Note: This page is still under construction.

Introduction

Now that you've got Freevo installed, and you are ready to use it! This guide will take you through setting up all your variables in your freevo configuration file: local_conf.py.

The first thing you will need to do is pick your favorite editor, and open up the file. Remember that you only need to edit local_conf.py, not freevo_conf.py. Also any changes you make can be stored per user if the file is saved in the .freevo/ hidden directory in your home directory.

So, fire up a handy editor and take a look at the file. Scroll down a bit until you see the General freevo settings section. That's where we'll start first.

You'll notice that all the variables are already commented out. The values they are set to are the default values. If you want to leave them as they are, that's fine -- you won't need to do anything. If you do want to change them though, delete the pound sign (#) and all the blank space before the variable and then change the value. Let's look at them one by one:

Audio and Mixer Settings

AUDIO_DEVICE

This is the device node in your system's /dev directory that is used for playing sound. If you have ALSA with OSS emulation on your computer (a common setting), then set this to /dev/dsp or /dev/dsp0.

Check your filesystem first to see that one of those exist.

AUDIO_INPUT_DEVICE

The audio device node that Freevo will use to record your sound.

If you have a TV tuner card in your system with its own onboard audio recorder, then you will want to use that one. It will probably be /dev/dsp1. If, however, you are running an audio cable from your TV tuner card to your sound card, then you want to use the sound card's device -- the same that would be set above for AUDIO_DEVICE.

CONTROL_ALL_AUDIO

If set to 1, Freevo will manage all your audio mixer settings. Probably a good idea unless you want to manually manage everything yourself.

MAX_VOLUME

The maximum value for your audio device to output.

On some cards using ALSA, setting the value too high may cause some squelching or feedback, so 90 is a good safe value which should be plenty loud. Check your mixer to see what your current settings are. Some popular ones are kmix, alsamixer and aumix.

DEFAULT_VOLUME

The sound level you want Freevo to start at. 40 will probably be too low.

TV_IN_VOLUME

Sets the recorder volume for your TV card.

VCR_IN_VOLUME

Sets ... something.

DEV_MIXER

The mixer device node for your sound card (from AUDIO_DEVICE above). For most ALSA-OSS setups, the default of /dev/mixer should work.

System and Freevo Internal Settings

START_FULLSCREEN_X

Set this to 1 if you want Freevo to start in fullscreen mode instead of windowed mode.

While you would want this to run fullscreen on a dedicated media box, leave it set to 0 until everything is working correctly -- it makes it easier to switch back and forth between your Freevo window and the documentation that way.

CONFIRM_SHUTDOWN If set to 1, will display a small confirmation popup window when you select 'Shutdown' from the main Freevo menu. A lifesaver for those of us with fat fingers.

ROM_DRIVES

When set to None, this will automatically detect your read-only drives, such as your CD and DVD drives. In most cases you won't need to change this.

If you don't want Freevo to ever play anything from your drives, set the value to [] to disable detection completely.

Or, if you want to manually specify which drives to include, enter them in the format of the config file. An example would be:

ROM_DRIVES = [ ('/mnt/cdrom', '/dev/cdrom', 'CD ROM Drive') ]

HIDE_UNUSABLE_DISCS

Hide discs from the wrong menu (e.g. VCDs in audio menu) and empty discs.

ROM_SPEED

Attempt to set the speed of the ROM drive. A good value for keeping the drive silent while playing movies is 8.

ENABLE_SHUTDOWN_SYS

If set to 1, when you select Shutdown from the main Freevo menu, it will also turn off your computer completely (assuming you are running as root or have sudo privileges). Useful for standalone boxes.

MENU_ARROW_NAVIGATION (needs clarification)

Use arrow keys for back and select (alternate way of navigating).

USE_NETWORK

When set to 1, Freevo can query CDDB for album information, the IMDB for movie information, and Amazon.com for cover searches. If the computer isn't connected to the Internet, or you don't want to use those features, you can set this to 0.

OVERLAY_DIR

Default setting is fine.

