Documentation:dev:usage

General usage


This introduction provides a brief overview of TV-Viewers main features. Recordings and timeshift are covered by a different section.

When you start TV-Viewer you will see the Main UI. This is the control center of the application and every function can be invoked from here.

In this document we will introduce you to the Menus, main toolbar, station list and playcontrols and the main concepts we use in the frontend.

Toolbars
The frontend has several different toolbars to control TV-Viewer, in the following we will provide a short introduction to them.

Menubar


The menubar is at the top of TV-Viewer and contains five different menus.


 * TV-Viewer (Alt + T) - You may start all main elements from here, enable/disbale the systray icon and/or exit the application.
 * Navigation (Alt + N) - All functions needed to switch stations or to navigate through recorded files are in this menu.
 * View (Alt + V) - Lets you modify all window related options like level of zoom, window size, fullscreen, stay on top, modes...
 * Audio (Alt + A) - Audio related functions like changing volume level, mute or correcting audio/video delay.
 * Help (Alt + H) - Here you may find useful links and informations and you can change the key sequences.

The contents of these menus are also accessible using the right-click menu of the main frontend and parts of it are also in the right-click menu of the systray icon

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Main toolbar


The main toolbar holds four Toolbuttons.


 * Start/stop timeshift
 * Open record wizard
 * Start Application to retrieve the television program (see also Preferences --> General)
 * Start/stop TV playback (only possible when there is no running recording or timeshift)

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Station List


The station list shows all TV stations and may be used to switch between them. The currently selected station is highlighted. The Toolbuttons below the station list may be used to tune the previous respectively the next station or to jump between the last to stations. These controls will be deactivated when there is a running recording or timeshift.

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Controlbar


The controlbar is used during file playback, to save a timeshift video file permanently and to turn the volume up or down.

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Statusbar


The statusbar shows you what TV-Viewer is currently doing. For example which station you are watching or the time stamps while playing back a video file. If you don't want to have this feature open the menu View --> Statusbar and deactivate the appropriate Options.

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Modes, Floating control
From version 0.8.2 on TV-Viewer uses a new interface which now only consists of one window. Some users complained there will be to much visible "information" in windowed mode. So we made it possible to hide/unhide the main toolbar (default key F5), the station list (default key F6) and the control bar (default key F7).

You may also choose between a Full and a Compact mode (default key sequence Ctrl+C). In Compact mode all Toolbars will be hidden including menus and statusbar. In this mode the window title bar is used to display basic status information.

The floating control is available in fullscreen-mode when you move the mouse cursor to the top (main toolbar), to the right (station list) and to the bottom (controlbar). Which elements actually appear depends on the settings in Preferences --> Interface --> Window Properties

Another important feature is to instruct TV-Viewer to stay on top while playback, always or never.

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Station Editor


The station editor is the place where you can manage your TV stations. Don't forget to set up the correct video device (Preferences --> Analog) otherwise you won't be able to search for stations or add them manually.

The Station Editor consists of a toolbar and a listbox, listing already added Stations. All necessary functions of the Station Editor can be controlled by the toolbar at the top and a context menu.

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Notifications


TV-Viewer has it's own notification system to let the user know if something important has happened. You will be notified if a recording has started or stopped and if there are news about the TV-Viewer Project.

The Daemon can be configured in the Interface Section of the Preferences.

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Error Messages


Error messages will be displayed inside the video frame. These kind of messages indicate important problems and you should have a look into the logfiles for further informations. It may also be necessary to file a bug report.

Crash


In Case TV-Viewer crashes, a special window will pop up that informs you what kind of problem occurred. This is a serious problem and you have to report this to the author. Only when we know of problems we are able to fix them. This cooperation is very important for OpenSource projects.

In case TV-Viewer crashes with a segmentation fault, things are a bit different. This is normally no problem of TV-Viewer itself. An example is Tcl/Tk 8.5.8 on x86_64 or Tcl/Tk 8.5.10. Please contact us if you experience that kind of problems and we might be able to pinpoint you to the correct direction on how to solve your problems.

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