1xawtvrc(5) File Formats Manual xawtvrc(5)
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6 xawtvrc -- TV apps config file
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9 /etc/X11/xawtvrc
10 $HOME/.xawtv
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13 xawtvrc is the config file originally used by xawtv only (that's why
14 the name xawtvrc). These days a number of other TV applications /
15 utilities read it too to get configuration information from it.
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17 Both a global (/etc/X11/xawtvrc) and personal ($HOME/.xawtv) config
18 file are used by the applications. Settings in the personal config
19 file will overwrite the global ones.
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21 Applications
22 The following applications use these config files:
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24 xawtv The classic X11 TV application.
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26 motv A better, motif-based GUI for xawtv ...
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28 fbtv TV application for the linux framebuffer console.
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30 ttv aalib-based TV application for any terminal.
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32 v4lctl command line tool to control video4linux devices.
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34 Create a config file
35 xawtv and motv both provide some functions to edit the channels and
36 save the configuration. The save function will not preserve any com‐
37 ments you might have put into the config file throught ...
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39 You can also use your favorite text editor and modify the config file
40 directly.
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42 You can use the command line utility scantv to create a initial config
43 file. scantv will automatically scan all channels for TV stations and
44 write the ones it has found to the config file.
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47 xawtvrc uses the same syntax like smb.conf: sections starting with
48 [name], followed by lines with option = value pairs.
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50 There are four special sections: [global], [launch], [eventmap] and
51 [defaults]. All other sections describe a TV station each.
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53 TV station options.
54 The following options are allowed for TV stations and the [defaults]
55 section. The options from the [defaults] sections are used -- as the
56 name suggests -- as defaults for all other channels. You can put
57 everything which is common for all TV stations (like the TV norm which
58 is used in your country) into the [defaults] section, so you don't have
59 to specify it for every single channel.
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61 With a reasonable [defaults] section you usually only need to specify
62 the channel for each TV station, like this:
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64 [ORB]
65 channel = 27
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67 The other options are:
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69 fine = n
70 finetuning (what left+right keys do within xawtv), default: 0
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72 norm = pal | ntsc | secam
73 which TV norm, default is pal
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75 key = keysym
76 Hotkey for the channel. All X11 keysyms allowed here. You can
77 prefix a keysym with Modifier+, "Ctrl+F" for example.
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79 capture = off | overlay | grabdisplay
80 capture mode: off, overlay (default, TV card => video, 0% cpu)
81 or grabdisplay (TV card => main memory => X-Server => video,
82 frame rate depends on load and picture size). Default is over‐
83 lay. If it is not possible to use overlay for some reason
84 (remote display, not supported by the hardware, whatever) the
85 applications will automatically fallback to grabdisplay.
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87 input = Television | Composite1 | Composite2 | SVHS
88 input source. The valid choices depend on the hardware driver,
89 the values above are just examples. You can use "v4lctl list"
90 to get a list of valid choices.
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92 color = n
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94 bright = n
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96 hue = n
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98 contrast = n
99 Valid range is 0-65535, default is 32768. Adding a percent sym‐
100 bol changes the range to 0-100, i.e. "50%" has the same effect
101 like "32768".
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103 audio = mono | stereo | lang1 | lang2
104 Set the audio mode for the given channel.
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106 freq = n
107 Specify the frequency for the given station (MHz, video car‐
108 rier). You shouldn't need this for normal operation, all your
109 channels should be listed in the frequency table for your area
110 (if not, mail me a patch). Maybe unless you live near the bor‐
111 der and the foreign country uses another channel scheme.
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113 midi = note
114 Use midi noteon event for <note> as hotkey for the channel.
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116 group = name
117 Put the channel into the group <name>. motv uses that to create
118 submenus per channel group.
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120 Global options
121 A number of not channel-related settings go to the "[global]" section:
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123 fullscreen = width x height
124 specify which video mode should be used for full-screen. Works
125 with XFree only, and of course you need a valid modeline for
126 this mode in your XF86Config file. You also have to enable the
127 VidMode extension (option -vm, see above) to make this work.
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129 wm-off-by = [+-]x[+-]y
130 Some WM's handle static gravity incorrectly (I know mwm and
131 kwm). This is somewhat boring with fullscreen mode. With this
132 option you can correct this with a displacement for moving win‐
133 dows. For example, wm-off-by = -4-24 does the trick for kwm
134 (the KDE1 window manager).
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136 freqtab =
137 select a channel-to-freqency mapping. Options window->Frequency
138 table (in xawtv) brings up a menu with all valid entries (and
139 allows table-switching at runtime).
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141 pixsize = width x height
142 size of the channel pixmaps (within Channels window). 0x0 dis‐
143 ables this feature.
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145 pixcols = n
146 number of columns the channel window should use. Defaults to 1.
