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This chapter describes the procedures for launching IP/TV Viewer, navigating on the IP/TV Viewer main window, and setting IP/TV Viewer options.
After you install IP/TV Viewer, you can launch it several different ways:
You can launch IP/TV Viewer as a standard application. Click
Start>Programs>Cisco IPTV Viewer>IPTV Viewer. The IP/TV Viewer main window appears (see Figure 4-1).
In most cases, IP/TV Viewer is installed in this location. If you specified another location during installation, review the information you entered in Step 10 of the installation procedure (see the "Installing IP/TV Viewer" chapter).
You can launch and run IP/TV as a plugin or helper application for both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer. For more information, see the "Using IP/TV in a Web Browser" chapter.
After you start IP/TV Viewer, the main window appears. This window contains two panes: program categories pane, and program listings pane.
From the Program Categories pane, you select the program listings you want to view on the Program Listings pane.
Scheduled program listings from all Content Managers are grouped in the Scheduled Programs folder. On-demand programs listings are listed in a separate folder for each Content Manager, defined individually by the Content Manager administrator.
Normally, your system administrator assigns the Content Managers used by IP/TV Viewer using the default host name iptvhost. The information displayed on the Program Categories pane will look something like the left side of Figure 4-1. A status bar at the bottom of the Program Categories pane identifies the selected folder.
To display all the scheduled program listings on the Program Listings pane, click the Scheduled Programs folder.
To display on-demand program listings, double-click on the particular OnDemand Videos folder. Or, click the plus sign (+) to the left of the OnDemand Videos folder to display subfolders or categories, if present. Click a category to display the listings on the Program Listings pane. The on-demand categories tree directory operates much like Windows Explorer.
To manually refresh the program listings at any time, click Refresh Listings. Refer to the "Menu Bar and Tool Icon Reference" appendix for a complete list of IP/TV Viewer buttons and icons.
The Program Listings pane lists all scheduled programs or on-demand programs from a designated category. Scheduled program information includes: program name, start and ending times, media type (audio, video, SlideCast, and Web Presenter), and a brief program description. On-demand program information includes: program name, video or audio length, media type, and brief program description.
You can display programs by the current day, week, month, or year. You can also show or hide external, local, or past programs. Click Listing>Show or use the toolbar buttons.
You can sort scheduled programs or by selecting the Listing>Sort menu item or clicking column headers.
Use the Personal Selection toolbar buttons to display windows that list subscribed programs, on-demand programs you select to play back-to-back in a playlist, and programs you select as your favorites. The Personal Selections toolbar has three buttons: Subscriptions, OnDemand Playlist, and Personal Favorites.
Click Subscriptions to display the Subscriptions window. This window lets you quickly access all scheduled programs you have subscribed to. When you subscribe to a scheduled program, its name and start time are listed on the Subscriptions window. You can drag the program from which you want to subscribe from the Program Listings pane to the Subscriptions window, or use the Subscribe command. See the "Subscribing to a Program" section in the "Using IP/TV Viewer" chapter for more information about subscribing to a program.
Click OnDemand Playlist to display the OnDemand Playlist window. This window lists on-demand programs by name and length that will play back-to-back. See the "Assigning Favorite Programs" section in the "Using IP/TV Viewer" chapter for more information about creating an OnDemand playlist.
Click Personal Favorites to display the Favorites window. This window lists scheduled and on-demand programs that you assign as favorites. This window lets you quickly access the program you often watch. Each program's name listed. All programs you assign to the Favorites window appear on the Change program list box (see the "Menu Bar and Tool Icon Reference" appendix) when you watch a program. See the "Assigning Favorite Programs"section for more information about creating a list of favorites.
From the program listings pane or Subscriptions, OnDemand Playlist, or Favorites windows, you can display a popup menu using by clicking the right mouse button. On the Program Listings pane, a popup menu appears with the following commands: Copy, Watch Program Now, Select Stream, Subscribe, and Program Information. The Subscriptions, OnDemand Playlist, and Favorites windows display pop-up menus with the following commands: Copy Program, Watch Program Now, Select Stream, Remove from List, and Program Information. See the "Menu Bar and Tool Icon Reference" appendix for detailed information about each command.