UMASK

The only time you should change this from the default setting is if you run Freevo as one user, and want to modify or delete the recordings with another user.

Umask numbers create the octal chmod numbers by subtracting itself from 777. So if the umask is 022, then the files written will be chmod'ed 755. A umask of 002 would set them to 775.

PLAYLIST_SUFFIX

Default: m3u

The suffix to identify playlist files with. Leave this as the default unless you use a custom suffix for your playlists.

MMPYTHON_CREATE_MD5_ID

While it's always fun to turn on settings that you aren't sure what they do even though they sound cool, it's not necessary. You should only set this to 1 if you have problems with different discs having the same id.

MEDIAINFO_USE_MEMORY

Default setting is fine.

CACHE_IMAGES

Set to 1 to cache your images. Will use a lot of disc space, but it creates a huge speed enhancement.

Plugins

Freevo has a lot of modular plugins that you can enable or disable. For an initial setup, you won't need to change anything here. If you'd like to see a list of available plugins, just run freevo plugins -l.

Add plugins by using plugin.activate('plugin_name')

Remove them with plugin.remove('plugin_name')

The default settings should be fine, so don't worry about changing anything just yet -- get your Freevo running first.

If you are using an Hauppauge 150/250/350/500 PCI TV Tuner Card, then you will need to make some changes here:

plugin.remove('tv.generic_record')
plugin_record = plugin.activate('tv.ivtv_record')

Directories

Once again, for an initial setup, nothing here needs to be changed to get your Freevo up and running. You can always come back and tweak these settings later, but the defaults should serve just fine.

DIRECTORY_SORT_BY_DATE

This setting controls how your files will be sorted in their directories. The default setting of 2 will sort your files in your TV recording directory by date recorded, but all other directories by filename alphabetically.

If you want all files in all folders sorted by date, set to 1.

For all files sorted alphabetically, set to 0.

DIRECTORY_REVERSE_SORT

If set to 1, directory items will be sorted in reverse order.

DIRECTORY_SMART_SORT

If set to 1, Freevo will ignore filenames starting with the word 'The' when sorting.

DIRECTORY_AUTOPLAY_SINGLE_ITEM

When browsing your folders in Freevo, if there is only one item in the folder, it will start playing that file instead of bringing up a list of items in the folder. Set to 0 to disable.

DIRECTORY_FORCE_SKIN_LAYOUT

Force the skin to use a specific layout number. -1 == no force. The layout toggle with DISPLAY will be disabled.

DIRECTORY_AUDIO_FORMAT_STRING

Format string for the audio item names. Possible strings: a = artist, n = tracknumber, t = title, y = year, f = filename

Be sure that your entire setting is enclosed in single quotes. Using the strings will use Python's format, so t would become %(t)s

DIRECTORY_USE_MEDIAID_TAG_NAMES

Use media id tags to generate the name of the item. This should be enabled all the time. It should only be disabled for directories with broken tags.

DIRECTORY_AUTOPLAY_ITEMS

Enable autoplay (see DIRECTORY_AUTOPLAY_SINGLE_ITEM above) for certain items.

To enable autoplay for audio and image files:

DIRECTORY_AUTOPLAY_ITEMS = [ 'audio', 'image' ]

To disable autoplay entirely:

DIRECTORY_AUTOPLAY_ITEMS = []

Movies

VIDEO_ITEMS

This is a list of folders where your movie files can be found, and the titles to display in your Freevo.

The variable is entered in order of title, file. If you are going to use your Freevo for watching videos other than your recorded TV (which is set later in TV_RECORD_DIR) or listening to your music (see AUDIO_ITEMS), then you will need to add them here.

