How to install VDR on CentOS

VDR is an application that allows us to do video streaming using as source a DVB-S or DVB-T adapter. This guide was tested on CentOS 6.4 x64. I used VDR version 1.7.22 and version 0.5.2 of streamdev server plugin. A prerequisite is that the system must have installed a DVB adapter.

Let’s install some groups and packages

yum groupinstall "Additional Development" "Development tools"
yum install fontconfig fontconfig-devel freetype freetype-devel gettext gettext-devel libcap libcap-devel libjpeg libjpeg-devel

Create the folder structure

mkdir /usr/local/vdr
mkdir /usr/local/vdr/bin
mkdir /usr/local/vdr/lib
mkdir /usr/local/vdr/etc
mkdir /usr/local/vdr/etc/vdr
mkdir /usr/local/vdr/etc/vdr/plugins
mkdir /usr/local/vdr/spool
mkdir /usr/local/vdr/spool/video
mkdir /usr/local/vdr/spool/epg

Download, decompress and compile VDR and stream-dev plugin

cd /usr/src
wget ftp://ftp.tvdr.de/vdr/Developer/vdr-1.7.22.tar.bz2
tar -xvf vdr-1.7.22.tar.bz2
cd vdr-1.7.22
cd PLUGINS/src
wget http://projects.vdr-developer.org/attachments/download/953/vdr-streamdev-0.5.2.tgz
tar -xvf vdr-streamdev-0.5.2.tgz
cd ../../
make
make plugins
cd PLUGINS/src/streamdev-0.5.2
make
cd ../../../

If the compile procedure fails with error on vdr.c, then edit the file vdr.c and add the following line after the line #include and run make again.

#include <linux/types.h>

Move files to the correct paths

cp vdr /usr/local/vdr/bin/vdr
cp *.conf /usr/local/vdr/etc/vdr/
cp PLUGINS/lib/* /usr/local/vdr/lib/
cp PLUGINS/src/streamdev-0.5.2/streamdev-server/ /usr/local/vdr/etc/vdr/plugins/ -R

Before we proceed we have to install package dvb-utils which is available at Atrpms repo. So we have to create the file atrpms-stable.conf on /etc/yum.repos.d

nano /etc/yum.repos.d/atrpms-stable.repo

…and paste the following

[atrpms-stable]
name=RHEL 6 - atrpms-stable - $releasever - $basearch
baseurl=http://dl.atrpms.net/el6-$basearch/atrpms/stable/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
priority=20
exclude=*release

Save the file and install the GPG-KEY for the repo.

rpm --import http://packages.atrpms.net/RPM-GPG-KEY.atrpms

Install the dvb-utils

yum install dvb-utils

VDR does not have an init-script, so we have to create one. Create a file named runvdr on /etc/init.d

nano /etc/init.d/runvdr

…and add the following

#!/bin/bash
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: VDR
# Required-Start: $network
# Required-Stop: $network
# Default-Start: 3 5
# Default-Stop: 0 1 2 6
# Description: Start, Stop or Restart VDR
### END INIT INFO

CONFIG_DIR=/usr/local/vdr/etc/vdr
LIB_DIR=/usr/local/vdr/lib
VIDEO_DIR=/usr/local/vdr/spool/video
EPG_DIR=/usr/local/vdr/spool/epg

case "$1" in
 start)
 echo "Starting VDR"
 /usr/local/vdr/bin/vdr -d -D 0 --port=0 --video=$VIDEO_DIR --epgfile=$EPG_DIR --config=$CONFIG_DIR --lib=$LIB_DIR -P streamdev-server
 ;;
 stop)
 echo "Shutting down VDR"
 killall -q vdr
 ;;
 restart)
 echo "Restart VDR"
 $0 stop
 sleep 5
 $0 start
 ;;
 status)
 echo "Status VDR"
 ps -A | grep -q -w vdr && echo "...is running" || echo "...is not running"
 ;;
 *)
 echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart|status}"
 exit 1
 ;;
esac
exit 0

Save the file and give it correct permissions

chmod +x /etc/init.d/runvdr
chkconfig --add runvdr
chkconfig runvdr on

Finally we should allow to have access to the service and to create the channels.conf file containing the channels that we would like to stream. So edit the file /usr/local/vdr/etc/vdr/plugins/streamdev-server/streamdevhosts.conf and change :

#0.0.0.0/0 # any host on any net (DON'T DO THAT! USE AUTHENTICATION)

to

0.0.0.0/0 # any host on any net (DON'T DO THAT! USE AUTHENTICATION)

Also edit the file /usr/local/vdr/etc/vdr/svdrphosts.conf and change  :

#0.0.0.0/0 # any host on any net (USE THIS WITH CARE!)

to

0.0.0.0/0 # any host on any net (USE THIS WITH CARE!)

The contents of channels.conf file are depending on the service that will like to stream. Now it’s up to you. In my case I need to stream terrestrial TV. So I added the following :

Edit the file /usr/share/dvb/dvb-t/gr-Athens (also other country files exist) and add :

T 674000000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM16 8k 1/8 NONE
T 682000000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM16 8k 1/8 NONE
T 690000000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM16 8k 1/8 NONE
T 722000000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM16 8k 1/8 NONE
T 738000000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM16 8k 1/8 NONE
T 810000000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM16 8k 1/8 NONE
T 826000000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM16 8k 1/8 NONE
T 850000000 8MHz 3/4 NONE QAM64 8k 1/8 NONE

Save and start scanning with the folloing command :

scan /usr/share/dvb/dvb-t/gr-Athens -o vdr > /usr/local/vdr/etc/vdr/channels.conf

When the above procedure is finished, a new channels.conf file will be created. After that, start the service…

service runvdr start

Open firefox ( you need vlc plugin installed ), go to  http://serverip:3000 and select channels. If everything goes as expected you will see a channel list.

Good luck