CSMonkey TV Remote - Documentation

Prerequisites
How to setup TV Remote
How to customize TV Remote
Example of settings
How to use TV Remote
How-to Videos
Developers
Get support

Prerequisites

This program makes use of the IVTV project utilities to change channels. You can find a list of the supported TV cards by IVTV here.

If your card is supported then go ahead and use CSMonkey TV Remote, however if not then you can freely download the code and modify it to suit your TV program.

To install IVTV please check your Linux distribution or download the latest stable version from IVTV.

If you are using Ubuntu then you can easily install ivtv-utils from Synaptic Package Manager or the command line.

Synaptic Package Manager:

System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager
Search for ivtv-utils
Check the package and install

Command line:

Applications > Accessories > Terminal
Enter the following command: sudo aptitude install ivtv-utils

The program uses Sun Java, therefore you need to have Java installed. If you are using Ubuntu, follow the same steps above but this time install this package: sun-java5-jre

To install VLC or MPlayer, follow the same steps above and select the packages: vlc and mplayer

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How to setup TV Remote

Download CSMonkey TV Remote to your desktop.

Extract the archive using your favorite archive manager.
Command line: tar -xf CSMonkeyTVRemote-v2.0.tar.gz

Move the folder to your home directory.
Command line: mv csmonkeyTVRemote ~/

Rename the folder to .csmonkeyTVRemote (note the period at the beginning of the name).
Command line: mv ~/csmonkeyTVRemote ~/.csmonkeyTVRemote

Create a shortcut of CSMonkeyTVRemote.jar on your desktop
Command line: ln -s ~/.csmonkeyTVRemote/CSMonkeyTVRemote.jar

Done! You should have a shortcut of the program on your desktop.

Most likely the archive tool in your system will try to open the JAR file so use open with to make it always open with Java.

Click on Edit > Settings:

First Line (Required): command to start the TV player

Totem: totem --toggle-controls /dev/video0
VLC: vlc pvr:// pvr-device=/dev/video0
MPlayer: mplayer /dev/video0
If you want to use a different player then simply copy the command and paste it here.

Second line (Required): TV device

Most likely the TV device is /dev/video0 but if you are using a different device add it here.

Third Line (Required): number of channel columns.

Fourth Line (Required): auto start TV, either y for yes or n for no.

Fifth line (Required): startup channel

Enter the channel number that you want the TV to start with.

(0ptional) The rest of the lines are the channel numbers. See the example below.

That's it! Click on save and restart the remote.

vlc pvr:// pvr-device=/dev/video0
/dev/video0
4
n
12
2
4
6
7
9
11
12
22
23
24
25
26
27
29
30

In this example VLC is the chosen player and the TV device is /dev/video0; there are two columns of channels; the TV player doesn't start when the program starts; channel 12 is the startup channel; the rest of the lines are the channels. Note that channel 12 appears twice, as the startup channel and one of the available channels too. The order of the channels is not required.

If you don't want any channels, just enter the first five lines like this:

vlc pvr:// pvr-device=/dev/video0
/dev/video0
4
n
12

See the screenshots.

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How to use TV Remote

Buttons:

Start TV: starts the TV player.
Set: set the channel to the number entered in the text field.
Up/Down: changes the channel by one up/down.
Go Back: changes the channel to the last watched channel.

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Developers

Please refer to the Javadoc generated files.

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Get support

Please submit your questions and suggestions here.

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