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fbtv - a console program for watching TV

Author

Description

fbtv  is  a  program for watching TV with your linux box.  It runs on top of a graphic framebuffer device
       (/dev/fb0).  You'll need a kernel newer than 2.1.x to  play  with  this.  fbtv  shares  the  config  file
       ($HOME/.xawtv)  with the xawtv application.  Check the xawtv(1) manpage for details about the config file
       format.

Fullscreen Tv

       Some hints from Dag Bakke <dag.bakke@riksnett.no>:

       The  BT8xx  cards can produce images up to 768x576 pixels.  In order to have fbtv make use of your entire
       monitor-size and get maximum image quality, you need to create a 768x576 pixels framebufferconsole.  This
       can  be  accomplished  with  the  fbset(1)  utility,  which  is  available  at  various  locations.  See:
       http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~geert/bin/

       Or, you can let fbtv handle the videomode changes with the -m switch.  This  requires  that  you  have  a
       small  database  with  the  various  videomodes available. The file containing the videomodes is normally
       named /etc/fb.modes. For example, the following entry produces a 768x576x32bpp mode, with 75Hz refresh on
       a Matrox G200.

       mode "tv"
           # D: 49.188 MHz, H: 46.580 kHz, V: 75.008 Hz
           geometry 768 576 768 576 32
           timings 20330 128 32 32 8 128 5
       endmode

       The command "fbtv-q-mtv" thus gives you crisp clear (well, as good as the received signal anyway) tv on
       your entire screen. Alias this command to 'tv', and you're set.

       NB!  Please note that your monitor may or may not be able to handle such a "custom" resolution. And  that
       misuse  of  the aforementioned fbset utility can toast your monitor. It is a lot easier to pull smoke out
       of electronic components, than to put it back in.

       A database of the standard VESA-modes can be downloaded  from:  ftp://platan.vc.cvut.cz/pub/linux/matrox-
       latest/fb.modes.vesa60.gz

Name

       fbtv - a console program for watching TV

Options

-h     Display a command line options summary.

       -obase
              set base string for the snapshot output files.  The filename will be base-timestamp-nr.ext.

       -v     Be verbose.

       -cdevice
              video4linux device (default is /dev/video0).

       -Ddriver
              video4linux driver (default is libv4l).

       -ddevice
              framebuffer device (default is $FRAMEBUFFER; /dev/fb0 if unset)

       -g     grayscaled display (works for 256 color mode only)

       -swidthxheight
              sets the V4L2 capture in width x height resolution if possible.

       -ffont
              font for text.  Default is to look for lat1-16 console font. It no path is specified, it will seek
              for the font at the following directories:

                /usr/share/consolefonts//usr/share/kbd/consolefonts//usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts//lib/kbd/consolefonts/

              If you have a local X11 font server running (or the FONTSERVER environment variable  set  to  some
              working server), you can also give X11 font specs here.

       -mmode
              video mode for TV.  fbtv will look up the mode in /etc/fb.modes.

       -jjoydev
              joystick device to use for controlling fbtv.

       -k     keep  capture  on  when  switching  consoles.  Might be useful together with -s switch, you have a
              video picture while working on another console.  This is more or less a dirty hack.  Works only if
              all your consoles have the same video mode and fbcon does not use panning to speed  up  scrolling.
              For a multiheaded setup this is useful too.

       -q     quiet  mode.   Doesn't  reserve  space  for the status line at the top, doesn't display the status
              messages and clock.  When fbtv is started on this mode, it won't try to  load  the  font  file  at
              start.

              You can toggle this at runtime too (using the 'F' key).

       -M     EXPERIMENTAL:  Turn  on  backend  scaler mode (write yuv to offscreen memory and let the gfx board
              scale up the video).  Supported hardware: Matrox G200/G400 (with matroxfb) and  ATI  Mach64  VT/GT
              (with atyfb, 16bpp only).  You'll need at least bttv-0.7.16 or kernel 2.3.50.

See Also

xawtv(1)

Synopsis

fbtv[options][stationname]

Usage

fbtv  is  supported to work much like xawtv from user's point of view.  You might have noticed that xawtv
       has a lot of keyboard shortcuts.  They work in fbtv too (if it useful).  Here is the list:

         GGrab picture (full size, ppm)
         J            Grab picture (full size, jpeg)
         FFullscreen.  Toggle quiet mode (see above).

         up/down      tune up/down one channel
         left/right   fine tuning
         pgup/pgdown  station up/down

         ESC,QQuit
         XQuit,butleavesoundon.+/-          Volume up/down
         Enter        mute

       The channel hotkeys defined in  $HOME/.xawtv  are  supported  too,  with  one  exception:  modifier  keys
       (something like "key=Ctrl+F1") do not work.

See Also