Video Disk Recorder User's Manual --------------------------------- Version 2.6 ----------- * Remote Control Keys The following remote control keys are used to control the VDR operation. To keep the number of different keys as small as possible, several keys have different meanings in the various modes: Key Normal VDR Channels Timers Edit/New Recordings Replay Audio Up Ch up Crsr up Crsr up Crsr up Crsr up Crsr up Play Sel. track Down Ch down Crsr down Crsr down Crsr down Crsr down Crsr down Pause Sel. track Left Prev group - Page up Page up Decrement Page up Search back Sel. channel Right Next group - Page down Page down Increment Page down Search forward Sel. channel Ok Ch display Select Switch Edit Accept Play Progress disp. Switch & Close Menu Menu on Menu off Menu off Menu off Menu off Menu off Menu off Menu off Back - Menu off VDR menu VDR menu Discard VDR menu Recordings menu Close Red - Record Edit On/Off ABC/abc Play/Commands(1) Jump - Green - Audio New New Ins/Ovr Rewind Skip -60s - Yellow - Pause live Delete Delete Delete Delete Skip +60s - Blue - Stop/Resume Mark Info - Info Stop - 0..9 Ch select - Sort(2) Day(3) Numeric inp. Sort/Exec cmd(1) Editing - In a numerical input field (like the response to a CAM enquiry) the keys 0..9 are used to enter the data, and the Left key can be used to delete the last entered digit. In a text input field (like, e.g., the file name of a recording) the characters can be entered by pressing the numeric keys, the same way as on a telephone keypad. If your remote control provides additional keys, they can be used for the following functions: Info display information on the currently viewed programme or recording, or on the current item in a menu Play/Pause combined key to resume or pause replay, or pause live video Play resume normal replay Pause pause replay or live video Stop stop replay Record instant recording FastFwd fast forward FastRew fast rewind Next Next/previous channel group (in live tv mode) Prev or next/previous editing mark (in replay mode) Channel+ channel up Channel- channel down PrevChannel previous channel Power shutdown Volume+ volume up Volume- volume down Mute mute Audio select audio track Subtitles select subtitles Schedule \ Channels | Timers | directly access the VDR Recordings | main menu functions Setup | Commands / User1...9 additional user defined keys for macro functions (defined in 'keymacros.conf') Note that in normal viewing mode (no OSD active) the color keys can have user defined functionality, as configured in 'keymacros.conf'. The default assignment is Red Recordings menu Green Schedule menu Yellow Info Blue Timers menu (1) See "Sort Recordings" and "Processing Recordings" below. (2) In the "Channels" menu the '0' key switches the sort mode through "by number", "by name" and "by provider". Other numeric input positions the cursor to the channel with the number entered so far. If there is no channel with that number, nothing happens. While entering a channel number, the '0' key will be treated as part of that number, not as a sort mode toggle. If no numeric key has been pressed for more than one second, the number is reset and '0' functions as sort mode toggle again. (3) In the "Edit timer" menu, when on the "Day" item, the '0' key toggles between a single shot and a repeating timer. If "Day" indicates a repeating timer, the keys '1'...'7' can be used to toggle the individual days ('1' is Monday). * Navigating through the On Screen Menus The "VDR" menu can be called up with the "Menu" key of your remote control unit. The "Up" and "Down" keys are used to select a specific item. The "Left" and "Right" keys can be used to change options, and the numeric keys allow direct input of numeric data. The "Ok" key confirms any changes (or switches to a channel in the "Channels" menu). The "Back" key goes back one level in the menu structure, discarding any changes that might have been made in the current menu. In the "Timers" menu, the current timer can be enabled or disabled with the "Red" key. Enabled timers are marked with '>', timers that are currently recording are marked with '#'. If a timer has the "First day" set so that it will start recording only on the given date, it is marked with '!'. The "Red" key toggles through the "enabled" and "disabled" states, and for repeating timers that are currently recording also a state that ends this recording prematurely and sets the "First day" date so that it will record again the next time the timer hits. "Ok" here opens the "Edit timer" menu. Textual options, like channel names or recording file names, can be edited by pressing the "Right" key (which puts brackets around the current character as in "[R]TL"), selecting the desired character position with "Left" and "Right", and changing the character with the "Up" and "Down" keys. "Ok" then confirms the changes. The "Red" key toggles between upper- and lowercase characters, while the "Green" key switches between insert and overwrite mode. The "Yellow" key deletes the current character (or the one to the right of the cursor in insert mode). The "Red", "Green", "Yellow" and "Blue" keys have special meanings in various menus and are listed at the bottom of the on-screen-display. At any point in the menu system, pressing the "Menu" key again will immediately leave the menu system (discarding any pending changes). * The "Schedule" Menu The "Schedule" menu implements VDR's "Electronic Program Guide" (EPG). Select "Schedule" from the "VDR" menu and you get a list of all upcoming broadcasts on the current channel. "Up" and "Down" can be used to scroll through this list, and pressing "Ok" displays detailed information about the selected programme. Pressing "Ok" again (or pressing "Back") gets you back into the "Schedule" menu. From the "Schedule" menu, the "Green" key opens the "What's on now?" menu, which displays all programmes that are currently running on all channels that broadcast their programme information on the current transponder, or from channels that have been current lately (VDR stores all information it gathers in an internal list). The more channels you have been switching through lately, the longer this list will be. The "Yellow" key opens the "What's on next?" menu, which lists all programmes that will start next on all channels. Inside the "What's on now/next?" menus the "Green" key toggles between the "Now" and "Next" display, and the "Yellow" key takes you to the "Schedule" menu of the current channel in the list. The "Red" key allows you to instantly program a timer to record the selected programme. After pressing this key, the current event will be marked with 'T', and the function of the "Red" key will change from "Record" to "Timer". Pressing "Red" on an event marked with 'T' will open the "Edit timer" menu for this timer, where you can make any modifications you may want to apply. Note that the Start and Stop time are offset by the MarginStart and MarginStop parameters (see Setup) in order to make sure the entire programme is recorded in case it doesn't exactly adhere to its published start/stop times. Of course, no guarantee can be given that the default margin values will be sufficient, so in case this recording is really important you may want to add an extra margin ;-). VPS recordings will use the exact Start (or VPS) and Stop times as given in the event. If a timer is newly created from within the "Schedule" menu, and its event is already running or has its start time within the next two minutes, it goes directly into the "Edit timer" menu in order to allow the user to make further changes to timer parameters before the actual recording starts. The "Blue" key can be pressed to switch to the channel with the selected programme. The following markers in these menus give additional information about the status of the events: t there is a timer defined for this event which covers only part of the event T there is a timer defined for this event which covers the entire event V this event has a VPS time that's different than its start time * this event is currently running (the validity of this marker depends on whether there is currently a DVB card receiving the transponder this channel is on). Pressing '0' in the "Schedule" menu rotates through displaying "This event on this channel", "This event on all channels" and "All events on all channels". This can be used to find reruns of a given show, or the episodes of a series. Note that if there are many channels in your channels.conf, displaying the "All events on all channels" page may take a while. * Selecting a Channel There are four ways to select a channel: 1. With no On Screen Menu displayed press the "Up" or "Down" key to switch to the next higher or lower channel. 