![]() | tvtime: tv worth watching |
[ tvtime homepage ] [ download tvtime ] [ development page ] [ report bugs ] [ help and faq ] [ using tvtime ] [ hardware and driver support ] [ fancy screenshot page ] [ related websites ] |
1. Support resources 4. Key bindings 5. tvtime features 5.1. Deinterlacing modes 5.2. Using 16:9 mode 5.3. What is luma correction? 6. Setting up your channel list in tvtime 6.1. Channel list management 6.2. stationlist.xml 6.2.1. Non-English characters in channel names 6.3. Future enhancements |
7. tvtime.xml config file reference 8. Controlling tvtime via the tvtime-command 9. Configuring LIRC for tvtime 10. Case study: How to save fine tuning settings on a channel 11. Case study: Progressive content from a DV camera |
Interested in tvtime? Having trouble? Have suggestions? Why not hang out with us on IRC at irc.freenode.net, channel #livid. Hope to see you there!
There is also a tvtime mailing list which you can subscribe to, or read on the web.
Below is a table of the default key bindings in tvtime. Listed in the right hand column is the name of the setting in the tvtime.xml configuration file. See default.tvtime.xml file on the web or included with the tvtime distribution.
Key | Description |
---|---|
General | |
escape or q | Quit tvtime |
Arrow keys, vi movement keys or the mouse wheel | Channel up/down and fine tuning |
Backspace | Previous channel |
Number keys and enter | Channel access |
m and middle mouse button | Mute capture card |
+/- | Volume control (changes Line Input via /dev/mixer) |
t | Switch deinterlacer |
= | Switch framerate mode |
p | Toggle pulldown detection mode |
f | Fullscreen toggle |
a | Aspect ratio toggle |
s | Take a screenshot |
< and > | Change overscan compensation |
* | Load next preset settings mode |
Video input keys | |
i and right mouse button | Switch input (Tuner, S-Video, ...) |
e | Toggle audio mode (Stereo, Mono, SAP) |
w | Enable closed caption decoding |
F1-F8 | Brightness/Contrast/Colour/Hue |
Spacebar | Reset default colour settings |
b | Show colourbars |
The following deinterlacing modes are currently available in tvtime:
Short name | Long name |
---|---|
LineDoubler | Line Doubler |
Greedy | Dscaler: Greedy - Low Motion |
Greedy2Frame | DScaler: Greedy - 2-frame |
GreedyH | DScaler: Greedy - High Motion |
TomsMoComp | DScaler: TomsMoComp |
TwoFrame | DScaler: TwoFrame |
VideoBob | DScaler: Video Bob |
VideoWeave | DScaler: Video Weave |
Linear | Linear Interpolation |
LinearBlend | mplayer: Linear Blend |
OverlayBob | Overlay Bob |
Vertical | ffmpeg: Vertical Deinterlace Filter |
Weave | Weave Last Field |
In 16:9 mode we stretch the output (for full resolution from widescreen DVDs), simulating a 16:9 TV. If you're using a hardware DVD player, you should tell it that you have a 16:9 TV. The output width parameter is for the output window, the height is determined by the aspect ratio (yeah, we assume square pixels for now).
The luma correction applies a non-linear correction function to the luma signal of the incoming video. This allows the user to attempt to increase the brightness of the signal in a way which preserves the low as well as the high end of the brightness scale. This feature also allows to correct for odd values from capture cards, such as those based on the popular bt8x8 chip.
tvtime supports a channel scanner, channel renumbering, channel names, and a list of active channels for browsing. Below are the commands available for input bindings and through tvtime-command, along with their default key bindings.
Command | Description |
---|---|
CHANNEL_SAVE_TUNING (F9) | Saves the current fine tuning settings as a custom channel in the station list. |
CHANNEL_SCAN (F10) | Walks from the current position through the channel list, disabling any channels for which no signal is detected. This command is only available if signal checking is enabled. |
CHANNEL_ACTIVATE_ALL (F11) | Re-activates all channels in the list. Use this to re-initialize the channel list before running the scanner if you believe some channels are missing, or if new channels have become available. |
CHANNEL_SKIP (F12) | Toggles the current channel as being active or disabled in the station list. You can use this to manually scan your channels and enable those with signal or disable duplicate stations. |
CHANNEL_RENUMBER (r) | Renumbers the current channel. This will swap the current channel with the number you type in. Use this to configure your station list to suit preference or locality. |
The station listing is read in from the ~/.tvtime/stationlist.xml. Channel settings are saved specific to norm and frequency table. Entries in a list are in the following form:
<station name="CNN" active="1" position="18" band="US Cable" channel="18"/> <station name="DSF" active="1" position="12" band="VHF E2-E12" channel="E12"/>
The possible bands and frequencies available in tvtime are:
Band name | Stations provided |
---|---|
US Cable | 1 - 125 |
US Two-Way | T7, T8, T9, T10, T11, T12 T13, T14 |
US Broadcast | 2 - 83 |
Japan Broadcast | 1 - 62 |
Japan Cable | 13 - 63 |
VHF E2-E12 | E1 - E12 |
VHF S1-S41 | S1 - S41 |
VHF Misc | X, Y, Z, Z+1, Z+2 |
VHF France | K01 - K10, KB - KQ, H01 - H19 |
VHF Russia | R1 - R12, SR1 - SR19 |
VHF Australia | AS1 - AS12, AS5A, AS9A |
VHF Italy | A - H, H1, H2 |
VHF Ireland | I1 - I9 |
UHF | U21 - U69 |
Australia Optus | 01 - 058 |
Custom frequencies can be included manually as follows:
<station name="2" active="1" position="0" band="Custom" channel="55.69MHz"/>
Since 0.9.8.2 it is possible to use non-English characters in channel names. To do this, you first need to specify a character set for the XML document. This is done by changing <?xml version="1.0"?> to for example <?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>, depending on what encoding you want. If no encoding is specified, UTF-8 is assumed.
