1vdr(5) Video Disk Recorder Files vdr(5)
2
6 vdr_files - the Video Disk Recorder Files
7
9 This page describes the formats of the various files vdr uses to store
10 configuration data and recordings.
11
13 CHANNELS
14 The file channels.conf contains the channel configuration. Each line
15 defines either a group delimiter or a channel.
16 A group delimiter is a line starting with a ':' as the very first char‐
18 acter, followed by arbitrary text. Example:
19 :First group
21 Group delimiters may also be used to specify the number of the next
23 channel. To do this, the character '@' and a number must immediately
24 follow the ':', as in
25 :@201 First group
27 The given number must be larger than the number of any previous channel
29 (otherwise it is silently ignored).
30 A group delimiter can also be used to just set the next channel's num‐
32 ber, without an explicit delimiter text, as in
33 :@201
35 Such a delimiter will not appear in the Channels menu.
37 A channel definition is a line with channel data, where the fields are
39 separated by ':' characters. Example:
40 RTL Television,RTL;RTL World:12187:hC34M2O0S0:S19.2E:27500:163=2:104=deu;106=deu:105:0:12003:1:1089:0
43 The line number of a channel definition (not counting group separators,
45 and based on a possible previous '@...' parameter) defines the chan‐
46 nel's number in OSD menus and the timers.conf file.
47 The fields in a channel definition have the following meaning (from
49 left to right):
50 Name The channel's name (if the name originally contains a ':' char‐
52 acter it has to be replaced by '|'). Some TV stations provide a
53 way of deriving a "short name" from the channel name, which can
54 be used in situations where there is not much space for display‐
55 ing a long name. If a short name is available for this channel,
56 it follows the full name and is delimited by a comma, as in
57 RTL Television,RTL:...
59 If the short name itself would contain a comma, it is replaced
61 with a '.'. Note that some long channel names may contain a
62 comma, so the delimiting comma is always the rightmost one.
63 If present, the name of the service provider or "bouquet" is ap‐
65 pended to the channel name, separated by a semicolon, as in
66 RTL Television,RTL;RTL World:...
68 Frequency
70 The transponder frequency (as an integer). For DVB-S this value
71 is in MHz. For DVB-C and DVB-T it can be given either in MHz,
72 kHz or Hz (the actual value given will be multiplied by 1000 un‐
73 til it is larger than 1000000).
74 Parameters
76 Various parameters, depending on whether this is a DVB-S, DVB-C
77 or DVB-T channel. Each parameter consist of a key character,
78 followed by an integer number that represents the actual setting
79 of that parameter. The valid key characters, their meaning (and
80 allowed values) are
81 B Bandwidth (1712, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 999)
83 C Code rate high priority (0, 12, 23, 34, 35, 45, 56, 67, 78, 89, 910, 999)
84 D coDe rate low priority (0, 12, 23, 34, 35, 45, 56, 67, 78, 89, 910, 999)
85 G Guard interval (4, 8, 16, 32, 128, 19128, 19256, 999)
86 H Horizontal polarization
87 I Inversion (0, 1, 999)
88 L Left circular polarization
89 M Modulation (2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 999)
90 N pilot mode (0, 1, 999)
91 O rollOff (0, 20, 25, 35)
92 P stream id (0-255)
93 Q t2 system id (0-65535)
94 R Right circular polarization
95 S delivery System (0, 1)
96 T Transmission mode (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 999)
97 V Vertical polarization
98 X siso/miso mode (0, 1)
99 Y hierarchY (0, 1, 2, 4, 999)
100 Bandwidth: The bandwidth of the channel in MHz (1712 in kHz):
102 (DVB-T/DVB-T2 only).
103 Code rate high priority: Forward Error Correction (FEC) of the
105 high priority stream (DVB-T/DVB-T2). For DVB-S/DVB-S2 this pa‐
106 rameter specifies the inner FEC scheme. 12 = 1/2, 23 = 2/3, 34
107 = 3/4, ...
108 Code rate low priority: Forward Error Correction (FEC) of the
110 low priority stream (DVB-T/DVB-T2 only). If no hierarchy is
111 used, set to 0.
112 Guard interval: The guard interval value (DVB-T only): 4 = 1/4,
114 8 = 1/8, 16 = 1/16, 32 = 1/32, 128 = 1/128, 19128 = 19/128,
115 19256 = 19/256.
116 Inversion: Specifies whether the DVB frontend needs spectral in‐
118 version (DVB-T and DVB-C only). This is frontend specific, if in
119 doubt, omit.
