dvb-fe-tool

dvbv5-fe-tool is a command line tool for digital TV services that is compliant with version 5 of the DVB API, and backward compatable with the older v3 DVB API. It was developed as part of DVBv5 Tools suite, which resides in the v4l-utils git repositiory [1].

For other dvbv5 tools, please see the main article.

dvb-fe-tool is a tool to inspect and change the tuning parameters directly at the Digital TV frontend. If called without any parameter, it will show the device capabilities:

$ dvb-fe-tool 
Device DRXK DVB-C DVB-T (/dev/dvb/adapter0/frontend0) capabilities:
     CAN_FEC_1_2
     CAN_FEC_2_3
     CAN_FEC_3_4
     CAN_FEC_5_6
     CAN_FEC_7_8
     CAN_FEC_AUTO
     CAN_GUARD_INTERVAL_AUTO
     CAN_HIERARCHY_AUTO
     CAN_INVERSION_AUTO
     CAN_MUTE_TS
     CAN_QAM_16
     CAN_QAM_32
     CAN_QAM_64
     CAN_QAM_128
     CAN_QAM_256
     CAN_RECOVER
     CAN_TRANSMISSION_MODE_AUTO
DVB API Version 5.10, Current v5 delivery system: DVBC/ANNEX_A
Supported delivery systems: 
    [DVBC/ANNEX_A]
     DVBC/ANNEX_C
     DVBT

It can also be used to change some parameters. For example, if one wants to run a legacy DVBv3 application to work with DVB-C in Japan, it could do:

$ dvb-fe-tool -d dvbc/annex_c

It can also be used to get the current settings:

$ dvb-fe-tool -g
...
Got parameters for DVBC/ANNEX_A:
FREQUENCY = 573000000
MODULATION = QAM/256
INVERSION = AUTO
SYMBOL_RATE = 5217000
INNER_FEC = NONE

The dvb-fe-tool can also be used to monitor a DVB frontend statistics without touching on the device. The typical usage is to be able to read the statistics while some other DVB program or application is in use.

Example, while dvbv5-zap is running, you could do:

$ dvb-fe-tool --femon

To enable the frontend monitoring mode. It will keep printing the frontend statistics on every second, until the program is aborted with CTRL-C:

$ dvb-fe-tool --femon
Lock   (0x1f) Quality= Good Signal= 100.00% C/N= 36.40dB UCB= 370 postBER= 28.0x10^-6 PER= 0
Lock   (0x1f) Quality= Good Signal= 100.00% C/N= 36.80dB UCB= 370 postBER= 25.3x10^-6 PER= 0
Lock   (0x1f) Quality= Good Signal= 100.00% C/N= 36.30dB UCB= 370 postBER= 25.7x10^-6 PER= 0
Lock   (0x1f) Quality= Good Signal= 100.00% C/N= 36.30dB UCB= 370 postBER= 28.4x10^-6 PER= 0
Lock   (0x1f) Quality= Good Signal= 100.00% C/N= 36.50dB UCB= 370 postBER= 26.5x10^-6 PER= 0
Lock   (0x1f) Quality= Good Signal= 100.00% C/N= 36.50dB UCB= 370 postBER= 26.9x10^-6 PER= 0
Lock   (0x1f) Quality= Good Signal= 100.00% C/N= 36.20dB UCB= 370 postBER= 28.6x10^-6 PER= 0
Lock   (0x1f) Quality= Good Signal= 100.00% C/N= 36.70dB UCB= 370 postBER= 26.7x10^-6 PER= 0
Lock   (0x1f) Quality= Good Signal= 100.00% C/N= 36.80dB UCB= 370 postBER= 23.3x10^-6 PER= 0
Lock   (0x1f) Quality= Good Signal= 100.00% C/N= 36.50dB UCB= 370 postBER= 26.7x10^-6 PER= 0