tvtime.xml(5)

💖 tvtime.xml(5) — File Formats Manual 💖

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🎀 NAME 🎀

tvtime.xml — the main configuration file for tvtime, bestie. It's where all the default settings and key bindings live.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

~/.tvtime/tvtime.xml
/etc/tvtime/tvtime.xml

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so tvtime.xml is THE main config file for tvtime. It holds all the default settings and key bindings. tvtime updates it at runtime to store your settings across sessions. So like, do not edit tvtime.xml while tvtime is running, because your changes might get overwritten. No cap.

The global syntax is literally this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE tvtime PUBLIC "-//tvtime//DTD tvtime 1.0//EN"
  "http://tvtime.sourceforge.net/DTD/tvtime1.dtd">
<tvtime xmlns="http://tvtime.sourceforge.net/DTD/">
</tvtime>

You can find the DTD and other info about the XML config files at http://tvtime.sourceforge.net/DTD/ 💅

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

tvtime supports a multitude of options. The <option> tag should be contained within a <tvtime> tag. Periodt.

Here's the list of options, their default values, and what they do:

• <option name="Verbose" value="0"/> — The verbose setting indicates that we should print full informational and warning messages to stderr while running tvtime. Otherwise, only fatal errors will be printed to the output.
• <option name="V4LDevice" value="/dev/video0"/> — This sets the default capture device to use.
• <option name="V4LInput" value="0"/> — This sets the default capture card input to be opened by tvtime. For example, for my WinTV card has the tuner as source 0, and its composite input as source 1. Sources can be changed at runtime using the toggle_input command, which is key command i by default.
• <option name="Norm" value="NTSC"/> — This sets the default TV norm. Valid options are:
  • NTSC
  • NTSC-JP
  • SECAM
  • PAL
  • PAL-Nc
  • PAL-M
  • PAL-N
  • PAL-60
• <option name="SaveAndRestorePictureSettings" value="1"/> — This option indicates whether tvtime should enable its own saving and restoring of picture settings, both on startup and per channel change.
• <option name="AudioMode" value="stereo"/> — This option saves the last used audio mode. This will be used to remember which audio mode to select when the application is next started. Valid options here are "mono", "stereo", "lang1", "lang2" or "sap".
• <option name="AudioBoost" value="-1"/> — This option sets the audio boost. This is a percentage for how much to set the volume coming out of the capture card. By default, tvtime does not set the audio at all. However, because the volume sometimes does not have a sane default, or is reset by other applications, you can use this value to have it always set to your favorite volume. Use -1 to have tvtime not touch the volume.
• <option name="ShowCC" value="0"/> — This option saves the state of closed caption decoding. Closed captions are an NTSC-specific text version of the audio for the hearing impaired.
• <option name="ColourInvert" value="0"/> — This value saves the on-off state of the colour invert filter across sessions.
• <option name="MirrorInput" value="0"/> — This value saves the on-off state of the mirror filter across sessions.
• <option name="Frequencies" value="US-Cable"/> — This sets the default frequency table to use for any tuners found. Possibilities are:
  • us-cable
  • us-broadcast
  • japan-cable
  • japan-broadcast
  • europe
  • australia
  • australia-optus
  • newzealand
  • france
  • russia
• <option name="NTSCCableMode" value="Standard"/> — There are two special NTSC cable standards in the US: IRC and HRC. In IRC, channels 5 and 6 are on different frequencies, and HRC mode shifts all frequencies up by 1.25MHz (and is also weird on channels 5 and 6). Use this option to set the cable mode to Standard, IRC, or HRC. It is very rare that you will see cable systems that use IRC or HRC cable.
• <option name="CheckForSignal" value="1"/> — Toggle whether tvtime should check if there is a signal present when changing channels etc. If your card doesn't suck, you shouldn't need to shut this off. Disabling this feature will also disable the channel scanner.
• <option name="InputWidth" value="720"/> — This sets how many pixels per scanline to request from the capture card. A higher setting gives better quality, while a lower setting means we do less work, and so tvtime will run faster. If you have a slower CPU (like, less than 500Mhz or so), maybe values of 480 or 400 might suit you best. For best quality, choose a high value like 720 or 768. Most capture cards cannot sample higher than 768 pixels per scanline.
• <option name="XMLTVFile" value="none"/> — Set this to a filename to get show listings from an xmltv file. Set to "none" if you do not wish to use xmltv.
• <option name="XMLTVLanguage" value="none"/> — Set this to a two-letter language code to set the language to use for entries in the XMLTV file (for example, use "de" for German). Set to "none" if you wish to use the default language of the file.
• <option name="UseXDS" value="0"/> — Set this to 1 to enable XDS channel information decoding. This option is specific to NTSC regions. XDS is used to send information about the channel including the network name and call letters, and sometimes information about the current show.
• <option name="VBIDevice" value="/dev/vbi0"/> — This sets which device to use for VBI decoding.
• <option name="MixerDevice" value="/dev/mixer:line"/> — This sets the mixer device and channel to use. The format is device name:channel name for OSS mixer (e.g., "/dev/mixer:Line") or device/channel for ALSA (e.g., "hw:0/CD").

