The atscap project has been cancelled as of January 2008, and the following notice revokes its GPL license.

Full text of the notice follows (while reading, remember that "I" means the author, Inkling, of course).

Date: 2008-01-11 14:45
Subject: PUBLIC NOTICE: atscap and pchdtvr GPL revoked

Body: I have revoked the licensing under the GNU General Public
License (herein after referred to as "the GPL") for the
atscap version 1.1 codebase, all prior versions of the
atscap codebase and all the various release candidates of
the atscap codebase.

I have also revoked the licensing under the GPL for the
pchdtvr version 1.0 codebase, all prior versions of the
pchdtvr codebase and all release candidates of the pchdtvr
codebase, including all of the various interim pchdtvr
versions after version 1.0 and before the name was changed
to atscap.


As sole author of both the atscap and the pchdtvr codebases,
the licenses under the GPL were granted at my sole
discretion and the licenses under the GPL are now hereby
revoked at my sole discretion.


I am removing the atscap and the pchdtvr codebase packages
from all public and private distribution by asserting my
rights to control the usage and distribution of my own
creations as specified by the Copyright Laws of the United
States of America and the Protocols of the Berne Convention
for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.


The following files in the atscap distribution are affected:

atscap.c
atscut.c
xtscut.c
xsig.c
common.h
xtc_signals.c
btfd.sh
mpeg.sh
xtc.sh
get-samples.sh
atscap.1.gz
atscut.1.gz
xtscut.1.gz
atscap_conf.5.gz
atscap.README.gz
atscap.CHANGELOG.gz
atscap.FEATURES.gz
atscap.NEWS.gz
TODO
Makefile

and any binaries, executables, or text files that have been
compiled or installed, by action of the user or the Makefile
or any other method, that originated from the above listed
files.

The following files in the atscap distribution are NOT affected:

xtc_libvo.c
video_out.h
ingo-fifo.txt
rxsock.c
rzloop.c


The following files in the pchdtvr distribution are affected:

pchdtvr.c
atscut.c
xtscut.c
xsig.c
atscap.FEATURES
pchdtvr.FEATURES
pchdtvr.0.conf.sample

and any binaries, executables or text files that have been
compiled or installed, by action of the user or the Makefile
or any other method, that originated from the above listed
files.

The following files in the pchdtvr distribution are NOT
affected:

ingo-fifo.txt
rxsock.c


If you are currently using the atscap or pchdtvr packages,
or any part thereof, it is in your best interest to remove
the software from your system(s) and destroy all copies in
your possession.


If you have incorporated the atscap or pchdtvr codebase, or
any part thereof, into any of your projects, it is in your
best interest to remove any and all of my code from your
project(s).


If you are currently distributing the atscap or pchdtvr
packages, or any part thereof, it is in your best interest
to destroy all copies in your possession and notify all
recipients of either the atscap or pchdtvr packages, or any
part thereof, that the licensing under the GPL for both
packages has been revoked by the author.


PUBLIC NOTICE: atscap and pchdtvr GPL revoked   2008-01-11 14:45

Update: Inkling's atscap project has been cancelled, as of January 2008.

• atscut.052.out.bz2: atscut -m3 -a15 -q 052.ts

Linking atscap statically

gcc -static -Wall -lm -g -rdynamic -DUSE_GNU_BACKTRACE -DUSE_GNU_BACKTRACE_SCRIPT \
-DUSE_LIBRT -lrt -DUSE_DVB -DUSE_DYNAMIC -DUSE_POWERDOWN -DUSE_ECMA48  \
-DUSE_WWW -DUSE_PNG -lpng -DUSE_CSS_SCROLLBARS -lpthread -o atscap atscap.c \
-lpthread -lrt -lm -lpng -lz

# Set your timezone, e.g. if you're in California, use TZ='PST+8'; export TZ otherwise use tzselect tzselect

Running atscap from a "Live CD"

  sudo bash

  # First, install the firmware
  wget http://www.pchdtv.com/downloads/firmware.tar.gz
  tar zxvf firmware.tar.gz
  cp firmware/dvb-fe-or51132-vsb.fw /lib/firmware/
  cp firmware/dvb-fe-or51132-qam.fw /lib/firmware/
  invoke-rc.d udev restart

