xawtv-remote(1)

💖 xawtv-remote(1) — bestie edition 💖

okay so picture this: it's a General Commands Manual page, and the star of the show is xawtv-remote — with its ride-or-die twin v4lctl right beside it. Two names, one manual, zero gatekeeping. Let's get into it ✨

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🎀 NAME 🎀

xawtv-remote, v4lctl — control video4linux devices. that's the whole vibe. 💅

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

xawtv-remote [ options ] command
v4lctl [ options ] command

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So xawtv-remote and v4lctl are your little remote controls for a video4linux-driven TV card. Iconic. 👑

Here's the plot twist tho — they do the same job in two completely different ways:

• xawtv-remote doesn't touch the hardware itself. It slides the command over to an already running xawtv or motv instance using X11 properties. Very "hey bestie, can you handle this for me" energy. 🫶
• v4lctl is the direct one. It sets the parameters straight up, no middleman, no messenger. Main character behaviour fr fr. 💅

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

💅 xawtv-remote options

• -h — print a short help text. the classic "help me bestie" move.
• -d dpy — Set the X11 display.
• -i id — Set the Window ID.

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🧚 v4lctl options

• -h — print a short help text. same energy, different tool.
• -c device — Set video4linux device.
• -D driver — Set video4linux driver.
• -v n — Set debug level to n, where n = [0..2].

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🔥 COMMANDS 🔥

ngl, both tools basically rock the same set of commands. A few of them are really only serving xawtv-remote (fullscreen, for example) — but like, they're all here, so let's gooo 🏃‍♀️💨

• setstation [ <name> | <nr> | next | prev | back ] — Set the TV station. This picks one of the TV stations that are configured in the .xawtv config file. The argument can be the station name, or a number (the first one listed in the config file is 0, then 1, ...). next/prev jumps to the next/previous station in the list, and back goes to the previously selected one. ✨
• setchannel [ <name> | next | prev ] — Tune in some channel.
• setfreqtab <table> — Set the frequency table. Peep the menu in xawtv for a list of valid choices.
• setnorm <norm> — Set the TV norm (NTSC/PAL/SECAM).
• setinput [ <input> | next ] — Set the video input (Television/Composite1/...)
• capture [ on | off | overlay | grabdisplay ] — Set capture mode.
• volume mute on | off — mute / unmute audio.
• volume <arg>
• color <arg>
• hue <arg>
• bright <arg>
• contrast <arg> — Set the parameter to the specified value. So <arg> can be one of these:
  • A percent value ("70%" for example).
  • Some absolute value ("32768") — but heads up, the valid range is hardware specific. 🙈
  • Relative values, which you can specify by prefixing with += or -= ("+=10%" or "-=2000").
  • Also the keywords "inc" and "dec" are accepted, and they will increase and decrease the given value in small steps. 💫
• setattr <name> <value> — Set set the value of some attribute (color, contrast, ... can be set this way too).
• show [ <name> ] — Show the value current of some attribute.
• list — List all available attributes with all properties (default value, range, ...)
• snap [ jpeg | ppm ] [ full | win | widthxheight ] <filename> — Capture one image. 📸
• webcam <filename> — Capture one image. Does basically the same as "snap jpeg win <filename>". Works also while avi recording is active. It writes to a temporary file and renames it when done, so there is never a invalid file. no cap, that's a real glow-up. ✨
• movie driver [ files | raw | avi | qt ]
• movie video [ ppm | pgm | jpeg | rgb | gray | 422 | 422p | rgb15 | rgb24 | mjpeg | jpeg | raw | mjpa | png ]
• movie fps <frames per second>
• movie audio [ mono8 | mono16 | stereo ]
• movie rate <sample rate>
• movie fvideo <filename>
• movie faudio <filename>
• movie start
• movie stop — control xawtv's movie recorder. 🎬
• fullscreen — Toggle fullscreen mode.
• showtime — Display time (same what the 'D' key does in xawtv).
• msg text — Display text on the on-screen display (window title / upper left corner in fullscreen mode).
• vtx line1 line2 [ ... ] — Display subtitles. It pops up a small window at the bottom of the screen. It is intended to be used as an interface for displaying subtitles (often on videotext page 150 in Europe, that's why the name) by external programs.

Every command line argument is one line, and zero lines removes the window. You can colorize the text with the control sequence "ESC foreground background". foreground/background has the range 0-7 (ansi term colors). Example: "\03347 hello world " is blue on white. "\033" must be a real escape character — the string doesn't work. With the bash you'll get it with ^V ESC. vtx does also understand the ANSI tty escape sequences for color. 🌈

• quit — quit xawtv. bye bestie 😭
• keypad n — enter digit 'n'. That's the two-digit channel selection — entering two digits within 5 seconds switches to the selected station. Useful for lirc. 🔢
• vdr command — send "command" to vdr (via connect on localhost:2001).

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🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

xawtv(1), motv(1), xawtvrc(5)

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💜 AUTHOR 💜

Gerd Knorr <kraxel@bytesex.org>

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👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Copyright (C) 1997-2001 Gerd Knorr <kraxel@bytesex.org>

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.

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and that's the whole page bestie — (c) 1997-99 Gerd Knorr, filed under xawtv-remote(1), and it ate. periodt. 💅✨🎀