pointig this out)
• IMPROVEMENT in audio handling: in certain combinations of video and audio format, audio frames could be "lost" (_periodic_ "missing audio frames").

V 2.0.24.1, December 23 , 2002

• really only minor tweaking in TS-handling:
  with this sub-version PVAStrumento handles DreamBox TS files from Premiere Direkt recordings, as well as transport streams recorded with the "Topfield" recorder (tested with one recording which was kindly given to me)

• added DVB-MPEG2-Transportstream (TS) to the input Formats. Tested with transport streams from the "DreamBox", there is a good chance that it will work with other TS also - please inform me about success (or failure)
• found the problem with certain Linux-VDR recorded streams, that led PVAStrumento to believe that it had an "illegal stream"
• changed the handling of an audio format change (stereo to mono and vice versa, as can be observerd on the ZDV.vision channels): A GOP in which the audio change occurs is now completely thrown away. This should solve the problem with mono-recordings having the stereo packets in the beginning (led to "mickey mouse" sound with certain programs).
• NOTE : PVAStrumento still extracts only the major audio from a recording. Though VDR and certain hard-disk-receiver/recorders are able to record multiple audio, this feature is not yet supported by PVAStrumento (working on it).
• NOTE to DreamBox users : There have been reports that PVAStrumento 2.0.24 will not work with recordings from Premiere Direkt channels. As I do not have a DreamBox myself, it might take a few days to confirm the reports and have the problem fixed.
• NOTE : There have been reports that PVAStrumento has problems writing output on Win2K operating systems.

V 2.0.23a, October 13 , 2002

• BUGFIX : cPVAS crashes on WinXP fixed ; crash with certain input files on WinXP fixed
• NOTE : PVAStrumento not yet tested on WinXP SP1.

V 2.0.23, September 27 , 2002

• NOTE : Dynamically linked versions of PVAStrumento are no longer distributed, only statically linked binaries (including all library routines) are available, because older C-runtime libraries on some systems led to unexpected behaviour of PVAStrumento.
• audio input handling has been modified ; audio misalignements will no longer be reported in the logfile
• PVACut had a problem with PVAStrumento generated PVA files > 2 GB (seems like some kind of buffer problem in PVACut) ; PVAStrumento output has been modified, so that PVACut will now accepts generated PVA > 2GB
• file I/O has been changed from raw I/O to windows functions
• individual info messages for GOPs that are not DVD-compliant are suppressed, insted a summary is given at the end
• when <demux>ing the logfile directory defaulted to the input directory - which could lead to problems when the input directory was read-only; this has been changed to the output directory, as was already the case with <make ps> and <make pva>
  NOTE: since there is no output directory when <scan>ning, PVAStrumento will try to write the logfile in the input directory
• NOTE: checked compatibility with DVD2SVCD ver. 1.0.9 build 2 and DVX 2.29b conversion GUIs ; both work with PVAStrumento 2.0.23
• BUGFIX: Some self-generated PVA-files were not accepted by PVAStrumento
• BUGS, KNOWN:  
  • Still no solution to the "RTL-Problem", see V 2.0.21; Anyone having the same "effect" with other recordings ?
  • Still no overlapping output on multi-file input.

• BUGFIX:  Thanks to an alert user the input-overwriting bug was dicovered fast (see BUG, SERIOUS in Version 2.0.21). This bug has been fixed. You may again savely use jobfiles.
• added a safeguard against inadvertently overwriting the input, in case a user enters the same name for the output as for the input by mistake. 
• tested PVAStrumento V 2.0.22 to run with DVD2SVCD. No need to use older versions with DVD2SVCD anymore
• added an info message when PVAStrumento detects a GOP where the GOP size does not conform to DVD specs (i.e. more than 15 pictures per GOP). To see this message you have to turn logging level at least down to info.
• BUGS, KNOWN: When splitting the output in a muli-file input situation output overlapping will not work. (Multi-file input splitting works fine without overlap and overlap works fine with single file input).