Here's an example:

VIDEO_ITEMS = [ ('Action Flicks', '/var/media/movies/action') ]

If you want to add more than one directory, separate the two with commas, and add one per line for easy reading:

VIDEO_ITEMS = [ ('Action Flicks', '/var/media/movies/action'),
                ('Comedies', '/var/media/movies/comedy'),
                ('Dramas', '/var/media/movies/drama'),
                ('Cartoons', '/var/media/cartoons'),
                ('Kid\'s Shows', '/var/media/tv/children') ]

VIDEO_MPLAYER_SUFFIX and VIDEO_XINE_SUFFIX

A comma-separated list of files with their suffixes that the media player will display.

Unless you want to make any changes, the default is fine.

VIDEO_PREFERED_PLAYER

Your preferred video player. Make sure that your media player is installed correctly and that it can indeed play your media files. Default is fine -- mplayer is a great media player that can play nearly all media files.

VIDEO_ONLY_SCAN_DATADIR

Only scan OVERLAY_DIR and VIDEO_SHOW_DATA_DIR for fxd files containing information about a disc. If you only have the fxd files for discs in one of this directories (and subdirectories), set this to 1, it will speed up startup, 0 may be needed if you have fxd files with disc links in your normal movie tree.

Audio

AUDIO_ITEMS

Identical to the above, this is a list of folders where your audio files are kept, and the names to display in Freevo.

The variable is structured as:

AUDIO_ITEMS = [ ('DISPLAY_NAME', '/path/to/folder') ]

Here's an example:

AUDIO_ITEMS = [ ('Music Collection', '/var/media/music') ]

If you need more than one directory, separate them with commas. Adding one per line makes for easy reading:

AUDIO_ITEMS = [
               ('Alternative', '/var/media/music/alternative'),
               ('Techno', '/var/media/music/techno'),
               ('R&B', '/var/media/music/rnb'),
               ('Hip-Hop', '/var/media/music/hiphop'),
               ('Hard Rock', '/var/media/music/rock'),
               ('Metal', '/var/media/music/metal'),
               ('Comic Stuff', '/var/media/music/comedy')
]

AUDIO_SUFFIX

A list of audio file suffixes which are to be seen as audio files. For example:

AUDIO_SUFFIX     = [ 'mp3', 'ogg', 'wav','m4a', 'wma', 'aac', 'flac', 'mka' ]

AUDIO_COVER_REGEXP

Regular expression to match with CD cover file names.

AUDIO_SHOW_VIDEOFILES

Default: False

Allow video items to be displayed along with audio items if audio and video are mixed in the defined directories.

Image Viewer

IMAGE_ITEMS

Identical to VIDEO_ITEMS and AUDIO_ITEMS. The variable has the same structure.

IMAGE_SUFFIX

Identical to AUDIO_SUFFIX and having the same structure.

IMAGE_EXCLUDE

A list of file extensions to be excluded from display.

IMAGE_SSHOW_SUFFIX

Suffix of Slideshow files

IMAGEVIEWER_BLEND_MODE

When viewing images on screen, a blend effect can be used to transition from one image to the next. Possible values for this variable are:

• None = No blending
• -1 = Random blending
• 0 = Alpha Blending
• 1 = Wipe effect

IMAGEVIEWVER_REVERSED_IMAGES

Some images aren't rotated correctly. If images are rotated clockwise instead of counter-clockwise, this variable should be set to "1".

Games

GAMES_ITEMS

Although similar to the VIDEO_ITEMS and AUDIO_ITEMS variables, the structure differs greatly. An entry may look something like this:

GAMES_ITEMS = [
                ('Super Nintendo', '/multimedia/games/snes/roms',('SNES', '/usr/bin/zsnes', '-1 6 -2 6 -m -r 3 -k 100 -cs -t', '', None ))
]

The variable is structured as shown below:

GAMES_ITEMS = [
                (
                 '<NAME>',
                 '<FOLDER>',
                 (
                  '<TYPE>',
                  '<COMMAND_PATH>',
                  '<COMMAND_ARGS>',
                  '<IMAGE_PATH>',
                  [<FILE_SUFFIX_FOR_GENERIC>]
                 )
                )
]

The variable items break down as follows: NAME = Name to be displayed in Freevo.

FOLDER = Path to the stored ROM, BIN, IMG or ISO images.

