.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GFDL-1.1-no-invariants-or-later

.. _dvb_frontend:

####################### Digital TV Frontend API #######################

The Digital TV frontend API was designed to support three groups of delivery systems: Terrestrial, cable and Satellite. Currently, the following delivery systems are supported:

• Terrestrial systems: DVB-T, DVB-T2, ATSC, ATSC M/H, ISDB-T, DVB-H, DTMB, CMMB

• Cable systems: DVB-C Annex A/C, ClearQAM (DVB-C Annex B)

• Satellite systems: DVB-S, DVB-S2, DVB Turbo, ISDB-S, DSS

The Digital TV frontend controls several sub-devices including:

• Tuner

• Digital TV demodulator

• Low noise amplifier (LNA)

• Satellite Equipment Control (SEC) [#f1]_.

The frontend can be accessed through /dev/dvb/adapter?/frontend?. Data types and ioctl definitions can be accessed by including linux/dvb/frontend.h in your application.

.. note::

Transmission via the internet (DVB-IP) and MMT (MPEG Media Transport) is not yet handled by this API but a future extension is possible.

.. [#f1]

On Satellite systems, the API support for the Satellite Equipment Control (SEC) allows to power control and to send/receive signals to control the antenna subsystem, selecting the polarization and choosing the Intermediate Frequency IF) of the Low Noise Block Converter Feed Horn (LNBf). It supports the DiSEqC and V-SEC protocols. The DiSEqC (digital SEC) specification is available at Eutelsat.

.. toctree:: :maxdepth: 1

query-dvb-frontend-info
dvb-fe-read-status
dvbproperty
frontend_fcalls