LinuxTV dvb-apps

The LinuxTV dvb-apps package contains some Linux DVB API applications and a set of utilities that both the developer and end user alike will find quite useful. Specifically, the utilities are geared towards the initial setup, testing, and operation of a DVB device, whether it be of the sofware decoding (aka budget) or hardware decoding (aka premium or full featured) class.

Unfortunately, an element of confusion with the package is introduced by the fact that not all Linux distributions ('distro's') refer to it by the "dvb-apps" name. The Debian package name, for example, is dvb-utils. Additionally, you may sometimes also see it called dvbtools.... though dvbtools is/was itself the name of another set of utilities seperate from the LinuxTV project (see here).

List of utilities within 'dvb-apps'

The README file in the top level of the package gives a brief description of the package's contents, but in general, some of the items of interest that you will find are in the:

/test directory

• diseqc: Sends various diseqc sequences on a SAT frontend.
• set22k: Legacy tone switching for SAT frontends.
• setvoltage: Legacy voltage switching for SAT frontends.
• setpid: Set video and audio PIDs in the demux (only for hardware MPEG decoder)
• video: tiny video watching application
• test_sections: Hex dump of section data from stream.
• test_sec_ne: Like test_sections, but also test Not-Equal filter mode.
• test_pes: Hex dump of PES data from stream.
• test_tt: Demonstrate teletext decoding from PES data.
• test_av: Test audio and video MPEG decoder API.
• test_vevent: Test VIDEO_GET_EVENT and poll() for video events
• test_stc: Test DMX_GET_STC.
• test_stillimage: Display single iframes as stillimages
• test_dvr: Record a partial transport stream of selected PIDs to a file or a full stream if supported by the hardware

/util directory

• loadkeys: a utility to setup IR control keymaps using /proc/av7110_ir interface
• dvbdate
• dvbnet
• dvbtraffic
• scan, scandvb or dvbscan: utility to generate channel lists for the currently tuned frequency.
• azap, czap, szap, tzap: tuning utility for DVB.

Links

• dvb-apps package direct download available in

tar.bz2 or tar.gz format

• Also see First steps with a DVB device for some usage examples of some of these tools.