dvbv5-zap - Man Page

DVBv5 tool for service tuning

Synopsis

dvbv5-zap [OPTION]... channel-name

dvbv5-zap [OPTION]... frequency-name (for monitor or all PIDs mode)

Description

dvbv5-zap is a command line tuning tool for digital TV services that is compliant with version 5 of the DVB API, and backward compatible with the older v3 DVB API.

dvbv5-zap uses by default a new channel/service file format that it is capable of supporting all types of Digital TV standards. It can also support the legacy format used by the legacy dvb-apps.

The dvbv5-zap tool can be used on several different modes, depending on the parameters used.

Please note that, in order to be able to use it in record mode, where both the audio and video Packet IDs (PIDs) are output to a dvr record node, the input file should contain the PIDs, e. g. they should have been produced by a digital TV zap application like dvbv5-zap.

Options

-c, --channels= channel-name-file

Read channels list from 'file'. Defaults to ~/.tzap/channels.conf.

-3, --dvbv3

Force dvbv5-zap to use DVBv3 only. Useful to test if the legacy API support is working.

-a, --adapter=adapter#

Use the given adapter. Default value: 0.

-A, --audio_pid=audio_pid#

Select a different audio Packet ID (PID). The default is to use the first audio PID found at the channel-name-file.

-C, --cc=country_code

Set the default country to be used by the MPEG-TS parsers, in ISO 3166-1 two letter code. If not specified, the default charset is guessed from the locale environment variables.

-d, --demux=demux#

Use the given demux. Default value: 0.

-f, --frontend=frontend#

Use the given frontend. Default value: 0.

-I, --input-format=format

Format of the input file. Please notice that caps is ignored. It can be:

channel - for dvb-apps compatible channel file;

zap - for dvb-apps compatible zap file;

dvbv5 (default) - for the dvbv5 apps format.

-l, --lnbf=LNBf_type

Type of LNBf to use 'help' lists the available ones.

-L, --search=string

Search/look for a string inside the traffic. Used only on monitor mode.

-m, --monitor

Enable monitor mode. On this mode, it will monitor de DVB traffic for all Packet IDs (PIDs) received by the device, showing the Packet IDs (optionally filtered by a string), and presenting some traffic statistics: number of packets per second, number of Kbytes per second and total traffic. Those statistics are shown per PID and the total per MPEG-TS.

-o, --output=file

Output filename. If specified, it will output the content of the MPEG-TS into the file with the first video PID and the first audio PID (or the one specified by audio_pid#). Use -o - for directing the output to stdout.

-p, --pat

Add PAT and PMT MPEG-TS tables to TS recording (implies -r).

-P, --all-pids

Don't filter any pids. Instead, outputs all of them.

-r, --record

Sets up the /dev/dvb/adapteradapter#/dvr0 for MPEG-TS record.

-s, --silence

Increases silence (can be used more than once).

-S, --sat_number=satellite_number

Satellite number. Used only on satellite delivery systems. If not specified, disable DISEqC satellite switch.

-t, --timeout=seconds

Amount of seconds to keep the tool running for zapping and for recording. Useful if you want to record a program that you know its duration.

-U, --freq_bpf=frequency

SCR/Unicable band-pass filter frequency to use, in kHz. Used only on satellite delivery systems.

-v, --verbose

Be verbose. Useful to check if the MPEG-TS is happenning fine. This option can be used multiple times to increase verbosity.

-V, --video_pid=video_pid#

video pid program to use (default 0)

-w, --lna=LNA

Enable, disable or put LNA power in auto mode. Not all frontends support it. Valid values are:

0 - disable

1 - enable

-1 - auto

-W, --wait=time

Adds additional wait time for DISEqC command completion.

-x, --exit

Exit after tuning.

-X, --low_traffic

Also shows DVB traffic with less than 1 packet per second. Used only in monitor mode.

-?, --help

Outputs the usage help.

--usage

Gives a short usage message.

--version

Prints program version.

Exit Status

On success, it returns 0.

Examples

Recording a channel

The typical use is to tune into a channel and put it into record mode:

$ dvbv5-zap -c dvb_channel.conf 'music' -r
using demux '/dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0'
reading channels from file 'dvb_channel.conf'
service has pid type 05: 204
tuning to 573000000 Hz
audio pid 104
dvb_set_pesfilter 104
Lock (0x1f) Quality= Good Signal= 100.00% C/N= -13.80dB UCB= 70 postBER= 3.14x10^-3 PER= 0
DVR interface '/dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0' can now be opened

The channel can be watched by playing the contents of the DVR interface, with some player that recognizes the MPEG-TS format.

For example, this audio-only channel can be played with mplayer:

$ mplayer -cache 800 /dev/dvb/adapter0/dvr0
MPlayer SVN-r37077-4.8.2 (C) 2000-2014 MPlayer Team
TS file format detected.
NO VIDEO! AUDIO MPA(pid=104) NO SUBS (yet)!  PROGRAM N. 0
==================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [mpg123] MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 layers I, II, III
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 192.0 kbit/12.50% (ratio: 24000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [mpg123] afm: mpg123 (MPEG 1.0/2.0/2.5 layers I, II, III)
==================================================================
AO: [alsa] 48000Hz 2ch s16le (2 bytes per sample)
Video: no video
Starting playback...

Monitoring a channel

The dvbv5-zap tool can also be used to monitor a DVB channel:

$ dvbv5-zap -c dvb_channel.conf 573000000 -m
using demux '/dev/dvb/adapter0/demux0'
reading channels from file 'dvb_channel.conf'
service has pid type 05:  204
tuning to 573000000 Hz
Lock   (0x1f) Quality= Good Signal= 100.00% C/N= -13.90dB UCB= 384 postBER= 96.8x10^-6 PER= 0
  dvb_set_pesfilter to 0x2000

PID     FREQ    SPEED   TOTAL
0000    9.88 p/s        14.5 Kbps       1 KB
0001    1.98 p/s        2.9 Kbps        376 B
0010    18.77 p/s       27.6 Kbps       3 KB
0011    48.42 p/s       71.1 Kbps       8 KB
0012    1455.53 p/s     2137.8 Kbps     270 KB
…
1fff    1033.60 p/s     1518.1 Kbps     192 KB
TOT     25296.44 p/s    37154.2 Kbps    4700 KB

Lock   (0x1f) Quality= Good Signal= 100.00% C/N= -13.90dB UCB= 384 postBER= 96.8x10^-6 PER= 0