TV application interaction simulator

This is the manual page for the TV application interaction simulator which is part of the nxtvepg software package.

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
INTERACTION FEATURES
GETTING STARTED
FILES
SEE ALSO
KNOWN BUGS
AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT

NAME

tvsim - TV application interaction simulator

SYNOPSIS

tvsim [ options ]

DESCRIPTION

tvsim is a demo application that shows in which ways nxtvepg can cooperate with TV applications. It's also a reference implementation of the communication protocols and offers most of the source code (under the GPL license) that would be required to add EPG support to a TV application. If you want to add nxtvepg to a TV application, it's recommended to start with the code of tvsim's source modules, remove everthing you don't need (esp. the Tcl/Tk GUI and support for all but one protocols), put it in a library and link it to your TV app.

In the current version three protocols are supported: On UNIX two protocols based on message transfer via the X11 server: the newer one is based on the ICCCM selection manager protocol, the older one is the Xawtv remote control protocol (supported by multiple applications such as xawtv, xawdecode and Zapping.) On Windows, a shared memory based protocol which allows interaction with K!TV.

OPTIONS

Summary of command line options (it's a sub-set of the options supported by nxtvepg):

-geometry geometry: Specifies the position of the main window, e.g. -geometry -0+0 to put the main window in the upper right corner of the visible screen. The size of the window cannot be changed.
-iconic: Start with the main window iconified (i.e. minimized).
-rcfile path: Specify an alternate path to the nxtvepg configuration file. Default: $HOME/.nxtvepgrc on UNIX, nxtvepg.ini in the current directory on Windows. tvsim uses this file only to get the path to a TV channel table (you need to configure this in nxtvepg's TV app interaction dialog first) and TV card configuration (the latter on Windows only). Note the TV card index is not read from the rc/ini file, use the option below instead. See GETTING STARTED for more details.
-card index: Specify which tuner card to use, if you have more than one. Default: index 0, i.e. the ``best'' card in the order Brooktree Bt878, Bt878A, Bt848, Bt849, Philips SAA7134, Conexant 23881 (aka Bt811). If you have more than one TV card with the same chip, the order between those is undefined, but still constant (i.e. depends on the driver, not tvsim or nxtvepg).
-help: List all available command line options.

tvsim uses the nxtvepg INI file, i.e. by default it searches for a file named nxtvepg.ini in the current working directory. If this file is located elsewhere, you need to specify the -rcfile option. Please refer to GETTING STARTED below for configuration information.

INTERACTION FEATURES

tvsim can demonstrate all TV application interaction features which currently are supported by nxtvepg:

Automatically freeing the TV card: Windows only: When nxtvepg is running with acquisition enabled when the TV application is started, it automatically frees the TV card to allow the TV application to access to the hardware. When the TV application is stopped, nxtvepg automatically accesses the TV card again. This allows the user to keep nxtvepg permanently running in the background without bothering to remember to switch acquisition off manually before starting the TV application.; Note this feature is not required on UNIX since concurrent access to video and VBI devices by independent processes is supported by the drivers.; The TV application has the possibility to grant the tuner to EPG, e.g. when capturing is stopped of the TV window is minimized. nxtvepg will then ask the TV app to tune it's provider's channel and forward it's teletext data. However the driver still remains in control of the TV app and can revoke the ``grant'' at any time without having to wait for nxtvepg.
Look-up of program info in the EPG database: The TV application can pass a network name to nxtvepg to look up the title, start and stop times and PDC theme codes of the current programme on that network. Usually the TV application will display that information on screen or in a popup windows next to the live TV image. In tvsim it's displayed in the three text fields below that channel table. Since Xawtv doesn't have EPG support, there's also the option that nxtvepg by itself opens a small popup window next to the TV image.; Some third-party TV viewing and scheduling applications use XMLTV instead of this feature, but it's less efficient because the application has to read the entire database which is not only time consuming but also consumes a significant amount of RAM, and long-running apps will also not benefit from constant updates provided by Nextview acquisition.
nxtvepg following channel changes: When the TV channel is changed inside the TV application, nxtvepg will follow with its cursor in the browser window, i.e. it'll set the cursor on the program title that's currently running on that network so that the detailed program information becomes displayed. (Channels are identified firstly by their name, but also by VPS/PDC which is forwarded from the TV application to nxtvepg.)
Changing channels from inside nxtvepg: When a TV application is connected to nxtvepg, there's a Tune TV button in the main window that allows to tune in the network of the program that's currently selected in nxtvepg. This allows the user to comfortably select his/her favorite program inside nxtvepg.; There's also a small context menu behind the Tune-TV button which can be opened by clicking on it with the right mouse button. There's commands to start/stop capturing, muting audio and toggle channels. Additionally the user can send arbitrary commands to the connected TV app via user-defined entries in nxtvepg's programme schedule context menu and reminder scripts (by using prefix !xawtv! or !winshm!, see nxtvepg manual chapter Context menu extensions.) These entries may include parameters of the currently selected programme, e.g. start time and network.
EPG data acquisition while watching TV: Windows only: Even while the TV card is ``owned'' by the TV application, it's possible for nxtvepg to keep acquiring EPG information if it's connected to a TV application that forwards incoming teletext packets on the designated EPG page.; Note this feature is not required on UNIX for the same reasons already mentioned above for the first item.

