Dvbv5-zap

dvbv5-zap is a command line tuning 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].

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.

For other dvbv5 tools, please see the main article.

The dvbv5-zap tool can be used on several different modes, depending on the parameters used.

The typical use is to tune into a channel and put it into record mode:

$ dvbv5-zap -c dvb_channel.conf "trilhas sonoras" -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 (in this specific case, it is an audio only channel, but the same could be used for audio/video):

$ 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