Note 1: If you want to display an & sign, you have to type & since the file is XML.
Note 2: This non-English text support is not completely done yet. First of all, it probably only work properly on left-to-right languages which don't use any funky unicode features like combining characters. Also, the glyphs have to be in FreeSansBold.ttf. This rules out asian languages. Scripts that have been confirmed to work in CVS are: Latin with accents and Cyrillic (Greek should work, but is untested). In 0.9.8.2, only glyphs that are also in ISO-8859-1 are supported!
tvtime still needs a method of editing channel names at runtime (should not be hard), a full frequency band scanner, native support for the weird frequencies used by some cable providers such as UPC.
The default tvtime.xml file is installed to /etc/tvtime/tvtime.xml and documents each of the parameters. As well, there is a man page installed (man tvtime.xml) which also gives help for each of the parameters. We will reproduce it here soon.
With the advent of custom input devices for PCs (i.e. remotes, keyboards with multimedia keys, voice recognition microphones) people have started to interact with their computer using more than just a mouse and keyboard. tvtime supports sending commands to a running tvtime process using a utility called 'tvtime-command', which sends them in plain text in a fifo to the running program. Using this, one could set the multimedia keys on their keyboard to send commands to control changing channels, adjusting volume, and changing deinterlace methods without having to switch focus to tvtime (useful for those of us who like to watch TV while browsing the web or doing some work). Or, one could setup their voice recognition software to control tvtime. Do you have a snazzy XMLTV-based TV guide? You could extend its functionality so that when you click on one of the listings that is currently scheduled, tvtime changes to the appropriate channel so you can watch the show.
To send commands to tvtime, simply execute the tvtime-command program, along with any number of commands as its arguments. The following is a list of commands known to tvtime:
Command | Description |
---|---|
AUTO_ADJUST_PICT | Restores the picture settings (brightness, contrast, hue, colour) to their default values. |
BRIGHTNESS_DOWN | Lowers the brightness setting on the input. |
BRIGHTNESS_UP | Increases the brightness setting on the input. |
CHANNEL_[0-9] | Simulates a keypad number press. |
CHANNEL_ACTIVATE_ALL | Re-activates all channels in the list. Use this to re-initialize the channel list before running the scanner if you believe some channels are missing, or if new channels have become available. |
CHANNEL_DOWN | Move one channel down in the channel list. |
CHANNEL_PREV | Changes to the last channel you were at. Useful for jumping back and forth between two programs on distant channels. |
CHANNEL_RENUMBER | Renumbers the current channel. This will swap the current channel with the number you type in. Use this to configure your station list to suit preference or locality. |
CHANNEL_SAVE_TUNING | Saves the current fine tuning settings as a custom channel in the station list. |
CHANNEL_SCAN | Walks from the current position through the channel list, disabling any channels for which no signal is detected. This command is only available if signal checking is enabled. |
CHANNEL_SKIP | Toggles the current channel as being active or disabled in the station list. You can use this to manually scan your channels and enable those with signal or disable duplicate stations. |
CHANNEL_UP | Move one channel up in the channel list. |
COLOUR_DOWN / COLOR_DOWN | Decreases the input colour picture setting. This will make the image less colourful until it is black-and-white. |
COLOUR_UP / COLOR_UP | Increases the input colour picture setting. This will give the image more colour. |
CONTRAST_DOWN | Decreases the contrast setting of the input. |
CONTRAST_UP | Increases the contrast setting of the input. |
DISPLAY_INFO | This will re-display the OSD for the current channel, showing the channel information, current deinterlacer and framerate, the time, and input settings. |
ENTER | Sends a virtual enter command. Use this when changing the channel, for example, 'tvtime-command channel_1 channel_5 enter' will change tvtime to channel 15. |
FINETUNE_DOWN | Decreases the fine tuning for the current channel. Fine tuning can be saved as a new channel using the CHANNEL_SAVE_TUNING command. |
FINETUNE_UP | Increases the fine tuning for the current channel. |
HUE_DOWN | Decreases the hue setting of the input. |
HUE_UP | Increases the hue setting of the input. |
LUMA_DOWN | Decreases the luma correction value. |
LUMA_UP | Increases the luma correction value. |
MIXER_DOWN | Decreases the volume setting for the Line In device from /dev/mixer. |
MIXER_UP | Increases the volume setting for the Line In device from /dev/mixer. |