120 Modulation: Specifies the modulation/constellation of the chan‐
122 nel as follows:
123 2 QPSK (DVB-S, DVB-S2, DVB-T, DVB-T2, ISDB-T)
125 5 8PSK (DVB-S, DVB-S2)
126 6 16APSK (DVB-S2)
127 7 32APSK (DVB-S2)
128 10 VSB8 (ATSC aerial)
129 11 VSB16 (ATSC aerial)
130 12 DQPSK (ISDB-T)
131 16 QAM16 (DVB-T, DVB-T2, ISDB-T)
132 32 QAM32
134 64 QAM64 (DVB-C, DVB-T, DVB-T2, ISDB-T)
135 128 QAM128 (DVB-C)
136 256 QAM256 (DVB-C, DVB-T2)
137 Pilot mode: The pilot mode (0 = "off", 1 = "on", 999 = "auto")
139 for DVB-S2 multiplex (DVB-S2 only).
140 Rolloff: The Nyquist filter rolloff factor for DVB-S (35) and
142 DVB-S2 (35, 25, 20), 35 = 0.35, 25 = 0.25, 20 = 0.20, DVB-S/DVB-
143 S2 default value is 0.35
144 Stream id: Input Stream Identifier (ISI) (0-255) for DVB-S2 mul‐
146 tiplex or Physical Layer Pipe (PLP) id (0-255) for DVB-T2 multi‐
147 plex (DVB-S2/DVB-T2 only, with devices that support "multi
148 streaming").
149 T2 System id: Unique identifier (0-65535) of T2 system within
151 the DVB network (DVB-T2).
152 Transmission mode: Number of DVB-T OFDM carriers, 32 = 32k, 16 =
154 16k, 8 = 8k, 4 = 4k, 2 = 2k, 1 = 1k. If in doubt, try 8k.
155 SISO/MISO mode: Specifies the Single-Input/Multiple-Input Sin‐
157 gle-Output mode (0 = SISO, 1 = MISO) (DVB-T2).
158 Hierarchy: If set to 1, this transponder uses two streams, high
160 priority and low priority. If in doubt, try 0 (off). (DVB-
161 T/DVB-T2 only).
162 Delivery System: The delivery system (0 = "first generation"
164 (DVB-S/DVB-T), 1 = "second generation" (DVB-S2/DVB-T2).
165 Polarization: Satellite antenna polarization. H = horizontal, V
167 = vertical, R = circular right, L = circular left.
168 The polarization parameters have no integer numbers following
170 them. This is for compatibility with files from older versions
171 and also to keep the DVB-S entries as simple as possible.
172 The special value 999 is used for "automatic", which means the
174 driver will automatically determine the proper value (if possi‐
175 ble).
176 An example of a parameter field for a DVB-T channel might look
178 like this: B8C23D12G8M16T8Y0S0
179 An example of a parameter field for a DVB-T2 channel might look
181 like this: B8C23D12G8M16T8Y0P0S1
182 An example of a parameter field for a DVB-C channel might look
184 like this: C0M64
185 An example of a parameter field for a DVB-S channel might look
187 like this: HC56M2O35S0
188 An example of a parameter field for a DVB-S2 channel might look
190 like this: HC910M2O35S1
191 Plugins that implement devices that need their own set of param‐
193 eters may store those in the parameters string in arbitrary for‐
194 mat (not necessarily the "character/number" format listed
195 above). The only condition is that the string may not contain
196 colons (':') or newline characters.
197 Source The signal source of this channel, as defined in the file
199 sources.conf.
200 Srate The symbol rate of this channel (DVB-S and DVB-C only).
202 VPID The video PID (set to '0' for radio channels). If this channel
204 uses a separate PCR PID, it follows the VPID, separated by a
205 plus sign, as in
206 ...:164+17:...
208 If this channel has a video mode other than 0, the mode follows
210 the pids, separated by an '=' sign, as in
211 ...:164+17=27:...
213 APID The audio PID (either one number, or several, separated by com‐
215 mas). If this channel also carries Dolby Digital sound, the
216 Dolby PIDs follow the audio PIDs, separated by a semicolon, as
217 in
218 ...:101,102;103,104:...
220 If certain audio PIDs broadcast in specific languages, the lan‐
222 guage codes for these can be appended to the individual audio or
223 Dolby PID, separated by an '=' sign, as in
224 ...:101=deu,102=eng;103=deu,104=eng:...
226 Some channels broadcast two different languages in the two
228 stereo channels, which can be indicated by adding a second lan‐
229 guage code, delimited by a '+' sign, as in
230 ...:101=deu,102=eng+spa;103=deu,104=eng:...
232 The audio type is appended with a separating '@' character, as
234 in
235 ...:101=deu@4,102=eng+spa@4,105=@4:...
237 Note that if there is no language code, there still is the sepa‐
239 rating '=' if there is an audio type.
240 TPID The teletext PID. If this channel also carries DVB subtitles,
243 the DVB subtitling PIDs follow the teletext PID, separated by a
244 semicolon, as in
245 ...:201;2001,2002:...
247 If certain subtitling PIDs broadcast in specific languages, the
249 language codes for these can be appended to the individual sub‐
250 titling PID, separated by an '=' sign, as in
251 ...:201;2001=deu,2002=eng:...
