vdr - the Video Disk Recorder

vdr [options]

vdr implements a complete digital Set-Top Box and Video Recorder. It can work with signals received from satellites (DVB-S) as well as cable (DVB-C) and terrestrial (DVB-T) signals.

At least one DVB card is required to run vdr, but in order to watch one broadcast while recording another, or to start watching a recorded programme before the live broadcast has ended (time shifting), two DVB cards are necessary. By default vdr can support up to four DVB cards. The primary DVB card (the one your tv set is connected to) has to be a "full featured" card, which means it must contain an MPEG decoder and provide audio and video signal outputs.

vdr uses the On Screen Display of the DVB card to display its menus. It can be controlled by the PC keyboard, a home built "Remote Control Unit" (RCU) or the "Linux Infrared Remote Control" (LIRC).

Remote access is possible via the "Simple Video Disk Recorder Protocol" (SVDRP), which can be accessed on port 2001, for instance by telnet.

-a cmd, --audio=cmd

Send Dolby Digital audio to stdin of command cmd.

-c dir, --config=dir

Read config files from directory dir (default is to read them from the video directory).

-d, --daemon

Run in daemon mode (implies --no-kbd).

-D num, --device=num

Use only the given DVB device (num = 0, 1, 2...). There may be several -D options (by default all DVB devices will be used).

-E file, --epgfile=file

Write the EPG data into the given file (default is /video/epg.data). Use -E- to disable this. If file is a directory, the file epg.data will be created in that directory.

-h, --help

Print a help message and exit.

-l level, --log=level

Set logging to level. 0 = no logging, 1 = errors only, 2 = errors and info, 3 = errors, info and debug. The default logging level is 3. If logging should be done to LOG_LOCALn instead of LOG_USER, add '.n' to LEVEL, as in 3.7 (n=0..7).

-L dir, --lib=dir

Search for plugins in directory dir (default is ./PLUGINS/lib). There can be several -L options with different dir values. Each of them will apply to the -P options following it.

--lirc[=path]

Use a LIRC remote control device. If path is omitted, vdr uses /dev/lircd.

-m, --mute

Mute audio of the primary DVB device at startup.

--no-kbd

Don't use the keyboard as an input device.

-p port, --port=port

Use port for SVDRP. A value of 0 turns off SVDRP. The default SVDRP port is 2001. You need to edit the file svdrphosts.conf in order to enable access to the SVDRP port.

-P options, --plugin=options

Load a plugin, defined by the given options. The first word in options must be the name of an existing vdr plugin, optionally followed by a blank separated list of command line options for that plugin. If options contains any blanks, you need to enclose it in quotes, like for example

vdr -P "abc -a -b xyz"

which would load a plugin named abc, giving it the command line options -a -b xyz. If you want to load all available plugins (without any particular options) you can use

vdr -P "*"

(note the quotes around the asterisk to prevent wildcard expansion).

--rcu[=path]

Use a serial port remote control device. If path is omitted, vdr uses /dev/ttyS1.

-r cmd, --record=cmd

Call cmd before and after a recording.

-s cmd, --shutdown=cmd

Call cmd to shutdown the computer.

-t tty, --terminal=tty

Set the controlling terminal.

-v dir, --video=dir

Use dir as video directory. The default is /video.

-V, --version

Print version information and exit.

-w sec, --watchdog=sec

Activate the watchdog timer with a timeout of sec seconds. A value of 0 (default) disables the watchdog.

0

Successful program execution.

1

An error has been detected which requires the DVB driver and vdr to be reloaded.

2

An non-recoverable error has been detected, vdr has given up.

channels.conf

Channel configuration.

ca.conf

Conditional access configuration.

timers.conf

Timer configuration.

setup.conf

User definable setup.

commands.conf

User definable commands (executed from the Commands menu).

svdrphosts.conf

SVDRP host configuration, defining which hosts or networks are given access to the SVDRP port.

marks.vdr

Contains the editing marks defined for a recording.

info.vdr

Contains a description of the recording.

resume.vdr

Contains the index into the recording where the last replay session left off.

index.vdr

Contains the file number, offset and type of each frame of the recording.

remote.conf

Contains the key assignments for the remote control.

keymacros.conf

Contains user defined remote control key macros.

001.vdr ... 255.vdr

The actual data files of a recording.

epg.data

Contains all current EPG data. Can be used for external processing and will also be read at program startup to have the full EPG data available immediately.

.update

If this file is present in the video directory, its last modification time will be used to trigger an update of the list of recordings in the "Recordings" menu.

vdr(5)

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

Report bugs to <vdr-bugs@cadsoft.de>.

Copyright © 2004 Klaus Schmidinger.

This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.