1vdr(1)                        Video Disk Recorder                       vdr(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       vdr - the Video Disk Recorder
7

SYNOPSIS

9       vdr [options]
10

DESCRIPTION

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
16       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 eight DVB cards.   The
22       primary  DVB card (the one your TV set is connected to) can either be a
23       "full featured" card, which means it contains an MPEG decoder and  pro‐
24       vides  audio  and video signal outputs, or you can use some third party
25       plugin that implements software decoding of the MPEG data and  displays
26       it via the system's graphics adapter.
27
28       vdr  uses  an  On Screen Display (OSD) to display its menus.  It can be
29       controlled by the PC keyboard,  the  "Linux  Infrared  Remote  Control"
30       (LIRC),  or  any  other means of remote control, implemented by a third
31       party plugin.
32
33       Remote access is possible via the "Simple Video Disk Recorder Protocol"
34       (SVDRP), which can be accessed on port 6419, for instance by telnet.
35

OPTIONS

37       -a cmd, --audio=cmd
38              Send Dolby Digital audio to stdin of command cmd.
39
40       --cachedir=dir
41              Save  cache  files  in dir (default is to save them in the video
42              directory).
43
44       --chartab=character_table
45              Set the character table to use  for  strings  in  the  DVB  data
46              stream  that  don't  begin with a character table indicator, but
47              don't use the standard default  character  table  (for  instance
48              ISO-8859-9).
49
50       -c dir, --config=dir
51              Read  config  files  from directory dir (default is to read them
52              from /etc/vdr).
53
54       -d, --daemon
55              Run in daemon mode (implies --no-kbd).
56
57       -D num, --device=num
58              Use only the given DVB device (num = 0, 1, 2...).  There may  be
59              several  -D  options  (by default all DVB devices will be used).
60              If -D- is given, no DVB devices will be used at all, independent
61              of any other -D options.
62
63       --dirnames=path[,name[,enc]]
64              Set  the  maximum  directory path length to path (default is the
65              maximum value allowed on the system). If name is also given,  it
66              defines  the maximum directory name length (default is the maxi‐
67              mum value allowed on the system).  The optional enc can be 0  or
68              1,  and  controls  whether special characters in directory names
69              are encoded as hex values (default: 0).  If  path  or  name  are
70              left  empty  (as  in ",,1" to only set enc), the defaults apply.
71              The length of the video directory name and that  of  the  actual
72              recording  directory  is  subtracted from path, to make sure the
73              directory path will never become too long.
74
75       --edit=rec
76              Edit the given recording.  rec must be the full path name of  an
77              existing  recording.   The program will return immediately after
78              editing the recording.
79
80       -E file, --epgfile=file
81              Write the EPG data into the given file (default is  epg.data  in
82              the  cache  directory).   Use -E- to disable this.  If file is a
83              directory, the file epg.data will be created in that directory.
84
85       --filesize=size
86              Limit video files to size bytes (default is 2000M).  This option
87              is only useful in conjunction with --edit, and must precede that
88              option to have an effect.  size is an integer number and may  be
89              followed by one of the letters K, M, G or T to abbreviate Kilo-,
90              Mega-, Giga- or Terabyte,  respectively.   The  given  value  is
91              silently  limited  to the program's internal minimum and maximum
92              values.
93
94       --genindex=rec
95              Generate the index file for the given recording.   rec  must  be
96              the full path name of an existing recording.  The recording must
97              be in TS format.  If the recording already has an index file, it
98              will  be  deleted before creating the new one.  The program will
99              return immediately after generating the index.  Note that  using
100              this option while another instance of VDR is currently replaying
101              the given recording, or if the recording has not  been  finished
102              yet, may lead to unexpected results.
103
104       -g, --grab=dir
105              Write  images  from the SVDRP command GRAB into the given direc‐
106              tory dir. dir must be the full path name of an  existing  direc‐
107              tory,  without  any "..", double '/' or symlinks. By default, or
108              if -g- is given, grabbing images to disk is disabled.
109
110       -h, --help
111              Print a help message and exit.
112
113       -i instance, --instance=instance
114              Use instance as the id of this VDR instance (default is 0).   In
115              an environment where several instances of VDR use the same video
116              directory, this parameter can be set to a positive integer value
117              that's  unique  for  each instance, so that they won't interfere
118              with each other in case they record exactly the same  broadcast.
119              The  number  given  here  will  be part of the directory name in
120              which the recordings will be stored.
121
122       -l level, --log=level
123              Set logging to level.  0 = no logging, 1 = errors only,  2 = er‐
124              rors  and info, 3 = errors, info and debug.  The default logging
125              level is 3.  If logging should be done to LOG_LOCALn instead  of
126              LOG_USER, add '.n' to LEVEL, as in 3.7 (n=0..7).
127
128       -L dir, --lib=dir
129              Search for plugins in directory dir (default is /usr/lib64/vdr).
130              There can be several -L options with different dir values.  Each
131              of them will apply to the -P options following it.
132
133       --lirc[=path]
134              Use  a LIRC remote control device.  If path is omitted, vdr uses
135              /var/run/lirc/lircd.
136
137       --localedir=dir
138              Search for locale files in dir (default is ./locale).
139
140       -m, --mute
141              Mute audio of the primary DVB device at startup.
142
143       --no-kbd
144              Don't use the keyboard as an input device.
145
146       -p port, --port=port
147              Use port for SVDRP. A value of 0 turns off SVDRP.   The  default
148              SVDRP  port  is 6419.  You need to edit the file svdrphosts.conf
149              in order to enable access to the SVDRP  port  from  hosts  other
150              than the localhosts.  Note that this option only changes the TCP
151              port used for SVDRP commands.  The UDP port for discovering peer
152              VDRs  in  the  same  network  is always set to 6419 and can't be
153              changed.
154
155       -P options, --plugin=options
156              Load a plugin, defined by the given options.  The first word  in
157              options  must  be the name of an existing vdr plugin, optionally
158              followed by a blank separated list of command line  options  for
159              that plugin. If options contains any blanks, you need to enclose
160              it in quotes, like for example
161
162              vdr -P "abc -a -b xyz"
163
164              which would load a plugin named abc, giving it the command  line
165              options  -a -b xyz.  If  you  want to load all available plugins
166              (without any particular options) you can use
167
168              vdr -P "*"
169
170              (note the quotes around the asterisk to prevent wildcard  expan‐
171              sion).
172
173       -r cmd, --record=cmd
174              Call  cmd before and after a recording. See the file INSTALL for
175              more information.
176
177       --resdir=dir
178              Read resource files from dir (default is to read them  from  the
179              config directory).
180
181       --showargs[=dir]
182              Read    command    line   arguments   from   dir   (default   is
183              /etc/vdr/conf.d), display them to the console and exit.
184
185       -s cmd, --shutdown=cmd
186              Call cmd to shutdown the computer. See the file INSTALL for more
187              information.
188
189       --split
190              Split  edited  files  at the editing marks.  This option is only
191              useful in conjunction with --edit, and must precede that  option
192              to have an effect.
193
194       -t tty, --terminal=tty
195              Set the controlling terminal.
196
197       -u user, --user=user
198              Run as user user in case vdr was started as user 'root'.  Start‐
199              ing vdr as 'root' is necessary if the system time shall  be  set
200              from  the  transponder  data,  but  for security reasons vdr can
201              switch to a lesser privileged user id during  normal  operation.
202              user can be a user name or a numerical id.
203
204       --updindex=rec
205              Update  the index file for the given recording.  rec must be the
206              full path name of an existing recording.  The recording must  be
207              in  TS  format.   If the recording already has an index file, it
208              will be checked whether it is complete, and will be  updated  if
209              it  isn't. If there is no index file yet, a new one will be gen‐
210              erated.  The program will return immediately after updating  the
211              index.   Note  that  using this option while another instance of
212              VDR is currently  replaying  the  given  recording,  or  if  the
213              recording  has not been finished yet, may lead to unexpected re‐
214              sults.
215
216       --userdump
217              Allow coredumps if -u is given (only for debugging).
218
219       --vfat For backwards compatibility (same as --dirnames= 250,40,1).
220
221       -v dir, --video=dir
222              Use dir as video directory.  The default is /var/lib/vdr/video.
223
224       -V, --version
225              Print version information and exit.
226
227       -w sec, --watchdog=sec
228              Activate the watchdog timer with a timeout of  sec  seconds.   A
229              value of 0 (default) disables the watchdog.
230
231       If  started without any options, vdr tries to read command line options
232       from files named '*.conf' in the directory /etc/vdr/conf.d.  Files  are
233       read in alphabetical order. See vdr(5) for details.
234

