vdr/INSTALL

Installation of the Video Disk Recorder
---------------------------------------

Compiling and running the program:
----------------------------------

Make sure the files from this package are located in a
directory that is "parallel" to the DVB directory of the
driver source for the Siemens DVB-S PCI card (refer to
http://linuxtv.org/dvb/siemens_dvb.html for more information
about that driver). For example, if the DVB driver was 
extracted into the directory /home/kls/vdr/DVB, then this
package should be extracted into /home/kls/vdr/VDR.

This program requires the card driver version 0.05 or higher
to work properly.

After extracting the package, change into the VDR directory
and type 'make'. This should produce an executable file
named 'vdr', which can be run after the DVB driver has been
installed.

The 'vdr' program can be controlled via the PC keyboard or
an infrared remote control unit. Define the REMOTE macro to one of the
following values 'make' call to activate the respective control mode:

  REMOTE=KBD    control via the PC keyboard (default)
  REMOTE=RCU    control via the "Remote Control Unit" receiver
                (see http://www.cadsoft.de/people/kls/vdr/remote.htm)
  REMOTE=LIRC   control via the "Linux Infrared Remote Control"
                (see http://fsinfo.cs.uni-sb.de/~columbus/lirc)

Adding "DEBUG_OSD=1" will use the PC screen (or current window)
to display texts instead of the DVB card's on-screen display
interface. These modes are useful when testing new menus if you
only have a remote connection to the VDR (which, in my case, is
located in the living room and has neither a monitor nor a keyboard).

When running, the 'vdr' program writes status information into the
system log file (/var/log/messages). You may want to watch these
messages (tail -f /var/log/mesages) to see if there are any problems.

The program can be controlled via a network connection to its SVDRP
port ("Simple Video Disk Recorder Protocol"). By default, it listens
on port 2001 (use the --port=PORT option to change this). For details
about the SVDRP syntax see the source file 'svdrp.c'.

If the program shall run as a daemon, use the --daemon option. This
will completely detach it from the terminal and will continue as a
background process.

Command line options:
---------------------

Use "vdr --help" for a list of available command line options.

The video data directory:
-------------------------

All recordings are written into directories below "/video". Please
make sure this directory exists, and that the user who runs the 'vdr'
program has read and write access to that directory.
If you prefer a different location for your video files, you can use
the '-v' option to change that.

Note that the file system need not be 64-bit proof, since the 'vdr'
program splits video files into chunks of about 1GB. You should use
a disk with several gigabytes of free space. One GB can store roughly
half an hour of video data.

If you have more than one disk and don't want to combine them to form
one large logical volume, you can set up several video directories as
mount points for these disks. All of these directories must have the
same basic name and must end with a numeric part, which starts at 0 for
the main directory and has increasing values for the rest of the
directories. For example

   /video0
   /video1
   /video2

would be a setup with three directories. You can use more than one
numeric digit, and the directories need not be directly under '/':

   /mnt/MyVideos/vdr.00
   /mnt/MyVideos/vdr.01
   /mnt/MyVideos/vdr.02
   ...
   /mnt/MyVideos/vdr.11

would set up twelve disks (wow, what a machine that would be!).

To use such a multi directory setup, you need to add the '-v' option
with the name of the basic directory when running 'vdr':

   vdr -v /video0

Configuration files:
--------------------

There are three configuration files that hold information about
channels, remote control keys and timers. These files are currrently
assumed to be located in the directory from which the 'vdr' program
was started (this will become configurable later). The configuration
files can be edited with any text editor, or will be written by the
'vdr' program if any changes are made inside the on-screen menus.
The meaning of the data entries may still vary in future releases,
so for the moment please look at the source code (config.c) to see
the meaning of the various fields.

Learning the remote control keys:
---------------------------------

There is no default 'keys.conf' file, so if you compile the program
with 'REMOTE=RCU' you will have to go through a "teach-in"
session that allows the program to learn your remote control codes.
It will first attempt to determine the basic data transfer mode and
timing of your remote control unit, and then will ask you to press one
key after the other so that it can learn the various key codes. You will
at least need to provide an "Up" and a "Down" key, so that you can switch
channels. The rest of the key definitions is optional, but the more keys
you define, the more you will be able to navigate through the menus and
control recording/replaying. The program uses only a very small number
of keys which have multiple meanings in the various modes (see MANUAL
for a detailed description).
If the program has been built with "REMOTE=KBD", it will use the
key configuration file 'keys-pc.conf', so that you won't loose data
when switching between remote control and keyboard mode.

The default PC key assignments are:

  Up, Down, Left, Right     Crsr keys in numeric block
  Menu                      'Home' in numeric block
  Ok                        '5' in numeric block
  Back                      'End' in numeric block
  Red, Green, Yellow, Blue  'F1'..'F4'
  0..9                      '0'..'9' in top row

If you prefer different key assignments, or if the default doesn't work for
your keyboard, simply delete the file 'keys-pc.conf' and restart 'vdr' to get
into learning mode.

If the program has been compiled with 'REMOTE=LIRC', no 'keys.conf' file
will be used. Instead, the key names as listed in the source file 'config.c'
must be used when setting up LIRC. See http://www2.arnes.si/~mthale1 for
more about LIRC.