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Video Disk Recorder User's Manual
---------------------------------
* 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
Up Ch up Crsr up Crsr up Crsr up Crsr up Crsr up Play
Down Ch down Crsr down Crsr down Crsr down Crsr down Crsr down Pause
Left Prev group - Page up Page up Decrement Page up Search back
Right Next group - Page down Page down Increment Page down Search forward
Ok Ch display Select Switch Edit Accept Play Progress disp.
Menu Menu on Menu off Menu off Menu off Menu off Menu off Menu on
Back - Menu off VDR menu VDR menu Discard VDR menu Recordings menu
Red - Record Edit Edit ABC/abc Play/Commands(2) Jump
Green - Language New New Ins/Ovr Rewind Skip -60s
Yellow - - Delete Delete Delete Delete Skip +60s
Blue - Stop/Resume Mark On/Off(1) - Summary Stop
0..9 Ch select - - - Numeric inp. Exec cmd(2) 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.
If your remote control provides additional keys, they can be used for the
following functions:
Play resume normal replay
Pause pause replay
Stop stop replay
Record instant recording
FastFwd fast forward
FastRew fast rewind
Channel+ channel up
Channel- channel down
Power shutdown
Volume+ volume up
Volume- volume down
Mute mute
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')
(1) The "On/Off" button in the "Timers" menu only works if sorting the timers
has been enabled in the "Setup" menu. Otherwise the Blue button is used
to "mark" a timer for moving.
(2) See "Processing Recordings" below.
* 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 "Blue" key (this is only possible if the "Timers" list is sorted,
otherwise the "Blue" key is used to mark a timer in order to move it to
another position in the list). 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 "Blue" 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" button (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" buttons 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" button 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" button 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" button toggles between
the "Now" and "Next" display, and the "Yellow" button takes you to the
"Schedule" menu of the current channel in the list.
The "Red" button allows you to instantly program a timer to record the
selected programme. You will get into the "Edit Timer" menu in which
everything has already been filled in, and 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 ;-)
The "Blue" button can be pressed to switch to the channel with the selected
programme.
* 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" button 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" button.
Pressing the '0' key in normal viewing mode toggles between the current and
the previous channel.
After switching to a different channel the channel number and name, as well
as the current time are displayed at the top of the screen. 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" button.
* Selecting language specific audio track
If the current channel provides different audio tracks (typically for
different languages), the "Green" button in the "VDR" menu can be pressed
to toggle between these. There can be two different audio PIDs per channel,
assuming that typically a channel broadcasts a country specific language
plus the movie's original soundtrack.
Recordings made form such channels will contain both audio tracks, and when
replaying the desired audio track can be selected the same way.
* 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" button 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" button
in the "VDR" menu. This will create a timer event named "@channelname" that
starts at the current time and records for two hours.
If you want to modify the recording time you need to edit the timer.
Stop instant recording by pressing the "Menu" button and selecting
"Stop Recording", or by disabling the timer.
* Replaying a Recording
All recordings are listed in the "Recordings" menu. Browse through the
list with the "Up" and "Down" button and press "Ok" (or the "Red" button)
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"
button). 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" button outside the menu.
A previously stopped playback session can be resumed by pressing the "Blue"
button in the "VDR" menu.
* 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" button 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 button performs the function until
the button is released again.
If "Multi Speed Mode" has been enabled in the "Setup" menu, the
function of these buttons changes in a way that gives you three
fast and slow speeds, through which you can switch by pressing
the respective button 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 button performs the function until
the button 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.
- 4, 6 Move an editing mark back and forward. 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.
- 8 Positions replay at a point 3 seconds before the current or next
"start" mark and starts replay.
- 2 Start 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 "start"
mark, and a triangle at the bottom means that this is an "end" mark.
The cutting process will save all video data between "start" and "end" marks
into a new file (the original recording remains untouched). The new file will
have the same name as the original recording, preceeded 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 "start" 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 is
every 12th frame. So editing can be done with a resolution of roughly half
a second. A "start" mark marks the first frame of a resulting video
sequence, and an "end" mark marks the last frame of that sequence.
