# Zapping &appversion; User Manual

## Introduction

With the Zapping application you can watch TV, take screenshots and record video and audio. Zapping has a deinterlacer and a Teletext viewer built in and supports Closed Caption and Teletext subtitles.

This document describes version &appversion; of Zapping.

## Getting Started

### Installation

Which hardware is supported by Zapping?

Zapping does not talk to hardware directly, it uses drivers already installed on your computer. Hardware thus supported includes analog TV cards, graphic cards with video capture capability, both with and without tuner, and some USB cameras.

Video4Linux or Video4Linux2 kernel drivers

- Zapping can capture video, VBI (Teletext and Closed Caption) data and overlay video if this is supported by your driver. For installation and configuration of the driver please consult V4L or driver documentation.

  When the driver and your TV card supports video overlay the appearance can be improved by enabling the XFree86 V4L/XVideo interface driver. If it has not been done already, open the file `/etc/X11/XF86Config` and add `Load "v4l"` to the module section:

      Section "Module"
              …
              Load  "v4l"
      EndSection

  Alternatively Zapping can use the XFree86 DGA extension. You may have to comment out this line:

      Section "Module"
              …
      #      Option  "omit xfree86-dga"
      EndSection

  Unfortunately on some graphics card the v4l module and DGA do not work very well or at all when 3D graphics support (OpenGL, DRI) is enabled.

BKTR kernel driver (FreeBSD)

- Zapping can capture video, VBI (Teletext and Closed Caption) data and overlay video with this driver. For installation and configuration of the driver please consult the FreeBSD handbook.

XVideo drivers

- XVideo is an extension of the X Window system supporting video capture and output devices. With it, Zapping can display live video in a window. Video and VBI capturing is not possible with XVideo.

### To Start Zapping

You can start Zapping in the following ways:

Applications menu

- Choose Sound and Video Zapping.

Command line

- To start Zapping from a command line, type the following command, then press Return:

  `zapping`

### When You Start Zapping

When you start Zapping, the following window is displayed.

#### Zapping window

The Zapping window contains a menu, toolbar and a context menu which opens when you click on the video with the right mouse button.

#### Zapping Context Menu

Context menu.

## Usage

### Video Modes

Zapping can work in windowed, fullscreen or background mode. In each mode it can show Teletext, capture images or it can overlay video. What is the difference between capture and overlay mode?

In capture mode Zapping programs your TV card to store images in main memory. This permits screenshots, deinterlacing and video recording. It is also quite CPU intensive because to display video Zapping must copy the images to the X server which programs the graphics processor to convert the images from YUV to RGB format, scale them, and copy them into screen memory.

In overlay mode the TV card stores the images directly in screen memory. This is a more efficient display method, but now Zapping cannot access the images. When you try to take a screenshot, activate deinterlacing or recording in this mode it will switch back to capture mode, if supported by your TV card.

The available PCI bus bandwidth limits the image size in overlay mode. When the window or screen is larger than 768×576 pixels you will see a black border around the image. To avoid this Zapping can automatically reduce the screen resolution in fullscreen mode, or you can switch to capture mode. Capture mode is not limited if your graphics card supports hardware image scaling.

To switch between modes choose the mode from the View menu, or the context menu. To return from fullscreen or background mode to windowed press the Esc key.

In windowed mode you can freely resize the video. You can either resize the window as usual by dragging its border, or choose a size from the context menu Appearance submenu. This menu is editable, see the preferences section for details.

### To Change Channels

To change between TV channels you can choose from the Channels main menu or the context menu. The menu also lists video inputs on the device and supported video standards. Note you can add composite video inputs to the channel list as well, see the Channel Editor section for details.

To change to the next or previous channel in the list click on the Ch. Up or Ch. Down button in the toolbar, or press the Pg Up or Pg Dn key.

On the numeric keypad (if NumLock is activated) you can enter a channel number. Either the number of the RF channel, or a channel list number. This can be changed in the preferences.

### Picture controls

To change the picture brightness, contrast and other controls click on the Controls button in the toolbar. Control levels can be changed by keyboard too, as configured in preferences.

### Volume and Mute Functions

You can change the audio volume or mute audio in the controls dialog, opened when you click on the Controls button in the toolbar.

Further you can click on the Mute button in the toolbar or choose View Mute .

You can also press A or the Enter key on the numeric keypad to mute or unmute, + or - to change the volume level.