  # Load the kernel module for your pcHDTV HD-3000 card
  modprobe -rv cx88_blackbird
  modprobe -rv cx88-dvb
  modprobe -rv cx8800
  modprobe -v cx88-dvb
  
  # Install some packages needed for atscap to build
  echo "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu dapper universe" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
  apt-get update
  apt-get -y install gcc make libmpeg2-4-dev imlib11-dev freeglut3-dev libimlib2-dev libxv-dev

To perform any captures, you'll of course need to provide somewhere to store them. As you're running from the live CD, there wouldn't be any space unless you mount a filesystem. Let's say you've mounted a filesystem at the mount point /windows/C. For atscap to find the space, the most convenient way is to make a symbolic link to it with the name /dtv.

  # Create a symbolic link in the / directory with the name dtv, pointing to somewhere you have space:
  ln -s /windows/C /dtv

Now that everything is in place, download atscap as usual, and build and install it, e.g.:

  # Download atscap and build it
  tar zxvf atscap-1.1rc9u.tar.gz
  cd atscap-1.1rc9u
  make
  make install
  

Before launching atscap, set the xterm window to use reverse video, by holding down Ctrl and middle-clicking on the xterm window. Using reverse-video makes the atscap ncurses interface much easier to read.

  # Create some directories needed by at runtime by atscap
  mkdir /var/run/atscap      # location of the file containing the process id of the running atscap instance
  mkdir /etc/atscap          # location of atscap's configuration file

  # Launch atscap to create the configuration file (initial channel scan):
  atscap -s

  # launch atscap with the web interface enabled:
  atscap -w 127.0.0.1:24:80

Running atscap from Hard Drive

When building atscap-1.1rc9t, if you see the following error, it means you probably haven't the libimlib2-dev package installed, but we need it now that Inkling updated xtscut to use imlib2 instead of the old imlib.

/bin/sh: imlib2-config: command not found
xtscut.c:428:20: error: Imlib2.h: No such file or directory

XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 xtscut filename.ts

Editing your recordings: xtscut

ATSC Transport Stream Container UTility: atscut

If you are using the -p option of atscap (to specify a different capture directory from the default /dtv), then you'll need to mount your tmpfs filesystem over the ./ram subdirectory of that directory. For example, if your capture directory is /mnt/machine/captures and you launch atscap using the command:

  atscap -w 192.168.1.10:24:80 -m -i0 -p /mnt/machine/captures

  sudo mkdir /mnt/machine/captures/ram
  sudo mount -t tmpfs none -o size=128k /mnt/machine/captures/ram

Command line ATSC Transport Stream Container UTility: atscut

To quit from atscap before the EPG load for all the channels has run its course, press z to

The Web Interface

Energy Star Appliance (the -E option).

To use this energy and disk-life saving feature, you would first mount a smallish tmpfs filesystem on /dtv/ram as follows, before launching atscap with the -E option:

  sudo mount -t tmpfs none -o size=64k /dtv/ram

Quickstart guide

  apt-get install libmpeg2-4-dev imlib11-dev freeglut3-dev

  make
  sudo make install

  atscap -w 192.168.1.10:24:80 -E -m -i0

It has both a web interface as well as a console interface. The web interface is an integral part of atscap, and doesn't require any web server to be installed: atscap is itself the web server. It serves not only the program guides, but also the video that it has recorded for you. The web interface also conveniently provides little square charts showing the signal strength of each of your stations.

Here's a screen shot of the console interface to atscap, showing the program guide received from off-the-air. The console interface packs a lot of information, so it can take some getting used to, but it's very versatile.

Because full ATSC streams eat up large amounts of disk space, atscap automatically selects the proper program stream to record. Program streams are called Virtual Channels in the ATSC spec.

Editing your recordings with xtscut

Use the "scrolly wheel" (if your mouse has one) or use the u and i keys, and click with the left mouse button to select the "cut points". Once you're happy with your selections, pressing e will write out all the "even" segments. See man xtscut in the KEYS --- FUNCTIONS section, for more on the keys to use to get around, and the MORE KEYS section for other ways to write out the segments you've selected.

Command line transport stream cutter: atscut

Using atscap with GNU screen

Inkling's atscap

C30:KQED:PBS
T30:20:00:030:0100000:PBS.3

-- PeterKnaggs - 25 Feb 2007