2. Press the "Menu" key to bring up the On Screen Menu, select "Channels" and browse through the list with the "Up" and "Down" key; to switch to the selected channel press "Ok". 3. Directly type in the channel number with the numeric keys ('0'..'9'); if no key is pressed for about one second, the digits collected so far will define the channel number. 4. From the "Now", "Next" and "Event" menus (accessible through the "Schedule" menu) by pressing the "Blue" key. Pressing the '0' key in normal viewing mode toggles between the current and the previous channel. A channel is considered "previous" if it has been selected for at least 3 seconds. After switching to a different channel the channel number and name, as well as the current time are displayed in the OSD. If available, the 'current/next' information will be displayed below this line. This display automatically goes away after about five seconds, or if any key is pressed. To bring up the channel display without switching channels you can press the "Ok" key. * Selecting audio tracks If the current channel or recording provides different audio tracks (for different languages or Dolby Digital), the "Green" key in the "VDR" menu can be pressed to bring up the "Audio" menu. Within this menu, the "Up" and "Down" keys can be used to switch between the audio tracks. If your remote control has a dedicated "Audio" key, the first press of that key brings up the "Audio" menu, and every further press switches to the next available audio track. The "Left" and "Right" keys can be used to switch between "mono left", "stereo" and "mono right" for channels that broadcast different audio tracks in the left and right stereo channels. The "Ok" key explicitly switches to the selected track (in case the device for some reason doesn't play it) and closes the "Audio" menu. The "Audio" menu will automatically disappear after 5 seconds of user inactivity, or if any key other than the ones described above is pressed. Once a Dolby Digital track has been selected on any channel, further channel switches will first search for a Dolby Digital track of one of the preferred audio languages. If no such track can be found, a normal audio track will be selected. Note that this only works if the broadcasters use actual language codes in their PID data, not things like "dd" or "2ch". * Switching through channel groups If the 'channels.conf' file contains "group separators" you can switch through these groups by pressing the "Left" and "Right" key while no menu is being displayed. The channel display will show the name of the group, and if you press the "Ok" key while the group name is being displayed, you will switch to the first channel of that group. Channel groups can be whatever you decide them to be. You can either group your channels by "Bouquet", by language, genre or whatever your preferences may be. * Instant Recording You can start recording the current channel by pressing the "Red" key in the "VDR" menu. This will create a timer event named "@channelname" that starts at the current time and by default records for 3 hours. If you want to modify the recording time you need to edit the timer. Stop instant recording by pressing the "Menu" key and selecting "Stop Recording", or by disabling the timer. The default priority, lifetime and recording time can be defined in the "Setup/Recording" menu. * Pausing live video If you want to pause the live programme you are just watching, simply press "Menu/Yellow" or "Pause" on your remote control. VDR will start an instant recording of the current channel (just as if you had pressed "Menu/Red" or "Record") and immediately begin replaying that recording. Replay will be put into "pause" mode, so you can attend to whatever it was that disturbed your live viewing session. Once you're back, simply press the "Up" or "Play" key and you'll be watching the current channel in time shift mode, right from the point where you left off. The instant recording VDR has started will use the parameters for "Pause priority" and "Pause lifetime" as defined in the "Setup/Recording" menu. Recording time will be the same as for any other instant recording, so by default it will record 3 hours (which should be enough for any normal broadcast). Note that the timer that is created for recording the paused live video will always record on the local VDR, even if an "SVDRP default host" has been set for normal timer recordings. * Replaying a Recording All recordings are listed in the "Recordings" menu. Browse through the list with the "Up" and "Down" key and press "Ok" (or the "Red" key) to start playback. New recordings are marked with an '*'. If the Setup parameter RecordingDirs has been set and there are recordings from repeating timers organized in a subdirectory structure, only the directory is displayed and it can be opened by pressing "Ok" (or the "Red" key). A directory entry displays the total number of recordings within that directory (and any possible subdirectory thereof) as well as the total number of new recordings (as opposed to a recording's entry, which displays the date and time of the recording). If the setup parameter "Use episode name" was turned on when a recording took place, VDR adds the "Episode name" (which is usually the name of the episode in case of a series) to the recording's name. The "Recordings" menu then displays all recordings of a repeating timer in chronological order, since these are usually the individual episodes of a series, which you may want to view in the order in which they were broadcast. Playback can be stopped via the "VDR" menu by selecting "Stop replaying", or by pressing the "Blue" key outside the menu. A previously stopped playback session can be resumed by pressing the "Blue" key in the "VDR" menu. * Sort Recordings Within the "Recordings" menu, pressing the '0' key toggles sorting between "by time" and "by name". The selected sort mode is stored separately for each folder (provided you have write access to that folder). If a folder is newly created by a repeating timer, the sort mode for that folder is initially set to "by time". * Processing Recordings The configuration file 'reccmds.conf' can be used to define system commands that can be applied to the recording that is currently highlighted in the "Recordings" menu. The "Red" key in the "Recordings" menu opens the "Recording commands" menu if there are commands defined in the file 'reccmds.conf'. Pressing one of the keys '1'..'9' in the "Recordings" menu executes the corresponding command from 'reccmds.conf' (see also "Executing system commands" below). * Replay Control The following keys have the listed meaning in Replay mode: - Up Resumes normal replay from any "pause", "forward" or "backward" mode. - Down Halts playback at the current position. Press again to continue playback. - Blue Stops playback and stores the current position, so that playback can be resumed later at that point. - Left Right Runs playback forward or backward at a higher speed; press again to resume normal speed. If in