The INTV! Viewer for Microsoft Windows provides an easy-to-use interface for viewing INTV! Stations. The Viewer is analogous to a television, allowing users to tune in and watch video broadcast by INTV! Stations. This chapter explains how to use the viewer. It discusses:

• INTV! Viewer basics
• Viewer controls
• The Station Tuning dialogue

When you start INTV! from the Windows Program Manager, it opens a viewer window. The viewer window provides the interface to the user, allowing him or her to scan, tune in or tune out stations, and control audio and video. It also enables the user to spawn more viewers using the Station Tuning dialogue.

The viewer is a standard window, and the normal controls are available to the user. Like a normal window, the INTV! Viewer can be resized, moved around the desktop, and minimized. The Viewer also contains a menu bar with three pull-down menus: Station, Video, and Audio that provide all of INTV!’s controls.

Below the menu bar is a tool bar that contains hot buttons that provide shortcuts to various INTV! controls. On the bottom of the viewer window there is a volume control slider, and to the left of the slider there is a box where status messages are printed.

If you allow the pointer to linger on any clickable controls, a "Tool Tip" is printed, briefly explaining the function of that control.

The Station menu contains the controls used to select and tune in stations.

Selecting Tune from the Station pull-down menu brings up the Station Tuning dialog, which is discussed fully later in this chapter.

The scan command briefly scans through all of the stations that are available to your viewer. Each station is tuned in for 10 seconds during the scan. While the viewer is scanning through the stations, you can press Escape to stop scanning and remain on the station currently being viewed. If you don’t press Escape to suspend the view, you will be returned to the station that you had tuned in before initiating the station scan.

Calls up a window that displays the current channel information, including the channel’s call letters, number, and the channel description. It also displays the hostname and IP address of the station.

Selecting Abbreviate hides all of the controls and window borders surrounding the viewer window, so that it occupies less space on the display. To restore the borders and controls, simply double click anywhere on the viewer. (The window can also be abbreviated by double clicking on the viewer.)

The Always on Top option allows you to toggle whether you can cover the viewer by dragging another window over it. If Always on Top is on, the viewer will always stay above other windows on the desktop, no matter which window is currently active. If this option is off, then you will be able to cover the viewer with other active windows.

Choosing Exit closes the current viewer window and stops receiving video from that station.

Exit All closes all current INTV! viewer windows and stops receiving video from all of those stations.

The Video menu contains the options available to the user pertaining to the video being received.

If video is paused, selecting this option will resume video reception.

If this option is selected, video will be paused when the INTV! viewer window is not currently active. Otherwise, you will receive video constantly, no matter which window is currently active.

If this option is selected, when video is received, INTV! will check to see if a video card with hardware decompression is present and use that to decompress incoming video, improving performance and decreasing the load on your CPU.

Sets the viewer window to the size that the INTV! Station is sending.

Shows the video sent by the station at twice the size that is being sent. Since this is done in software, there will be some degradation in quality.

Resizes the video to the current size of the viewer window. You can make custom-sized video windows by using the resize function in the lower right hand corner of the video window to resize the window, and using the Zoom: Fit in Window option.

The Audio menu contains controls pertaining to audio received from the station.

If you have the audio from the station muted, selecting this option will turn the station’s sound back on.

The audio panel allows you to select the current audio output device and has a monitor to show the current level of the audio being received. To select an audio output device, click on the arrow to the right of the area that shows the current audio output device, and the audio output devices that INTV! detects will be shown.

The buttons at the top of the panel are a speaker button, a mixer button, and a button that brings up a help dialogue. The speaker button is selected when the station is receiving audio. To stop receiving audio, simply deselect the button. The mixer button brings up the audio control panel software bundled with the audio card that is currently selected.

The following hot buttons are available at the top of the viewer.

• Tune
• Play/Pause video
• Play/Mute audio
• Zoom 1:1
• Zoom 1:2
• Zoom to fit in window
• Help

The Station Tuning dialog lists the stations available to the viewer and enables the user to select which stations they wish to tune in.

In the upper left hand corner of the window, there is a list of stations available to the user. The list includes the station number, call letters, and description of each station. When you highlight a station on the list, the mediums that the station is currently sending appear below the station list.

After highlighting a station, the OK button will tune it in. If you are already viewing a station, then selecting OK will replace the station you are currently viewing with the one you select. If you wish to open another viewer rather than replacing the station in the current viewer window, select the Open New Window button in the lower right hand corner of the dialogue. To see the station information on the currently highlighted station click the Info button. Cancel leaves the Tuner dialogue without making any changes.

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