fbtv - a console program for watching TV
fbtv [ options? [ station name?
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.
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.
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.
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 availabile 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 availabile. 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
xawtv(1)
Gerd Knorr <kraxel@goldbach.in-berlin.de>
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.
No page links to fbtv(1).