Pause mode, runs forward or backward at a slower speed; press again to return to pause mode. Pressing and holding down the key performs the function until the key is released again. If "Multi Speed Mode" has been enabled in the "Setup" menu, the function of these keys changes in a way that gives you three fast and slow speeds, through which you can switch by pressing the respective key several times. - Red Jump to a specific location. Enter the time you want to jump to and then press "Left" or "Right" to jump relative to the current position, "Up" to jump to an absolute position, and "Down" to jump and pause at an absolute position. - Green Yellow Skips about 60 seconds back or forward. Pressing and holding down the key performs the function until the key is released again. - Ok Brings up the replay progress display, which shows the date, time and title of the recording, a progress bar and the current and total time of the recording. Press "Ok" again to turn off the progress display. - Back Stops replaying and brings up the "Recordings" menu. This can be used to easily delete a recording after watching it, or to switch to a different recording. * Editing a Recording While in Replay mode, the following keys can be used to manipulate editing marks: - 0 Toggles an editing mark. If the mark indicator shows a red triangle, the current mark is deleted. Otherwise a new mark is set at the current position. - 1, 3 Move an editing mark back and forward in "adaptive" mode. Pressing either of these keys for the first time moves the mark 120 seconds in the given direction (configurable via "Setup/Replay/Initial duration for adaptive skipping"). Further presses of the same key keep moving the mark by the same value. Once the other key is pressed, the value is divided by 2 (hence the name "adaptive") with every further press of either key. Pressing '1' and '3' alternatingly divides the distance all the way down to a single I-frame. That way a particular place in a recording (for instance the beginning or end of a commercial break) can be found very quickly. If none of these two keys is pressed for a while (configurable via "Setup/Replay/Reset timeout for adaptive skipping") the distance falls back to the initial value. If replay is not in Pause mode, or if there is no mark at the current position, the skip is performed without moving any mark. - 4, 6 Move an editing mark back and forward by one I-frame. You need to first jump to an editing mark for this to work. - 7, 9 Jump back and forward between editing marks. Replay goes into still mode after jumping to a mark. If the current position is at the first or last mark, or if there are no marks at all, these keys jump to the very beginning or end, respectively, of the recording. - 8 Positions replay at a point 3 seconds before the current or next "begin" mark and starts replay. - 2 Starts the actual cutting process. Editing marks are represented by black, vertical lines in the progress display. A small black triangle at the top of the mark means that this is a "begin" mark, and a triangle at the bottom means that this is an "end" mark. The cutting process will save all video data between "begin" and "end" marks into a new file (the original recording remains untouched). The new file will have the same name as the original recording, preceded with a '%' character (imagine the '%' somehow looking like a pair of scissors ;-). Red bars in the progress display indicate which video sequences will be saved by the cutting process. The video sequences to be saved by the cutting process are determined by an "even/odd" algorithm. This means that every odd numbered editing mark (i.e. 1, 3, 5,...) represents a "begin" mark, while every even numbered mark (2, 4, 6,...) is an "end" mark. Inserting or toggling a mark on or off automatically adjusts the sequence to the right side of that mark. Use the keys described under "Replay Control" to position to, e.g., the beginning and end of commercial breaks and press the '0' key to set the necessary editing marks. After that you may want to use the '7' and '9' keys to jump to each mark and maybe use the '4' and '6' keys to fine tune them. Once all marks are in place, press '2' to start the actual cutting process, which will run as a background process. When replaying the edited version of the recording you can use the '8' key to jump to a point just before the next cut and have a look at the resulting sequence. Currently editing marks can only be set at I-frames, which typically appear every half of a second to a second. A "begin" mark marks the first frame of a resulting video sequence, and an "end" mark marks the last frame of that sequence. Note that the actual frame indicated by the an "end" mark will not be included in the edited version of the recording. That's because every recording (and every sequence of an edited recording) begins with an I-frame and ends right before the next I-frame. An edited recording (indicated by the '%' character) will never be deleted automatically in case the disk runs full (no matter what "lifetime" it has). * Programming the Timer Use the "Timer" menu to maintain your list of timer controlled recordings. The parameters in the "Edit timer" menu have the following meanings: Active: Defines whether the timer will be processed (set it to 'no' to temporarily disable a timer). Channel: The channel to be recorded (as defined in the "Channels" list). Any changes made in the "Channels" list (like renaming or reordering channels) will be automatically reflected in the timers settings. Day: The day on which this timer shall start. This can be a date (like 2005-03-19), which allows programming a "single shot" timer that hits once and is deleted after it ends. Another option here are "repeating timers" which are defined by listing the days of the week on which they shall record. For example, a timer that shall record every Monday and Wednesday would have a Day setting of "M-W----". The '0' key toggles between a single shot and a repeating timer. If "Day" indicates a repeating timer, the keys '1'...'7' can be used to toggle the individual days ('1' is Monday). You can also switch to a set of predefined repeating timer settings by pressing the "Left" key when the day is the present day. To return to the single shot mode just press "Right" until a date is displayed. Start: The start time of the timer in hh:mm as 24 hour ("military") time. Stop: The stop time of the timer. VPS: Defines whether the timer shall use VPS (if available). If this option is set to 'yes', the start time must exactly match the programme's VPS time, otherwise nothing will be recorded. If VPS is used, the stop time has no real meaning. However, it must be different than the start time, and should correspond to the actual stop time of the programme, just in case there is no real VPS data available at the time of recording, so VDR has to fall back to normal timer recording. Priority: The Priority (0..99) is used to decide which timer shall be started in case there are two or more timers with the exact same start time. The first timer in the list with the highest Priority will be used. This value is also stored with the recording and is later used to decide which recording to remove from disk in order to free space for a new recording. If the disk is full and a new recording needs more space, an existing recording with the lowest Priority (and which has exceeded its guaranteed Lifetime) will be removed. If all available DVB cards are currently occupied, a timer with a higher priority will interrupt the timer with the lowest priority in order to start recording. Lifetime: The number of days (0..99) a recording made through this timer is guaranteed to remain on disk before it is automatically removed to free up space for a new recording. Note that setting this parameter to very high values for all recordings may soon