DVCONT(1)

💖 DVCONT(1): send control commands to DV cameras 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the General Commands Manual page for dvcont — manual name DVCONT(1) — and yes we are about to remote-control a DV camera like it’s main character energy ✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

dvcont — send control commands to DV cameras

🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

dvcont <command1> [ <command2> ... ]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

dvcont is a command line tool to send control commands via an IEEE1394 link to a device that implements the AV/C specifications by the 1394 Trade Association. Or for the non-techies: dvcont lets you remote control your DV camera via a Firewire cable.

The following commands are understood:

• dev <number> — Select device number on chain to use. (dvcont tries to automatically detect the camera. Use the dev command BEFORE any other commands for manual control.)
• play — Tell the camera to play. If already playing, it toggles slow-motion.
• reverse — Tell the camera to play in reverse. If already playing, it toggles slow-motion.
• trickplay < -14 to +14 > — Tell the camera to play at various speeds. 0 = forward play, -14 = fastest reverse, -8 = 1X reverse, -1 = slowest reverse, 1 = slowest forward, 8 = 1X forward, 14 = fastest forward. (Not supported by all cameras.)
• stop — Tell the camera to stop playing.
• rewind — Tell the camera to rewind. (Use in stop or play mode.)
• ff — Tell the camera to fast forward. (Use in stop or play mode.)
• pause — Tell the camera to toggle pause play.
• next — Tell the camera to go to the next frame. (Use in pause mode.)
• nextindex — Tell the camera to search for the next scene. (Use in pause or play mode.)
• prev — Tell the camera to go to the previous frame. (Use in pause mode)
• previndex — Tell the camera to search for the previous scene. (Use in pause or play mode)
• record — Tell the camera to record. (Use with caution!)
• eject — Tell the camera to eject the tape. (Not supported by all cameras.)
• timecode — Report the timecode on tape in the format HH:MM:SS:FF (hours, minutes, seconds, intra-second frames).
• seek <timecode> — Tell the camera to go to the timecode, given in format HH:MM:SS:FF as above.
• status — Report the status of the device.
• pluginfo — Report available plugs.
• verbose — Tell the program to tell you debug info.
• version — Tell the program to tell you the program version.
• help — Tell the program to show you a help screen.

👑 AUTHORS 👑

dvcont was written by Jason Howard <jason@spectsoft.com> and Dan Dennedy <dan@dennedy.org>. This man page was written with the help of help2man by Daniel Kobras <kobras@debian.org> for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution (but may be used by others). Updated by Dan Dennedy <dan@dennedy.org>.

that’s the whole page, bestie — dated September 2002, filed as DVCONT(1), and living its best General Commands Manual life 💅✨