fbtv - a console program for watching TV


SYNOPSIS

       fbtv [ options ] [ station name ]


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  new 2.1.x kernel 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.


OPTIONS

       -o base
              set basestring for the snapshot output files.   The
              filename will be "base-timestamp-nr.ext".

       -v     Be verbose.

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

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

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

       -s widthxheight
              display the TV picture in width x  height  size  in
              the upper right corner.

       -f font
              font  for text.  Default is to look for lat1-16.psf
              in  /usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts  and  /usr/share/con­
              solefonts.   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.

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

       -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  mul­
              tiheaded setup this is useful too.

              line at the top, does'nt display  the  status  mes­
              sages  and  clock.   You can toggle this at runtime
              too ('F').

       -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.


USAGE

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

       G            Grab picture (full size, ppm)
       J            Grab picture (full size, jpeg)
       F            Fullscreen.  Toggle quiet mode (see above).

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

       ESC,Q        Quit

       +/-          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.


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 accom­
       plished with the fbset(1) utility, which is availabile  at
       various      locations.      See:     http://www.cs.kuleu­
       ven.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 availabile. The file  contain­
       ing  the  videomodes  is normally named /etc/fb.modes. For
       example, the  following  entry  produces  a  768x576x32bpp
       mode, with 75Hz refresh on a Matrox G200.

           # 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 compo­
       nents, 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-lat­
       est/fb.modes.vesa60.gz


SEE ALSO

       xawtv(1)


AUTHOR

       Gerd Knorr <kraxel@goldbach.in-berlin.de>


COPYRIGHT

       Copyright  (C)  1997,98  Gerd  Knorr  <kraxel@goldbach.in-
       berlin.de>

       This  program  is  free  software; you can redistribute it
       and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
       License  as  published  by  the  Free Software Foundation;
       either version 2 of the License, or (at your  option)  any
       later version.

       This  program  is  distributed in the hope that it will be
       useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
       warranty  of  MERCHANTABILITY  or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
       PURPOSE.  See the GNU  General  Public  License  for  more
       details.

       You  should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
       License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
       Software  Foundation,  Inc.,  675  Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA
       02139, USA.


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