fill up the entire disk and cause new recordings to fail due to low disk space. The special value 99 means that this recording will live "forever", and a value of 0 means that this recording can be deleted any time if a recording with a higher priority needs disk space. Pattern: The pattern to use for recordings matching events (only available for pattern timers). See section "Pattern timers" below. File: The name under which a recording created through this timer will be stored on disk (the actual name will also contain the date and time, so it is possible to have a "repeating timer" store all its recordings under the same name; they will be distinguishable by their date and time). If the file name contains the special character '~', the recording will be stored in a hierarchical directory structure. For instance, a file name of "Sci-Fi~Star Trek~Voyager" will result in a directory structure "/video/Sci-Fi/Star_Trek/Voyager". The '~' character has been chosen for this since the file system's directory delimiter '/' may be part of a regular programme name. Repeating timers create recordings that contain the 'Episode name' information from the EPG data in their file name. Typically (on tv stations that care about their viewers) this contains the episode title of a series. The episode name is appended to the timer's file name, separated by a '~' character, so that it results in all recordings of this timer being collected in a common subdirectory. If this field is left blank, the channel name will be used to form the name of the recording. First day: The date of the first day when this timer shall start recording (only available for repeating timers). Record on: The name of the remote VDR this timer shall record on (only available if there are any remote VDRs connected to this VDR). If this field is empty, the timer will record on the local VDR. A timer can also be programmed by pressing the "Red" key on the "Schedule", "Now", "Next" or "Event" menus. The "Red" key in the "Edit timer" menu opens a list of folders, which can be used to define the file name in which the recording will be stored. The "Yellow" key in the "Edit timer" menu toggles the timer between "Pattern" and "Regular". When editing the "File" field, the "Blue" key in can be used to insert useful macros. * Pattern timers There are cases where it would make sense to have a more flexible kind of recording timer. For instance, some channels that provide VPS don't always use the exact same VPS time for a series, which is extremely annoying. Or you might want to record all films that have a certain pattern in their title, no matter when they are broadcast. In such cases, "pattern timers" can help. In the "Edit timer" menu press the Yellow button to turn a regular timer into a pattern timer. Pressing this button again switches back to regular. The following rules apply to pattern timers: - Pattern timers can only work for channels that provide EPG data. - When using pattern timers, there should always be at least one free device that can be used to regularly receive the EPG of the pattern timer's channel. - A pattern timer records every matching event on the given channel that overlaps with the given start/stop time. Overlapping events are recorded in full, even if they extend outside the given start/stop interval. - In order to actually record an event, a pattern timer "spawns" a separate timer that does the recording. If there are matching events that would start while the first spawned timer is still recording (due to the start/stop margins), timers for those events are also spawned. - Spawned timers are marked with the flag tfSpawned. - Spawned timers take the Priority, Lifetime and VPS settings from the pattern timer. - The special pattern "*" matches every event. So a timer with a start/stop time of 00:00/23:59 will record every event of that day into separate recordings. Note that when using this pattern there should be no other timers for the same channel, because these might interfere. - Once a timer has been spawned, it is treated like any other regular timer. Any changes made to the corresponding pattern timer thereafter will have no effect on spawned timers. Note that after deleting a spawned timer, the corresponding pattern timer may respawn it. - Recording is done according to the event's begin/end times, either by adding the start/stop margins (for non-VPS timers) or by using the event's running status (for VPS timers). - If the start/stop margins of a spawned timer are reduced because the event before and/or after that timer's event is shorter than the respective margin, the actual recording still uses the full margins. - If the times of the event change, a non-VPS pattern timer automatically adjusts itself to the new times. This also happens if the start/stop margins are changed in the setup. - The recording of a pattern timer is stored under the given file name, just like regular timers do. In addition to the "TITLE" and "EPISODE" macros the file name of a pattern timer can also use "{<}" and "{>}" to reference the part of the event's title before and after the pattern, respectively. For instance, if the event's title is "Abc def ghi" and the pattern is "def ", "{<}" would contain "Abc " and "{>}" would contain "ghi" (note the matching of the blanks). For completeness, "{=}" can be used to reference the matching pattern itself. - In the "Timers" menu pressing the Red button on a pattern timer only toggles the timer between "on" and "off", even if this is a repeating timer. - In the "Timers" menu pattern timers are sorted alphabetically to the end of the list of timers. - A regular timer that is currently recording can't be changed into a pattern timer. - In the "Edit timer" menu the file name and pattern are displayed as separate items. The Yellow button can be used to toggle between a regular timer and a pattern timer. When going from regular to pattern, the Pattern item will be initialized with the base part of the file name. - The characters '^' and '$' can be used at the very beginning and end of the pattern to anchor the pattern to the begin or end of the title. Using both of these will match only titles that consist of exactly the given pattern, with nothing before and nothing after it. - The Pattern field in the "Edit timer" menu allows blanks at the end of the string, which may help to separate the text after the matching pattern. - If the first character of the pattern is '@', an event that matches the rest of the pattern is only recorded if the resulting recording's file name (without any folders) is not contained in the donerecs.data file. This avoids duplicate recordings of the same programme. Timers spawned from such a pattern timer are marked with the flag tfAvoid. - When editing the "File" field of a timer, the Blue button can be pressed to insert one of the macros "TITLE", "EPISODE", "{<}", "{=}" or "{>}", respectively. Pressing the Blue button repeatedly loops through the available macros. The "{...