V 2.0.21, September 6 , 2002

• Multi-file input: Multiple input files handled as one input - comes handy when recordings have been autosplit 
• Extracting audio from audio-only recordings through "demux": auto-detecting of radio recordings
• The first GOP at file start as well as GOPs dropped after a missing video frame, are now "closed" by removing the B-frames referring to the previos GOP. Therefore DVD2AVI will now report (correctly !) 0ms audio delay and the cuts on dropped frames are now "clean" (i.e. no more pixelization)
• The job-file syntax has been extended to cover multi-file input and the documentation has been brought up-to-date
• The default for sequence scanning is now "short scan", there should be no use for long scan anymore in normal conditions.
• BUGS, KNOWN, SERIOUS !: When generating a jobfile for conversion to MPEG2 PS this version generates a job that overwrites the input ! Do not use jobfiles from this version !
• BUGS, KNOWN: RTL-Problem: Process recordings from RTL to generate a (supposedly fixed) .pva or .mpg output. Process this output a second time and although this output should be fixed, PVAStrumento report missing frames. Strangely this seems to happen only with recordings from the RTL group ?? To be investigated.
• BUGS, UNKNOWN: Probably a lot.

• BUGFIX: cPVAS would crash on WinXP. Fixed.
• Added a "scan" command in the GUI version: Scans a file and reports errors, does not produce output.
• Added a "run batch" command to GUI version, so GUI can now run pre-created batches
• Additional JOBs can now appended to a batch file
• Output working directory is now remembered between sessions
• BUGS, KNOWN: Helpfile needs updating, SCR calculation needs to be re-done to be able to directly write an SVCD !
• BUGS, UNKNOWN: Probably a lot.

V 2.0.19, April 19, 2002

• BUGFIX: In PVA generation, file splitting would not work. Fixed.
• BUGFIX: The change in SCR calculation would cause "stuttering" on Software DVD-Players. SCRs are now contantly set to Zero, which is wrong and probably causes stand-alone DVD-Players to choke. But at least MPEG2 PSes run smoothly with Software DVD-Players again. The SCR calculation funnily enough seems to be a problem- againl: do not expect PVAStrumento generated MPEG2 PS to run directly on your DVD-Player !
• BUGFIX: Fixed a bug whereby an EOF found during a long sequence scan could cause PVAStrumento to terminate the file early.

• URGENT BUGFIX Release: there was an ugly bug in PVA-generation, which had to be fixed quickly !
• Changed the SCR calculation in MPEG2 PS generation. But it is still not quite right, so still: do not expect PVAStrumento generated MPEG2 PS to run directly on your DVD-Player !

• PVAStrumento can now generate PVA files as output (from either MPEG or PVA input). So you can use the great PVACut program even if your original file was an MPEG2 PS. Just run it once through PVAStrumento, generate a PVA, cut this with PVACut and let the generated PVA run through PVAStrumento again for demuxing or generating a sync MPEG2 PS.
• There is no option to set the GOP PTS anymore. DVD2AVI will again announce a (negative) audio delay. When muxing the original audio and video that has been processed through DVD2AVI you have to honour that audio delay (due to the way DVD2AVI handels un-closed GOPs).
• Again tried to enhance 44.1 kHz audio handling
• NOT FIXED: Still haven't found the reason why the command shell version will crash on certain installations
• POSSIBLY NOT FIXED: Handling of MD8.1b recordings, tried a different approach on analysing the stream data, but not sure, if it works, because I have no test file available.
• NOT FIXED: The documentation generally still reflects version 2.0.16!

• changed syncing behaviour in case a GOP would not cover an integer number of audio frames, "long scan" option not "really" nedded anymore. This results in a much better behaviour with 44.1 kHz audio.
• found and fixed a bug when the first byte of an audio header would be the last byte of a packet, leading to a better behaviour with streams (MPEG2 PS) captured with Hauppauge PVR PCI and PVR PCI II boards.
• fixed a bug in the "split on audio format change" handling
• added an option to set the GOP PTS to either the first I-Frame (will give an DVD2AVI audio delay) or to the first frame in time (DVD2AVI will not report an audio delay). This option does not change the picture PTSes and will have no effect on demuxing and on the data contents of the stream. It just has an effect on what DVD2AVI will believe the audio offset is.
• updated the documentation to reflect the current version of the program

V 2.0.15, Feb 5, 2002

• internal use only, not published

• added an option to split the output when a change in audio format occurs ("Audio tab" - not yet documented)
• corrected the handling of NTSC-recordings (framerate 29.97 fps) and improved handling of unusual GOPs ("No integer A/V frame match" situation).
• checked PVAStrumento usage for Hauppauge's WinTV PVR recordings - which have the usual problems keeping synch. PVAStrumento does its duty here as well.