253 Conditional access
256 A hexadecimal integer defining how this channel can be accessed:
257 0000 Free To Air
259 0001...000F explicitly requires the device with the given number
260 0010...00FF reserved for user defined assignments
261 0100...FFFF specific decryption methods as broadcast in the data stream
262 Values in the range 0001...00FF will not be overwritten, all
263 other values will be automatically replaced by the actual CA
264 system identifiers received from the data stream. If there is
265 more than one CA system id broadcast, they will be separated by
266 commas, as in
267 ...:1702,1722,1801:...
269 The values are in hex because that's the way they are defined in
271 the "ETR 162" document. Leading zeros may be omitted.
272 SID The Service ID of this channel.
274 NID The Network ID of this channel.
276 TID The Transport stream ID of this channel.
278 RID The Radio ID of this channel (typically 0, may be used to dis‐
280 tinguish channels where NID, TID and SID are all equal).
281 A particular channel can be uniquely identified by its channel ID,
283 which is a string that looks like this:
284 S19.2E-1-1089-12003-0
286 The components of this string are the Source (S19.2E), NID [22m(1), TID
288 (1089), SID (12003) and RID (0) as defined above. The last part can be
289 omitted if it is 0, so the above example could also be written as
290 S19.2E-1-1089-12003).
291 The channel ID is used in the timers.conf and epg.data files to prop‐
292 erly identify the channels.
293 If a channel has both NID and TID set to 0, the channel ID will use the
295 Frequency instead of the TID. For satellite channels an additional off‐
296 set of 100000, 200000, 300000 or 400000 is added to that number, de‐
297 pending on the Polarization (H, V, L or R, respectively). This is nec‐
298 essary because on some satellites the same frequency is used for two
299 different transponders, with opposite polarization.
300 TIMERS
302 The file timers.conf contains the timer setup. Each line contains one
303 timer definition, with individual fields separated by ':' characters.
304 Example:
305 1:10:-T-----:2058:2150:50:5:Quarks & Co:
307 The fields in a timer definition have the following meaning (from left
309 to right):
310 Flags The individual bits in this field have the following meaning:
312 0x0001 the timer is active (and will record if it hits)
314 0x0002 this is an instant recording timer
315 0x0004 this timer uses VPS
316 0x0008 this timer is currently recording (may only be up-to-date with SVDRP)
317 0x0010 this timer was spawned from a pattern timer
318 0x0020 this timer will store the recording's name in donerecs.data
319 All other bits are reserved for future use.
321 Channel
323 The channel to record from. This is either the channel number as
324 shown in the on-screen menus, or a complete channel ID. When
325 reading timers.conf any channel numbers will be mapped to the
326 respective channel ids and when the file is written again, there
327 will only be channel ids. Channel numbers are accepted as input
328 in order to allow easier creation of timers when manually edit‐
329 ing timers.conf. Also, when timers are listed via SVDRP com‐
330 mands, the channels are given as numbers.
331 Day The day when this timer shall record.
333 If this is a `single-shot' timer, this is the date on which this
335 timer shall record, given in ISO notation (YYYY-MM-DD), as in:
336 2005-03-19
338 For compatibility with earlier versions of VDR this may also be
340 just the day of month on which this timer shall record (must be
341 in the range 1...31).
342 In case of a `repeating' timer this is a string consisting of
344 exactly seven characters, where each character position corre‐
345 sponds to one day of the week (with Monday being the first day).
346 The character '-' at a certain position means that the timer
347 shall not record on that day. Any other character will cause the
348 timer to record on that day. Example:
349 MTWTF--
351 will define a timer that records on Monday through Friday and
353 does not record on weekends. Note that only letters may be used
354 here, no digits. For compatibility with timers created with
355 earlier versions of VDR, the same result could be achieved with
356 ABCDE-- (which was used to allow setting the days with language
357 specific characters). Since version 1.5.3 VDR can use UTF-8
358 characters to present data to the user, but the weekday encoding
359 in the timers.conf file always uses single byte characters.
360 The day definition of a `repeating' timer may be followed by the
362 date when that timer shall hit for the first time. The format
363 for this is @YYYY-MM-DD, so a complete definition could look
364 like this:
365 MTWTF--@2002-02-18
367 which would implement a timer that records Monday through Fri‐
369 day, and will hit for the first time on or after February 18,
370 2002. This first day feature can be used to disable a repeating
371 timer for a couple of days, or for instance to define a new
372 Mon...Fri timer on Wednesday, which actually starts "Monday next
373 week". The first day date given need not be that of a day when
374 the timer would actually hit.
375 Start A four digit integer defining when this timer shall start
377 recording. The format is hhmm, so 1430 would mean "half past
378 two" in the afternoon.
