tvtime-command

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: October 2004
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NAME

tvtime-command - control a running tvtime process

SYNOPSIS

tvtime-command [COMMAND] ...

DESCRIPTION

tvtime-command allows a user to control a running tvtime process by sending it commands. It communicates with tvtime through a FIFO, otherwise known as a named pipe. Commands are case-insensitive, and are executed in order.

COMMANDS

AUTO_ADJUST_PICT: Restores the picture settings (brightness, contrast, hue, colour) to their default values.
AUTO_ADJUST_WINDOW: Automatically resize the window to match the content inside it. This is for when you resize tvtime into, say, a long rectangle, and want it to jump back to being a perfect 4:3 box around the content.
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_DEC / CHANNEL_DOWN: Move one channel down in the channel list.
CHANNEL_INC / CHANNEL_UP: Move one channel up in the channel list.
CHANNEL_JUMP / 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.
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.
DISPLAY_MESSAGE: This will display a message along the bottom of the OSD. Useful for cron jobs or other scripts to send notifications to a user running tvtime.
DOWN: This command provides the dual functionality of channel down or menu arrow down, depending on whether the menu is currently active. This command is to be used together with the LEFT, RIGHT and UP commands.
ENTER: Sends a virtual enter command. Use this when changing the channel:
tvtime-command channel_1 channel_5 enter
will change to channel 15.
FINETUNE_DOWN: Decreases the fine tuning setting for the current channel.
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.
KEY_EVENT: Sends a fake keystroke event to tvtime. This is useful for doing complex operations via a remote control, as you can indirect events to tvtime's internal key binding system.
LEFT: This command provides the dual functionality of mixer volume down or menu back command, depending on whether the menu is currently active. This command is to be used together with the RIGHT, UP and DOWN commands.
MENU_DOWN: In menu mode, this command moves the cursor down one entry in the menu.
MENU_ENTER: In menu mode, this command selects the current entry or moves forward one level in the menu.
MENU_EXIT: In menu mode, this command shuts off the menu.
MENU_BACK: In menu mode, this command moves back one level in the menu.
MENU_ENTER: In menu mode, this command selects the current entry or moves forward one level in the menu.
MENU_UP: In menu mode, this command moves the cursor up one entry in the menu.
MIXER_DOWN: Decreases the volume setting for the Line In device from /dev/mixer. An optional parameter specifies the percentage to decrease by.
MIXER_TOGGLE_MUTE: Toggles the mute status with the mixer, and not with the capture card like TOGGLE_MUTE does.
MIXER_UP: Increases the volume setting for the Line In device from /dev/mixer. An optional parameter specifies the percentage to increase by.
NOOP: The command to do nothing. Useful for when you want to blank out one of the default key bindings in tvtime.
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.
PICTURE: Selects which picture setting (brightness/contrast/colour/hue) to change using the PICTURE_UP and PICTURE_DOWN commands.
PICTURE_UP: Increases the current picture setting value (brightness/contrast/colour/hue).
PICTURE_DOWN: Decreases the current picture setting value (brightness/contrast/colour/hue).
RESTART: Asks tvtime to restart itself. This is used in the menu when we have changed a value that we can't yet change at runtime.
RIGHT: This command provides the dual functionality of mixer volume up or menu enter command, depending on whether the menu is currently active. This command is to be used together with the LEFT, UP and DOWN commands.
RUN_COMMAND: Instructs tvtime to spawn a command. This can be used to start a program using a key in tvtime or lirc, such as to spawn mythepg or alevt. Using tvtime-command run_command "xterm" will have tvtime call system( "xterm &" ).
SAVE_PICTURE_GLOBAL: Saves the current picture settings as the global defaults.
SAVE_PICTURE_CHANNEL: Saves the current picture settings as the defaults for the current channel on the tuner.
SCREENSHOT: Asks tvtime to take a screenshot. Screenshots are saved to the directory listed as the screenshot directory in the tvtime.xml configuration file. The default is the running user's home directory.
SET_AUDIO_MODE: This command takes a parameter and sets the current audio mode. Valid options are "mono", "stereo", "sap", "lang1" or "lang2".
SET_DEINTERLACER: This command takes a parameter and sets the current deinterlacer. Valid options are the short name of any of the deinterlacers available in tvtime.
SET_FRAMERATE: This command takes a parameter and sets the current framerate. Valid options are "full", "top" and "bottom".
SET_FREQUENCY_TABLE: This command takes a parameter and sets the current frequency table.
