xcha

This is a tuning program for the Technotrend / Technisat SkyStar 1 DVB-s
card.
Tested with driver -0.9.3 (www.convergence.de)
 
               * *** THIS VERSION HAS NO DECRYPTION *** *

This is due to the fact that the Netherlands will likely adapt to EU policy
on hacking soon, and that would make teh distribution of a program with
decryption in it illegal perhaps.
secret message:          * ** ** ** * *** **** * ******* * ** * *** *


You need the xforms GUI installed, and the xforms development package.
In Suse 7.2 you can find both in YaST2.
Other distributions I do not know, xforms is at:
http://bragg.phys.uwm.edu/xforms/ or http://world.std.com/~xforms/
Just type make install in the xforms directory to install it.


Things may well completely change in future releases if there are any.
Please read the CHANGES file too.

                                 ***
 ONLY if you have a Philips PCTV1000 analog terrestial TV card in the PC:
  uncomment (remove the '//' in front of) the line 
  // #define PCTV1000
  in xcha.h
                                 ***

To compile and install:
./install-script

start with:
xcha

xcha sets up a directory ~/.xcha and ~/.xcha/setup
The program file is ~/.xcha/programs.dat
Also an icon xcha.xpm is installed in /usr/X11R6/share/icons/
If you want he icon somewhere else, change it in Imakefile, and
then run install-script again.

xcha SHOULD be able to read in VDR program files.

A signal to noise indicator gives some idea of the quality of teh signal
that lands on your dish...
I have set the maximum scale (best signal) to 20 dB.
You can change that by changing the line:
#define MAX_SNR_SCALE       20.0
to a different value, and the recompile and re-install.

It can beep too, to align your dish, I put the microphone in front of
the PC speaker, and the speakers in the window.
Can hear it....

A bit error rate display gives the bit errors multipled by 10-9.
Zero is no errors.

Selecting ADJACENT from the file puldown menu causes xcha to also look for
a transponder at frequencies close to the one specified in the channels.dat
file.
This slows down tuning however.

You can watch ceefax / videotext / teletext by pressing the VIDEOTEXT
button.
IF (and only IF) the station transmits it!
If there is no program number specified, the tpid in the channel list is
used, else the tpid is looked up in the PMT.
videotext decoder will start (try RAI Uno on Hotbird tpid 44, or
perhaps ZDF on Hotbird (tpid 572) these I used to test.
It may take a while before you get a page, else try clicking a number
in the red bar and then click in a field.
Do a man xvtx-s for more info, but anyways, middle mouse is 'hold' toggle,
'M' in the red bar for 'auto / manual', '?' = reveal, 'P' and 'N' for
previous next page, right mouse on 'E' exit.
Macros you can make, right mouse top right on the letters 'A through I',
then mouse clicks are stored, right mouse again closes the macro.
Left mouse executes the macro.
You can save pages with 'S' and load again with 'L'.
Pages are saved in ~./xvtx-s/teletext/
If you stay on a station for some time, all pages are accumulated for FAST
access in ~.xcha/vtx/

To be able to use the volume slider, you need to install cmix
cmix is at http://www.home.zonnet.nl/panteltje/newsflex/download.html
or
ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/linux/apps/sound/mixers/

I have my sat card on line 1, if you want to use volume (master) or some
other input, change 'line1' in the define at the end of xcha.h
#define MIXER_VOLUME    "line1"
to the input or output you want to use.
Typing
cmix
shows a list of available inputs and outputs.

A mute button has been added, 'MT' (top left).
This button is coupled to the '-' key.

15 preset channel select buttons have been added (top) PRG0 - PRG15.
To store a channel in a button tune to a channel, then right click mouse
on the button you want to refer to that channel.
Settings are saved in ~/.xcha/setup/presets
Please do not edit this file.
Use left mouse to select a button.
The preset settings are saved between sessions of xcha.


   If you have a Philips PCTV1000 analog TV card:
You can use the PAL input and connect it to the PAL output of
the DVB-s card.
You need to install the latest version of pctv1000 form:
http://www.home.zonnet.nl/panteltje/newsflex/download.html
or from ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/linux/apps/tv-videoBroadcast/
The TV button (bottom right) is coupled to the '=' key.



   Recording to disk using the record button:
For your system you can set the defaults for the recording directory and
playback directory:
Chose RECORDER puldown menu (top),
then SET RECORD DIRECTORY or SET PLAY DIRECTORY.
The defaults are your home directory.
The record an play directory can also be changed in the file browser
that pops up when you press the play or record button.
Changes are saved to disk, next time you start xcha the last directorie
names used are used.

You can set a different recording directory for each timer in the timer
form.
You cannot change the automatically generated (unique) recording filenames
for the timers.
Of cause you can rename these files later.


   Recording to disk using the timers:
Press RIGHT mouse button on a program in the program list.
The timer for pops up. with the timers (latest one last).
Colors:
TIMER WAITING     black
TIMER_EXPIRED     dark green bold
TIMER_RUNNING     blue 
TIMER_OVERLAP     red
TIMER_ERROR       magenta

Select a timer with the LEFT mouse.
Now you can modifiy the times (it is preset to the current time).
Set start and end time.
If some timers overlap they will appear red.
You CANNOT press ACCEPT in the timer form if some timers overlap.
Timers will not start while the timer form is open!

If you press DAILY or WEEKLY the selected timer will, after it stopped,
create an updated entry a day or a week later.
(And a new recording filename will be used with the new date).
Pressing WORK DAYS should skip saturdays and sundays, so on friday set
the next recording day to monday.

A length field shows the length of the recording, you can use this
as an input too, then it modifies the stop year / month/day/minute/second
for you.

Added Showview in / output, but I need more info on that system, so it does
not work yet.

Things SHOULD also work OK if summer time / winter time change happens,
and also in a leap year, but not tested very much yet.
(For the C programmers this code is in update_time_and_filename() in
timer_form.c).

If OK press ACCEPT
If you press CANCEL, the timer for will be restored to the old values.

Now all you have to do is wait.
When a recording starts, all buttons except the recorder buttons are
diabled, to prevent you from interfering with the recording.
When the recording is finished, xcha will stay on that station.


   Playing a .pes file that you recorded with the play button:
By clicking in the green bar of the player status you have random access
to the file.



   Using tuxview to see what you are doing:
/usr/local/bin/tuxview -b 32
for 32 bits display depth in X.


Recording to disk using tuxplayer.
You can also use tuxplayer ro record in .pes format.
You can make > 2 GBN recordings by adding the line:
#define _FILE_OFFSET_BITS   64
at the START (so BEFORE any defines) in tuxplayer.cc
and recompile / install.
This causes the 64 bits routines to be used in libc (see the libc.info
files).
If you use the reiserfs on Suse 7.2, mount it the first time with:
mount -t conv
This will convert it to the version that supports the large filsizes.
For reiserfs you need to compile the kernel with 'code maturity options'
enabled, and select reiserfs in filesystems.
I am using kernel 2.4.5.
Try 'apropos reiser' for a list of utilities.
On my system (Duron 950) reiserfs gives slightly better performance then
ext2.


I strongly recommend xine ( http://xine.sourceforge.net/ ) as player
for the .pes files.
Press 'I' key for interlace in xine.



OK, this is just for me to watch TV... work in progress.
I want to express my sincere thanks to all creatures, especially in the sea,
who helped make this wish come true.
camfree :)





Author:
J. P.
I read alt.tv.crypt

