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. If you have the DVB driver source in a different location you will have to change the definition of DVBDIR in the Makefile. 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. The files that come with this package contain the author's selections, so please make sure you adapt these to your personal taste. Also make sure that the channels defined in 'channels.conf' are correct before attempting to record anything. Channel parameters may vary and not all of the channels listed in the default 'channels.conf' file have been verified by the author. 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.