TYPE = Game type. May be any one of the following:

1. MAME
2. SNES
3. GENERIC

COMMAND_PATH = Actual path to the game system executable

COMMAND_ARGS = Additional arguments to be passed to the game system

IMAGE_PATH = Path to images such as covers and screen caps for display when a game is highlighted.

Generic type games require the FILE_SUFFIX_FOR_GENERIC parameter to be set in order to work correctly. This parameter is a comma separated, single quoted list of valid file extensions for the particular game system.

An entry could look like:

GAMES_ITEMS = [
        ('Oolite','/multimedia/games/oolite',('GENERIC','/usr/games/oolite','','',[ 'ool' ])),
        ('Arcade Games', '/multimedia/games/xmame/roms',('MAME', '/usr/games/xmame.SDL', '-fullscreen -jt 5 -jdev /dev/input/js*','', None)),
        ('Super Nintendo', '/multimedia/games/snes/roms',('SNES', '/usr/bin/zsnes', '-1 6 -2 6 -m -r 3 -k 100 -cs -t', '', None )),
        ('Sega Genesis', '/multimedia/games/genesis/roms/',('GENERIC', '/usr/bin/dgen', '-j -f -G 800x600', '', [ 'bin','zip' ] )),
        ('PlayStation One', '/multimedia/games/playstation/isos/',('GENERIC', '/usr/games/pcsx', '-nogui', '', [ 'img','bin','iso' ] )),
        ('Visual Boy Advance', '/multimedia/games/vba/roms/',('GENERIC', '/usr/bin/vba', '', '', [ 'gb','gba','gbc' ] ))
]

GAMES_NICE

How well do we want our game system to play with everyone else?

GAMES_MAME_CACHE

Path to an XML file containing the list of valid ROMs found for MAME. Freevo builds this file on it's own.

Headlines

HEADLINES_LOCATIONS

News from the 'Net. This has similar structure to several other variables and is set as follows:

HEADLINES_LOCATIONS = [('DISPLAY_NAME', 'URL/TO/NEWS/FEED')]

Need more feeds? Turn the variable into a comma seperated list similar to above.

Skins

SKIN_FORCE_TEXTVIEW_STYLE

SKIN_MEDIAMENU_FORCE_TEXTVIEW

On Screen Display

OSD_EXTRA_FONT_PATH

OSD_FONT_ALIASES

OSD_BUSYICON_TIMER

Sets the number of seconds before displaying the busy icon. In addition, the busy icon can be displayed immediately if there are over a certain number of entries in a directory. It has two arguments, the number of seconds and then the number of files. The defaults are 0.7 seconds and 200 files.

OSD_OVERSCAN_X

Controls the horizontal size of the Freevo interface, making the width smaller as the value increases. Zero is full edge-to-edge display and will almost always result in parts of the interface being off the visible portion of a television screen. Note that while this affects the graphics of the interface, it does not affect the background color of the skin. The color will continue to fill the entire screen no matter what overscan values are selected.

OSD_OVERSCAN_Y

Controls the vertical size of the Freevo interface, making the height smaller as the value increases. See OSD_OVERSCAN_X above for more details.

OSD_SDL_EXEC_AFTER_STARTUP

OSD_SDL_EXEC_AFTER_CLOSE

OSD_STOP_WHEN_PLAYING

Determines if the Freevo OSD system is shut down while fullscreen video applications are playing (xine or mplayer). Some output devices require this. The default setting depends on what video driver you are using:

• Enabled (stop OSD) - DirectFB, DFBMGA, DXR3, DGA
• Disabled (do not stop) - All others

(This is not immediately obvious from the local_conf.py file; it seems to indicate it is disabled by default)

In some cases when using DirectFB or DFBMGA, stopping the OSD will cause Freevo to stop listening for playback commands. This makes the playback applications appear to stop responding to input. In some cases a playback application that listens for both its own keyboard commands and slave commands on stdctl (such as mplayer) will only respond to its own key commands but not Freevo's key commands. This can sometimes be corrected by explicitly setting OSD_STOP_WHEN_PLAYING to 0.