### Caption / Subtitles

Caption is an aid for the hard of hearing while subtitles help viewers understand programs in foreign languages. Technically there is no difference, so we use these terms interchangeably in this document.

Zapping supports Closed Caption and Teletext subtitles. Closed Caption is common in the USA and can also be found on DVDs and other media. Teletext subtitles are mainly broadcast in Europe.

Zapping supports multiple languages. These are transmitted on different Closed Caption "channels" or on different Teletext pages. Whenever possible Zapping displays language names instead of channel or page numbers.

To enable subtitles choose the desired channel, page or language from the context menu Subtitles submenu. To disable subtitles choose Subtitles Disable . You can also click on the Subtitles button in the toolbar to enable or disable subtitles.

Closed Caption channels are always listed in the menu if transmitted, Teletext subtitles only if the station transmits subtitle links. To choose a Teletext subtitle page manually switch to Teletext mode, go to the desired page and click on the Subtitles button in the toolbar.

When Zapping displays subtitles you can drag them to a different position with the left mouse button. To resize subtitles hold the Shift key down or drag with the middle mouse button.

Clicking on subtitles with the right mouse button opens a context menu where you can disable the subtitles or choose another language. With the Encoding submenu you can override the character encoding of Teletext subtitles, which is sometimes incorrectly transmitted.

### Take a screenshot

To take a screenshot click on the Screenshot button in the toolbar or press the S key. A dialog will open where you can choose a file name, image format and compression quality if applicable.

The deinterlace option can remove interlace artefacts on the fly. It makes no sense to deinterlace scaled images, so the option is only available if the image height is 480 or 576 pixels. At your discretion screenshots may or may not contain the displayed subtitles.

Screenshots are only possible if your TV card and its driver supports video capturing.

### Record video and audio

To record video and/or audio click on the Record button in the toolbar or press the R key. A dialog will open where you can choose a file name and format. Click on the Record button in the dialog to start recording, on the Stop button to stop.

File formats can be configured in preferences. You can create different configurations and name them as desired.

Video recording is only possible if your TV card and its driver supports video capturing in realtime. Video compression hardware is not yet supported.

Currently recording is not supported on FreeBSD.

### Using a Remote Control

Zapping supports the LIRC (Linux Infrared Remote Control) infrastructure. Visit http://www.lirc.org for more information about LIRC.

To use LIRC you must create a `.lircrc` file in your home directory. For each remote control button add an entry like these:

            begin
                    prog   = zapping_lirc
                    button = VOL_UP
                    config = zapping.volume_incr(+5)
            end

            begin
                    prog   = zapping_lirc
                    button = 0
                    config = SETCHANNEL 0
            end

            begin
                    prog   = zapping_lirc
                    button = 1
                    config = SETCHANNEL 1
            end

            begin
                    prog   = zapping_lirc
                    button = 9
                    config = SETCHANNEL 9
            end

prog

- is the program interpreting the command and must be `zapping_lirc`

button

- is the name of the remote control button. Presumably with LIRC you installed `/etc/lircd.conf`, this file lists all available buttons.

config

- is a Zapping command. Valid commands are listed in the Commands section.

Suppose your remote control has a TV/RADIO button and you want to switch between two layers of commands, much like Shift Lock switches between lower and upper case characters.

This can be accomplished by embracing the entries above within a zapping_lirc section, and programming the TV/RADIO button to enable this section, "switch to this mode" in LIRC speak.

    begin zapping_lirc
            begin
                    button = TV/RADIO
                    mode   = radio
            end

            Zapping entries …
    end zapping_lirc

    begin radio
            begin
                    button = TV/RADIO
                    mode   = zapping_lirc
            end

            Other entries …
    end radio

    Mode-independend entries …

Which mode will be initially selected? Well, none. But when you start Zapping it automatically switches to zapping_lirc mode, if such a section exists.

For further instructions please see the LIRC documentation.

&settings; &channel-editor; &zapzilla; &commands;

## About Zapping

Zapping was written by Iñaki García Etxebarria, Michael H. Schimek and many contributors. Visit our web page at http://zapping.sourceforge.net.

To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding this application or this manual, visit the Zapping bug tracker or mail us at zapping-misc@lists.sourceforge.net.

This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. A copy of this license can be found in the file COPYING included with the source code of this program.

&fdl-appendix;