DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / dvb-tools / dvbv5-zap.1.en
dvbv5-zap(1) User Commands dvbv5-zap(1)

dvbv5-zap - DVBv5 tool for service tuning

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

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

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.

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.
Use the given adapter. Default value: 0.
Select a different audio Packet ID (PID). The default is to use the first audio PID found at the channel-name-file.
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.
Use the given demux. Default value: 0.
Use the given frontend. Default value: 0.
Format of the input file. Please notice that caps is ignored. It can be:

zap - for dvb-apps compatible zap file;

dvbv5 (default) - for the dvbv5 apps format.

Type of LNBf to use 'help' lists the available ones.
Search/look for a string inside the traffic. Used only on monitor mode.
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.
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.
Add PAT and PMT MPEG-TS tables to TS recording (implies -r).
Don't filter any pids. Instead, outputs all of them.
Sets up the /dev/dvb/adapteradapter#/dvr0 for MPEG-TS record.
Increases silence (can be used more than once).
Satellite number. Used only on satellite delivery systems. If not specified, disable DISEqC satellite switch.
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.
SCR/Unicable band-pass filter frequency to use, in kHz. Used only on satellite delivery systems.
Be verbose. Useful to check if the MPEG-TS is happenning fine. This option can be used multiple times to increase verbosity.
video pid program to use (default 0)
Enable, disable or put LNA power in auto mode. Not all frontends support it. Valid values are:

0 - disable

1 - enable
-1 - auto
Adds additional wait time for DISEqC command completion.
Exit after tuning.
Also shows DVB traffic with less than 1 packet per second. Used only in monitor mode.
-?, --help
Outputs the usage help.
Gives a short usage message.
Prints program version.

On success, it returns 0.

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...

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

Report bugs to Linux Media Mailing List <linux-media@vger.kernel.org>

Copyright (c) 2011-2014 by Mauro Carvalho Chehab.

License GPLv2: GNU GPL version 2 <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

Fri Oct 3 2014 DVBv5 Utils 1.22.1