xawtv - a X11 program for watching TV
SYNOPSIS
xawtv [ options ] [ station name ]
DESCRIPTION
xawtv is a simple program for watching TV with your linux
box. It uses the Athena widgets. xawtv supports the bttv
driver, v4l (video4linux, included in 2.2.x) and the
Xvideo extention.
xawtv reads the config files /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xawtvrc
and $HOME/.xawtv at startup. Settings in the personal
config file will overwrite the options from the global
config file. These files holds the available TV stations
and a few settings like TV norm. You have to create the
config file yourself, see below for details.
OPTIONS
All command line options also have a Resource, so you can
put them into your .Xdefaults file too.
-h, -help
Print a short desctiption of all command line
options.
Resource: xawtv.help (bool).
-hwscan
Print a list of available devices.
-f, -fullscreen
startup in fullscreen mode.
Resource: xawtv.fullscreen (bool).
-n, -noconf
don't read the config file ($HOME/.xawtv).
Resource: xawtv.readconfig (bool).
-o, -outfile base
set basestring for the snapshot output files. The
filename will be "base-timestamp-nr.ext".
Resource: xawtv.basename (string).
-c, -device device
set video4linux device (default is /dev/video0).
This option also disables Xvideo support.
Resource: xawtv.device (string).
-C, -dspdev device
set audio device (default is /dev/dsp).
Resource: xawtv.dspdev (string).
set Xvideo port (defaults to the first usable).
This option also enables Xvideo support.
Resource: xawtv.xvport (int).
-v, -debug level
Be verbose, level may be 0 (default), 1 or 2. It
exists just for debugging and trouble-shooting.
Resource: xawtv.debug (int).
-remote
X11 display is remote. This basically disables
overlay mode, you might need this if xawtv failes
to autodetect a remote X11 display.
Resource: xawtv.remote (bool).
-b, -bpp n
force xawtv into n bpp color depth. Works for
switching between 15/16 and 24/32 bpp. This gets
just passed through to v4l-conf(1).
Resource: xawtv.bpp (int).
-shift n
Shift the video display by n bytes. Try this if
your video display is'nt within the xawtv window.
This gets passed through to v4l-conf(1) too.
Resource: xawtv.shift (int).
-fb Use the framebuffer device to determine the video
framebuffer address (instead of the DGA extention).
Yet another pass through argument.
Resource: xawtv.fbdev (bool).
-xv/-noxv
enable/disable the usage of the Xvideo extention
(for overlay), default is on.
Resource: xawtv.xvideo (bool).
-scale/-noscale
enable/disable the usage of the Xvideo extention
(for hardware scaling in grabdisplay mode), default
is on.
Resource: xawtv.hwscale (bool).
-vm/-novm
enable/disable the usage of the VidMode extention,
default is off. If there is a fullscreen video
mode configured in the config file, the vidmode
extention will be enabled automatically.
Resource: xawtv.vidmode (bool).
-dga/-nodga
enable/disable the usage of the DGA extention,
default is on.
The usual Toolkit options like -geometry are supported
too.
GETTING STARTED
Just start up xawtv, this will work without a config file
too. Then check out the options (right mouse button) and
adjust the settings (TV norm, Video source, freqency
table). With the cursor keys you can control the tuner
and look for TV Stations.
If you've found one, start up your favorite text editor
and stick it into the $HOME/.xawtv config file. Or you
can check out the new channel editor. Hotkey 'E' will
start it. Warning: Writing the config file with the chan
nel editor will kill all the comments you might have added
to your config file.
You can also check out scantv. That's a command line tool
which will perform a channel scan and write out a xawtv
config file with all channels it has found.
Mouse functions
The left mouse button will popup a menu with all TV sta
tions found in the config file. The middle button switches
to the next station. The right button brings up a window
with alot of options and control functions.
Keyboard Shortcuts
V Video (Capture) on/off
A Audio on/off
F Fullscreen on/off
G Grab picture (full size, ppm)
J Grab picture (full size, jpeg)
Ctrl+G Grab picture (window size, ppm)
Ctrl+J Grab picture (window size, jpeg)
O Popup Options Window
C Popup Channels Window
E Popup Channel Editor
R Popup AVI Recording Window
Z Channel Hopper (zapping, tune in every station
a few seconds)
Ctrl+Z Fast Channel Hopping (grab the images for the Channel
Window)
up/down tune up/down one channel
left/right fine tuning
pgup/pgdown station up/down
space next station (same as pgup)
backspace previously tuned station
Ctrl+up scan for next station
ESC,Q Quit
Enter mute (keypad)
config file
You can stick the channels into a config file
($HOME/.xawtv). Looks like this:
[ORB]
channel = 27
The branches hold some string (TV station ID), the lines
below are the settings for that channel. The station ID
"defaults" is a special case, this one sets the defaults
for all channels. Usually the channel line is enouth for
one station, all other settings can go to the "[defaults]"
section.
