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NAME

       vdr - the Video Disk Recorder

SYNOPSIS

       vdr [options]

DESCRIPTION

       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. With it you can watch
       live TV while recording one or more  other  broadcasts  from  the  same
       transponder.   It  is  also  possible  to  start  watching  a  recorded
       programme before the live broadcast has ended (time shifting). In order
       to  record  from  different transponders simultaneously two or more 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.

OPTIONS

       -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.

       -g, --grab=dir
              Write  images  from  the  SVDRP  command  GRAB  into  the  given
              directory dir. dir must be the full path  name  of  an  existing
              directory, without any "..", double '/' or symlinks. By default,
              or if -g- is given, grabbing images to disk is disabled.

       -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.

       --localedir=dir
              Search for locale files in dir (default is ./locale).

       -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. See the file INSTALL  for
              more information.

       -s cmd, --shutdown=cmd
              Call cmd to shutdown the computer. See the file INSTALL for more
              information.

       -t tty, --terminal=tty
              Set the controlling terminal.

       -u user, --user=user
              Run as user user  in  case  vdr  was  started  as  user  'root'.
              Starting  vdr as 'root' is necessary if the system time shall be
              set from the transponder data, but for security reasons vdr  can
              switch to a lesser privileged user id during normal operation.

       --userdump
              allow coredumps if -u is given (only for debugging).

       --vfat Encode  special  characters in recording names to avoid problems
              with VFAT file systems.

       -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.

SIGNALS

       SIGINT, SIGTERM
              Program exits with status 0.

       SIGHUP Program exits with status 1. This can be used to force a reload,
              for example if an update has been installed.

EXIT STATUS

       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.

FILES

       channels.conf
              Channel 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.

SEE ALSO

       vdr(5)

AUTHOR

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

REPORTING BUGS

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

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2008 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.