VDR

About

VDR is software used to build a digital video recorder with your linux systems, it supports dvb-t, dvb-c, dvb-s and analog tv. Features:

• Operation entirely via DVB card's On Screen Display and infrared control (LIRC/RCU) or keyboard
• Support for multiple DVB cards (up to four, at least one full featured card with video out required) and "conditional access" (CICAM)
• Channel groups
• EPG display by channel or by time ("What's on now/next")
• Timers: Programming via EPG or manually, priority/lifetime model, single-shot or repeating timers which use EPG subtitle info as recording's title additionally
• Recording storage on disk: Automatically splitting of recording into files (<2GB), support for multiple storage directories (may be spread over multiple disks), support for hierarchical storage
• Support for multiple audio tracks and Dolby Digital
• Instant recording
• Playback modes normal, pause, fast forward/backward (multi speed), jump to specific location, jump 60 seconds
• Support for editing recordings (with I-frame accuracy: ~1/2 second)
• Multiple language support
• Support for executing system commands and displaying output on screen
• Network support (SVDRP): Manage timers and recordings via telnet
• Automatic shutdown/wakeup (with certain mainboards)
• Support for automatically executing commands upon recording start/end and editing recordings
• Instant Time Shift
• Plugin interface (see the list of available plugins).
• Additional remote control keys
• Macros can be assigned to remote control keys
• Multiple recordings on the same device
• Simultaneous recording and replay on the primary device

Installation

Portage overlay

VDR is best obtained from the Gentoo.de portage overlay. These ebuilds are unofficial, and are therefore maintained in the German CVS. These instructions are adapted from the VDR wiki.

For updating the ebuilds you will use gensync from the gentoolkit-dev package:

# emerge gentoolkit-dev
# mkdir -p /usr/local/gentoo-de

 id="gentoo-de"
 description="gentoo.de Portage Overlay"
 rsync="rsync://rsync16.de.gentoo.org/gentoo-de-ebuilds"
 # mirror is the none with all VDR ebuilds!!!
 # overlay="/my/absolute/path"
 overlay="/usr/local/gentoo-de"

Change the PORTDIR_OVERLAY Variable in /etc/make.conf:

 PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/gentoo-de"

Then sync the overlay (remember to do this from time to time):

# gensync gentoo-de

VDR USE flags

VDR accepts USE flags which will make it apply specific patches or enable features.

These options are taken from (in English but also available in German): Gentoo USE flags

aio                   # supplements VDR with the enAIO Patch: 
                         * Easyinput: fast text input by number keys
                         * Rename recordings: press '0' key in recordings menu to edit the name/priority/lifetime
                         * Menu selection: select menu entry by number keys
                         * Recording length: shows the lengths of recordings: Setup / Recording / Show date|time|length
                         * Position of main menu commands: Setup / OSD / Main Menu command position
                         * Progress bars in What's on now? menu: Setup / EPG / Show progress bar 
bigpatch              # BigPatch merge
dvbplayer             # Change the Stream Mulitplexens (particularly for Software-Decoder&DXR3)
lirc                  # Enables remote control over LIRC
rds-timeout           # Makes possible shutdown despite open RDS announcement by radio plugin
rotor                 # Support for rotor plugin
setup-plugin          # Support for Setup plugin
sourcecaps            # SourceCaps Patch merge
submenu               # Support for Submenu plugin
subtitles             # Support for Subtitles plugin and Ttxtsubs plugin
yaepg                 # Support for Yaepg plugin
child-protection      # Support for the pin plugin (German)
debug                 # Compile with Debug information
vanilla               # No patches on (not even nose-fixed) turns
jumpplay              # Supplements VDR that over Schnittmakrierungen in photographs one jumps automatically
lnb-sharing           # fixes problems when several processes use the same LNB

Plug-ins

First Step: Which plugin?

First one must find out which plugin has the needed functionality. An up-to-date list is found at http://www.linuxtv.org/vdrwiki/index.php/Plugins . Scroll down for a list of available plugins through portage overlay.

Second Step: Installation

The plugin is installed with this command:

# echo "media-plugins/vdr-mailbox ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
# emerge vdr-mailbox

The addition of media-plugins/vdr-mailbox to the file /etc/portage/package.keywords is necessary for most plugins because there is no stable version of them available. It guarantees that you get the newest available version (this can be also an alpha or beta version) installed.

Third Step: Configuration

Note: On November 2005, all Plugins from media-video/vdrplugin-(name) moved to media-plugins/vdr-(name)

You can activate the plugin in two ways:

First method:

PLUGINS="mailbox"
# Multiple plugins are sperated by spaces, for example:
# PLUGINS="mailbox dvd femon"

Second method: Call emerge --config like in the installation step:

# emerge --config vdr-mailbox

Some plugins have their own configuration file. This is then called /etc/conf.d/vdr.PLUGINNAME. e.g. for the Mailbox-Plugin /etc/conf.d/vdr.mailbox. The options inside here diverge from plugin to plugin and are documented directly inside this file.

