README

This is a "plugin" for the Video Disk Recorder (VDR).

Written by : Andreas Brachold <vdr07 AT deltab de>

Project's homepage:  http://projects.vdr-developer.org/wiki/plg-targavfd

This plugin for VDR is free software: you can redistribute it and/or 
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published 
by the Free Software Foundation, version 3 of the License.

This plugin for VDR is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY 
or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License 
for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this plugin for VDR. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

See the file COPYING for license information.

Description:
------------
targavfd is a plugin for the Video Disc Recorder and shows information
about the current state of VDR on Targa USB Graphic Vacuum Fluorescent Display.


Install libusb-1.0:
-------------------------------------
You need installed library libusb-1.0 to use the vdr-plugin-targavfd.
This library libusb-1.0 is used to access and interact with a USB device.

1. http://www.libusb.org/wiki/libusb-1.0

Install vdr-plugin-targavfd:
---------------------------
Unpack the vdr-targavfd tarball to $VDRSOURCE/PLUGINS/src directory.
Variable $VDRSOURCE stands for a directory, where source archive of VDR package 
was be decompressed.

#> cd $VDRSOURCE/PLUGINS/src
#> tar -xzvf vdr-targavfd-0.0.1.tgz
#> ln -s targavfd-0.0.1 targavfd

Compile the plugin (from VDR's source directory)

Change the working directory to VDR source root and compile this plugin 
like all other VDR plugins.

#> cd $VDRSOURCE
#> make plugins

After everything has been compiled without errors, copy the plugin to their 
target directory.

#> make install


Check follow requirements 
-------------------------
* Device still detected and writable

  #> lsusb -vd 19c2:6a11 | grep iProduct
  iProduct                2 Targa USB Graphic Vacuum Fluorescent Display

* Add a udev permission rule, if required (writable for group vdr) e.g.
  /etc/udev/rules.d/92-vfd.rules
  ACTION=="add", BUS=="usb", SYSFS{idVendor}=="19c2", SYSFS{idProduct}=="6a11", GROUP="vdr"

Start VDR with the plugin.
---------------------------
   Examples:
     vdr -P'targavfd'

Setup options
-------------
This options are editable at run time. (Menu: Setup > Plugin > targavfd ... )

* Brightness 
  - Set brightness from display. (Default: Half brightness)

* Default font 
  - Used font, there should installed like other FreeType supported fonts 
* Height of big font
* Height of small font

* Render mode
  - Single line
  - Dual lines
  - Single line (Channel names only)

* Exit mode
  - Do nothing - Just leave the "last" message there
  - Showing clock - Show the big clock
  - Turning display off - Blank the device completely
  - Show next timer - Show time and title of next timer
  - Show only present next timer - If present, show time and title of next timer 

* Show volume bargraph
  - Never - Show the volume bar never
  - Timed - Show the volume bar only a short time, if volume changed
  - Ever  - Show the volume bar every time

* Suspend display at night
  - Allow turn display off at night, depends selected mode and time frame.

Plugin SVDRP commands
---------------------
* HELP - List known commands
* OFF - Suspend driver of display.
* ON  - Resume driver of display.
* ICON [name] [on|off|auto] - Force state of icon. 

Use this commands like follow samples 
    #> svdrpsend.pl PLUG targavfd OFF
    220 vdr SVDRP VideoDiskRecorder ....
    250 driver suspended
    221 vdr closing connection

    #> svdrpsend.pl PLUG targavfd HELP ICON
    214-ICON [name] [on|off|auto]
    214-    Force state of icon. Names of icons are:
    214-    Play,Pause,Record,Message,Message,Mute...

This commands can have follow responses 
OFF :   250 driver suspended           
        251 driver already suspended
ON :    250 driver resumed
        251 driver already resumed
        554 driver could not resumed
ICON :  250 icon state 'auto'
        251 icon state 'on'
        252 icon state 'off'
*       501 unknown command

Spectrum analyzer visualization
-------------------------------
This plugin can show a spectrum analyzer visualization on audio playback.
As middleware you need the 'Sp'ectrum 'An'alyzer Plugin.

See also http://lcr.vdr-developer.org/htmls/span-plugin.html

Contribution of fonts
---------------------
See contrib/README