}" macros are only available for pattern timers. - In the "Schedule" and "What's on...?" menus the events that will be recorded by a pattern timer are marked in the same way as regular timers. - The TIMERS column in the LCARS skin doesn't show the basic definitions of pattern timers, it only shows timers actually spawned from pattern timers. If the pattern is prepended with '@', the name of the resulting recording (everything after the rightmost '~', or the entire file name, if there is no '~') will be stored in the file donerecs.data, so that multiple recordings of the same programme can be avoided. When using this feature, special care must be taken regarding the recording's file name. For instance, with a combination of pattern file name @Columbo Movies~TITLE if the event's title is just "Columbo", this pattern timer would only record once, and ignore any future events with that title, even if the episode would be different. So you may want to use the episode name, as in pattern file name @Columbo Movies~TITLE - EPISODE to make the file name unique. If you have several pattern timers for the same show on different channels, chances are that the broadcasters handle title and episode differently, as for example in TITLE EPISODE pattern file name Columbo Blueprint for Murder @^Columbo$ TITLE - EPISODE Columbo - Blueprint for Murder @^Columbo TITLE Columbo: Blueprint for Murder @^Columbo:_ Columbo - {>} (note the '_' in the pattern of the third example; this is just used to visualize the blank at the end of the pattern) In order to have the same episode result in the same recording file name on all channels, the file name needs to be generated differently for each channel. First you need to decide on a proper combination of title and episode name, preferably one that is already used by one of your channels (let's say the second one). In the first case, title and episode name are correctly put in their respective places, and "TITLE - EPISODE" as file name will do. The second case is our common version, where everything is in the title, so TITLE is just fine. The third case poses a problem, because everything is in the title, but with a different separator. Here the special macro "{>}" can be used in the file name, which contains everything following the matching pattern. There are three macros that can be used here: {<} everything before the matching pattern {>} everything after the matching pattern {=} the matching pattern itself (just for completeness) As of VDR version 2.5.2, the characters ' ' (blank), ':' and '-' are ignored when checking whether a particular recording has already been made by a pattern timer, making "TITLE - EPISODE" and "TITLE: EPISODE" the same. * Managing folders The "Select folder" menu, which can be accessed by pressing the "Red" key in the "Edit timer" menu, offers a list of folders that can be used for storing a recording. In this menu, the "Green" key allows you to define a new folder within the current one; if the "Sub folder" option is set to "yes", this will be a folder that contains other folders (indicated by "..." following the folder name in the list). The "Yellow" key deletes the current folder (note that this will merely delete the folder definition stored in 'folders.conf' and has no effect on existing timers or recordings). The "Blue" key can be used to edit an existing folder definition. The "Red" key opens a folder that contains sub folders, while pressing Ok selects the current folder. Once a folder has been selected, the entire path of the timer's file name will be replaced with the selected folder. In the "Recordings" menu the folders of existing recordings can be renamed or moved by pressing the "Blue" key ("Edit") while the cursor is positioned on a folder. This will open a menu in which the folder's name and location (the "parent" folder) can be edited. If such an operation will result in moving more than one recording, you will be asked for confirmation. The name, folder, priority and lifetime of an individual recording can be changed by pressing the "Blue" key ("Info") while the cursor is positioned on a recording, and in the resulting Info menu pressing the "Blue" key again to bring up the "Edit recording" menu. In the "Edit recording" menu the Red button ("Folder") allows you to select one of your predefined folders. The Green button has multiple functions, depending on what is currently going on with the recording. It can either stop or cancel a cut, move or copy operation. If the button reads "Stop..." it means that the respective operation is already happening, while "Cancel..." means that the operation is still pending execution. If no operation is currently happening and the recording has editing marks, the Button will read "Cut" and triggers cutting the recording (same as pressing '2' while replaying the recording). The Yellow button ("Delete marks") allows you to delete all editing marks from the selected recording (if there are any and the recording is not currently being cut). To directly edit the folder or name of the recording, position the cursor to the respective line and press the Right key to start editing (press Ok to confirm the edit, or Back to return to the previous value). If you want to remove the name of the recording and make the folder name the actual recording's name, you can position the cursor to the "Name:" field and press the '0' key. This will take the last element of the recording's folder path and make it the actual name of the recording. You can do this in turn until the recording is moved all the way up to the root of the video directory. Note that, in case you inadvertently pressed the '0' key, you can leave the "Edit recording" menu with the "Back" key and any changes you have made so far will not be applied. Once you are finished with editing the recording properties, press Ok to confirm the changes. * Parameters in the "Setup" menu Select "Setup" from the "VDR" menu to enter the setup menu. From there you can modify the following system parameters (note that "boolean" values will be displayed as "no" and "yes" in the "Setup" menu, while in the setup file they are stored as '0' and '1', respectively): OSD: Language = English Defines the language used to display the OSD texts. Skin = ST:TNG Panels Defines the "skin" used to display the OSD menus. Theme = Default Defines the "theme" to use with the current skin. Left = 8 The left and top offset of the OSD, in percent of the Top = 8 total video display width and height, respectively. The valid range is 0...50%. Width = 87 The width and height of the OSD, in percent of the Height = 84 total video display width and height, respectively. The valid range is 50...100%. Message time = 1 The time (in seconds) how long an informational message shall be displayed on the OSD. The valid range is 1...60. Use small font = 1 Defines whether the small font shall be used. 0 means never use the small font, 1 means use the small font wherever the current skin wants to, and 2 means always use the small font. Anti-alias = 1 Controls whether the OSD uses "anti-aliasing" to improve font rendering. To make this work, the OSD must support at least 256 colors, and the skin in use has to utilize these. If either of these conditions is not met, rendering will be done without anti-aliasing. Default font = Sans Serif:Bold Small font = Sans Serif Fixed font = Courier:Bold The names of the various fonts to use. Default font size = 3.8 Small font size = 3.5 Fixed font size = 3.1 The sizes (in percent of the total video display height) of the various fonts. The valid range is 1...10%, at a resolution of 0.1%. Channel info position = bottom The position of the channel info window in the OSD (either 'bottom' or 'top'). Channel info time = 5 The time (in seconds) after which the channel info display is removed if no key has been pressed. Info on channel switch = yes Turns the display of the current/next information on or off when switching the channel. The information is always displayed when pressing the "Ok" key in normal viewing mode. Timeout requested channel info = yes Turns the automatic timeout of the channel display (when invoked by a press of the "Ok" key) on or off. Scroll pages = yes no = when pressing the "Down" ("Up") key while the cursor is on the last (first) line of a list page, the list is scrolled down (up) a single line and the cursor will remain at the bottom (top) of that page yes = the list is scrolled down (up) a full page and the cursor will be at the top (bottom) of that page (this mode allows for faster scrolling through long lists). Scroll wraps = no no = when the end (beginning) of a list is reached while moving the cursor through it, the cursor stays at the last (first) line of the list yes = the cursor "wraps around" and