Description: This is SuperKaramba (v0.37 and up) applet designed for controlling a TV card controlled by an ivtv family (ivtvdriver.org) of drivers.
The peculiar points of this family of cards are: 1. that they have a hardware MPEG2 encoder that outputs the video and audio as an MPEG2 compressed stream. This means that you can watch output of the card in ANY MPEG2 player. (or Kaffeine in my/this case) 2. ivTv drivers come with command line utilities - ivtvctl and ivtv-tune - that allow to set frequency(ivtvctl) and channel(ivtv-tune) from command line.
As a result, you can watch the video in one application, while controlling the channel from another. This applet IS that "another" application. (In other words, KaraivTV is a wrapper for ivtvctl and ivtv-tune commands.)
USAGE: 1. Run the applet (double-click the file you download from here, or double-click karaivtv.theme if you extracted the skz) 2. Go into config menu (right click) to choose the frequency storage engine. (see Setting Channel Frequencies bellow) 3. Enter the channel number in the middle section, press enter. 4. Click (double-click) the "power button" to start TV viewing in Kaffeine. 5. Kaffeine Tips "U" key - mute "M" key - removes menus/buttons > just video screen.
INSTALLATION: 1. Save the karaivtv-0.4.skz file you downloaded from here. 2. Double-click it.
SETTING CHANNEL FREQUENCIES This applet relies on 2 methods of knowing the frequency for a channel. - It can read the Channel - Frequency pairs from a file and feed the frequency to the ivtvctl directly, or - It can rely on ivtv-tune util for choosing the frequency for a given channel. (ivtv-tune WILL need to know a broadcasting standard)
To switch between the two modes, look int the config menu (right-click on the applet) If you chose the "ivtv-tune", you will have to tell it what standard to use.
Why don't I just use the ivtv-util? For some (many?) regions ivtv-tune has broken / non-existent tables. (Example: us-cable-hrc is absent in ver. 0.7) So, I have to use the file with custom freqs.Last changelog:
Future versions (June 2006) I learned quite a bit of Python in 1/2 year and plan to really finish the applet some time in June (after I'm done with professional exams). You will likely see timer-controlled recording, and rudimentary time-shifting (paused TV). Other outstanding issues that also wait for beginning of summer: - Out of all the visual elements, only channel number entry box and "power button" work (have associated commands) at this time. - You may occasionally see 2 check-marks in config menu - a cosmetic flaw.
0.5 (May 22, 2006) - Made it possible to load the custom frequency files from the config menu. No need to unzip / tweak the code directly. - Made it possible to use ivtv-tune for switching channels. Assuming your region is listed in "ivtv-tune -L", you don't have to use the custom freq file any more.
0.4 (May 20, 2006) Note: this is a "maintenance" release. - Fixed problem that made karaivtv unusable if started from a "non-current" directory. Applet is now path-agnostic. - Made applet skz-able - i.e. the script now detects if it is run from an skz and automatically extracts itself to ~/.superkaramba/karaivtv folder and runs relevant pieces from there.
0.3 (Sept 31, 05) - As promised, implemented ability to load custom channel/frequency table files. (see top of python code and change where "freqTableFile" is pointing) - KaraivTv can now save and restore the position of Kaffeine. KNOWN BUGS: - when run from an "open" dialog of SuperKaramba (i.e. Karaivtv is not the current folder, the theme will fail to load. + Solutions: a) Change the freqTableFile link/variable in the karaivtv.py to hard, not relative path. b) or, Start Karaivtv by openning console, going to karaivtv dir and do "superkaramba karaivtv.theme"
0.2 (Sept 30, 05) - redesigned the UI, added: -- power button (start kaffeine with video) -- prev/next channel in list button (not working yet, just a placeholder) -- save/restore Kaffeine window size/location (not working yet, just a placeholder) - Channel List is limited to channels 2,4,5,7,9,11,12,13,28,31,83,84 in US, NTSC-HRC. I will switch to pulling the channel frequencies from a file in ver 0.3 or so, after the main iterface is working. - lots of way to configure/customize the python script Just see the source and tweak the variables in the beginning to your liking.
0.1 (Sept 30, 05) - Just an example of a WORKING code.
I use mythtv on my computers with ivtv based cards.
When I don't want the whole interface of mythtv and with the current lack of support for ivtv based cards in all the Linux television applications this application fits the bill.
Ratings & Comments
2 Comments
I use mythtv on my computers with ivtv based cards. When I don't want the whole interface of mythtv and with the current lack of support for ivtv based cards in all the Linux television applications this application fits the bill.
Have a TV card in the laptop. I do like the concept and the usage of Karamba/Superkaramba. Thanks!