SET_FULLSCREEN_POSITION: This command sets where widescreen output will be aligned when in fullscreen mode, either top for the top of the screen, center, or bottom.
SET_INPUT: This command takes a parameter and sets the the capture card input (0-n). Among the Inputs are: the tuner, composite, or S-Video connectors on the capture card.
SET_INPUT_WIDTH: This command takes a parameter and sets the current input width in pixels. It will be used in tvtime after a restart.
SET_MATTE: This command sets the matte to apply to the output. This changes the size of the output window, and is useful for watching a 2.35:1 movie in a long, thin window, or for watching it at the top of the screen using the fullscreen position option. Valid options here are 16:9, 1.85:1, 2.35:1 or 4:3.
SET_NORM: This command takes a parameter and sets the current television standard. It will be used in tvtime after a restart.
SET_STATION: This command takes a station name or number as a parameter and changes the channel to the station given.
SET_XMLTV_LANGUAGE: Set the preferred language code for XMLTV data. The argument can be either the two-letter language code according to ISO 639 or a number to select one of the known languages.
SHOW_DEINTERLACER_INFO: Shows a help screen on the OSD describing the current deinterlacer setting.
SHOW_MENU: This command is used to bring up the tvtime setup menu.
SHOW_STATS: Shows a debug screen showing statistics about the running instance of tvtime.
SLEEP: This command sets the sleep timer to tell tvtime to shut itself off after a certain amount of time. Sending this command will first activate the feature, and sending it again will increase the timer up until a maximum value at which point it is shut off.
TOGGLE_ALWAYSONTOP: If supported by your window manager, this command will ask to have the window be put into an "always on top" state, where no other window can be stacked above it.
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_CHANNEL_PAL_DK: For PAL users, toggles the audio mode of the current channel between the PAL-BG and PAL-DK audio norms.
TOGGLE_CHROMA_KILL: Enables or disables the chroma killer filter, which makes the input black and white. Useful when watching a black-and-white movie to avoid chrominance artifacts.
TOGGLE_COLOR_INVERT / TOGGLE_COLOUR_INVERT: Turns on or off the colour invert filter. This is (apparently) useful for users of the Australian cable company Optus who want to avoid using the decryption boxes and tune using their capture card directly.
TOGGLE_DEINTERLACER: This toggles between the available deinterlacing methods.
TOGGLE_FULLSCREEN: This toggles between fullscreen and windowed mode.
TOGGLE_FRAMERATE: Toggles the framerate at which tvtime will output. 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. Among the Inputs are: the tuner, composite, or S-Video connectors on the capture card.
TOGGLE_MATTE: Switches between the available mattes. This cuts off the top and bottom of the input picture to help fit the window to the image content.
TOGGLE_MIRROR: Turns on or off the mirror filter, which flips the input. This is useful for using tvtime with mirroring projectors, although I don't think it will actually work as intended yet since we don't mirror the OSD output. :) Comments appreciated.
TOGGLE_MUTE: Toggles 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_PAL_DK_AUDIO: For PAL users, toggles the default audio mode of all channels between the PAL-BG and PAL-DK audio norms.
TOGGLE_PAL_SECAM: Toggles between PAL and SECAM on the current channel. This feature is useful for regions which receive both PAL and SECAM channels, such that tvtime can be configured on a per-channel basis for the correct norm.
TOGGLE_PAUSE: Enters 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: Enables or disables the 2-3 pulldown detection feature for NTSC input.
TOGGLE_QUIET_SCREENSHOTS: When this option is turned on, screenshots will not announce themselves on the OSD. This is useful if you intend to take a lot of screenshots, and don't want the text to interrupt your TV watching or appear in other screenshots.
TOGGLE_SIGNAL_DETECTION: Toggles on and off tvtime's signal detection code. Signal detection enables features like channel scanning and increases responsiveness on channels with poor reception, but may make it impossible to watch stations where the reception is too bad for the card to detect it reliably.
TOGGLE_XDS: Toggles on and off tvtime's XDS decoding code. XDS is used to send information about the channel including the network name and call letters, and sometimes information about the current show. This information is then shown on the OSD and saved to the stationlist.xml file.
TOGGLE_XMLTV_LANGUAGE: Toggles which language to show by default from the XMLTV file from the ones available in the file.
UP: This command provides the dual functionality of channel up or menu arrow up, depending on whether the menu is currently active. This command is to be used together with the LEFT, RIGHT and DOWN commands.
QUIT: Asks the running tvtime process to exit.

AUTHORS

Billy Biggs, Stewart Allen.