moves from the last (first) line of the list directly to the first (last) one. Menu key closes = no If set to "yes", pressing the "Menu" key while there is anything displayed on the OSD will close the OSD. If set to "no", the "Menu" key will open the main menu after closing a temporary display, like, for instance, the channel display. Recording directories = yes Turns displaying the Recordings menu as a hierarchical directory structure on or off. Folders in timer menu = yes Controls whether the full folder path is shown in the "Timers" menu, or just the basic recording name. Always sort folders first = yes In the "Recordings" menu folders are always listed before plain recordings. Set this option to "no" if you want folders to be interspersed with recordings when sorted alphabetically. Default sort mode for recordings = by time Controls whether recordings are sorted by time or by name. If a particular sort mode has been selected for a folder by pressing '0', the default no longer applies to that folder. Sorting direction for recordings = ascending When recordings are sorted "by time", they appear in ascending order (i.e. "oldest" to "newest"). If this parameter is set to "descending", they will be presented "newest" to "oldest. Note that in the latter case, if "Always sort folders first" is "yes", folders will appear in reverse alphabetical order. Number keys for characters = yes Controls whether the number keys can be used to enter characters in a text input field. You may want to set this to "no" if you are using an actual keyboard to control VDR. Color key 0 = 0 By default, VDR assumes that the sequence of the color Color key 1 = 1 keys on the remote control is red-green-yellow-blue. If Color key 2 = 2 your remote control has these keys in a different sequence, Color key 3 = 3 you can adjust these parameters to reorder the corresponding color buttons in the menus accordingly. Note that this does not change the functionality of the individual keys; it only changes the sequence in which the color buttons are displayed. EPG: EPG scan timeout = 5 The time (in hours) of user inactivity after which the DVB card in a single card system starts scanning channels to keep the EPG up-to-date. A value of '0' completely turns off scanning on both single and multiple card systems. EPG bugfix level = 3 Some tv stations transmit weirdly formatted EPG data. VDR attempts to fix these bugs up to the given level: 0 = no EPG fixing 1 = basic fixing of text location (Title, Episode and Extended Description) 2 = removal of excess whitespace and hyphens, mapping of wrongly used characters 3 = fix stream component descriptions Default is '3'. Note that after changing the setting of this parameter any EPG data that has already been received will remain in its existing format - only newly received data will be fixed accordingly. Restart VDR if you want to make sure all data is fixed. EPG linger time = 0 The time (in minutes) within which old EPG information shall still be displayed in the "Schedule" menu. Set system time = no Defines whether the system time will be set according to the time received from the DVB data stream. Note that this works only if VDR is running under a user id that has permission to set the system time. You also need to set the option "Use time from transponder" to a channel that you trust to transmit a reliable time base (not all channels seem to have access to a correct time base...). Use time from transponder = 0 The frequency of the transponder that shall be used to set the system time. The Setup menu will offer the full list of channels, even if several of them are on the same transponder. Also, when selecting a channel, saving the Setup and opening the Setup menu again, there may be a different channel listed here, since the first one in 'channels.conf' that is on the given transponder will be taken. Note that in order to set the system time from the transponder data the option "Set system time" must also be enabled. Preferred languages = 0 Some tv stations broadcast their EPG data in various different languages. This option allows you to define which language(s) you prefer in such cases. By default, or if none of the preferred languages is broadcast, any language will be accepted and the EPG data will be displayed in the first language received from the data stream. If this option is set to a non-zero value, the menu page will contain that many "Preferred language" options which allow you to select the individual preferred languages. If an actual EPG data record is received in different languages, the preferred languages are checked in the given order to decide which one to take. Scan The "Red" key in the "Setup/EPG" menu can be used to force an EPG scan on a single DVB card system. If pressed, and the primary DVB device is currently not recording or replaying, it will loop through the transponders once and then switch back to the original channel. Any user activity during the EPG scan will also stop the scan and bring back the original channel. DVB: Primary DVB interface = 1 Defines the primary DVB interface (i.e. the one that will display the menus and will react on input through the remote control). Valid values range from '1' to the number of installed DVB cards. If more than one DVB card is installed and a recording is to be started, the program will try to use a free DVB card that is different from the primary DVB interface, so that the viewer will be disturbed as little as possible. Standard Compliance = 0 Defines the standard compliance mode: 0 = DVB 1 = ANSI/SCTE 2 = NORDIG Video format = 4:3 The video format (or aspect ratio) of the tv set in use (4:3 or 16:9). Applies only to SD output devices. Video display format = letterbox The display format to use for playing wide screen video on a 4:3 tv set ("pan & scan", "letterbox" or "center cut out"). This option is only available if "Video format" is set to 4:3. Applies only to SD output devices. Use Dolby Digital = yes Controls whether Dolby Digital tracks appear in the "Audio" menu. This is useful if you don't have the equipment to replay Dolby Digital audio. Update channels = 5 Controls the automatic channel update function. '0' means no update, '1' will only update channel names, '2' will only update PIDs, '3' will update channel names and PIDs, '4' will perform all updates and also add newly found channels, and '5' will also add newly found transponders. Note that adding new transponders only works if the "EPG scan" is active. Audio languages = 0 Some tv stations broadcast various audio tracks in different languages. This option allows you to define which language(s) you prefer in such cases. By default, or if none of the preferred languages is broadcast, the first audio track will be selected when switching to such a channel. If this option is set to a non-zero value, the menu page will contain that many "Audio language" options which allow you to select the individual preferred languages. Display subtitles = no If set to 'yes', the first available subtitles in the list of preferred subtitle languages will be turned on when switching to a channel that provides subtitles. Subtitle languages = 0 Some tv stations broadcast various subtitle tracks in different languages. This option allows you to define which language(s) you prefer in such cases. By default, or if none of the preferred languages is broadcast, no subtitles will be selected when switching to such a channel. If this option is set to a non-zero value, the menu page will contain that many "Subtitle language" options which allow you to select the individual preferred languages. Subtitle offset = 0 Allows you to shift the location of the subtitles in the vertical direction. The valid range is -100...100. This option is only available if "Display subtitles" is set to 'yes'. Subtitle foreground transparency = 0 Subtitle background transparency = 0 These define an additional level of transparency for the foreground and background color of subtitles. Valid ranges are 0...9 for foreground transparency, and 0...10 for background transparency. By default the values as broadcast are used. LNB: Use DiSEqC = no Generally turns DiSEqC support on or off. SLOF = 11700 The switching frequency (in MHz) between low and high LOF Low LNB frequency = 9750 The LNB's low and high local oscillator frequencies High LNB frequency = 10600 (in MHz, these have no meaning for DVB-C receivers) Device n connected to sat cable = own Defines whether DVB-S device n has its own satellite cable, or is "bonded" with another device. All DVB-S devices that are connected to the same sat cable must be set to the same number here. Use dish positioner = no By default, the 'P' command code in DiSEqC command sequences is ignored. Set this parameter to 'yes' if you are using a satellite dish positioner. Site latitude (degrees) = 0 Site longitude (degrees) = 0 Set these to the latitude and longitude of your dish's location if you use a satellite dish positioner. Use the "Green" key to switch between north/south and east/west, respectively. Max. positioner swing (degrees) = 65 Defines the maximum angle by which the positioner can move the dish away from due south (or north) in either direction. The valid range is 0...90. Positioner speed (degrees/s) = 1.5 Defines the speed at which the positioner moves the dish. The valid range is 0.1...180. This value is used to calculate how long it takes the positioner to reach the target position. CAM: n CAM Name Shows the CAM slots that are present in this system, where 'n' is the number of the slot, followed by the name of the CAM. If a CAM slot is empty, '-' is displayed as name, and if it is in the process of being reset, its current status is displayed. The "Red" key can be pressed to enter the CAM menu, and the "Green" key triggers a reset of the selected slot. The "Ok" key also opens the CAM menu. The "Yellow" key assigns the selected CAM to a device and switches it to the current channel. The CAM/device combination remains tuned to the current channel until the smart card in the CAM has been activated and thus starts to descramble, or until a recording needs this device. Pressing the "Yellow" key while a CAM is in activation mode cancels the activation. The activation mode remains in effect even if you switch to a different channel (provided there is more than one device in the system) or watch a recording. To activate your smart card simply switch to the channel you want to watch, open the "Setup/CAM" menu, select the CAM that contains the smart card (in case you have more than one CAM) and press the "Yellow" key. Recording: Margin at start = 2 Defines how many minutes before the official start time Margin at stop = 10 of a broadcast VDR shall start recording, and how long after the official end time it shall stop recording. These margins are added automatically to timers that are created from the EPG data. Note that the actual margins used may be smaller than the given values, if the event before and/or after the event to be recorded is shorter than the respective margin. Default priority = 50 The default Priority and Lifetime values used when Default lifetime = 99 creating a new timer event. A Lifetime value of 99 means that this recording will never be deleted automatically. Record key handling = 2 Defines what happens if the Record key on the remote control is pressed during live tv. 0 = no instant recording 1 = confirm instant recording 2 = record instantly The default is 2. Pause key handling = 2 Defines what happens if the Pause key on the remote control is pressed during live tv. 0 = do not pause live video 1 = confirm pause live video 2 = pause live video The default is 2. Pause priority = 10 The Priority and Lifetime values used when pausing live Pause lifetime = 1 video. Use episode name = yes Repeating timers use the EPG's 'Episode name' information to create recording file names in a hierarchical structure (for instance to gather all episodes of a series in a common subdirectory). This parameter can be used to control this. no = don't use the 'Episode name' yes = use it (and create subdirectories) Use VPS = 0 Defines whether a timer that is created from an EPG entry (by pressing the "Record" (red) key in the "Schedules" or "What's on now/next?" menu) will automatically use VPS if the event it is created for has a VPS time. VPS margin = 120 Defines how many seconds before a VPS controlled timer is scheduled to start, VDR will make sure that one of the DVB devices is tuned to the transponder that timer shall record from. This is necessary for the "Running Status" information that is broadcast in the EPG data to be seen by VDR. Mark instant recording = yes Defines whether an "instant recording" (started by pressing the "Red" key in the "VDR" menu) will be marked with a '@' character to make it distinguishable from timer recordings in the "Recordings" menu. Name instant recording = TITLE EPISODE Defines how to name an instant recording. If the keywords TITLE and/or EPISODE are present, they will be replaced with the title and episode information from the EPG data at the time of recording (if that data is available). If this parameter is empty, the channel name will be used by default. Instant rec. time = 180 Defines the duration of an instant recording in minutes. Default is 180 minutes (3 hours). The stop time of an instant recording can be modified at any time by editing the respective timer in the "Timers" menu. If this parameter is set to 0 ("present event"), only the currently running event will be recorded, using the stop margin and VPS setting as configured. Note that this parameter is also used when pausing live video! Max. video file size = 2000 The maximum size of a single recorded video file in MB. The valid range is 100...1048570. Default is 2000, but you may want to use smaller values if you are planning on archiving a recording to CD. Split edited files = no During the actual editing process VDR writes the result into files that may grow up to MaxVideoFileSize. If you prefer to have each marked sequence stored in a separate file (named 00001.ts, 00002.ts, ...) you can set this option to 'yes'. Delete timeshift recording = 0 Controls whether a timeshift recording is deleted after viewing it. 0 = no 1 = confirm 2 = yes The default is 0. Replay: Multi speed mode = no Defines the function of the "Left" and "Right" keys in replay mode. If set to 'no', one speed will be used, while if set to 'yes' there will be three speeds for fast and slow search, respectively. Show replay mode = no Turns displaying the current replay mode on or off. Show remaining time = no Defines whether the replay progress display shows the remaining time or the total length of the recording. Progress display time (s) = 0 Defines how long (in seconds) the progress display is shown when replay of a recording is started. The default value of 0 means that it will not be shown. Pause replay when setting mark = no Defines whether the player automatically goes into Pause mode when setting an editing mark. Pause replay when jumping to a mark = yes By default replay is automatically paused whenever you jump to an editing mark with the '7' or '9' key in order to allow you to easily adjust those marks. If this option is set to 'no', the '9' key will not pause if you are in Play mode and the mark you jump to is not within 3 seconds of the end of the recording. Skip edited parts = no Defines whether the edited parts of a recording are automatically skipped during replay. This includes jumping to the first mark if replay starts at the beginning of the recording, and stopping at the last mark. Pause replay at last mark = no If enabled, replay of a recording will go into Pause mode when it has reached the last "end" mark (if