User Manual

Getting Started

Welcome

Some years ago CM&V Hackbart brought you the DVBViewer™, today the market leading software for watching and recording digital video broadcasts.

Now they are introducing the next step: The SAT>IP Viewer. This eponymous application allows watching DVB television and radio broadcasts from satellite, terrestrial or cable servers via the SAT>IP protocol on MacOS, Windows desktop and mobile devices.

Welcome

In short the SAT>IP Viewer provides access to live television and radio broadcasts via a local IP network. It features a sophisticated EPG (Electronic Program Guide) and Teletext and can also record those broadcasts.

Features

  • Automatic detection of all available SAT>IP servers and available tuners
  • Beautiful OSD Menu for easy control via mouse, keyboard or touch devices
  • Free Electronic Program Guide
  • Integrated Teletext display
  • Ability to render DVB Subtitles
  • Support for HD and SD transmissions
  • Runs all newer MacOS versions (Yosemite and above)

This SOFTWARE is protected by copyright laws and international copyright treaties, as well as other intellectual property laws and treaties. This agreement shall be governed by the laws of Germany.

Use of the Software other than for your internal, non-commercial, operations requires that you have entered into a separate license agreement with Christian Hackbart.

Please contact us for further information:

Christian Hackbart
Schubertstraße 23
99096 Erfurt, Germany
e-mail: hackbart -at- dvbviewer -dot- com
Ust-IdNr: DE237941393

Online Dispute Platform

According to EU law we are obligated to link to the web-site for the "Online Dispute Resolution". Our E-mail address is hackbart -at- dvbviewer -dot- com, click here for the jump to the Dispute platform.


Overview

This guide shows you how to begin watching and recording television programs on your Macintosh or Windows PC. It covers configuring and includes instructions for using the most common features of the SAT>IP Viewer.

The menu bar at the top of the screen organizes commands in menus that are carefully arranged by topic. It provides direct access to many of the SAT>IP Viewer functions.

Application Menu

Menubar1

The SAT>IP Viewer menu contains the following standard menu items, listed in the order in which they should appear.

Menu item    
Keyboard shortcut 
Meaning
About SAT>IP Viewer
Opens the About window, which contains the app's copyright information and version number.
Preferences…
Command-,
Opens the preferences window of the SAT>IP Viewer.
Services
Displays a submenu of services that are available in the current context.
Hide SAT>IP Viewer
Command-H
Hides the window of all the other apps currently running.
Hide Others
Option-Command-H
Hides all of the windows of the currently running app and brings the most recently used app to the foreground.
Show All
Shows all windows of all currently running applications.
Quit SAT>IP Viewer
Command-Q
Quits the app.

File Menu

Menubar1

Menu item    
Keyboard shortcut 
Meaning
Add To Favorite
Command-F
Adds respectively removes the current channel from the favorite list.
Instant Record
Option-Command-N
Instant recording of the currently displayed program can be started by selecting this item.
Screenshot
Option-Alt-Command-N
Creates a screenshot of the current scene.
Open File…
Command-O
Opens a file from the local hard drive.
Open URL…
Command-L
Opens a stream from the network.
Close
Command-W
Stops the current playback.

View Menu

Menubar1

Menu item    
Keyboard shortcut 
Meaning
Best Size
Command-B
Calculates the best size for the window, in order to match the video resolution.
Small Image
Command-1
Sets the window size to a fourth of the video resolution.
Half Size
Command-2
Sets the window size to a half of the video resolution.
Normal Size
Command-3
Sets the window size to the size of the video resolution.
Maximum Size
Command-4
Sets the window size to the size of the monitor resolution.
Fullscreen
Command-O
Sets the application to fullscreen.

Channels Menu

Menubar4

The channel menu lists all available tv, radio, network and favorite stations sorted alphabetically.

On Screen Display (OSD) Menu

The Sat>IP Viewer features an OSD type menu which overlays itself on the Main Television Display.

This display is called up by pressing the “M” keyboard shortcut. It can be navigated with the keyboard arrows. The display can be removed by pressing “M” again or by hitting the “Esc” button.

OSD

The OSD display provides direct access to the OSD channel list, program guide, recorded files, Teletext and Language Settings. It also allows to pause the currently running program and launch an immediate recording.

Channel list

The channel list provides an overview of all the channels that have been available. This channel list can be updated or complemented with other stations through the Scanner window. It is brought up by pressing the “C” keyboard shortcut or by selecting it from the main OSD menu.

channels

EPG – Electronic Program Guide

The Electronic Program Guide (EPG) provides detailed information on current and upcoming programs. The extent of this information varies from channel to channel and is sourced from the DVB broadcast information.

electronic program guide

It can be brought into view by pressing the “E” button on the keyboard and by selecting EPG from the menu bar at the top of the main window.

