xanalogtv(6x)

💖 NAME 💖

xanalogtv — simulate reception on an old analog TV set. This is xanalogtv(6x) from the XScreenSaver manual, and it is lowkey giving “found a CRT in the attic and plugged it in anyway” energy. 📺✨

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

xanalogtv [--display host:display.screen] [--window] [--root]
[--window-id number][--install] [--visual visual] [--cycle] [--no-cycle]
[--fps]

That’s the whole shape of the command, bestie — exact flags, exact order, no invented extras. 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so xanalogtv shows a simulation of an old TV set showing test patterns and any other images you’ve provided. It’s giving main-character CRT realness. 📺💖

It reproduces a wide range of TV reception bummage: snow, bloom, ghosting, and loss of vertical and horizontal sync. It also simulates the TV warming up — yes, the little glow-on moment, iconic. ✨

It will cycle through 12 channels. Some channels have images you give it, and some have color bars or nothing but static. No cap, that’s the lineup. 📼

The images it uses will be grabbed from the portion of the screen underlying the window, or from the system’s video input, or from a random file on disk, as indicated by the grabDesktopImages, grabVideoFrames, and chooseRandomImages options in the ~/.xscreensaver file; see xscreensaver-settings(1) for more details. It looks best with a video input or your digital photo collection. 🫶

✨ OPTIONS ✨

xanalogtv accepts the following options:

• --window — draw on a newly-created window. This is the default.
• --root — draw on the root window.
• --window-id number — draw on the specified window.
• --install — install a private colormap for the window.
• --visual visual — specify which visual to use. Legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual.
• --fps — display the current frame rate and CPU load.

Also, the synopsis name-checks --display host:display.screen, --cycle, and --no-cycle; the page doesn’t spell out extra details for those, so I’m not making anything up. 🙈

🌸 ENVIRONMENT 🌸

Environment variables, bestie:

• DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number.
• XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
• XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root.

🎀 X RESOURCES 🎀

Notable X resources supported include the following, which correspond to standard TV controls:

• analogTVTint
• analogTVColor
• analogTVBrightness
• analogTVContrast

They range from 0 to 100, except for analogTVTint, which is an angle between -180 and +180. 🌈

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

Go read these next, iykyk:

• X(1)
• xteevee(6x)
• apple2(6x)
• bsod(6x)
• xscreensaver(1)
• xscreensaver-settings(1)
• xscreensaver-getimage(6x)

👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Legal bestie corner — here’s the copyright and permission text, word-for-word so the lawyers stay happy:

Copyright © 2003 by Trevor Blackwell. Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. No representations are made about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Trevor Blackwell <tlb@tlb.org> — author icon. 👑

---

That’s the whole page, bestie! This one is from X Version 11, version 6.09, dated 07-Jun-2024, and it’s the xanalogtv(6x) manual page. Now go let that CRT warm up and serve static. 📺💖✨