BTV is an application that allows you to easily view and capture video from any video digitising source, either full screen or in a window. It has been successfully tested with a number of video sources including various video input cards, TV cards, built-in video hardware, USB and FireWire video sources.
Features:
• Full-screen video with no menu bar
• Video in a window which can be dragged around the screen or resized
• Automatic monitor resolution switching to the resolution of your choice (usually 640x480 or 800x600) and back to the original resolution on quit
• Multiple monitor support - play full screen video on one monitor while you work on another
• AppleScript support - main commands are scriptable
• Can capture a PICT file, either straight to a pre-defined location with an automatic file name or through the normal save dialog box
• Can record a movie to disk using custom video and sound settings
• Easy access buttons to control record, PICT capture and sound mute
• Monitor-blanking feature to black out other monitors on a multi-monitor system
• Disables screensaver and powersaver in full screen mode
• Fine tuning of picture size with arrow keys and sound volume with + and - keys
• Can hide the mouse when switching to full screen mode (this can be done automatically on startup)
• Can spin down hard disks for less noise (this can be done automatically on startup)
• Saves all video and sound settings
Instructions:
BTV has two modes of operation: full screen and window mode. When BTV loads for the first time it will display video in a window. You adjust the size of the video display using the 'Video size' menu; choosing 'Full screen' will display full screen video at a monitor resolution of your choosing - usually you will want to choose either 640x480 or 800x600 depending on what video format you are using. If you are using PAL format video the actual resolution of the video is 768x576 and so it is preferable to use a monitor resolution of 800x600 (or 832x624 if your system does not support 800x600) - you will get a small black border round the picture but the quality will be better than displaying PAL format video at 640x480. If you are using NTSC or SECAM format video it is best to view at a monitor resolution of 640x480. When you set BTV to full screen mode for the first time you will be asked to choose your preferred resolution.
There are two modes of resolution switching. These are selectable in the preferences as 'Keep icons' which changes resolution in such a way that desktop icon positions are retained, and 'More compatible' because some users have reported problems with the first method. With the first method, you may notice that the menus to the right of the menu bar and the control strip will not be accessible - this is nothing to worry about. Use 'Keep icons' unless this causes problems with your video display.
To watch TV, use an external VCR connected to the video input connector of your digitiser hardware. You should also connect the VCR audio outputs to the audio inputs of your computer if you want to record sound with movies or play sound through your computer's speakers.
When you record movies, they are saved to a pre-defined destination folder. You can choose this destination folder in the preferences. If desired, BTV creates an automatic file name for movie files using the current date and time; the format of the file name is "BTV Movie day/month hour.minute.second". This naming format is also used for the one-touch PICT capture feature. Alternatively, movies and PICT files can be saved with incrementally numbered names (PICT 001, PICT 002 etc). Movies are recorded with the sound and video settings chosen in the "Video Settings" and the "Sound Settings" dialog boxes - both these options are found under the "Settings" menu.
To disable screensavers the mouse must be hidden. This is due to the fact that BTV actually shifts the mouse position periodically, therefore tricking the screensaver into thinking that the machine is being used. From a human-interface point of view this would not be good if the mouse were visible.
FireWire information:
BTV works with FireWire video sources if the correct extensions are installed in your extensions folder. The requred extensions are:
FireWire Enabler
FireWire Support
QuickTime FireWire DV Enabler
QuickTime FireWire DV Support
The first two are installed as part of Apple's FireWire software, the second two as part of QuickTime 3 or 4. Also, a DV camera must be connected and switched on.
Easy access buttons:
BTV has four optional buttons in the title bar of the window as shown below. These control movie recording, PICT grabbing, sound muting and switching to full screen. The display of these buttons can be individually turned on and off in the preferences.
Controls:
These are mainly for fine-tuning and so are not vital to the operation of BTV!
- Plus (+) and minus(-) keys control volume. Asterisk (*) key toggles mute on/off. This setting does not affect the volume of recorded movies
- Arrow keys: Resize picture horizontally or vertically (In window mode, to resize from the bottom right hold the control key or to move the window hold down the shift while pressing an arrow key)
- Page up/down: Resize picture retaining aspect ratio
- Space bar: quits BTV (when in full screen mode)
- Hold Command key when launching BTV to forget all settings
- To cut off the edge of the video due to noise etc, press a number while holding the control key. This will cut off that many pixels from each edge of the video.
System requirements:
Any PowerMac with video digitising hardware running system 8 or above.
BTV uses 1400k of RAM, however if you never need to create PICT files or movies you can reduce this to about 400k.
Terms and conditions:
This application is Shareware so if you use it you have to pay the Shareware fee of US$15 (or equivalent amount in another currency). Use the 'Register' program included with BTV to pay your registration fee by credit card, cheque or cash and obtain a personal registration code.
Alternatively, you can register online using a credit card at
http://order.kagi.com/?UXT
Once registered, your personal code will unlock all future releases of BTV.
Please email any comment, suggestions or bug reports to benbird@softhome.net
Legal Stuff:
BTV is copyright by Ben Bird. You may distribute BTV to others provided that the package remains unchanged and that you do not charge for it. This software is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.