You can also display another popup menu that lets you turn docking on or off or hide panes.
See the "Customizing the User Interface" chapter for information about customizing the IP/TV main window interface.
This section describes how to set up IP/TV Viewer options including the following:
Each time you start IP/TV Viewer, a new copy of the program listing is downloaded from one or more Content Managers.
In order to obtain the program listing, you need to add the IP address or name of the computer on which the Content Manager is installed to the list on the Content Managers tab.
To add one or more Content Managers, click Settings>Content Managers to display the IP/TV Options dialog box with the Content Managers tab on top. If a Content Manager has been previously added to the Viewer, its name is already listed on this tab.
The Poll For New Guide field determines how often IP/TV Viewer polls the Content Manager for new programs in terms of minutes. The default is 10 minutes (see Figure 4-2).
To add a new Content Manager, click Add Content Manager to display the Content Manager Information dialog box (see Figure 4-3). If desired, you can configure content information from a file by clicking From File. The file must have an .sdf extension.
You can also edit an existing Content Manager by highlighting the server name and then clicking Edit. To remove an existing Content Manager, highlight the Content Manager you want to remove and click Remove.
In the Primary Server Name field, enter the IP address or name of the Content Manager whose program listing you want downloaded to IP/TV Viewer. In Figure 4-3, the name of the Content Manager is iptvcm. The default Content Manager name is iptvhost.
The default number for most HTTP servers is 80. For security purposes you can set it to some number other than 80.
You can enter a secondary Content Manager in case the primary Content Manager fails to download the program list. The secondary Content Manager is essentially a backup Content Manager. See your system administrator for this information.
To add proxy server settings that let you connect to a Content Manager by going around its firewall, click Advanced, next to the desired Content Manager, on the Content Manager Information dialog box. The Advanced HTTP Properties dialog box appears (see Figure 4-4).
Typically, IP/TV Viewer gets its programming information from your company's IP/TV Content Managers. However, IP/TV Viewer can use the Cisco SDP Listener to get programming information. The SDP Listener directly listens to programming information available on the Internet and on your corporate intranet.
The SDP Listener is basically a listening process for programs being announced via SDP. It is different from a Content Manager because the SDP Listener is not continuously running. Because the SDP Listener is started when you check the Use SDP Listener checkbox on the Content Manager tab, and exits when you exit IP/TV Viewer, there may be some delay between starting the IP/TV Viewer and seeing a complete listing of available programs.
The Options dialog box lets you customize the Program Listing pane and viewer window interface. Open the Options window by clicking Settings>Window Options from the IP/TV Viewer main window (see Figure 4-5).
Select the desired options and then click OK. Table 4-1 describes these options.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
Iconify when program is watched | If checked, the IP/TV Viewer main window automatically appears in iconic form when you begin watching a program. |
Iconify to Tray | If checked, the IP/TV Viewer main window automatically appears in iconic form in the tray when you minimize the window. |
Pre-Launch Seconds | The number of seconds the viewer window is opened before a subscribed program begins. This option prevents you from missing the beginning of a scheduled program in the event that your computer's clock is not set to the exact same time as the server. |
Auto-watch last Program | If checked, the last program you watched is initially displayed in the video window. |
Reset Layout to Default | Click this option to reset either the IP/TV main window or viewer window to the default user interface configuration. You must restart IP/TV to reset the main window. Resetting the viewer window requires exiting only the viewer window and not the whole IP/TV application. |
Default Media | A filter on which media is displayed when you watch a program. You can override default values on a per-program basis. For example, a remote sales office with a low-speed link to the company network might disable video by default because all it needs is the audio stream. |
For management, administrative, or tracking purposes, you may want to enter IP/TV Viewer user information. This information is also forwarded to a moderator when using the StreamWatch monitoring application (see Figure 4-6).
Select the desired options and then click OK. Table 4-2 describes these options.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
Name | The user's name. Resets the registry information for the user and company from the IP/TV Viewer installation. You may change this information if needed. |
Location | Your business address. |
Contact Info | Your telephone and e-mail address. |
Posted: Thu Oct 28 16:58:06 PDT 1999
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