After a restart of VDR one can configure the plugin (here the mailboxes) over the OSD.

List of plugins in portage overlay (11/2005)

A list of plugins and their description, available through portage and the gentoo-de overlay.

media-tv/vdrplugin-rebuild (): A utility to rebuild any plugins for vdr which you have installed.
media-plugins/vdr-admin (): 
media-plugins/vdr-alcd (): Activy 300 LCD PlugIn
media-plugins/vdr-audiocd (): 
media-plugins/vdr-avolctl (): 
media-plugins/vdr-bitstreamout (): 
media-plugins/vdr-burn (): DVD burn Plugin
media-plugins/vdr-calc (): Calculator PlugIn
media-plugins/vdr-cdda (): CD Digital Audio
media-plugins/vdr-chanorg (): Channel Organizer
media-plugins/vdr-clock (): Clock PlugIn
media-plugins/vdr-console (): Console PlugIn
media-plugins/vdr-control (): Telnet-OSD PlugIn
media-plugins/vdr-decruft (): Clean unwanted entries from channels.conf
media-plugins/vdr-director (): use the multifeed option of some Premiere channels - Plugin
media-plugins/vdr-dxr3 (): DXR3 or HW+ plugin
media-plugins/vdr-dxr3-cvs (): DXR3 PlugIn (CVS version)
media-plugins/vdr-extb (): ExtensionBoard PlugIn
media-plugins/vdr-ffnetdev (): ffnetdev PlugIn
media-plugins/vdr-freecell (): Freecell PlugIn
media-plugins/vdr-games (): 
media-plugins/vdr-graphlcd (): VDR graphical LCD PlugIn
media-plugins/vdr-graphtft (): VDR GraphTFT Plugin
media-plugins/vdr-image (): 
media-plugins/vdr-launcher (): Video Disk Recorder OSD-PIP PlugIn
media-plugins/vdr-lcdproc (): 
media-plugins/vdr-lcr (): Least Cost Routing (LCR) PlugIn
media-plugins/vdr-mailbox (): 
media-plugins/vdr-mldonkey (): 
media-plugins/vdr-mplayer (): 
media-plugins/vdr-mplayercluster (): 
media-plugins/vdr-muggle (): 
media-plugins/vdr-newsticker (): 
media-plugins/vdr-osdpip (): 
media-plugins/vdr-osdteletext (): 
media-plugins/vdr-pim (): 
media-plugins/vdr-playlist (): 
media-plugins/vdr-powermate (): 
media-plugins/vdr-prefermenu (): 
media-plugins/vdr-radio (): DVB Radio with RDS Text plugin for VDR >= 1.3.21
media-plugins/vdr-remote (): 
media-plugins/vdr-scanner (): 
media-plugins/vdr-screenshot (): 
media-plugins/vdr-serial (): 
media-plugins/vdr-skincurses (): VDR skin that works in shell window
media-plugins/vdr-sky (): interface to kfir mpeg encoder card
media-plugins/vdr-streamdev (): Client/Server streaming plugin
media-plugins/vdr-streamdev-cvs (): Client/Server streaming plugin
media-plugins/vdr-subtitles (): Subtitles PlugIn
media-plugins/vdr-sysinfo (): 
media-plugins/vdr-taste (): 
media-plugins/vdr-text2skin (): 
media-plugins/vdr-timeline (): 
media-plugins/vdr-tvonscreen (): 
media-plugins/vdr-tvtv (): 
media-plugins/vdr-undelete (): 
media-plugins/vdr-vbox (): Voicebox PlugIn
media-plugins/vdr-vcd (): 
media-plugins/vdr-vdr-setup (): Create Submenus, Configure VDR on OSD
media-plugins/vdr-vdrcd (): Media Detection Plugin
media-plugins/vdr-vdricq (): 
media-plugins/vdr-vdrmail (): 
media-plugins/vdr-vdrrip (): 
media-plugins/vdr-wapd (): 
media-plugins/vdr-weather (): 
media-plugins/vdr-xine (): Xine PlugIn
media-plugins/vdr-xxvautotimer (): Create Submenus, Configure VDR on OSD
media-plugins/vdr-yaepg (): 
media-plugins/vdr-softdevice ():

Links

• Video Disk Recorder (VDR)
• VDR Wiki
• VDR Wiki Gentoo Section with many Howtos
• VDR Wiki Gentoo Section with many Howtos (German Version)
• Gentoo Section on VDR Portal, it's a German forum for VDR
• c't - German IT magazine which made the vdr project famous in Germany