* 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 desable 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 either a
"day of month" (1..31), which allows programming a "single shot"
timer that hits once and is deleted after it ends. Single shot
timers can be programmed up to one month into the future.
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----".
Start: The start time of the timer in hh:mm as 24 hour ("military") time.
Stop: The stop time of the timer.
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.
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).
A timer can also be programmed by pressing the "Red" button on the "Schedule",
"Now", "Next" or "Event" menus.
* Stopping a recording on the primary DVB interface
If the primary DVB interface is currently recording, the user can't switch
the channel or replay another recording on that interface. However, if there
is an other DVB interface that is currently not recording and provides the
necessary conditional access facilities to continue the recording that is
currently being performed on the primary DVB interface, the "VDR" menu will
contain an option that allows you to stop recording on the primary DVB
interface. Select that option to stop the ongoing recording and thus free the
primary DVB interface to allow channel switching or replaying. The interrupted
recording will be continued on an other free DVB interface. There may be a
short discontinuity at that point when replaying that recording later, so you
may want to place such an action for instance in a commercial break.
* 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.
Width = 52 The width and height of the OSD .
Height = 18 The valid ranges are width=40...56, height=12...21.
Message time = 1 The time (in seconds) how long an informational
message shall be displayed on the OSD. The valid range
is 1...60.
Channel info position = bottom
The position of the channel info window in the OSD
(either 'bottom' or 'top').
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" button in
normal viewing mode.
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 advanced by a full page and the cursor will
be at the top (bottom) of that page
yes = dto., but the cursor remains at the bottom (top) of
the page (this mode allows for faster scrolling
through long lists).
Sort timers = yes Turns sorting the timers in the "Timers" menu on/off.
Timers are sorted by ascending start times, with the
first one being the next timer that will start.
Recording directories = yes
Turns displaying the Recordings menu as a hierarchical
directory structure on or off.
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 = 2 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
Default is '2'.
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.
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 permisson 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.
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.
Video format = 4:3 The video format (or aspect ratio) of the tv set in use
(4:3 or 16:9).
LNB:
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)
Use DiSEqC = no Generally turns DiSEqC support on or off.
CICAM:
CICAM DVBn m Defines the "Conditional Access" capabilities of the DVB
card 'n'. Each DVB card can provide up to two CICAM
methods ('m' = [1, 2]).
In the 'setup.conf' file the value consists of the card
number, followed by a list of decryption method values
(defined in 'ca.conf').
For instance
CaCaps = 3 101 102
would define that card number 3 is able to decrypt
"Premiere World" and the "ORF".
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.
Primary limit = 0 The minimum priority a timer must have to be allowed to
use the primary DVB interface, or to force another timer
with higher priority to use the primary DVB interface.
This is mainly useful for recordings that should take
place only when there is nothing else to do, but should
never keep the user from viewing stuff on the primary
interface. On systems with only one DVB card, timers
with a priority below PrimaryLimit will never execute.
Default priority = 50 The default Priority and Lifetime values used when
Default lifetime = 50 creating a new timer event. A Lifetime value of 99
means that this recording will never be deleted
automatically.
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)
Mark instant recording = yes
Defines whether an "instant recording" (started by
pressing the "Red" button 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.
Record Dolby Digital = yes
Turns recording of the Dolby Digital audio channels on
or off. This may be useful if you don't have the equipment
to replay Dolby Digital audio and want to save disk space.
Max. video file size = 2000
The maximum size of a single recorded video file in MB.
The valid range is 100...2000. 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 001.vdr, 002.vdr, ...) you can set this
option to 'yes'.
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.
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.vdr', and any other
value resulting in 'resume.n.vdr'.
Miscellaneous:
Min. event timeout = 30
Min. user inactivity = 120
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.
* 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').
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