
Getting started and Overview about the changes in xawtv version 4.x
===================================================================


Changes/Status Overview
-----------------------

 New Features + Changes

   * MPEG software decoding, and based on that:
     - support for DVB cards, including Budget cards.
     - support for MPEG Encoder cards (ivtv).
   * reworked configuration framework.
   * switch over to gtk as X11 GUI toolkit.

 Dropped Features

   * Overlay without Xvideo extention.
   * Resolution switching for fullscreen.

 Obsolete (likely will be dropped)

   * motv application (gtk-ported xawtv will take over ;)

 work needed (i.e. broken/untested/incomplete right now)

   * movie recording.
   * lirc support.
   * documentation is outdated.
   * fbtv & ttv.


Build it
--------

 Important compile time dependencies:

   mpeg audio  -  mad (http://www.underbit.com/products/mad/).
   mpeg video  -  libmpeg2 (http://libmpeg2.sf.net/).
   teletext    -  libzvbi (http://zapping.sf.net).

 The usual "./configure && make" should work.  You can start the apps
 without "make install" from the directory they are build in,
 i.e. using "cd gtk; ./xawtv".  Note that xawtv will prefeare the
 installed plugins, so you should delete them or move them away in
 case you have some older 4.x version installed.  3.x plugins will NOT
 cause any trouble.


The new configuration framework
-------------------------------

 Most important user visible change is that there isn't a single
 ~/.xawtv configuration file any more.  Instead a bunch of files in the
 ~/tv/ directory used.  Internally the configuration framework is also
 used to store informations which can easily be preserved then by just
 dumping it to a config file.

 Here is a overview about the files in ~/.tv/:

    devices.$HOSTNAME	device configuration.
    options		global options.
    stations		Configured TV stations, with Hotkeys and
			other meta inforamtion.
    dvb-ts		DVB channels: The transport streams with
			tuning info.
    dvb-pr		DVB channels: The programs with the pids
			and transport stream IDs.
    vdr-channels	The imported /etc/vdr/channels.conf file
			dumped (for debug only).
    vdr-diseqc		The imported /etc/vdr/diseqc.conf file
			dumped (for debug only).


Hints for using analog TV
-------------------------

 The scantv utility will scan for channels and create ~/.tv/options
 and ~/.tv/stations config files.  Unlike the 3.x versions it will not
 just dump a fresh file to stdout, but will read the old config,
 update it and save it.  Means you can also use it to update the
 configuration without loosing all the configuration like hotkeys you
 did after the initial scan.

 I'm currently working on GUI-based channel scanning, stay tuned ;)

 xawtv + mtt should work as usual.


Hints for using digital TV aka DVB
----------------------------------

 First you have to scan for DVB channels.  right-click to popup the
 control window, then pick "Edit / Scan DVB" to get the DVB channel
 scanner.  The first Channel/Transponder must be tuned manually
 using "Commands / Tune frontend".  Once you have successfully tuned
 the frontend the scanner window should start filling with
 informations from the current transport stream.  Now a Scan should be
 able to find all the other Channels/Transponders and stations.

 Once the scan is done you can put the stations you like into the
 station list in the control window (by drag'n'drop) and organize them
 the way you like it (rename them, group them, give them hotkeys,
 ...).

 The DVB scanner is also available as standalone application named
 "alexplore".

 The DVB Channels found by the scan are saved to the ~/tv/dvb-ts and
 ~/tv/dvb-pr config files, the station list is in ~/.tv/stations.


Hints for using teletext
------------------------

 mtt also supports both analog and digital TV.  In DVB mode it just
 sits passively on the adapter and monitors the incoming data, putting
 the teletext streams available from the current transport stream into
 the station menu, i.e. you have to use some other utility to tune the
 frontend.  mtt will happily run in parallel to a TV application
 without disrupting it.


Hints for listening radio
-------------------------

 You can use dvbradio, a small standalone application for listening
 radio.  Most important you have to know is that you have to do a
 channel scan first with either xawtv or alexplore (see the DVB help
 text above).  Anything else should be self-explanatory, just look
 around in the GUI.


Hints for using pia
-------------------

 pia is a simple movie player.  It can playback mpeg streams and any
 movies recorded by xawtv and streamer.  It can playback audio files
 (wav, mp3) as well.  It also works without X11, not playing video
 then for obvious reasons ;) Usage: Just pass the movie file name as
 argument.

 pia also has a -dvb switch to put it into dvb playback mode.  This is
 intented mainly for trouble-shooting / debugging purposes.  The -dvb
 switch expects a station name as argument and will lookup the station
 in xawtv's config files.  You can also use the -vdr switch, pia will
 lookup the station in /etc/vdr/channels.conf (+diseqc.conf in case of
 DVB-S) then.


Enjoy,

  Gerd

--
Gerd Knorr <kraxel@bytesex.org> [SUSE Labs]
