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. If you want to use your DVD drive you will need to compile VDR with make DVD=1 to activate DVD support. VDR then also needs the package 'libdvdread' in order to replay DVDs. This package is expected to be located in the directory ../DVD (seen from the VDR directory). Adjust the definition of DVDDIR in the Makefile if necessary. You can find 'libdvdread' at http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/downloads.html If you want to replay CSS encrypted DVDs you also need to get the 'libdvdcss' library from http://www.videolan.org/libdvdcss/download.html VDR requires the Linux-DVB card driver version dated 2001-09-14 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. IMPORTANT: See "Configuration files" below for information on how ========= to set up the configuration files at the proper location! 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://www.lirc.org) REMOTE=NONE no remote control (in case only SVDRP shall be used) 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). If your video directory will be on a VFAT partition, add the compile time switch VFAT=1 to the 'make' command. 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'. WARNING: DUE TO THE OPEN SVDRP PORT THIS PROGRAM MAY CONSTITUTE A ======= POTENTIAL SECURITY HAZARD! IF YOU ARE NOT RUNNING VDR IN A CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT, YOU MAY WANT TO DISABLE SVDRP BY USING '--port=0'! 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. When starting the program through an entry in /etc/inittab, use the --terminal option to set the controlling terminal, as in vdr:123:respawn:/usr/local/bin/vdr --terminal=/dev/tty8 -w 60 Automatic restart in case of hangups: ------------------------------------- If you run VDR using the 'runvdr' shell script it will use the built-in watchdog timer to restart the program in case something happens that causes a program hangup. If you change the command line options for the call to the VDR program, be sure to NOT use the '-d' option! Otherwise VDR will go into 'deamon' mode and the initial program call will return immediately! Automatic shutdown: ------------------- If you define a shutdown command via the '-s' command line option, VDR will call the given command if there is currently no recording or replay active, the user has been inactive for at least MinUserInactivity minutes and the next timer event is at least MinEventTimeout minutes in the future (see the Setup parameters in MANUAL). The command given in the '-s' option will be called with two parameters. The first one is the time (in UTC) of the next timer event (as a time_t type number), and the second one is the number of seconds from the current time until the next timer event. Your program can choose which one to use for programming some sort of hardware device that makes sure the computer will be restarted in time before the next timer event. Your program must also initiate the actual shutdown procedure of the computer. After this your program should return to VDR. VDR will not automatically exit after calling the shutdown program, but will rather continue normally until it receives a SIGTERM when the computer is actually shut down. So in case the shutdown fails, or the shutdown program for some reason decides not to perform a shutdown, VDR will stay up and running. If there are currently no timers active, both parameters will be '0'. In that case the program shall not set the hardware for automatic restart and only perform the system shutdown. A program that uses the second parameter to set the hardware for restart must therefore also check whether the first parameter is '0'. If a timer is currently recording, the parameters will reflect the start time of that timer. This means that the first parameter will be a time in the past, and the second parameter will be a negative number. This only happens if the user presses the "Power" key while a timer is currently recording. Before the shutdown program is called, the user will be prompted to inform him that the system is about to shut down. If any remote control key is pressed while this prompt is visible, the shutdown will be cancelled (and tried again after another MinUserInactivity minutes). The shutdown prompt will be displayed for 5 minutes, which should be enough time for the user to react. A sample shell script to be used with the '-s' option might look like this: #!/bin/sh setRTCwakeup $(($1 - 300)) sudo halt Here 'setRTCwakeup' would be some program that uses the first parameter (which is the absolute time of the next timer event) to set the Real Time Clock so that it wakes up the computer 5 minutes (i.e. 300 seconds) before that event. The 'sudo halt' command then shuts down the computer. You will have to substitute both commands with whatever applies to your particular hard- and software environment. If the '-s' option is present, the VDR machine can be turned off by pressing the "Power" key on the remote control. Command line options: --------------------- Use "vdr --help" for a list of available command line options. Replaying Dolby Digital audio: ------------------------------ To replay Dolby Digital audio you need a program that reads the DD data from stdin and processes it in a way suitable for your audio hardware. This program must be given to VDR with the '-a' option, as in vdr -a ac3play Accessing the DVD drive: ------------------------ By default VDR expects the DVD drive to be located at /dev/dvd (which typically is a symbolic link to the actual device, for instance /dev/hdc). You can use the '-V' option to overwrite this, as in vdr -V /media/dvd Note that the user id under which VDR runs needs to have write access to the DVD device in order to replay CSS protected DVDs (which also requires the presence of the 'libdvdcss' library). 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. Please make sure that the directory name you use with '-v' is a clean and absolute path name (no '..' or multiple slashes). 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. By default these files are assumed to be located in the video directory, but a different directory can be used with the '-c' option. For starters just copy all *.conf files from the VDR directory into your video directory. 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. As a starting point you can copy the 'channels.conf' file that comes with the VDR archive into your video directory (or into your config directory, respectively, in case you have redirected it with the -c option). Setting up DiSEqC: ------------------ If you are using a DVB-S card with a satellite equipment that needs to be accessed using DiSEqC, you have to go to the "Setup" menu and set the "DiSEqC" parameter to "on". Also check the "DiSEqC" parameters for the various channels and set them to the necessary values. Running VDR with DVB-C (cable): ------------------------------- VDR automatically recognizes if the DVB card in use is a cable card. The only things that needs to be different when using digital cable is the 'channels.conf' file. The distribution archive contains a default 'channels.conf.cable', which cable users can rename or copy to 'channels.conf' in order to receive cable channels. The format of this file is exactly the same as for satellite channels (the fields containing "Polarization" and "Diseqc" data are ignored in case of DVB-C). 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 Power 'P' Volume+/- '+', '-' Mute 'm' 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://www.lirc.org for more about LIRC.