Valid OSS channels are:

vol, bass, treble, synth, pcm, speaker, line, mic, cd, mix, pcm2, rec, igain, ogain, line1, line2, line3, dig1, dig2, dig3, phin, phout, video, radio, monitor

• <option name="SquarePixels" value="1"/> — Disabling this option tells tvtime to use the X server DPI to determine pixel shape. By default, tvtime assumes pixels are square. Set this to 0 if you have a 4:3 monitor but run it at 1280x1024 and want tvtime to do the right thing.
• <option name="Widescreen" value="0"/> — This option enables 16:9 aspect ratio mode by default on startup.
• <option name="WindowGeometry" value="0x576"/> — Sets the geometry of the window. A width value of 0 signifies that the appropriate width for the given height will be used. For 4:3 content on a square pixel display, this defaults to a 768×576 window.
• <option name="Overscan" value="0.0"/> — This sets the percent of the sides to leave to the overscan, that is, don't show them at all. Safe action area on a television is 10% in the overscan, but that's a bit restrictive. If you want tvtime to look like a TV, a good value would be about 6–8%. The value is in percent, so for 8%, use 8.0.
• <option name="Fullscreen" value="0"/> — Set this to 1 to have tvtime start in fullscreen mode. This setting is set at runtime so that when you quit tvtime in fullscreen, starting it again will start back in fullscreen mode.
• <option name="AlwaysOnTop" value="0"/> — Set this to 1 to have tvtime start in always-on-top mode under supporting window managers. This setting is set at runtime so that when you quit tvtime in always-on-top mode, starting it again will start back in always-on-top mode.
• <option name="FullscreenPosition" value="Centre"/> — Sets the position of the output when in fullscreen mode: top, bottom or centre. When set to top, tvtime in fullscreen will place its output at the top of the screen. Use if you have a projector to help tvtime fit properly onto your screen.
• <option name="FramerateMode" value="0"/> — This sets the framerate of the output from tvtime.
  • 0 — Full framerate mode, every field is deinterlaced. 59.94fps for NTSC, 50fps for PAL.
  • 1 — Half framerate mode, deinterlace every top field to a frame (TFF). 29.97fps for NTSC, 25fps for PAL.
  • 2 — Half framerate mode, deinterlace every bottom field to a frame (BFF). 29.97fps for NTSC, 25fps for PAL.

The two half framerate modes are useful for progressive content from video game consoles. Use weave and select either TFF or BFF, whichever does not exhibit interlace effects.