Here is the detailed description of all options:
fine = n
finetuning (what left+right keys do), default: 0
norm = pal | ntsc | secam
which TV norm, default is pal
key = keysym
Hotkey for the channel. All X11 keysyms allowed
here. You can prefix a keysym with Modifier+, i.e.
^F is "Ctrl+F".
capture = off | overlay | grabdisplay
capture mode: off, overlay (default, TV card =>
video, 0% cpu) or grabdisplay (TV card => main mem
ory => X-Server => video, frame rate depends on
load and picture size).
input = Television | Composite1 | Composite2 | SVHS
input source. The valid choices depend on the
hardware driver, the values above are just exam
ples.
color = n
bright = n
hue = n
contrast = n
Valid range is 0-65535, default is 32768. Adding a
percent symbol changes the range to 0-100, i.e.
"50%" has the same effect like "32768".
audio = mono | stereo | lang1 | lang2
Set the audio mode for the given channel.
Specify the frequency for the given station (MHz,
video carrier). You shouldn't need this for normal
operation, all your channels should be listed in
the frequency table for your area (if not, mail me
a patch). Maybe unless you live near the border
and the foreign country uses another channel
scheme.
A few global settings go to the "[global]" section:
fullscreen = width x height
specify which video mode should be used for full-
screen. Works with XFree only, and of cource you
need a valid modeline for this mode in your
XF86Config file. You also have to enable the Vid
Mode extention (option -vm, see above) to make this
work.
wm-off-by = [+-]x[+-]y
Some WM's handle static gravity not correct (I know
mwm and kwm). This is somewhat boring with
fullscreen mode. With this options you can correct
this with a displacement for moving windows. For
example, wm-off-by = -4-24 does the trick for kwm
(the KDE1 window manager).
freqtab =
select a channel-to-freqency mapping. Options win
dow->Frequency table brings up a menu with all
valid entries (and allows table-switching at run
time).
pixsize = width x height
size of the channel pixmaps (within Channels win
dow). 0x0 disables this feature.
pixcols = n
number of columns the channel window should use.
Defaults to 1.
mixer = ctl | device:ctl
This allows to control volume using the sound card
mixer. ctl is the mixer control, i.e. "vol" for
the master volume. "line1" is a good candidate for
the TV card. device is the mixer device (defaults
to /dev/mixer in unspecified). Volume-control
works with the keypad: + is up, - is down, Enter is
mute.
jpeg-quality = n
set the quality for jpeg images. As usual the
valid range for n is [0
set the quality for mjpeg AVI movies. Default is
75.
keypad-ntsc = on | off
Configure keypad mode. Default is off. When set
to on, numbers typed on the keypad are interpreted
as channel numbers (this is like NTSC TV sets
work). Otherwise they are interpreted as pro
grammed station, i.e. 1 is the first station from
$HOME/.xawtv, ...
osd = on | off
Enable/disable the onscreen display in fullscreen
mode. Default is on.
ratio = x:y
Set a fixed aspect ratio for the TV image.
mov-driver = files | raw | avi | mov
mov-video = ppm | pgm | jpeg | rgb | gray | 422 | 422p |
rgb15 | rgb24 | mjpeg | jpeg | raw | mjpa | png
mov-fps = fps
mov-audio = mono8 | mono16 | stereo
mov-rate = rate
Set defaults for movie recording. Not all possible
combinations are valid choices. "streamer -h" will
print a nice list.
You can start other programs from within xawtv. This is
configured with entries in the "[launch]" section:
label = key, command line
The specified hotkey will run the configured pro
gram. Calling the Action "Launch(label)" works
too. If you want to play with the Xt translation
tables, feel free to do so. But don't complain if
you broke something while doing so...
config file example
My config file looks like this:
# this is a comment
# empty lines are ignored too
[global]
freqtab = pal-europe
#mixer = line
fullscreen = 768x576
# Modeline "pal" 50.00 768 832 856 1000 576 590 595 630 -hsync -vsync
[launch]
AleVT = Ctrl+A, alevt
[defaults]
source = television
norm = pal
[ZDF]
channel=33
key=F1
[ORB]
channel = 27
key = F2
# more stations follow here
[Camera]
source = Composite1
key = K
BUGS
Bug reports with images attached go to /dev/null unseen.
The mono/stereo display is not reliable due to v4l API
restrictions. The API can not report back the current
audio mode, but a list of the currently available modes.
xawtv just does a guess based on that, assuming the driver
uses the best available mode. Depending on your hardware
this might not be true.
If in doubt whenever stereo really works, please tune in
MTV and listen, don't trust what xawtv says.
SEE ALSO
fbtv(1), v4l-conf(1), scantv(1)
http://bytesex.org/xawtv/ (homepage)
AUTHOR
Gerd Knorr <kraxel@bytesex.org>
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (C) 1997-99 Gerd Knorr <kraxel@bytesex.org>
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
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.
MISC
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