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 /dev/lircd.
77 -m, --mute
79 Mute audio of the primary DVB device at startup.
80 --no-kbd
82 Don't use the keyboard as an input device.
83 -p port, --port=port
85 Use port for SVDRP. A value of 0 turns off SVDRP. The default
86 SVDRP port is 2001. You need to edit the file svdrphosts.conf
87 in order to enable access to the SVDRP port.
88 -P options, --plugin=options
90 Load a plugin, defined by the given options. The first word in
91 options must be the name of an existing vdr plugin, optionally
92 followed by a blank separated list of command line options for
93 that plugin. If options contains any blanks, you need to enclose
94 it in quotes, like for example
95 vdr -P "abc -a -b xyz"
97 which would load a plugin named abc, giving it the command line
99 options -a -b xyz. If you want to load all available plugins
100 (without any particular options) you can use
101 vdr -P "*"
103 (note the quotes around the asterisk to prevent wildcard expan‐
105 sion).
106 --rcu[=path]
108 Use a serial port remote control device. If path is omitted,
109 vdr uses /dev/ttyS1.
110 -r cmd, --record=cmd
112 Call cmd before and after a recording. See the file INSTALL for
113 more information.
114 -s cmd, --shutdown=cmd
116 Call cmd to shutdown the computer. See the file INSTALL for more
117 information.
118 -t tty, --terminal=tty
120 Set the controlling terminal.
121 -u user, --user=user
123 Run as user user in case vdr was started as user 'root'. Start‐
124 ing vdr as 'root' is necessary if the system time shall be set
125 from the transponder data, but for security reasons vdr can
126 switch to a lesser privileged user id during normal operation.
127 --vfat Encode special characters in recording names to avoid problems
129 with VFAT file systems.
130 -v dir, --video=dir
132 Use dir as video directory. The default is /srv/vdr.
133 -V, --version
135 Print version information and exit.
136 -w sec, --watchdog=sec
138 Activate the watchdog timer with a timeout of sec seconds. A
139 value of 0 (default) disables the watchdog.
140
142 0 Successful program execution.
143 1 An error has been detected which requires the DVB driver and vdr
145 to be reloaded.
146 2 An non-recoverable error has been detected, vdr has given up.
148 3 vdr has received SIGUSR1 and is requesting that it be restarted.
150 If vdr is in use (playback, recording, cutting etc.) when it
151 receives SIGUSR1, it will record the fact that it has received
152 it; when it becomes idle, it will exit. (This is intended for
153 reloading and restarting from an init script.)
154
156 channels.conf
157 Channel configuration.
158 timers.conf
160 Timer configuration.
161 setup.conf
163 User definable setup.
164 commands.conf
166 User definable commands (executed from the Commands menu).
167 svdrphosts.conf
169 SVDRP host configuration, defining which hosts or networks are
170 given access to the SVDRP port.
171 marks.vdr
173 Contains the editing marks defined for a recording.
174 info.vdr
176 Contains a description of the recording.
177 resume.vdr
179 Contains the index into the recording where the last replay ses‐
180 sion left off.
181 index.vdr
183 Contains the file number, offset and type of each frame of the
184 recording.
185 remote.conf
187 Contains the key assignments for the remote control.
188 keymacros.conf
190 Contains user defined remote control key macros.
191 001.vdr ... 255.vdr
193 The actual data files of a recording.
194 epg.data
196 Contains all current EPG data. Can be used for external process‐
197 ing and will also be read at program startup to have the full
198 EPG data available immediately.
199 .update
201 If this file is present in the video directory, its last modifi‐
202 cation time will be used to trigger an update of the list of
203 recordings in the "Recordings" menu.
204
206 vdr(5)
207
209 Written by Klaus Schmidinger, with contributions from many others. See
210 the file CONTRIBUTORS in the vdr source distribution.
211
213 Report bugs to <vdr-bugs@cadsoft.de>.
214
216 Copyright © 2006 Klaus Schmidinger.
217 This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is
219 NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
220 PURPOSE.
2211.4.5 07 Jan 2007 vdr(8)