1fbtv(1)                     General Commands Manual                    fbtv(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       fbtv - a console program for watching TV
7

SYNOPSIS

9       fbtv [ options ] [ station name ]
10

DESCRIPTION

12       fbtv  is a program for watching TV with your linux box.  It runs on top
13       of a graphic framebuffer device (/dev/fb0).  You'll need a kernel newer
14       than   2.1.x   to   play   with  this.  fbtv  shares  the  config  file
15       ($HOME/.xawtv) with the xawtv application.  Check the xawtv(1)  manpage
16       for details about the config file format.
17

OPTIONS

19       -h     Display a command line options summary.
20
21       -o base
22              set  base  string  for  the snapshot output files.  The filename
23              will be base-timestamp-nr.ext.
24
25       -v     Be verbose.
26
27       -c device
28              video4linux device (default is /dev/video0).
29
30       -D driver
31              video4linux driver (default is libv4l).
32
33       -d device
34              framebuffer device (default is $FRAMEBUFFER; /dev/fb0 if unset)
35
36       -g     grayscaled display (works for 256 color mode only)
37
38       -s widthxheight
39              sets the V4L2 capture in width x height resolution if possible.
40
41       -f font
42              font for text.  Default is to look for lat1-16 console font.  It
43              no path is specified, it will seek for the font at the following
44              directories:
45
46                /usr/share/consolefonts/
47                /usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/
48                /usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts/
49                /lib/kbd/consolefonts/
50
51              If you have a local X11 font server running (or  the  FONTSERVER
52              environment  variable  set to some working server), you can also
53              give X11 font specs here.
54
55       -m mode
56              video mode for TV.  fbtv will look up the mode in /etc/fb.modes.
57
58       -j joydev
59              joystick device to use for controlling fbtv.
60
61       -k     keep capture  on  when  switching  consoles.   Might  be  useful
62              together  with -s switch, you have a video picture while working
63              on another console.  This is more or less a dirty  hack.   Works
64              only  if  all  your  consoles have the same video mode and fbcon
65              does not use panning to speed up scrolling.  For  a  multiheaded
66              setup this is useful too.
67
68       -q     quiet  mode.   Doesn't  reserve space for the status line at the
69              top, doesn't display the status messages and clock.   When  fbtv
70              is  started  on this mode, it won't try to load the font file at
71              start.
72
73              You can toggle this at runtime too (using the 'F' key).
74
75       -M     EXPERIMENTAL: Turn on backend scaler mode  (write  yuv  to  off‐
76              screen  memory  and let the gfx board scale up the video).  Sup‐
77              ported hardware: Matrox G200/G400 (with matroxfb) and ATI Mach64
78              VT/GT   (with   atyfb,   16bpp  only).   You'll  need  at  least
79              bttv-0.7.16 or kernel 2.3.50.
80

USAGE

82       fbtv is supported to work much like xawtv from user's  point  of  view.
83       You  might  have  noticed  that  xawtv has a lot of keyboard shortcuts.
84       They work in fbtv too (if it useful).  Here is the list:
85
86         G            Grab picture (full size, ppm)
87         J            Grab picture (full size, jpeg)
88         F            Fullscreen.  Toggle quiet mode (see above).
89
90         up/down      tune up/down one channel
91         left/right   fine tuning
92         pgup/pgdown  station up/down
93
94         ESC,Q        Quit
95         X            Quit, but leave sound on.
96
97         +/-          Volume up/down
98         Enter        mute
99
100       The channel hotkeys defined in $HOME/.xawtv are supported too, with one
101       exception: modifier keys (something like "key = Ctrl+F1") do not work.
102
103

FULLSCREEN TV

105       Some hints from Dag Bakke <dag.bakke@riksnett.no>:
106
107       The  BT8xx  cards can produce images up to 768x576 pixels.  In order to
108       have fbtv make use of your entire monitor-size and  get  maximum  image
109       quality,  you  need to create a 768x576 pixels framebufferconsole. This
110       can be accomplished with the fbset(1) utility, which  is  available  at
111       various locations.  See: http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~geert/bin/
112
113       Or,  you  can let fbtv handle the videomode changes with the -m switch.
114       This requires that you have a small database with  the  various  video‐
115       modes  available.  The file containing the videomodes is normally named
116       /etc/fb.modes.  For   example,   the   following   entry   produces   a
117       768x576x32bpp mode, with 75Hz refresh on a Matrox G200.
118
119       mode "tv"
120           # D: 49.188 MHz, H: 46.580 kHz, V: 75.008 Hz
121           geometry 768 576 768 576 32
122           timings 20330 128 32 32 8 128 5
123       endmode
124
125       The command "fbtv -q -mtv" thus gives you crisp clear (well, as good as
126       the received signal anyway) tv on your entire screen. Alias  this  com‐
127       mand to 'tv', and you're set.
128
129       NB!   Please  note  that  your monitor may or may not be able to handle
130       such a "custom" resolution. And that misuse of the aforementioned fbset
131       utility can toast your monitor. It is a lot easier to pull smoke out of
132       electronic components, than to put it back in.
133
134       A  database  of  the  standard  VESA-modes  can  be  downloaded   from:
135       ftp://platan.vc.cvut.cz/pub/linux/matrox-latest/fb.modes.vesa60.gz
136
137

SEE ALSO

139       xawtv(1)
140

AUTHOR

142       Gerd Knorr <kraxel@goldbach.in-berlin.de>
143
145       Copyright (C) 1997,98 Gerd Knorr <kraxel@goldbach.in-berlin.de>
146
147       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
148       under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published  by  the
149       Free  Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
150       option) any later version.
151
152       This program is distributed in the hope that it  will  be  useful,  but
153       WITHOUT  ANY  WARRANTY;  without  even  the  implied  warranty  of MER‐
154       CHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU  General
155       Public License for more details.
156
157       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
158       with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
159       675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
160
161
162
163                              (c) 1998 Gerd Knorr                      fbtv(1)
Impressum