+!! 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 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-.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 __G__rab picture (full size, ppm)  

+J Grab picture (full size, __j__peg)  

+F __F__ullscreen. Toggle quiet mode (see above).  

+up /down tune up /down one channel  

+left/right fine tuning  

+pgup/pgdown station up/down  

+ESC,Q __Q__uit  

+X __Q__uit, 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 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  

+!!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.