Settings Dialog Box

General: Full Screen Mode

Full screen mode as its name suggests, blows the TV image up to fill the whole of the computer screen (apart from the task-bar at the bottom). Unchecking this option will restore the window to its original size and position.

When the TV picture fills the entire screen, you will notice that the menu bar at the top of the window also disappears to give you the maximum viewable area. This means that you can no longer use this bar to restore the window to its original size. Instead you should double-click the left-mouse button whilst hovering in the video area of the DigiTV window.

If you are watching a wide-screen broadcast, you can choose whether to have black bands at the top and bottom of the picture, or zoom right in and lose a little off each edge. See Crop Widescreen.

General: Always on top

Using this option, you can choose to make the DigiTV window appear on top of every other window, even when another window has the input focus. This option is particularly useful if you are working and watching TV at the same time. You can have DigiTV in a small window in one corner of the screen, and work on your maximised documents as normal.

General: Display Caption Bar

The Caption menu bar at the top of the window displays the name of the application (DigiTV) and the Minimise, Maximise and Close Buttons. To hide this bar, place a tick in this check box.

You can still move the DigiTV window about by holding down the left-mouse button whilst pointing in the DigiTV window and dragging it to its new position. Double clicking in the window will maximise or restore it. Right clicking in the window will bring up a whole host of options, among which is 'Exit'.

General: Display Windows Menu

The windows menu bar at the top of the window is very useful if you want to quickly access an option. However, you may decide that it is intruding on your viewing pleasure, so DigiTV gives you the ability to remove it by deselecting this option.

All of the functions can still be accessed using either the remote control, the context menu (right-click), or the keyboard.

General: OSD Always On

When recording using OTR (One Touch Recording) or the Timer, a moniker is placed in the upper-right corner of the window showing how long the recording has got to go before it ends.

You can choose to have this display removed after 1 minute by selecting this option. Please note that if the mouse cursor is moved in the DigiTV window, then the display will return.

General: Anamorphic Display

When viewing the output of DigiTV on a widescreen TV or projector, you may find that the device wants to stretch the picture itself rather than having DigiTV do it. This can result in an overly stretched image with loss of picture at the sides

To combat this you can select this option so that DigiTV knows not to stretch the image before displaying it.

Subtitles: Show subtitles

Most channels now broadcast DVB subtitle information with the programme content, and selecting this option will allow you to view the subtitle text/graphics in the DigiTV window.

Subtitles: Show subtitles when Muted

A very useful little option that will bring up the DVB subtitles when you hit the Mute button so you can still watch your favourite programme while talking on the phone for example.

Overscan/Underscan

Using this option allows you to select how much of the total window size the picture will take.

There may be occasions where it is desirable to make the video take up less than the full window/screen size. For example when viewing on a display device that naturally overscans such as a TV, some of the picture would otherwise be lost off each side. Also there may be occassions when you want to expand the image so that it's deliberately larger than the main viewing area, such as when a broadcaster is transmitting undesirable image data around the edges of the video.

Maximised: Disable Screen-Saver

Your computer may have a screen-saver set up so that your monitor is protected if there has been no user input for a while.

However, if you are watching DigiTV in full-screen mode at a distance, it can be a pain to have to get up and wiggle the mouse if the screen-saver comes on. To save your legs and your sanity, DigiTV allows you to disable the screen-saver when viewing in full-screen.

Maximised: Disable Auto Monitor Power Off

Most modern monitors have a power save function that allows the computer to switch them off when not in use. This is completely unrelated to the screen-saver, and so DigiTV allows you to suppress the auto monitor off function as well when viewing in full screen mode.

Maximised: Always 4:3 Aspect Ratio

This feature is used when viewing wide-screen presentations in full-screen mode. It has no effect otherwise.

Select this option if you want the wide-screen picture to fill the whole of the computer screen. To do this, DigiTV must crop the left and right edges of the picture so that it will fit, meaning that you lose some of the picture at the extreme left and right of the transmitted image.

If you want to see the whole of the wide-screen picture as it is broadcast, make sure that this option is deselected. A consequence of choosing to see the complete picture is that you will get the familiar black bands at the top and bottom of the screen.

If you choose to disable this option, you can zoom in or out of the picture in full-screen mode using either the mouse wheel, or the Z and X keys on the keyboard.

Maximised: Hide Taskbar

When viewing in full-screen mode, you may want to use the whole of the screen for the picture (just like a normal television set). However, the Windows task bar will still be visible if it is not set to 'AutoHide' in the task bar settings on your desktop. To get over this, you can ask DigiTV to hide the task bar for you automatically when you set full-screen mode.

Maximised: Hide Mouse Cursor

Also when viewing in full-screen mode, you probably won't want the Mouse Cursor to be in the way. Selecting this option will auto-hide the cursor when the DigiTV window is maximised. To get the cursor back either move the mouse or press the left/right button on the mouse. If the mouse remains inactive for 5 seconds, it is hidden again.

Windowed: Always 4:3 Aspect Ratio

If you want your window to always be in a 4:3 aspect ratio regardless of whether the current programme is widescreen, choose this option. The picture will still be displayed naturally, but the left and right extremes of a widescreen picture will be lost. This option has no effect if the programme is already being shown in 4:3.

Minimised: Allow MPEG Decoding when minimised

This option allows DigiTV to continue decoding the picture even when the application has been minimised to the taskbar. This can be useful in a dual-monitor environment where one of the monitors is slaved as the overlay display. DigiTV can then be minimised on the desktop monitor and viewing will continue normally on the second monitor.

If this option is unchecked, audio will still be output as normal but the video decoding will stop. This has an advantage for lower-powered PCs as the CPU load will be greatly reduced.

System Tray Options

In v3.5 of DigiTV, we have implemented a new activity monitoring display which can be shown by moving your mouse over the DigiTV system tray icon. This new activity monitoring display details the number of tuners attached, their current status, as well as any OTR or Timer recordings which are being made.

These options allow you to specify if you would like the activity display to be shown by simply moving your mouse over our system tray icon, or whether it should only be triggered by right clicking it.

Additionally, when DigiTV starts up or exits, you can elect to have the activity screen shown automatically for a brief period to allow you to easily see what DigiTV is currently doing. If you would prefer DigiTV to only show this window when it has been instructed to, please uncheck the Auto Show option as this will then result in the behaviour you desire.

Lastly, when DigiTV is in the system tray it displays the status icon which is most appropriate to DigiTV's current overall status. This icon can be static or animated, and thus check/uncheck the 'Animate Icons' option to set the option you prefer.