diff -Naur gentoo-vdr-scripts-2.5_rc1_orig/etc/conf.d/vdr gentoo-vdr-scripts-2.5_rc1/etc/conf.d/vdr
--- gentoo-vdr-scripts-2.5_rc1_orig/etc/conf.d/vdr	2014-09-23 12:51:46.000000000 +0200
+++ gentoo-vdr-scripts-2.5_rc1/etc/conf.d/vdr	2014-10-04 04:05:13.564027000 +0200
@@ -225,6 +225,10 @@
 # and who want to start vdr as user root
 #   allowed values: yes no
 #   default: no
+# WILL BE IGNORED IF USING SYSTEMD !!!
+# Enable the 'User=root' key under the [Service] section in
+# /etc/systemd/system/vdr.service.d/00-gentoo-vdr-user.conf
+# only if you want to run vdr as user root and use systemd
 #START_VDR_AS_ROOT="no"
 
 # Use only the given DVB device (NUM = 0, 1, 2...)
diff -Naur gentoo-vdr-scripts-2.5_rc1_orig/etc/systemd/system/vdr.service.d/00-gentoo-vdr-user.conf gentoo-vdr-scripts-2.5_rc1/etc/systemd/system/vdr.service.d/00-gentoo-vdr-user.conf
--- gentoo-vdr-scripts-2.5_rc1_orig/etc/systemd/system/vdr.service.d/00-gentoo-vdr-user.conf	2014-09-23 12:51:46.000000000 +0200
+++ gentoo-vdr-scripts-2.5_rc1/etc/systemd/system/vdr.service.d/00-gentoo-vdr-user.conf	2014-10-04 04:08:59.858013000 +0200
@@ -3,16 +3,11 @@
 #
 # use this file to override settings from vdr.service
 
-## need testing, which one will work
-
-# test1
-#[Service]
-# uncomment this if you have to set START_VDR_AS_ROOT="yes" in /etc/conf.d/vdr
+[Service]
+# Uncomment this if you need to run vdr as root.
+# ATTENTION !!!
+# - START_VDR_AS_ROOT from /etc/conf.d/vdr IS IGNORED WHEN USING SYSTEMD !!!
+# - if you use the dbus2vdr plugin, the user who owns the vdr-dbus-service
+# has to also be set in /etc/dbus-1/system.d/de.tvdr.vdr.conf as root if
+# you uncomment the line below
 #User=root
-
-# test2
-# For people who really know what they do
-# and who want to start vdr as user root
-#   allowed values: yes no
-#   default: no
-#START_VDR_AS_ROOT="no"
\ No newline at end of file
diff -Naur gentoo-vdr-scripts-2.5_rc1_orig/usr/lib/systemd/system/vdr.service gentoo-vdr-scripts-2.5_rc1/usr/lib/systemd/system/vdr.service
--- gentoo-vdr-scripts-2.5_rc1_orig/usr/lib/systemd/system/vdr.service	2014-09-23 12:51:46.000000000 +0200
+++ gentoo-vdr-scripts-2.5_rc1/usr/lib/systemd/system/vdr.service	2014-10-04 03:55:59.552147000 +0200
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 
 # start VDR with our desired parameters, please disable the
 # internal watchdog by setting the timeout to 0
-ExecStart=/usr/bin/vdr ${VDR_OPTS}
+ExecStart=/usr/bin/vdr "$VDR_OPTS"
 
 # execute addons/plugins scripts meant to be run afer starting
 ExecStartPost=/usr/share/vdr/systemd/vdr-systemd_helper.sh --start-post
diff -Naur gentoo-vdr-scripts-2.5_rc1_orig/usr/share/vdr/systemd/vdr-systemd_helper.sh gentoo-vdr-scripts-2.5_rc1/usr/share/vdr/systemd/vdr-systemd_helper.sh
--- gentoo-vdr-scripts-2.5_rc1_orig/usr/share/vdr/systemd/vdr-systemd_helper.sh	2014-09-23 12:51:46.000000000 +0200
+++ gentoo-vdr-scripts-2.5_rc1/usr/share/vdr/systemd/vdr-systemd_helper.sh	2014-10-04 03:59:37.631027000 +0200
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@
 
 include rc-functions
 include plugin-functions
-#init_tmp_dirs
+init_tmp_dirs
 
 VDR_LOG_FILE="${PL_TMP}/vdr-start-log"
 
@@ -29,17 +29,6 @@
 
 #common_init
 
-# grep the user on who should vdr systemd running
-# 2 values, vdr or root
-run_as_user() {
-. /etc/systemd/system/vdr.service.d/00-gentoo-vdr-user.conf
-
-	if yesno "${START_VDR_AS_ROOT}"; then
-		systemd_vdr_user="root"
-	else
-		systemd_vdr_user="vdr"
-	fi
-}
 
 # dummy functions to make the rest of gentoo-vdr-scripts happy,
 # as we do not want to rely on openrc's implementations of these
@@ -102,10 +91,11 @@
 	init_params
 	init_plugin_loader start || eexitfail "init_plugin_loader start"
 	load_addons_prefixed pre-start || eexitfail "load_addons_prefixed pre-start"
-	run_as_user
 	# these options are what we need to start VDR from the systemd unit file
 	echo "VDR_OPTS=\"${vdr_opts}\"" > ${SYSTEMD_ENV_FILE}
-	echo "SYSTEMD_VDR_USER=\"${sytemd_vdr_user}\"" >> ${SYSTEMD_ENV_FILE}
+	# remove the command line --user argument if set by the scripts so far,
+	# as the user under which vdr will run is controlled by systemd
+	sed -e "s:'-u' 'vdr' ::" -i ${SYSTEMD_ENV_FILE}
 	sync
 	eend "--start-pre"
 elif [ "$1" = "--start-post" ]; then