any). Note that the actual position at which the pause occurs may be a couple of frames before the last "end" mark, depending on how much data is buffered by your output device. Initial duration for adaptive skipping (s) = 120 Defines the number of seconds to jump from the current replay position in either direction, when pressing the '1' or '3' key for the first time after the "Reset timeout for adaptive skipping". The valid range is 10...600. Reset timeout for adaptive skipping (s) = 3 Defines the number of seconds after which pressing the '1' or '3' key falls back to the "Initial duration for adaptive skipping". The valid range is 0...10. Setting the timeout to 0 disables the adaptive mode and makes '1' and '3' always skip the number of seconds configured as the initial duration. Alternate behavior for adaptive skipping = no When skipping in adaptive mode with the '1' and '3' keys, the distance of the skip is halved with every key press after the first change of direction. While this allows for locating a particular position in a recording very fast, once you make one step too many in the current direction you have no chance of ever reaching the desired point any more. You will have to wait for the timeout to occur and start adaptive skipping anew. If this option is set to 'yes', the skip distance will only be halved if the direction actually changes. That way, even if you missed the target point, you can still back up to it. Use Prev/Next keys for adaptive skipping = no Normally the Prev/Next keys jump between editing marks (or the beginning/end of the recording). You can set this option to 'yes' if you want to use these keys for adaptive skipping instead. Skip distance with Green/Yellow keys (s) = 60 Defines the number of seconds to skip in either direction when pressing the "Green" or "Yellow" key, respectively. The valid range is 5...600. Skip distance with Green/Yellow keys in repeat (s) = 60 Defines the number of seconds to skip in either direction when pressing and holding the "Green" or "Yellow" key, respectively. The valid range is 5...600. Resume ID = 0 Defines an additional ID that can be used in a multi user environment, so that every user has his/her own resume files for each recording. The valid range is 0...99, with 0 resulting in a file named 'resume', and any other value resulting in 'resume.n'. Miscellaneous: Min. event timeout = 30 Min. user inactivity = 300 If the command line option '-s' has been set, VDR will automatically shutdown the computer if the next timer event is at least MinEventTimeout minutes in the future, and the user has been inactive for at least MinUserInactivity minutes. Setting MinUserInactivity to 0 disables the automatic shutdown, while still retaining the possibility to manually shutdown the computer. SVDRP timeout = 300 The time (in seconds) of inactivity on an open SVDRP connection after which the connection is automatically closed. Default is 300, a value of 0 means no timeout. SVDRP peering = off Activates automatic connections between VDRs in the same network. If set to "any hosts" this VDR will establish connections with any available hosts. If set to "only default host" this VDR will only connect to the VDR with the name defined in "SVDRP default host". If no default host has been defined, the behavior is the same as with "any hosts". To switch from "off" to "only default host", you may need to select "any hosts" first and confirm the dialog by pressing "Ok" in order to be able to select a default host. SVDRP host name The name of this VDR, which is used when connecting VDRs via SVDRP. By default, the machine's host name is used. SVDRP default host The name of the VDR to be used by default when creating a new timer. Zap timeout = 3 The time (in seconds) until a channel counts as "previous" for switching with '0' Channel entry timeout = 1000 The time (in milliseconds) after the last keypress until a numerically entered channel number is considered complete, and the channel is switched. Default is 1000, a value of 0 turns this off, so a numerically entered channel number then needs to be confirmed with the "Ok" key. Note that the total maximum is also limited by the "OSD/Channel info time" parameter. Remote control repeat delay = 300 The earliest time (in milliseconds) after which the repeat function of the remote control kicks in if a key is held pressed down for a while. If the remote control in use has a repeat delay that is longer than that given in this parameter, that longer delay will prevail. Remote control repeat delta = 100 The time (in milliseconds) between two subsequent key presses generated by the remote control's repeat function. If the remote control in use has a repeat delta that is longer than that given in this parameter, that longer delta will prevail. Initial channel = The channel ID of the channel that shall be tuned to when VDR starts. Default is empty, which means that it will tune to the channel that was on before VDR was stopped. Initial volume = -1 The volume that shall be set when VDR starts. Default is -1, which means that the same volume as before VDR was stopped will be used. The valid range is from 0 (silent) to 255 (loudest). Volume steps = 51 The number of steps the volume will use when moving from the lowest to the highest value. The valid range is from 5 to 255. Volume linearize = 0 How to linearize the volume control. The valid range is from -20 to 20. A value of 0 results in no linearization. The higher this value is, the more fine grained the control of the volume is for low sound levels. Lower values do the same for high sound levels. This allows you to adjust the more or less linear volume control of your sound card. Channels wrap = no During zapping with the "Up" and "Down" keys (or the "Channel+" and "Channel-" keys) the current channel will wrap around the beginning or end of the channel list if this parameter is set to 'yes'. Show channel names with source = off If this option is turned on, channel names will be displayed with the source appended to them, as in "ZDF (S)" (if the option is set to "type), or "ZDF (S19.2E)" (if it is set to "full"), where 'S' stands for "Satellite". Emergency exit = yes If, for some reason, a recording fails because the video data stream is broken, or the CAM doesn't decrypt etc., VDR automatically exits in order to allow the surrounding wrapper script to reload the DVB drivers. If this option is set to 'no', the "emergency exit" will be ignored, hoping that the problem will go away by itself (as, for instance, with bad weather conditions). * Executing system commands The "VDR" menu option "Commands" allows you to execute any system commands defined in the configuration file 'commands.conf' (see vdr(5) for details). The "Commands" option will only be present in the "VDR" menu if a valid 'commands.conf' file containing at least one command definition has been found at program start. This feature can be used to do virtually anything, like checking for new mail, displaying the CPU temperature - you name it! All you need to do is enter the necessary command definition into 'commands.conf' and implement the actual command that will be called. Such a command can typically be a shell script or a Perl program. Anything that command writes to stdout will be displayed on a result screen after executing the command. This screen will use a 'fixed' font so that you can generate formatted output. In order to avoid error messages going to stderr, command definitions should redirect stderr to stdout (see vdr(5)). WARNING: THE COMMANDS DEFINED IN 'commands.conf' WILL BE EXECUTED UNDER THE ======= SAME USER ID THAT VDR IS RUNNING WITH. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN DEFINING THESE COMMANDS AND MAKE SURE THEY DON'T HARM YOUR SYSTEM, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE RUNNING VDR UNDER A HIGH PRIVILEGED USER ID (LIKE 'root').