Ubuntu Manpage: fbtv - a console program for watching TV

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 kernel newer than 2.1.x 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

-h Display a command line options summary.

-o base
set base string 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
sets the V4L2 capture in width x height resolution if possible.

-f font
font for text. Default is to look for lat1-16 console font. It no path is specified, it will seek
for the font at the following directories:

/usr/share/consolefonts/
/usr/share/kbd/consolefonts/
/usr/lib/kbd/consolefonts/
/lib/kbd/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. When fbtv is started on this mode, it won't try to load the font file at
start.

You can toggle this at runtime too (using the 'F' key).

-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

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)