379 Stop A four digit integer defining when this timer shall stop record‐
381 ing. The format is the same as for the start time.
382 Priority
384 An integer in the range 0...99, defining the priority of this
385 timer and of recordings created by this timer. 0 represents the
386 lowest value, 99 the highest. The priority is used to decide
387 which timer shall be started in case there are two or more
388 timers with the exact same start time. The first timer in the
389 list with the highest priority will be used.
390 This value is also stored with the recording and is later used
392 to decide which recording to remove from disk in order to free
393 space for a new recording. If the disk runs full and a new
394 recording needs more space, an existing recording with the low‐
395 est priority (and which has exceeded its guaranteed lifetime)
396 will be removed.
397 If all available DVB cards are currently occupied, a timer with
399 a higher priority will interrupt the timer with the lowest pri‐
400 ority in order to start recording.
401 Lifetime
403 The guaranteed lifetime (in days) of a recording created by this
404 timer. 0 means that this recording may be automatically deleted
405 at any time by a new recording with higher priority. 99 means
406 that this recording will never be automatically deleted. Any
407 number in the range 1...98 means that this recording may not be
408 automatically deleted in favour of a new recording, until the
409 given number of days since the start time of the recording has
410 passed by.
411 File The file name this timer will give to a recording. If the name
413 contains any ':' characters, these have to be replaced by '|'.
414 If the name shall contain subdirectories, these have to be de‐
415 limited by '~' (since the '/' character may be part of a regular
416 programme name).
417 The special keywords TITLE and EPISODE, if present, will be re‐
419 placed by the title and episode information from the EPG data at
420 the time of recording (if that data is available). If at the
421 time of recording either of these cannot be determined, TITLE
422 will default to the channel name, and EPISODE will default to a
423 blank.
424 The file name can be prepended with a pattern, enclosed in curly
426 braces, as in
427 {Columbo}Movies~TITLE
429 which makes this a "pattern timer". A pattern timer records ev‐
431 ery event on the given channel where the title contains the pat‐
432 tern (case sensitive). The following special characters can be
433 used in a pattern:
434 ^ anchor to the beginning of the event's title
436 $ anchor to the end of the event's title
437 * match every event
438 @ avoid duplicate recordings
439 If @ is used, it must be the very first character of the pat‐
441 tern. If both @ and ^ are used, @ must come first. If * is
442 used, it must be the only character in the pattern and may only
443 be prepended with @.
444 In addition to TITLE and EPISODE you can use the following
446 macros to compose the file name (the curly braces are part of
447 the macros):
448 {<} everything before the matching pattern
450 {>} everything after the matching pattern
451 {=} the matching pattern itself (just for completeness)
452 Auxiliary data
454 An arbitrary string that can be used by external applications to
455 store any kind of data related to this timer. The string must
456 not contain any newline characters. If this field is not empty,
457 its contents will be written into the info file of the recording
458 with the '@' tag.
459 SOURCES
461 The file sources.conf defines the codes to be used in the Source field
462 of channels in channels.conf and assigns descriptive texts to them.
463 Example:
464 S19.2E Astra 1
466 Anything after (and including) a '#' character is comment.
468 The first character of the code must be one of
470 A ATSC
472 C Cable
473 S Satellite
474 T Terrestrial
475 and is followed by further data pertaining to that particular source.
477 In case of Satellite this is the orbital position in degrees, followed
478 by E for east or W for west. Plugins may define additional sources,
479 using other characters in the range 'A'...'Z'.
480 DISEQC
482 The file diseqc.conf defines the DiSEqC control sequences to be sent to
483 the DVB-S card in order to access a given satellite position and/or
484 band. Example:
485 S19.2E 11700 V 9750 t v W15 [E0 10 38 F0] W15 A W15 t
487 Anything after (and including) a '#' character is comment.
489 The first word in a parameter line must be one of the codes defined in
491 the file sources.conf and tells which satellite this line applies to.
492 Following is the "switch frequency" of the LNB (slof), which is the
494 transponder frequency up to which this entry shall be used; the first
495 entry with an slof greater than the actual transponder frequency will
496 be used. Typically there is only one slof per LNB, but the syntax al‐
497 lows any number of frequency ranges to be defined. Note that there
498 should be a last entry with the value 99999 for each satellite, which
499 covers the upper frequency range.
500 The third parameter defines the polarization to which this entry ap‐
502 plies. It can be either H for horizontal, V for vertical, L for circu‐
503 lar left or R for circular right.
504 The fourth parameter specifies the "local oscillator frequency" (lof)
506 of the LNB to use for the given frequency range. This number will be
507 subtracted from the actual transponder frequency when tuning to the
508 channel.