OVERSCAN_DOWN | Decreases the overscan compensation amount. This will show more of the captured input. |
OVERSCAN_UP | Increases the overscan compensation amount. This will show less of the captured input. |
SCREENSHOT | Asks tvtime to take a screenshot. Screenshots are saved to the directory listed as the screenshot directory in your configuration file. The default is the running user's home directory. |
SCROLL_CONSOLE_DOWN | Scrolls down in the console's history buffer. |
SCROLL_CONSOLE_UP | Scrolls up in the console's history buffer. |
SHOW_STATS | This command asks tvtime to output debugging statistics to stderr. |
TOGGLE_ASPECT | Toggles the display between 4:3 and 16:9 mode. Use 16:9 mode if you have configured an external DVD player or satellite receiver to output anamorphic 16:9 content. |
TOGGLE_AUDIO_MODE | Toggles between the available audio modes on this channel. It can take some time before the driver discovers that modes are available. |
TOGGLE_BARS | Asks tvtime to display colourbars. The colourbars are generated by tvtime and are not related to the capture card, but simply to help configure your video card and display device. Once your settings are correct with these colourbars, try colourbars from an input source like an external DVD player and make sure they match up. |
TOGGLE_CC | Enables closed caption information to be displayed in the tvtime window. Closed captioning is only available if you have enabled VBI reading in your tvtime.xml configuration file. |
TOGGLE_CONSOLE | Shows or hides the tvtime console window. Using the tvtime console, you can type in any of the commands in this document and have them exeuted. |
TOGGLE_DEINTERLACER | This toggles between the available deinterlacing algorithms. |
TOGGLE_FULLSCREEN | This toggles between fullscreen and windowed mode. |
TOGGLE_FRAMERATE | Toggles the framerate tvtime will output at. Options are full frame rate (every field deinterlaced to a frame), half frame rate TFF (every top field deinterlaced to a frame) and half frame rate BFF (every bottom field deinterlaced to a frame). |
TOGGLE_INPUT | Switches the capture card input used. Inputs are, for example, the tuner, composite, or S-Video connectors on the capture card. |
TOGGLE_LUMA_CORRECTION | This command enables or disables the luma correction feature in tvtime. When enabled, this will try to correct for the incorrect colour space provided by bt848 and bt878 based capture cards. |
TOGGLE_MODE | Loads the next saved mode settings. tvtime's default configuration file defines two modes: a small window mode with a low quality deinterlacer setting used, and a high quality large window mode, suitable for use at fullscreen. |
TOGGLE_MUTE | This command will toggle the mute state in the capture card (and not in your soundcard). |
TOGGLE_NTSC_CABLE_MODE | Toggles the NTSC cable mode settings: Standard, IRC, and HRC are available. |
TOGGLE_PAUSE | Enters tvtime's pause mode. Pause mode is a debugging feature used to test deinterlacer filters by allowing to see the output of a single set of frames with various deinterlacers. |
TOGGLE_PULLDOWN_DETECTION | Toggles between the available 2-3 pulldown detection modes. Modes currently available are vektor's adaptive pulldown detection, and dalias' pulldown detection. |
QUIT | Asks the running tvtime process to exit. |
If you have lirc (Linux Infrared Remote Control) installed on your system you can control tvtime with your remote control. Everything you can do with the keyboard should be possible to do with your remote control.
For .lircrc you need to know that the program name to use is tvtime and the configuration lines that you can use are the commands listed in the previous section.
So, to be able to turn off tvtime with your remote you have to edit your ~/.lircrc to include the following:
begin prog = tvtime button = the_one_you_want_on_your_remote config = quit end
Problem: Channel 13 has poor reception, but if I fine tune it up by three notches, the picture is much clearer. How do I save this setting?
Saving fine tuning settings is performed in three stages. First, tune tvtime such that the picture is clearest. Then, hit 'F9' (CHANNEL_SAVE_TUNING). This creates a custom frequency entry in your station list, and the display will read its new number. We then have to map this new channel back to 13. To do this, hit 'r' (CHANNEL_RENUMBER), type in '13', and hit enter. This will renumber the new tuned channel as if it were 13.
Problem: I have a Canon GL-1 DV camera with a progressive-scan mode (called frame movie mode). How do I get the best quality with this in tvtime?
First, set your deinterlacer to Weave using the 't' key (TOGGLE_DEINTERLACER). In Weave mode, tvtime copies the last two fields it received together as a frame. Next, set the framerate using '=' (TOGGLE_FRAMERATE) to either half-rate TFF or BFF, whichever removes the combing artifacts. In this mode, you will see the progressive frames as captured by the DV camera.
Bugs in this page? vektor@dumbterm.net |
![]() |