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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-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  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.

                              (c) 1998 Gerd Knorr                      fbtv(1)