509 The rest of the line holds the actual sequence of DiSEqC actions to be
511 taken. The code letters used here are
512 t 22kHz tone off
514 T 22kHz tone on
515 v voltage low (13V)
516 V voltage high (18V)
517 A mini A
518 B mini B
519 Pn use positioner to move dish to satellite position n (or to the satellite's orbital position, if no position number is given)
520 Sn Satellite channel routing code sequence for bank n follows
521 Wnn wait nn milliseconds (nn may be any positive integer number)
522 [xx ...] hex code sequence (max. 6)
523 There can be any number of actions in a line, including none at all -
524 in which case the entry would be used only to set the LOF to use for
525 the given frequency range and polarization.
526 By default it is assumed that every DVB-S device can receive every sat‐
528 ellite. If this is not the case in a particular setup, lines of the
529 form
530 1 2 4:
532 may be inserted in the diseqc.conf file, defining the devices that are
534 able to receive the satellites following thereafter. In this case, only
535 the devices 1, 2 and 4 would be able to receive any satellites follow‐
536 ing this line and up to the next such line, or the end of the file. De‐
537 vices may be listed more than once.
538 SATELLITE CHANNEL ROUTING (SCR)
540 The file scr.conf contains the channel definitions of the SCR device in
541 use. The format is
542 channel frequency [pin]
544 where channel is the SCR device's channel index (0-7), frequency is the
546 user band frequency of the given channel, and pin is an optional pin
547 number (0-255). The actual values are device specific and can be found
548 in the SCR device's manual.
549 Examples:
551 0 1284
553 1 1400
554 2 1516
555 3 1632
556 4 1748
557 5 1864
558 6 1980
559 7 2096
560 By default it is assumed that the SCR configurations apply to all de‐
562 vices, and each device will pick one. If you have several SCR sat ca‐
563 bles connected to one VDR machine, or if you want to explicitly assign
564 the SCR channels to your devices, lines of the form
565 1 2 4:
567 may be inserted in the scr.conf file, defining the devices that are al‐
569 lowed to use the SCR channels thereafter. In this case, only the de‐
570 vices 1, 2 and 4 would be allowed to use the SCR channels following
571 this line and up to the next such line, or the end of the file. If a
572 device is listed more than once, only its first appearance counts.
573 REMOTE CONTROL KEYS
575 The file remote.conf contains the key assignments for all remote con‐
576 trol units. Each line consists of one key assignment in the following
577 format:
578 name.key code
580 where name is the name of the remote control (for instance KBD for the
582 PC keyboard, or LIRC for the "Linux Infrared Remote Control"), key is
583 the name of the key that is defined (like Up, Down, Menu etc.), and
584 code is a character string that this remote control delivers when the
585 given key is pressed.
586 KEY MACROS
588 The file keymacros.conf contains user defined macros that will be exe‐
589 cuted whenever the given key is pressed. The format is
590 macrokey [@plugin] key1 key2 key3...
592 where macrokey is the key that shall initiate execution of this macro
594 and can be one of Up, Down, Ok, Back, Left, Right, Red, Green, Yellow,
595 Blue, 0...9 or User1...User9. The rest of the line consists of a set of
596 keys, which will be executed just as if they had been pressed in the
597 given sequence. The optional @plugin can be used to automatically se‐
598 lect the given plugin. plugin is the name of the plugin, exactly as
599 given in the -P option when starting VDR. There can be only one @plugin
600 per key macro. For instance
601 User1 @abc Down Down Ok
603 would call the main menu function of the "abc" plugin and execute two
605 "Down" key presses, followed by "Ok".
606 Note that the color keys will only execute their macro function in
607 "normal viewing" mode (i.e. when no other menu or player is active).
608 The User1...User9 keys will always execute their macro function. There
609 may be up to 15 keys in such a key sequence.
610 FOLDERS
612 The file folders.conf contains the definitions of folders that can be
613 used in the "Edit timer" menu. Each line contains one folder defini‐
614 tion. Leading whitespace and everything after and including a '#' is
615 ignored. A line ending with '{' defines a sub folder (i.e. a folder
616 that contains other folders), and a line consisting of only '}' ends
617 the definition of a sub folder.
618 Example:
620 Daily {
622 News
623 Soaps
624 }
625 Archive {
626 Movies
627 Sports
628 Sci-Fi {
629 Star Trek
630 U.F.O.
631 }
632 }
633 Comedy
634 Science
635 Note that these folder definitions are only used to set the file name
637 under which a timer will store its recording. Changing these defini‐
638 tions in any way has no effect on existing timers or recordings.
639 COMMANDS
641 The file commands.conf contains the definitions of commands that can be
642 executed from the vdr main menu's "Commands" option. Each line con‐
643 tains one command definition in the following format:
644 title : command
646 where title is the string that will be displayed in the "Commands"
648 menu, and command is the actual command string that will be executed
649 when this option is selected. The delimiting ':' may be surrounded by
650 any number of white space characters. If title ends with the character
651 '?', there will be a confirmation prompt before actually executing the
652 command. This can be used for commands that might have serious results
653 (like deleting files etc) to make sure they are not executed inadver‐
654 tently.