SIGNALS

236       SIGINT, SIGTERM
237              Program exits with status 0.
238
239       SIGHUP Program exits with status 1. This can be used to force a reload,
240              for example if an update has been installed.
241

EXIT STATUS

243       0      Successful program execution.
244
245       1      An error has been detected which requires the DVB driver and vdr
246              to be reloaded.
247
248       2      An non-recoverable error has been detected, vdr has given up.
249

FILES

251       channels.conf
252              Channel configuration.
253
254       timers.conf
255              Timer configuration.
256
257       setup.conf
258              User definable setup.
259
260       commands.conf
261              User definable commands (executed from the Commands menu).
262
263       svdrphosts.conf
264              SVDRP  host  configuration, defining which hosts or networks are
265              given access to the SVDRP port.
266
267       marks  Contains the editing marks defined for a recording.
268
269       info   Contains a description of the recording.
270
271       resume Contains the index into the recording where the last replay ses‐
272              sion left off.
273
274       index  Contains  the  file number, offset and type of each frame of the
275              recording.
276
277       remote.conf
278              Contains the key assignments for the remote control.
279
280       keymacros.conf
281              Contains user defined remote control key macros.
282
283       00001.ts ... 65535.ts
284              The actual data files of a recording.
285
286       epg.data
287              Contains all current EPG data. Can be used for external process‐
288              ing  and  will  also be read at program startup to have the full
289              EPG data available immediately.
290
291       donerecs.data
292              Contains the names of recordings that have been done by  pattern
293              timers  with  '@'  as  the  first character of the pattern. File
294              names are appended to this file after a recording has  finished,
295              and the entire file is read upon startup of VDR.
296
297       .update
298              If this file is present in the video directory, its last modifi‐
299              cation time will be used to trigger an update  of  the  list  of
300              recordings in the "Recordings" menu.
301

SEE ALSO

303       vdr(5),svdrpsend(1)
304

AUTHOR

306       Written by Klaus Schmidinger, with contributions from many others.  See
307       the file CONTRIBUTORS in the vdr source distribution.
308

REPORTING BUGS

310       Report bugs to <vdr-bugs@tvdr.de>.
311
313       Copyright © 2021 Klaus Schmidinger.
314
315       This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is
316       NO  warranty;  not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
317       PURPOSE.
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3212.6                               27 Dec 2021                           vdr(1)
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