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148 mixer = ctl | device:ctl
149 This allows volume control using the sound card mixer. ctl is
150 the mixer control, i.e. "vol" for the master volume. "line1" is
151 a good candidate for the TV card. device is the mixer device
152 (defaults to /dev/mixer in unspecified). Volume-control works
153 with the keypad: + is up, - is down, Enter is mute.
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155 jpeg-quality = n
156 set the quality for (M)JPEG images/frames. As usual the valid
157 range for n is [0 .. 100] with 75 as default.
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159 keypad-ntsc = on | off
160 Configure keypad mode. Default is off. When set to on, numbers
161 typed on the keypad are interpreted as channel numbers (this is
162 like NTSC TV sets work). Otherwise they are interpreted as pro‐
163 grammed station, i.e. 1 is the first station from $HOME/.xawtv,
164 ...
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166 keypad-partial = on | off
167 Another configuration of keypad mode. Default is on. When set
168 to off, typing one digit on the keypad doesn't change the sta‐
169 tion number when there are two-digit station numbers starting
170 with that digit.
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172 osd = on | off
173 Enable/disable the onscreen display in fullscreen mode. Default
174 is on.
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176 osd-position = x , y
177 Position the onscreen display, in pixels. Default is 30,20.
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179 use-wm-fullscreen = on | off
180 Enter fullscreen mode by asking the window manager to handle
181 that via _NET_WM_STATE_FULLSCREEN (if supported by the wm).
182 Default is on.
183
184 ratio = x:y
185 Set a fixed aspect ratio for the TV image. Default is 4:3. Use
186 0:0 if you don't want a fixed aspect ratio.
187
188 mov-driver = files | raw | avi | mov
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190 mov-video = ppm | pgm | jpeg | rgb | gray | 422 | 422p | rgb15 | rgb24
191 | mjpeg | jpeg | raw | mjpa | png
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193 mov-fps = fps
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195 mov-audio = mono8 | mono16 | stereo
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197 mov-rate = rate
198 Set defaults for movie recording. Not all possible combinations
199 are valid choices. "streamer -h" will print a nice list.
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201 midi = port
202 You can specify a ALSA port where xawtv should receive midi
203 events from. If configured this way, you can program your midi
204 keyboard keys as station hotkeys and use midi controller events
205 to control settings like volume, bright etc. Check the
206 [eventmap] description below for details.
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208 filter = name
209 Enable the specified filter.
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211 alsa_latency = time_in_ms
212 This can be used to specify the latency for the ALSA digital
213 sound loopback which xawtv does. The default is 30ms if you're
214 getting sound dropouts on your system try increasing this set‐
215 ting.
216
217 The [launch] section
218 You can start other programs from within xawtv. This is configured
219 with entries in the "[launch]" section:
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221 label = key, command line
222 The specified hotkey will run the configured program. Calling
223 the Action "Launch(label)" works too. If you want to play with
224 the Xt translation tables, feel free to do so. But don't com‐
225 plain if you broke something while doing so...
226
227 The [eventmap] section
228 The eventmap simply has a number of "event = action" lines. "action"
229 can be any command which xawtv understands (check the xawtv-remote man
230 page for a list). "event" is some event generated by any input device
231 xawtv listens to. An event might have some argument, the midi-ctrl
232 events for example have one. If present the argument is appended to
233 the action.
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235 There are default mappings for lirc and joystick input events, so you
236 don't have to create an eventmap to use them. But if you don't like
237 the defaults you can change them easily.
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239 Here is a list of valid events:
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241 lirc-key-<name>
242 The key <name> was pressed on the IR remote control.
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244 joy-button-<n>
245 Joystick button <n> was pressed.
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247 joy-axis-<left|right|up|down>
248 Joystick was moved into the given direction.
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250 midi-note-<n>
251 noteon event for note <n> was received (i.e. you probably
252 pressed some key on the midi keyboard).
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254 midi-ctrl-<n>
255 midi controller message for control <n> was received. This
256 event has an argument (the current value of the control).
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258 kbd-key-<name>
259 Key <name> was pressed on the keyboard.
260
261 sample config file
262 # this is a comment
263 # empty lines are ignored too
264
265 [global]
266 freqtab = europe-west
267 #mixer = line
268 jpeg-quality = 75
269 midi = 64:0
270 fullscreen = 768x576
271
272 # for /etc/XF86Config
273 # Modeline "pal" 50.00 768 832 856 1000 576 590 595 630 -hsync -vsync
274
275 [launch]
276 mixer = M, gtkaumix
277 AleVT = Ctrl+A, alevt
278
279 [eventmap]
280 midi-ctrl-7 = volume
281 kbd-key-h = msg "hello world"
282
283 [defaults]
284 input = television
285 norm = pal
286
287 [ZDF]
288 channel=33
289 key=F1
290
291 [ORB]
292 channel = 27
293 key = F2
294
295 # more stations follow here
296
297 [Camera]
298 input = Composite1
299 key = K
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303 scantv(1), xawtv(1), motv(1), fbtv(1), ttv(1), v4lctl(1)
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307 xawtvrc(5)