1vdr(8) Video Disk Recorder vdr(8)
2
6 vdr - the Video Disk Recorder
7
9 vdr [options]
10
12 vdr implements a complete digital Set-Top Box and Video Recorder. It
13 can work with signals received from satellites (DVB-S) as well as cable
14 (DVB-C) and terrestrial (DVB-T) signals.
15 At least one DVB card is required to run vdr. With it you can watch
17 live TV while recording one or more other broadcasts from the same
18 transponder. It is also possible to start watching a recorded pro‐
19 gramme before the live broadcast has ended (time shifting). In order to
20 record from different transponders simultaneously two or more DVB cards
21 are necessary. By default vdr can support up to four DVB cards. The
22 primary DVB card (the one your TV set is connected to) has to be a
23 "full featured" card, which means it must contain an MPEG decoder and
24 provide audio and video signal outputs.
25 vdr uses the On Screen Display of the DVB card to display its menus.
27 It can be controlled by the PC keyboard, a home built "Remote Control
28 Unit" (RCU) or the "Linux Infrared Remote Control" (LIRC).
29 Remote access is possible via the "Simple Video Disk Recorder Protocol"
31 (SVDRP), which can be accessed on port 2001, for instance by telnet.
32
34 -a cmd, --audio=cmd
35 Send Dolby Digital audio to stdin of command cmd.
36 -c dir, --config=dir
38 Read config files from directory dir (default is to read them
39 from /etc/vdr).
40 -d, --daemon
42 Run in daemon mode (implies --no-kbd).
43 -D num, --device=num
45 Use only the given DVB device (num = 0, 1, 2...). There may be
46 several -D options (by default all DVB devices will be used).
47 -E file, --epgfile=file
49 Write the EPG data into the given file (default is
50 /var/cache/vdr/epg.data). Use -E- to disable this. If file is
51 a directory, the file epg.data will be created in that direc‐
52 tory.
53 -g, --grab=dir
55 Write images from the SVDRP command GRAB into the given direc‐
56 tory dir. dir must be the full path name of an existing direc‐
57 tory, without any "..", double '/' or symlinks. By default, or
58 if -g- is given, grabbing images to disk is disabled.
59 -h, --help
61 Print a help message and exit.
62 -l level, --log=level
64 Set logging to level. 0 = no logging, 1 = errors only,
65 2 = errors and info, 3 = errors, info and debug. The default
66 logging level is 3. If logging should be done to LOG_LOCALn
67 instead of LOG_USER, add '.n' to LEVEL, as in 3.7 (n=0..7).
68 -L dir, --lib=dir
70 Search for plugins in directory dir (default is /usr/lib64/vdr).
71 There can be several -L options with different dir values. Each
72 of them will apply to the -P options following it.
73 --lirc[=path]
75 Use a LIRC remote control device. If path is omitted, vdr uses
76 /var/run/lirc/lircd.
77 --localedir=dir
79 Search for locale files in dir (default is ./locale).
80 -m, --mute
82 Mute audio of the primary DVB device at startup.
83 --no-kbd
85 Don't use the keyboard as an input device.
86 -p port, --port=port
88 Use port for SVDRP. A value of 0 turns off SVDRP. The default
89 SVDRP port is 2001. You need to edit the file svdrphosts.conf
90 in order to enable access to the SVDRP port.
91 -P options, --plugin=options
93 Load a plugin, defined by the given options. The first word in
94 options must be the name of an existing vdr plugin, optionally
95 followed by a blank separated list of command line options for
96 that plugin. If options contains any blanks, you need to enclose
97 it in quotes, like for example
98 vdr -P "abc -a -b xyz"
100 which would load a plugin named abc, giving it the command line
102 options -a -b xyz. If you want to load all available plugins
103 (without any particular options) you can use
104 vdr -P "*"
106 (note the quotes around the asterisk to prevent wildcard expan‐
108 sion).
109 --rcu[=path]
111 Use a serial port remote control device. If path is omitted,
112 vdr uses /dev/ttyS1.
113 -r cmd, --record=cmd
115 Call cmd before and after a recording. See the file INSTALL for
116 more information.
117 -s cmd, --shutdown=cmd
119 Call cmd to shutdown the computer. See the file INSTALL for more
120 information.
121 -t tty, --terminal=tty
123 Set the controlling terminal.
124 -u user, --user=user
126 Run as user user in case vdr was started as user 'root'. Start‐
127 ing vdr as 'root' is necessary if the system time shall be set
128 from the transponder data, but for security reasons vdr can
129 switch to a lesser privileged user id during normal operation.
130 --userdump
132 allow coredumps if -u is given (only for debugging).
133 --vfat Encode special characters in recording names to avoid problems
135 with VFAT file systems.
136 -v dir, --video=dir
138 Use dir as video directory. The default is /var/lib/vdr/video.
139 -V, --version
141 Print version information and exit.
142 -w sec, --watchdog=sec
144 Activate the watchdog timer with a timeout of sec seconds. A
145 value of 0 (default) disables the watchdog.
146
148 SIGINT, SIGTERM
149 Program exits with status 0.
150 SIGHUP Program exits with status 1. This can be used to force a reload,
152 for example if an update has been installed.
153
155 0 Successful program execution.
156 1 An error has been detected which requires the DVB driver and vdr
158 to be reloaded.
159 2 An non-recoverable error has been detected, vdr has given up.
161
163 channels.conf
164 Channel configuration.
165 timers.conf
167 Timer configuration.
168 setup.conf
170 User definable setup.
171 commands.conf
173 User definable commands (executed from the Commands menu).
174 svdrphosts.conf
176 SVDRP host configuration, defining which hosts or networks are
177 given access to the SVDRP port.
178 marks.vdr
180 Contains the editing marks defined for a recording.
181 info.vdr
183 Contains a description of the recording.
184 resume.vdr
186 Contains the index into the recording where the last replay ses‐
187 sion left off.
188 index.vdr
190 Contains the file number, offset and type of each frame of the
191 recording.
192 remote.conf
194 Contains the key assignments for the remote control.
195 keymacros.conf
197 Contains user defined remote control key macros.
198 001.vdr ... 255.vdr
200 The actual data files of a recording.
201 epg.data
203 Contains all current EPG data. Can be used for external process‐
204 ing and will also be read at program startup to have the full
205 EPG data available immediately.
206 .update
208 If this file is present in the video directory, its last modifi‐
209 cation time will be used to trigger an update of the list of
210 recordings in the "Recordings" menu.
211
213 vdr(5)
214
216 Written by Klaus Schmidinger, with contributions from many others. See
217 the file CONTRIBUTORS in the vdr source distribution.
218
220 Report bugs to <vdr-bugs@cadsoft.de>.
221
223 Copyright © 2008 Klaus Schmidinger.
224 This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is
226 NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
227 PURPOSE.
2281.6 10 Feb 2008 vdr(8)