655 Everything following (and including) a '#' character is considered to
657 be comment.
658 You can have nested layers of command menus by surrounding a sequence
660 of commands with '{'...'}' and giving it a title, as in
661 My Commands {
663 First list {
664 Do something: some command
665 Do something else: another command
666 }
667 Second list {
668 Even more: yet another command
669 So much more: and yet another one
670 }
671 }
672 Command lists can be nested to any depth.
674 By default the menu entries in the "Commands" menu will be numbered
676 '1'...'9' to make them selectable by pressing the corresponding number
677 key. If you want to use your own numbering scheme (maybe to skip cer‐
678 tain numbers), just precede the titles with the numbers of your choice.
679 vdr will suppress its automatic numbering if the first entry in com‐
680 mands.conf starts with a digit in the range '1'...'9', followed by a
681 blank.
682 In order to avoid error messages to the console, every command should
684 have stderr redirected to stdout. Everything the command prints to std‐
685 out will be displayed in a result window, with title as its title.
686 Examples:
688 Check for new mail?: /usr/local/bin/checkmail 2>&1
690 CPU status: /usr/local/bin/cpustatus 2>&1
691 Disk space: df -h | grep '/video' | awk '{ print 100 - $5 "% free"; }'
692 Calendar: date;echo;cal
693 Note that the commands 'checkmail' and 'cpustatus' are only examples!
695 Don't send emails to the author asking where to find these ;-)
696 The '?' at the end of the "Check for new mail?" entry will prompt the
697 user whether this command shall really be executed.
698 RECORDING COMMANDS
700 The file reccmds.conf can be used to define commands that can be ap‐
701 plied to the currently highlighted recording in the "Recordings" menu.
702 The syntax is exactly the same as described for the file commands.conf.
703 When executing a command, the directory name of the recording will be
704 appended to the command string, separated by a blank and enclosed in
705 single quotes.
706 SVDRP HOSTS
708 The file svdrphosts.conf contains the IP numbers of all hosts that are
709 allowed to access the SVDRP port. Each line contains one IP number in
710 the format
711 IP-Address[/Netmask]
713 where IP-Address is the address of a host or a network in the usual dot
715 separated notation (as in 192.168.100.1). If the optional Netmask is
716 given only the given number of bits of IP-Address are taken into ac‐
717 count. This allows you to grant SVDRP access to all hosts of an entire
718 network. Netmask can be any integer from 1 to 32. The special value of
719 0 is only accepted if the IP-Address is 0.0.0.0, because this will give
720 access to any host (USE THIS WITH CARE!).
721 Everything following (and including) a '#' character is considered to
723 be comment.
724 Examples:
726 127.0.0.1 # always accept localhost
728 192.168.100.0/24 # any host on the local net
729 204.152.189.113 # a specific host
730 0.0.0.0/0 # any host on any net (USE WITH CARE!)
731 SETUP
733 The file setup.conf contains the basic configuration options for vdr.
734 Each line contains one option in the format "Name = Value". See the
735 MANUAL file for a description of the available options.
736 THEMES
738 The files /var/lib/vdr/data/themes/<skin>-<theme>.theme contain the
739 color theme definitions for the various skins. In the actual file names
740 <skin> will be replaced by the name if the skin this theme belongs to,
741 and <theme> will be the name of this theme. Each line in a theme file
742 contains one option in the format "Name = Value". Anything after (and
743 including) a '#' character is comment.
744 The definitions in a theme file are either colors or a description.
746 Colors are in the form
747 clrTitle = FF123456
749 where the name (clrTitle) is one of the names defined in the source
751 code of the skin that uses this theme, through the THEME_CLR() macro.
752 The value (FF123456) is an eight digit hex number that consist of four
753 bytes, representing alpha (transparency), red, green and blue component
754 of the color. An alpha value of 00 means the color will be completely
755 transparent, while FF means it will be opaque. An RGB value of 000000
756 results in black, while FFFFFF is white.
757 A description can be given as
759 Description = Shades of blue
761 and will be used in the Setup/OSD menu to select a theme for a given
763 skin. The description should give the user an idea what this theme
764 will be like (for instance, in the given example it would use various
765 shades of blue), and shouldn't be too long to make sure it fits on the
766 Setup screen. The default description always should be given in Eng‐
767 lish. If you want, you can provide language specific descriptions as
768 Description.eng = Shades of blue
770 Description.ger = Blautöne
771 where the language code is added to the keyword "Description", sepa‐
773 rated by a dot. You can enter as many language specific descriptions as
774 you like, but only those that have a corresponding locale messages file
775 will be actually used. If a theme file doesn't contain a Description,
776 the name of the theme (as given in the theme's file name) will be used.
