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<h1>Camstream User Manual</h1>
<h2>Content</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="#starting_the_program">Starting the program</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="#mainmenu">The main menu</a></li>
</ul>
<li><a href="#viewers">Viewers</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="#viewer">The viewer window</a></li>
<li><a href="#multiple">Multiple viewers</a></li>
<li><a href="#toolbar">The toolbar</a></li>
<ul>
<li><a href="#settings">The settings dialog</a></li>
<li><a href="#configuration">Snapshot configuration</a></li>
</ul>
</ul>
<li><a href="#configfile">Configuration file</a></li>
</ul>
<hr>
<h2><a name="starting_the_program">Starting the program</a></h2>
<p>First, make sure the various modules for your TV grabber and/or webcams
are loaded if necessary. Then start <span class="command">camstream</span>
from the command line, or add it to your menu or desktop.</p>
<p>Camstream first scans the available video devices (but does not open
them), and starts with the main window. Camstream has a MDI (Multiple
Document Interface): it shows everything in subwindows of the main window.
Initially, the main window is empty, except for the menubar and a nice
filler background.</p>
<p>You can resize the main window by grabbing one of the sides or corners
with your mouse and drag it to the desired size.</p>
<p>There can be several types of windows displayed in CamStream. For
now, there is only one type available: a <a href="#viewers">Viewer</a>.</p>
<h3><a name="mainmenu">The main menu</a></h3>
<p>The main menu has only two menus, which are discussed here briefly:</p>
<h4>File</h4>
<p>
<ul>
<li><span class="menu">Open...</span>: Open a new window.</li>
<li><span class="menu">Exit</span>: Close all windows and exit the program.</li>
</ul>
</p>
<h4>Window</h4>
<p>
<ul>
<li><span class="menu">Cascade</span>: Rearranges the windows in a
cascading, overlapping manner.</li>
<li><span class="menu">Tile</span>: Rearranges the windows in a tiled,
non-overlapping manner.</li>
</ul>
</p>
<h2><a name="viewers">Viewers</a></h2>
<p><img align="left" src="images/dialog-newviewer.png" width="238" height="341">
<p>In order to see something, you must open a Viewer. A Viewer is just what
it name implies: a window that displays the image stream from a live video
source like a webcam or TV card.<br>
To open a viewer, hit <span class="keycode">Ctrl-O</span> or use the menu
<span class="menu">File -> Open Viewer...</span>. You will then see the
dialog on the left.
<p>You can select a video device from the drop down list, and the initial size
that you want to use. The device is identified either by its name or the
device node. If you don't specify a size, the current size of the device
will be used (whatever that is...).</p>
<p>(Never mind the odd colours: this is my default colour palette. CamStream
will use your system palette.)</p>
<p>Once you have selected a device from the list, click the <span
class="button">Ok</span> button and you will get something like the
next image.
<br clear="all">
<h3><a name="viewer">The Viewer window</a></h3>
<p><img align="left" src="images/singleview.png" width="515" height="489">
<br clear="all"><br>
<p>This is a snapshot of CamStream with a viewer from my TV card (the black
bands above and below the image are intentional, it's a widescreen
transmission). As you can see the viewer is a subwindow of the main window
with its own minimize, maximize and close buttons.</p>
<p>Although the window has a resize handle in the lower-right corner, you
cannot change the image size this way. You must use the settings dialog,
activated by the button on the toolbar.</p>
<p>Each viewer has its own toolbar (displayed at the top) and a statusbar.
You can drag the toolbar around and dock it to any of the 4 sides. The
titlebar of the window displays the name of the device (in this case that of
my TV card).</p>
<p>The statusbar has only one item: a time field which shows a count down
during timed snapshots. When not in use, it shows "--:--".</p>
<h3><a name="multiple">Multiple viewers</a></h3>
<p>If you want, you can open multiple Viewers and display the results
simultaneously, like this:</p>
<p><img align="left" src="images/multiview.png" width="550" height="544">
<br clear="all"></p>
<p>In fact, you can open the same device more than once! Not that it's very
useful, but it's a nice demonstration of what you can do with C++ and a
little bit of designing :) The devices are not completely independant,
though. Changing the size of one viewer will change the size of the others
too.</p>
<p>You can do the usual stuff with these windows: move them, hide them,
etc. The <span class="menu">Window</span> menu has a
<span class="menu">Tile</span> and a <span class="menu">Cascade</span>
option, which will re-arrange the windows.
<h3><a name="toolbar">The toolbar</h3>
<p>Each window has its own toolbar, which is shown enlarged below:<br/>
<img src="images/toolbar.png" width="362" height="64"><br clear="all"></p>
<p>The toolbar has 6 buttons, which are described here from left to right:
<ul>
<li>The <b>first</b> button is the "Settings" button. By clicking on
it the <a href="#settings">settings dialog</a> opens. In here
you can change the size of the viewed image, set brightness, contrast,
etc.</li>
<li>The <b>second</b> button opens the <a href="#configuration">snapshot
configuration dialog</a>. Here you configure how and where you want
to save your images.</li>
<li>The <b>third</b> button puts the viewer window into
<a href="images/doubleview.png">snapshot view mode</a>. It expands the
window to make room for an image of the last snapshot that you took.
This allows you to see exactly what is being saved to disk or send
to the
