NAME

       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 driver
              video4linux driver (default is "libv4l").

       -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/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.

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

       -j joydev
              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.  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 a lot of keyboard shortcuts.  They work in fbtv too (if it useful).
       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
       X            Quit, but leave sound on.

       +/-          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 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

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.

                                       (c) 1998 Gerd Knorr                                fbtv(1)