777 AUDIO/VIDEO DATA
779 The files 00001.ts...65535.ts are the actual recorded data files. In
780 order to keep the size of an individual file below a given limit, a
781 recording may be split into several files. The contents of these files
782 is Transport Stream (TS) and contains data packets that are each 188
783 byte long and start with 0x47. Data is stored exactly as it is broad‐
784 cast, with a generated PAT/PMT inserted right before every independent
785 frame.
786 INDEX
788 The file index (if present in a recording directory) contains the (bi‐
789 nary) index data into each of the the recording files
790 00001.ts...65535.ts. It is used during replay to determine the current
791 position within the recording, and to implement skipping and fast for‐
792 ward/back functions. See the definition of the cIndexFile class for
793 details about the actual contents of this file.
794 INFO
796 The file info (if present in a recording directory) contains a descrip‐
797 tion of the recording, derived from the EPG data at recording time (if
798 such data was available). The Aux field of the corresponding timer (if
799 given) is copied into this file, using the '@' tag. This is a plain
800 ASCII file and contains tagged lines like the EPG DATA file (see the
801 description of the epg.data file). Note that the lowercase tags ('c'
802 and 'e') will not appear in an info file. Lines tagged with '#' are
803 ignored and can be used by external tools to store arbitrary informa‐
804 tion.
805 In addition to the tags used in the epg.data file, the following tag
807 characters are defined:
808 F <frame rate>
810 L <lifetime>
811 P <priority>
812 O <errors>
813 @ <auxiliary data>
814 The 'O' tag contains the number of errors that occurred during record‐
816 ing. If it is zero, the recording can be safely considered error free.
817 The higher the value, the more damaged the recording is. If this is an
818 edited recording, the number of errors is that of the original record‐
819 ing.
820 RESUME
822 The file resume (if present in a recording directory) contains the po‐
823 sition within the recording where the last replay session left off.
824 The file consists of tagged lines that describe the various parameters
825 necessary to pick up replay where it left off.
826 The following tag characters are defined:
828 I <offset into the file index>
830 MARKS
832 The file marks (if present in a recording directory) contains the edit‐
833 ing marks defined for this recording. Each line contains the defini‐
834 tion of one mark in the following format:
835 hh:mm:ss.ff comment
837 where hh:mm:ss.ff is a frame position within the recording, given as
839 "hours, minutes, seconds and (optional) frame number". comment can be
840 any string and may be used to describe this mark. If present, comment
841 must be separated from the frame position by at least one blank.
842 The lines in this file need not necessarily appear in the correct tem‐
844 poral sequence, they will be automatically sorted by time index.
845 If a frame position doesn't point to an I-frame of the corresponding
847 recording, it will be shifted towards the next I-frame (either up or
848 down, whichever is closer).
849 CURRENT RESTRICTIONS:
851 - the comment is currently not used by VDR
853 SORT MODE
855 The file .sort (if present in a directory) contains an integer number
856 defining the mode by which this directory shall be sorted when pre‐
857 sented in a menu.
858 The following values are defined:
860 0 sort by name
862 1 sort by time
863 RECORDING TIMER
865 The file .timer (if present in a recording directory) contains the full
866 id of the timer that is currently recording into this directory. Timer
867 ids are of the form
868 id@hostname
870 where id is the timer's numerical id on the VDR with the name hostname.
872 This file is created when the timer starts recording, and is deleted
873 when it ends.
874 EPG DATA
876 The file epg.data contains the EPG data in an easily parsable format.
877 The first character of each line defines what kind of data this line
878 contains.
879 The following tag characters are defined:
881 C <channel id> <channel name>
883 E <event id> <start time> <duration> <table id> <version>
884 T <title>
885 S <short text>
886 D <description>
887 G <genre> <genre>...
888 R <parental rating>
889 X <stream> <type> <language> <descr>
890 V <vps time>
891 @ <auxiliary data>
892 e
893 c
894 Lowercase characters mark the end of a sequence that was started by the
896 corresponding uppercase character. The outer frame consists of a se‐
897 quence of one or more C...c (Channel) entries. Inside these any number
898 of E...e (Event) entries are allowed. All other tags are optional (al‐
899 though every event should at least have a T entry).
900 There may be several X tags, depending on the number of tracks (video,
902 audio etc.) the event provides.
903 <channel id> is the "channel ID", made up from the parameters defined in 'channels.conf'
905 <channel name> is the "name" as in 'channels.conf' (for information only, may be left out)
906 <event id> is a 32 bit unsigned int, uniquely identifying this event
907 <start time> is the time (as a time_t integer) in UTC when this event starts
908 <duration> is the time (in seconds) that this event will take
909 <table id> is a hex number that indicates the table this event is contained in (if this is left empty it will be set to 0x00; and value less than 0x4E it will be treated as if it were 0x4E)
910 <version> is a hex number that indicates the event's version number inside its table (optional, ignored when reading EPG data)
911 <title> is the title of the event
912 <short text> is the short text of the event (typically the name of the episode etc.)