OSD_DIM_TEXT

Determines if text that is too long for its display box is faded out smoothly. Otherwise, ellipses will be used to indicate more text that can't be fit.

Remote Control

LIRCRC

JOY_DEV

JOY_CMDS

The following entries add the ability to jump directly to a sub menu from any other menu:

• EVENTS['global']['TV'] = Event(MENU_GOTO_TV)
• EVENTS['global']['VIDEOS'] = Event(MENU_GOTO_VIDEOS)
• EVENTS['global']['MUSIC'] = Event(MENU_GOTO_MUSIC)
• EVENTS['global']['PICTURES'] = Event(MENU_GOTO_IMAGES)
• EVENTS['global']['GUIDE'] = Event(MENU_GOTO_TVGUIDE)

TVtime

TVTIME_CMD

MPlayer

MPLAYER_AO_DEV

MPLAYER_VO_DEV_OPTS

DVD_LANG_PREF

DVD_SUBTITLE_PREF

MPLAYER_NICE

MPLAYER_SOFTWARE_SCALER

MPLAYER_ARGS

MPLAYER_SEEK_TIMEOUT

MPLAYER_AUTOCROP

MPLAYER_SET_AUDIO_DELAY

MPLAYER_VF_INTERLACED

MPLAYER_VF_PROGRESSIVE

MPLAYER_VF_INTERLACED

MPLAYER_VF_PROGRESSIVE

Xine

XINE_VO_DEV

Default: ?

Choose from 'xv', 'xshm' and 'sdl' for Xine's video output.

XINE_COMMAND

Default: '%s --hide-gui -pq -g -B --geometry %sx%s+0+0 --no-splash' % (CONF.xine, CONF.width, CONF.height)

Run Xine with this command. The default command should be suited for most freevo setups.

XINE_ARGS_DEF

Default: ?

Pass these additional runtime arguments to Xine.

XINE_AO_DEV

Default: ?

Choose between 'alsa' and 'oss' for Xine's audio output.

TV

TV_RECORD_DIR

TV_SETTINGS

TV_DRIVER

TV_DEVICE

TV_INPUT

TV_OPTS

TV_SETTINGS

TIMESHIFT_ENCODE_CMD

TIMESHIFT_BUFFER

TV_CHANNEL_PROG

TV_DATFORMAT

TV_TIMEFORMAT

TV_DATETIMEFORMAT

TV_RECORDFILE_MASK

TV_RECORD_SCHEDULE

TV_RECORD_SERVER_IP

TV_RECORD_SERVER_PORT

VCR_AUDIO

TV_VIEW_SIZE

TV_REC_SIZE

TV_VIEW_OUTFMT

TV_REC_OUTFMT

VCR_CMD

TV_IVTV_OPTIONS

FREQUENCY_TABLE

VIDEO_GROUPS

TV_CHANNELS

XMLTV_GRABBER

XMLTV_SORT

XMLTV_DAYS

WWW Server

WWW_PORT

Default: 80

The port to have the internal webserver listen on. If you specify a port other than the default, you will have to enter that number in your URI's like so: http://127.0.0.1:8080/

WWW_USERS

Default: ?

Set up user-password combinations to give access to the internal webserver.

Example:

{ "user" : "password" }

Or:

{ "user1" : "password",
  "user2" : "password" }

WWW_GUIDE_INTERVAL

WWW_GUIDE_PRECISION

WWW_GUIDE_COLS

WWW_STYLESHEET

Default: styles/main.css

Unless you plan on customizing the appearance of the web frontend, you can leave this as the default. If you plan on doing some customizations, it is recommended that you make a backup first.

WWW_JAVASCRIPT

Internal Config

VIDEO_SHOW_REGEXP

ENABLE_NETWORK_REMOTE

REMOTE_CONTROL_HOST

REMOTE_CONTROL_PORT

XMLTV_FILE

LOCALE