If you are using Debian, try to install ttf-dejavu package, that has Sans Serif
I've now installed some additional packages related to fonts, including msttcorefonts package. And now vdr goes a bit further but still segfaults later on.
After all I didn't get past the font issue. There must be something fundamental missing/wrong in my system. I installed the libfontconfig1-dbg to debugging symbols for fontconfig and I get following backtrace with gdb:
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Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault. [Switching to Thread -1212332352 (LWP 32104)] FcCharSetCopy (src=0x0) at fccharset.c:316 316 fccharset.c: No such file or directory. in fccharset.c (gdb) bt #0 FcCharSetCopy (src=0x0) at fccharset.c:316 #1 0xb7e52720 in FcValueSave (v= {type = FcTypeCharSet, u = {s = 0x0, i = 0, b = 0, d = 100, m = 0x0, c = 0x0, f = 0x0, p = 0x0, l = 0x0}}) at fcpat.c:82 #2 0xb7e53180 in FcPatternAddWithBinding (p=0x8413708, object=0x0, value= {type = FcTypeCharSet, u = {s = 0x0, i = 0, b = 0, d = 100, m = 0x0, c = 0x0, f = 0x0, p = 0x0, l = 0x0}}, binding=FcValueBindingWeak, append=1) at fcpat.c:753 #3 0xb7e533c7 in FcPatternAdd (p=0x0, object=0x0, value= {type = FcTypeCharSet, u = {s = 0x0, i = 0, b = 0, d = 100, m = 0x0, c = 0x0, f = 0x0, p = 0x0, l = 0x0}}, append=0) at fcpat.c:805 #4 0xb7e523d2 in FcNameParse (name=0x83a6260 "") at fcname.c:437 #5 0xb7e43660 in FcCacheFontSetAdd (set=0x82f9670, dirs=0x82f8380, dir=0x83480f0 "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi", dir_len=27, file=0x83a6134 "ncenR08.pcf.gz", name=0x83a6143 "New Century Schoolbook-8:style=Regular:slant=0:weight=80:width=100:pixelsize=11:foundry= Adobe:antialias=False:index=0:outline=False:scalable=False:dpi=100:charset= !!!!#|>^1!|>^1!P0oWQ |>^1!|>^1!|>^1!"..., config=0x82f8308) at fccache.c:294 #6 0xb7e450d0 in FcGlobalCacheScanDir (set=0x82f9670, dirs=0x82f8380, cache=0x82fbdb8, dir=0x83480f0 "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi", config=0x82f8308) at fccache.c:596 #7 0xb7e4b0f6 in FcDirScanConfig (set=0x82f9670, dirs=0x82f8380, cache=0x82fbdb8, blanks=0x82fb0a8, dir=0x83480f0 "/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi", force=0, config=0x82f8308) at fcdir.c:209 #8 0xb7e45a47 in FcConfigBuildFonts (config=0x82f8308) at fccfg.c:274 #9 0xb7e4e413 in FcInitLoadConfigAndFonts () at fcinit.c:83 #10 0xb7e4e638 in FcInit () at fcinit.c:101 #11 0x080b37cf in cFont::GetFontFileName (FontName=0x815297c "Times New Roman:Bold") at font.c:392 #12 0x080b4e59 in cFont::CreateFont (Name=0x0, CharHeight=0, CharWidth=0) at font.c:337 #13 0x080b4ef5 in cFont::SetFont (Font=fontSml, Name=0x0, CharHeight=0) at font.c:312 #14 0x080b4fcb in cFont::GetFont (Font=fontSml) at font.c:328 #15 0x080eef9c in cSkinClassicDisplayChannel::Flush (this=0x8352b68) at skinclassic.c:150 #16 0x080c7e28 in cDisplayChannel (this=0x83033e8, Number=0, Switched=true) at menu.c:3209 #17 0x0810ff5f in main (argc=8, argv=0xbfa35e84) at vdr.c:773