913 <description> is the description of the event (any '|' characters will be interpreted as newlines)
914 <genre> is a two digit hex code, as defined in ETSI EN 300 468, table 28 (up to 4 genre codes are supported)
915 <parental rating> is the minimum age of the intended audience
916 <stream> is the stream content (1 = MPEG2 video, 2 = MP2 audio, 3 = subtitles, 4 = AC3 audio, 5 = H.264 video, 6 = HEAAC audio, 0x09=H.265 video, 0x19 = AC4 audio)
917 <type> is the stream type according to ETSI EN 300 468
918 <language> is the three letter language code (optionally two codes, separated by '+')
919 <descr> is the description of this stream component
920 <vps time> is the Video Programming Service time of this event
921 <auxiliary data> is an arbitrary string that can be used by external applications to store data; newline characters will be replaced with '|' when writing the epg.data file.
922 This file will be read at program startup in order to restore the re‐
924 sults of previous EPG scans.
925 Note that the event id that comes from the DVB data stream is actually
927 just 16 bit wide. The internal representation in VDR allows for 32 bit
928 to be used, so that external tools can generate EPG data that is guar‐
929 anteed not to collide with the ids of existing data.
930 The auxiliary data can be used for plugin specific purposes and has no
932 meaning whatsoever to VDR itself. It will not be written into the info
933 file of a recording that is made for such an event.
934 CAM DATA
936 The file cam.data contains information about which CAM in the system
937 can decrypt a particular channel. Each line in this file contains a
938 channel id, followed by one or more (blank separated) numbers, indicat‐
939 ing the CAMs that have successfully decrypted this channel earlier.
940 When tuning to an encrypted channel, this information is used to select
942 the proper CAM for decrypting this channel. This channel/CAM relation‐
943 ship is not hardcoded, though. If a given channel can't be decrypted
944 with a CAM listed in this file, other CAMs will be tried just as well.
945 The main purpose of this file is to speed up channel switching in sys‐
946 tems with more than one CAM.
947 This file will be read at program startup and saved when the program
949 ends. If the file is read-only, it will not be overwritten.
950 CAM AUTO RESPONSE
952 If your CAM keeps popping up annoying messages or you want to make sure
953 VDR can record programmes with parental rating without having to enter
954 the PIN (in case you can't turn that off in your CAM), you can set up
955 auto responses in the file camresponses.conf.
956 Each line in this file specifies one rule to apply to texts received
958 from the CAM. If the CAM's menu text matches the text in one of these
959 rules, the given action is taken and sent to the CAM as an automatic
960 response, without any menu appearing on the screen. The first match
961 wins.
962 The format of these rules is:
964 nr text action
966 where
968 nr is the number of the CAM this action applies to (0 = all CAMs)
970 text is the text in the CAM menu to react on (must be quoted with '"' if it contains blanks, escape '"' with '\')
971 action is the action to take if the given text is encountered
972 Possible actions are:
974 DISCARD simply discard the menu (equivalent to pressing 'Back' on the RC)
976 CONFIRM confirm the menu (equivalent to pressing 'OK' without selecting a particular item)
977 SELECT select the menu item containing the text (equivalent to positioning the cursor on the item and pressing 'OK')
978 <number> the given number is sent to the CAM as if it were tyed in by the user (provided this is an input field).
979 Note that the text given in a rule must match exactly, including any
981 leading or trailing blanks. If in doubt, you can get the exact text
982 from the log file. Action keywords are case insensitive.
983 Everything following (and including) a '#' character is considered to
985 be comment.
986 COMMANDLINE OPTIONS
988 If started without any options, vdr tries to read any files in the di‐
989 rectory /etc/vdr/conf.d with names that do not begin with a '.' and
990 that end with '.conf'. These files are read in alphabetical order. The
991 format of these files is
992 # comment
994 [name]
995 -a
996 -b 123
997 --long
998 --longarg=123
999 Any lines that begin with '#' as the first non-whitespace character are
1001 considered comments and are ignored. A command line option file con‐
1002 sists of one or more sections, indicated by '[name]', where 'name' is
1003 either the fixed word 'vdr' (if this section contains options for the
1004 main VDR program) or the name of the plugin this section applies to.
1005 Each option must be written on a separate line, including the leading
1006 '-' (for a short option) or '--' (for a long option). If the option has
1007 additional arguments, they have to be written on the same line as the
1008 option itself, separated from the option with a blank (short option) or
1009 equal sign (long option).
1010
1012 vdr(1)
1013
1015 Written by Klaus Schmidinger.
1016
1018 Report bugs to <vdr-bugs@tvdr.de>.
1019
1021 Copyright © 2021 Klaus Schmidinger.
1022 This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is
1024 NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
1025 PURPOSE.
10262.6 27 Dec 2021 vdr(5)