Klaus describes the changes in 1.7.17 compared to its predecessor like this:

"This version introduces support for TrueColor OSD. Note, though, that output plugins need to be enhanced in order to support actual TrueColor display (if the device they control can handle TrueColor). Also, skins that want to make use of TrueColor may need to be adapted to the new interface using cPixmap.

The changes since version 1.7.16:

• Updated the Estonian OSD texts (thanks to Arthur Konovalov).
• Fixed following symbolic links in RemoveFileOrDir() (cont'd) (thanks to Steffen Barszus).
• Changed the description of cDevice::GetSTC() to make it mandatory for devicesthat can replay.
• Removed the check for positive STC values from cDvbSubtitleConverter::Action().
• Added cString::operator=(const char *String) (suggested by Antti Seppälä).
• Some spelling fixes (thanks to Ville Skyttä).
• Passing package name and version to xgettext (thanks to Ville Skyttä).
• Made 'dist' target dependent on up to date *.po (thanks to Ville Skyttä).
• Added Language and fixed Language-Team header of *.po (thanks to Ville Skyttä).
• Updated the Lithuanian OSD texts (thanks to Valdemaras Pipiras).
• Fixed detecting frames on channels that broadcast with 50 or 60 fps. This avoids artifacts during fast forward/rewind when replaying recordings from such channels. To fix the index of existing recordings from such channels, just delete the 'index' file of the recording and VDR will generate a new one the next time you play it. You should also change the line "F 25" to "F 50" in the 'info' file of that recording.
• Added support for "registration descriptor" to 'libsi' and using it in pat.c (thanks to Rolf Ahrenberg).
• Fixed unjustified log entries about changed channel pids (reported by Derek Kelly).
• Added an include of VDR's 'Make.global' to libsi's Makefile (thanks to Rolf Ahrenberg).
• Removed displaying the "contents" information from the "Classic VDR" and "ST:TNG Panels" skins, because it is often wrong and nothing but irritating.
• Added typecasts to avoid gcc 4.5 warnings in switch statements on eKeys variables where additional 'k_...' flags are used.
• Fixed inclusion of <stdarg.h> (thanks to Henning Heinold).
• Changed "frame duration" to "frame rate" in vdr.5 (reported by Tobias Grimm).
• Removing a cRemote from the Remotes list in case its initialization failed (thanks to Dominik Strasser).
• Added LDFLAGS to the linker calls in the Makefiles (thanks to Joerg Bornkessel and Paul Menzel).
• Now updating the 'frames per second' data in the list of recordings when a new recording is started that has a frame rate other than the default.
• The include path to the freetype2 header files is now retrieved via a call to 'pkg-config --cflags freetype2' (suggested by Andreas Oberritter).
• The OSD now has full TrueColor support. There can be several "pixmaps" that can be overlayed with alpha blending. All existing skins should work out of the box with the TrueColor OSD - the only exception being cOsd::GetBitmap(). Since the TrueColor OSD doesn't use bitmaps, this function will return a dummy bitmap, which may not be what the plugin expects. As long as this bitmap is only used for setting the palette, there is no problem. However, any other operations on this bitmap will have no effect. See the description of the cPixmap functions in osd.h for details about the new functionalities.
  • The "ST:TNG Panels" skin has been enhanced to automatically use the TrueColor OSD if available.
  • The "osddemo" plugin has been extended to show some of the possibilities of the TrueColor OSD if it is run on a system that actually provides TrueColor support. Thanks to Reinhard Nissl for some valuable input, help with debugging, and an implementation of the AlphaBlend() function.
• Updated the Slovakian language texts (thanks to Milan Hrala).
• Added Serbian language texts (thanks to Milan Cvijanovic).
• Fixed reallocating memory in the "pictures" plugin (reported by Paul Menzel, with input from Oliver Endriss).
• Fixed reallocating memory in cTsToPes::PutTs() (suggested by Oliver Endriss).
• Now checking the result of all realloc() calls.
• Fixed setting up the 'Recordings' menu in case there are several recordings with exactly the same name (reported by Marcus Hilbrich).
• Setting the audio type of language descriptors to 0x00 in the PAT/PMT generator (thanks to Anssi Hannula).
• Changed the compiler optimization flag to -O3, which gives quite a performance boost in the AlphaBlend() function.
• While replaying, the editing marks are now updated every 10 seconds (based on a patch from Manuel Reimer).
• Now reducing the thread and I/O priority cCuttingThread::Action() to make the foreground process more responsive (suggested by Frank Neumann).
• Removed checking for minimum line length of 21 characters in the LIRC receiver code (reported by Gerald Dachs).
• Updated the Romanian OSD texts (thanks to Lucian Muresan).
• Now storing the original display size when handling DVB subtitles (thanks to Reinhard Nissl).
• The original display size of subtitles is now used to scale them properly when displaying them on an HD OSD."

The yaVDR team will, as always, immediately start to experiment with new VDR version. Information about earlier VDR developer versions of the 1.7 branch can be found in this overview.