Record Assets

Recorded Assets can be played back directly by pressing the “R” keyboard shortcut and selecting the corresponding item.

recording assets

Teletext

By clicking on the Teletext Entry in the Menu Bar or by pressing the letter “T” on the keyboard a teletext display opens if the correponding channel provides a teletext service.

teletext

Preferences

The preferences window is a dialog that contains all necessary settings of the SAT>IP Viewer.

By clicking on Preferences in the menu bar the following window opens:

Hardware Tab

The Hardware Tab lists all available devices. By clicking on a device you will get detailed information of the selected SAT>IP server. Further on you can disable the device from being used inside the application.

hardware options

Scanner Tab

The Scanner Tab provides the possibility to update existing channel lists or create new ones.

The Sat>IP Viewer compatible hardware devices have built in tuners for different systems (satellite, cable, terrestrial), to select channels. The type and amount of channels depends on what video source your particular device is using.
Typically, antenna and cable sources can be used to find channels, via the tuner input.

scanner options

After a reception type is selected the channel search properties will be opened. Depending on the tuner type you can define additional settings, which are:

scanner options settings

Property
Meaning
Transponder
The Transponder field informs about the transponder list that will be used for the channel search and allows to select an alternative transponder list the selected + reception type.
LNB Type
The LNB is the receiving device mounted on the satellite dish. "Universal LNB" is the correct choice in the vast majority of cases, at least in Europe. In other regions of the world you may need to know the Local Oscillator Frequency (LOF) of your LNB for selecting the appropriate setting. Please consult the manual for your outdoor equipment or search the web to find out which LNB type is commonly used for the satellite position in question.*
DiSEqC
If you use a satellite configuration you can select the DiSEqC value. It is a signal that a receiver usually sends to a multiswitch (which is part of your outdoor equipment) for selecting a specific satellite position. If you are receiving more than one satellite position, a suitable DiSEqC configuration is mandatory. Certain kinds of shared distribution systems (quattro LNB + switch) may even require DiSEqC for receiving a single satellite position.
Channel Group
This can be considered in very special cases, e.g. if DVB-S devices are connected directly (without switch) to different dishes pointing at different satellite positions. In the vast majority of cases you can ignore this setting.*
Update channels
Differing names of already existing channels are updated to the names found by the channel search.
Only free to air
The channel search discards channels that are encrypted („Pay TV“), thus requiring a DVB device with CI (Common Interface), a CAM (Common Access Module) and a smart card.
Find other transponders
Lets the channel search read an additional table in the DVB data stream (NIT, Network Information Table). It contains information about the frequencies that are used in the DVB network, enabling the channel search to scan additional frequencies that are not contained in the transponder list. It's worth a try if you suppose that new frequencies have been added lately or are missing in the transponder list. However, since it depends on the provider whether the NIT content is useful and up-to-date, it may or may not work out.

* only if the DVBViewer Recording Service is used as SAT>IP Server

In the next step the channel scan is started. This might take a while until all frequencies are scanned.

scanner options scan

TV/Radio/Network/Favorite Tab

The 4 tabs provide several facilities for maintaining and rearranging the channel list.

editor settings

Button
Meaning
Delete
This button deletes the selected item(s).
Edit
With this button you can switch between edit and list mode. The edit mode allows you to select multiple items in order to rearrange or delete them.
Mark
By clicking this button you can invert the selection, when the edit mode is active.
Favorite
The favorite button can be used to add or remove the selected station from your favorite list.
Import
While editing the Network list this button appears. You can use it to add new playlists in .m3u or .plist format.

Recordings Tab

The recording tab manages your scheduled recordings. All your tasks are listed here and you will be informed about possible conflicts.

recorder settings

  • ↺ - This task is repeating on a certain base.
  • ⚠ - This task conflicts with other scheduled recordings.
  • ○ - This task is running at the moment
Button
Meaning
Delete
This button deletes the selected task.
Add
This button adds a new task.
Edit
This button edits a selected task.

While adding or editing a task, the following sub window will be opened:

recorder settings editor

Here you set the start date and time for each task. You are also able to define the daily or weekly base.
To save the recording in the "Program Stream"" you have ti MPEG2 PS as output. The "Program Stream" is the usual format for playing DVB-video recordings on the PC. For radio recordings the SAT>IP Viewer switches automatically to the audio format MP2 (a predecessor of MP3) or to AC3. Recordings of HDTV broadcasts in the H.264 or HEVC compression standard, for which the MPEG format is unsuitable, will be recorded in TS format. Subtitles can not be saved in this container format.

This documentation contains a quick instruction for the SAT>IP Viewer software available in the Mac Store.
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