GETTING STARTED

The software is called a ``simulator'' because it doesn't display a TV image. But still it does read in a channel table and tune in the respective TV channels when they are selected in the channel table; this is required to demonstrate forwarding of VPS/PDC and EPG packets.

tvsim does not have its own rc/INI file, instead it uses the nxtvepg configuration file. Hence you should configure nxtvepg first before using tvsim. Please refer to the nxtvepg manual, section GETTING STARTED for detailed documentation of the initial configuration process. tvsim only uses the configuration settings of the TV card input and TV app. interaction dialogs, with the exception of the TV card index.

If your TV application's channel table format is not supported by nxtvepg and you don't have any of the supported freeware TV applications, you can set up a minimal channel table manually. The simplest format is that of the DScaler channel table; so create a file named program.txt somewhere with the following format:

   Name: First Channel
   Freq2: 2020
   Name: Second Channel
   Freq2: 2132

where you replace ``First Channel'' etc. with the actual channel names and the numbers with the respective TV tuner frequencies in MHz times 16 (i.e. 2020 means tuner frequency 126.25 MHz). Then open the TV app. interaction dialog in nxtvepg, choose TV app. name DScaler and specify the path to the channel table you've just creatd. Then quit the dialog with Ok and start tvsim (you don't need to quit nxtvepg). Your channels should appear in the tvsim channel table.

FILES

$HOME/.nxtvepgrc: Configuration file on UNIX systems. Per default it'is expected in your home directory; for more details see below and GETTING STARTED.
nxtvepg.ini: Windows configuration file from which TV card setup and TV application interaction settings are read. By default it is expected in the working directory, but a different path and file name can be specified with the -rcfile option. tvsim never writes to this file; configuration changes have to be made with nxtvepg.

KNOWN BUGS

Under Windows there's a risk of system crash (``blue screen'') when the application is terminated by force, e.g. via the task manager. This is unavoidable because in this case there's no chance to stop the driver and hence the TV card continues to capure data into RAM. In normal operation this should be very unlikely because all software exceptions (e.g. page faults) and shutdown messages are caught and the driver then stopped before the exit.

AUTHOR

Tom Zoerner, Nuremberg, Germany.

Email: tomzo (at) users (dot) sourceforge (dot) net

Thanks to e-nek for reviewing the design of the Windows communication protocol, alpha testing and most importantly for being the first one to implement support specifically for interaction between nxtvepg and a TV application (the Xawtv solution predates K!TV, however it was based on already existing remote control mechanisms, i.e. no changes were made to Xawtv.)

COPYRIGHT

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License Version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation, e.g. at http://www.fsf.org/

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 file COPYRIGHT for more details.

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