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 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 6419, 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).
- --edit=rec
- Edit the given recording. rec must be the full path
name of an existing recording. The program will return immediately after
editing the recording.
- -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.
- --filesize=size
- Limit video files to size bytes (default is 2000M).
This option is only useful in conjunction with --edit, and must precede
that option to have an effect. size is an integer number and may be
followed by one of the letters K, M, G or T to abbreviate Kilo-, Mega-,
Giga- or Terabyte, respectively. The given value is silently limited to
the program's internal minimum and maximum values.
- --genindex=rec
- Generate the index file for the given recording. rec
must be the full path name of an existing recording. The recording must be
in TS format. If the recording already has an index file, it will be
deleted before creating the new one. The program will return immediately
after generating the index. Note that using this option while another
instance of VDR is currently replaying the given recording, or if the
recording has not been finished yet, may lead to unexpected results.
- -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.
- -i instance, --instance=instance
- Use instance as the id of this VDR instance (default
is 0). In an environment where several instances of VDR use the same video
directory, this parameter can be set to a positive integer value that's
unique for each instance, so that they won't interfere with each other in
case they record exactly the same broadcast. The number given here will be
part of the directory name in which the recordings will be stored.
- -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_LOCAL n 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 /var/run/lirc/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 6419. 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).
- -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.
- --split
- Split edited files at the editing marks. This option is
only useful in conjunction with --edit, and must precede that option to
have an effect.
- -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
- Contains the editing marks defined for a recording.
- info
- Contains a description of the recording.
- resume
- Contains the index into the recording where the last replay
session left off.
- index
- 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.
- 00001.ts ... 65535.ts
- 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@tvdr.de>.
COPYRIGHT¶
Copyright © 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.