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.