xawtv

About xawtv

Gerd Knorr <kraxel@goldbach.in-berlin.de>

xawtv started as TV application for the bttv driver [ http://me.in-berlin.de/~kraxel/bttv.html ], because the Motif-based "xtvscreen" was the only TV application at this time.

A lot has changed since. The bttv driver switched over to the new video4linux [ http://roadrunner.swansea.uk.linux.org/v4l.shtml ] interface. xawtv isn't a single application any more, it is a small suite of video4linux related software.

It often happens that you don't get it right the first time. This is true for video4linux too. Bill Dirks works on the second version [ http://millennium.diads.com/bdirks/v4l2.htm ] of the video4linux interface.

Download xawtv

Latest version is 3.12 [ http://me.in-berlin.de/~kraxel/v4l/xawtv-3.12.tar.gz ], released 03 Apr 2000.
If you have used 2.x before, you should read the update hints in UPDATE_TO_v3.0. You'll find this file next to the README in the source tarball or in /usr/doc (for rpm installs). The new xawtv version will not work out-of-the-box, you'll have to update your config file first.

Latest 2.x version is 2.46 [ http://me.in-berlin.de/~kraxel/v4l/xawtv-2.46.tar.gz ], released 6 Jun 1999.

Available here:

the source code for 3.12 [ http://me.in-berlin.de/~kraxel/v4l/xawtv-3.12.tar.gz ]. To build rpms from the source code, use "rpm -ta xawtv-x.xx.tar.gz".
The content of the download directory [ http://me.in-berlin.de/~kraxel/v4l/ ]. Check it out for older versions and patches.
xawtv's Changelog [ http://me.in-berlin.de/~kraxel/xawtv-changelog.html ]
security fix (for 2.x): A v4l-conf update [ http://me.in-berlin.de/~kraxel/v4l/v4l-conf.c ] which fixes a serious security hole.

bttv driver

Has been moved here [ http://me.in-berlin.de/~kraxel/bttv.html ]

What exactly is in the xawtv package...

For TV/video

xawtv of course, it is still the main application. A nice X11 application for watching TV.
fbtv is a TV application for the linux console, it uses the new 2.2.x framebuffer devices.
set-tv, a command line tool to set video4linux parameters (tune in some channel, set TV norm, ...).
streamer, a command line tool for capturing still images and avi-videos (with sound).
radio, a simple, curses-based radio app.
webcam, captures images and uploads them with FTP to a Web-Server in a endless loop.

xawtv, fbtv and set-tv share the same config file.

Tools for videotext available too. A simple vtx-to-ascii/html converter (build the quick&dirty way using the videoteXt sources) and a wrapper cgi script for it. Not tested very well. Better try alevt [ http://user.exit.de/froese/ ] instead.

The video4linux driver for vic [ http://www-nrg.ee.lbl.gov/vic/ ] is no longer included in the xawtv tar file.
My old patch is still in the download directory [ http://me.in-berlin.de/~kraxel/v4l/ ], but you probably want to check out the new and improved version [ http://me.in-berlin.de/~kraxel/v4l/vic.diff-jj.gz ] of the vic patches from Juan J. Sierralta P. [ http://www-mice.cs.ucl.ac.uk/multimedia/software/vic/ ].
The original vic is'nt no longer maintained by lbl. The latest vic version (2.8) is already a few years old and does'nt compile out-of-the-box with today's tcl/tk versions. One actively maintained vic version is available from UCL [ http://www-mice.cs.ucl.ac.uk/multimedia/software/vic/ ].

Known-to-work Hardware

old video4linux interface:

bttv [ http://www.thp.uni-koeln.de/~rjkm/linux/bttv.html ] supports bt848 and bt878 based boards like the Hauppauge WinTV. Probably the most popular grabber boards these days. Works on i486 and alpha.
The zoran driver [ http://www.polyware.nl/~middelin/En/hobbies.html ] works too.
planb [ http://www.cpu.lu/~mlan/planb.html ] supports the video input of the PowerMac 7x00/8x00 series.
mxb [ http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/~mhunold/mxb/ ] is a driver for the Siemens Multimedia eXtension Board [ http://www.siemens.de/pc/consumer/zubeho_d.htm ]
Iomega Buz [ http://www.lysator.liu.se/~gz/buz/ ]
Matrox Marvel [ http://www.cs.brandeis.edu/~eddie/mga4linux/ ]

video4linux two interface:

Bill's software-only test-driver (16bpp, still trouble with 24bpp).
The winnov videum [ http://millennium.diads.com/bdirks/winnov.htm ] driver works.
bttv2 [ http://bttv-v4l2.sourceforge.net/ ] by Justin Schoeman, a largely rewritten bttv version for v4l2.

List incomplete? Drop me a note [ kraxel@goldbach.in-berlin.de ].

Old stuff

Some time ago I started a tcl/tk-based application for video capture/playback. I stopped maintaining it. Here you find the latest snapshot [ http://me.in-berlin.de/~kraxel/v4l/grab-980420.tar.gz ] (20 Apr 1998). Probably does'nt work out-of-the-box with current bttv versions, therefore it is only useful for hackers...

last update: Mon, 03 Apr 2000 21:11:28 CEST