• <option name="QuietScreenshots" value="0"/> — 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.
• <option name="ProcessPriority" value="-10"/> — Sets the default process priority. By default, tvtime tries to set itself at a priority of -10 which higher than normal applications. Acceptable values are from -20 to 20, with lower values meaning higher priority.
• <option name="TimeFormat" value="%X"/> — Sets the time format to be used in the tvtime on-screen display. The format is a string in the same format as strftime(3). The default is to use the time format of your locale.
• <option name="ScreenShotDir" value="~"/> — This is the default directory in which screenshots are placed. The default is to save them into the user's home directory.
• <option name="ChannelTextFG" value="0xFFFFFF00"/> — sets the ARGB colour used for the text in the on-screen display. The default for the channel name is “yellow” (0xffffff00).
• <option name="OtherTextFG" value="0xFFF5DEB3"/> — sets the ARGB colour used for the text in the on-screen display. The default for the surrounding text is “wheat” (0xfff5deb3).

For both colour options: the colour format can be hexadecimal or decimal. If the alpha channel is not specified the default is “opaque” (255).

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Examples, bestie, so you know what these things actually look like: 0xffaadd, 0xff0000ff, 0xff, 0xffff, 255 255 0, 0, 16777215. Slay.

• <option name="UnmuteVolume" value="-1"/> — this one saves the volume from before you muted, so it survives across tvtime sessions. Ngl you should never need to set this yourself, it just handles itself. 💅
• <option name="Muted" value="0"/> — this saves whether tvtime was muted when it last exited. Same energy as above: you should not ever need to set this yourself. Periodt.
• <option name="MuteOnExit" value="0"/> — this controls whether tvtime mutes its mixer device on exit. Use it to work around noisy capture cards, like a lil workaround bestie. 🔇
• <option name="ShowTaglines" value="1"/> — controls whether tvtime shows those silly taglines in the window title bar. Set it to 0 to shut them off entirely.
• <option name="PrevChannel" value="2"/> — saved at runtime to remember the previous channel. The way it just… remembers for you. 🫶
• <option name="Channel" value="2"/> — saved at runtime to remember the current channel.
• <option name="DeinterlaceMethod" value="AdaptiveAdvanced"/> — saved at runtime to remember which deinterlacer you used.

Supported deinterlacers are, in all their glory:

• TelevisionFull — Television: Full Resolution
• TelevisionHalf — Television: Half Resolution
• BlurVertical — Blur: Vertical
• BlurTemporal — Blur: Temporal
• AdaptiveSearch — Motion Adaptive: Motion Search
• AdaptiveAdvanced — Motion Adaptive: Advanced Detection
• AdaptiveSimple — Motion Adaptive: Simple Detection
• ProgressiveTFF — Progressive: Top Field First
• ProgressiveBFF — Progressive: Bottom Field First

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✨ BINDINGS ✨

Okay so key presses and mouse button clicks can both be mapped to tvtime commands. Want the full rundown on what each command does? Go read tvtime-command(1), bestie, it's all there. 📖

Multiple keys and mouse buttons may be bound to the same command — yes, you can stack them, it's giving polyamory but for keybinds. 💖 And for convenience, tvtime supplies aliases for special keys. The special keys known to tvtime are:

Up, Down, Left, Right, Insert, Home, End,R, PageUp, PageDown, F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, F9, F10, F11, F12, F13, F14, F15, Backspace, Escape, Enter, Print, Menu

(yes, End,R exactly as written, no cap, we do not touch it 💀)

An example key binding would be for the command CHANNEL_INC. In this case, we have two keys (Up and k) bound to the command, plus a mouse button (4). Look at her:

<bind command="channel_inc">
  <keyboard key="up"/>
  <keyboard key="k"/>
  <mouse button="4"/>
</bind>

Some commands can take arguments — for example, the SCREENSHOT command can take an argument for the filename. Arguments can be given to a key binding like this:

<bind command="screenshot" argument="/tmp/last-screenshot.png">
  <keyboard key="s"/>
</bind>

Iconic. Screenshot key go brrr. 📸

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Billy Biggs.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

tvtime(1), tvtime-configure(1), tvtime-command(1), tvtime-scanner(1), stationlist.xml(5).

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And that's the whole vibe, bestie — this page is from tvtime 1.0RC1, dated October 2004, and you've just been reading tvtime.xml(5). Obsessed with her, honestly. Go forth and configure your heart out. 🎀✨💖