V 2.0.13, January 25, 2002

• checked handling of MPEG2 PS generated with Hauppauge WinTV PVR - tweaked MPEG2 multiplexing ("make ps") a bit to better handle these MPEG2 PS. Checked that PVAStrumento works as synchronising tool in the toolchain WinTV PVR -> PVAStrumento -> Ulead DVD factory

• bugfix in audio frame detection, where PVAStrumento would incorrectly detect "short audio frames" on some recordings from ARD channels

• fixed problem, when satellite stations would change audio format during transmission (aka "ZDF-Problem")

V 2.0.10, date September 14, 2001

The manual has not yet been updated with the new options !

• fixed an audio bug that was triggered by a change of streaming in the ARD channels - this bug was introduced in Version 2.0.5. PVAStrumento should now also better handle certain MPEG PS files.
• added an option in the "experts" tab and a command to cPVAS jobfiles to drop GOPs with a wrong timestructure or to keep them. The dropping of GOPs with a corrupted time structure had been introduced "silently" in version 2.0.9 in order to make streams compliant with certain DVD authoring software.
• added an option to the "video" tab a command to cPVAS jobfiles to adjust the GOP timecodes to correspond to the PTS times, this had been a feature of the 1.x-Versions of PVAStrumento and was thought to be not needed. But experience tells otherwise.
• checked execution of PVAStrumento 2.0.10 on Windows XP, RC1

V 2.0.9, date August 14, 2001

• changes in MPEG2 PS input handling so that PVAStrumento now can not only digest, correct, and demux DVB-S files but also used to transform MPEG2 recordings with DAZZLE DVCII (also known as FAST DVD.master) to something useful
• minor bugfixes:
  changed the initial setting (on first start of PVAStrumento) of "PTS jitter" to 1000 microseconds, to conform to "Set Defaults"
  fixed the background bitmap which somehow got junked in Version 2.0.8
  loglevel Parameter was ignored in cPVAS (commandshell version) - this is now fixed
• I checked that output from PVAStrumento 2.0.8 and 2.0.9 can be loaded into TMPGENC Beta12i

• Version 2.0.7 had an error which caused it to crash with certain streams
• at least one TV station (SAT.1) now transmits audio sequences where the presentation time for audio frames varies non-linear with the number of frames. For these streams V 2.0.7 introduced an echo effect in the output. This has been fixed in Version 2.0.8

V 2.0.7, date August 9, 2001

• more finetuning of audio frame detection/correction: fixing a problem with new Technotrend Software (2.06) that caused spurios "audio misalignment" errors
• added an option (in "expert" tab) to do a less stringent audio PTS checking. This is necessary for DVD.master generated files and also for some DVB files. Due to "unorthodox" timestamps in audio, you would encounter "missing audio frams" error, where there actually were no audio frames missing.

V 2.0.6, date August 1, 2001

• fixed the bug when playing generated MPEG PS through DirectShow (MediaPlayer etc. would only play audio)
• when file splitting, you can now specify to split (almost) evenly

V 2.0.5, date July 5, 2001

• in 2.03, 2.04 and -finally- 2.05 the adio frame detection has been improved
• when file splitting, you can now have an optional overlap
• added MPEG PS input (in addition to .PVA input)
• numerous bugfixes

V 2.0.2, date Mar. 22, 2001

• found another buffer-overflow that would crash the program on Win2K
• added an option to write packets of unconstrained size in MPEG PS. That way, if you only use the PS on the computer, you gain about 10% in file size (due to the missing padding stream)
• added an option to set the size of a long video scan
• the thread priority can be changed
• input- and output-buffer sizes can be changed through the registry

V 2.0.1, date Mar. 20, 2001

• fixed a bug that caused PVAStrumento to crash with certain streams on Win2K
• changed the audio frame handling a bit, should result in less "misligned audio" alerts
• changed file-I/O to raw read/write. This slows down the program (by about 5%, measured with my setup), but should allow for files > 4GB on Win2K now.

V 2.0.0 initial release