Configuring SnapKast Options

You may change or review the various options for the SnapKast Media Center by selecting Options in the Edit pull-down menu. Whenever SnapKast is run for the first time, the Options dialog is automatically shown at startup.

Using the Options Dialog

Tab Layout (1)

The Options dialog layout is similar to the Media Center. Each tab in the Options dialog matches a task in the Media Center. This makes it easy to configure things by context. For example all options associated with the Format tab in the Media Center can be found on the Format tab in the Options dialog.

Saving Your Changes (3)

Whenever you make changes to any of the Options, those changes will NOT take effect unless you click the "Save" button. If you forget to click "Save" you will be reminded before you exit the Options dialog. After clicking "Save" a small dialog is displayed to acknowledge the action.

Loading Default Options (2)

To load the default options simply click the "Defaults" button. This action loads and saves the default settings for the currently selected tab.

Getting Help On The Fly (4)

To get help on specific tabs, just click the "Help" button to display a help Window on top of the Options dialog. Navigating to a different tab automatically loads the help content for that tab.

Configuring Specific Settings

Let's tour the various settings made available to you.

Configuring Audio

It is recommended that audio options be configured before your first SnapKast recording session. Select the Audio tab (1). To test that your microphone is working, click the "Mic Test" button (2). This launches Windows Sound Recorder, which allows you to record and playback audio snippets. The "Recording Volume" button (3) launches the Windows Volume Control program which lets you adjust the recording volume.

For more details on configuring your microphone and recording volume, please refer to the audio configuration document

Configuring Formatting Options

Click on the Format tab (1) in the Options dialog to set your preferences for formatting SnapKast recording sessions.

1. Enter the author email (2) that will be used to publish the content during the podcasting step. The value entered here will be automatically populated in the "Author Email" field on the Podcasting tab.
2. Choose Extra Large, Large, Medium, or choose one of the two smaller sizes: Video iPod or PSP from the Video Resolution pull-down list (3). SnapKast defaults to Video iPod. This is suited to portable MPEG-4 players like the video iPod from Apple.
3. Adjust the video frame rate by moving the frame rate slider right or left (4). The larger the number, the better the quality and the larger the output file. This setting affects the smoothness of the video motion. Thus making this setting too high can result in blurring of static images (e.g. text in a browser screen shot will be blurred). If you are creating large resolution videos, it is recommended that this setting be kept as low as possible for the best output.
4. Adjust the bit rate of the video by moving the bit rate slider right or left (4). Higher values result in larger files, but clearer looking images in the output video. For larger resolution videos (greater than PSP), we recommend using the highest value (1024 kbps) for best results.

Configuring Playback Options

Click on the Playback tab (1).

Choose the program you would like to be launched when the "Play" button is pressed (2). During startup, SnapKast scans your computer for six popular player programs: Apple QuickTime, Real Networks RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, Nullsoft's WinAmp, VideoLAN Client, and Apple iTunes. Whichever of these that are found are stored in the "Current" pull-down list. QuickTime is selected as the default program.

To change the current multimedia player program:

1. Choose a different program from the "Current" list (2).
2. If the program you want is not in the list, click the "Choose File..." button to select it (3).

Configuring Podcasting Options

Click on the Podcast tab (1) to enter your podcasting preferences:

1. Enter the fully qualified URL of the location which you plan to publish your podcasts (2). e.g. http://snapkast.com/my-podcasts.
2. Enter the name of the person or entity that has copyright ownership of the content you will be creating with SnapKast (3).
3. The email address field is automatically populated with the contents of the email address field on the Format tab (4).

Configuring the Location for your SnapKast Folder

Click on the Files tab (1).

Use this tab to configure the default folder in which the SnapKast folder will be placed. This is usually My Documents (2).

1. Click the Change... button (3)to open a file chooser dialog.
2. Select a folder in the file chooser where you would like to place your SnapKast folder.
3. Click Open to set your choice.
4. You'll need to restart SnapKast for the changes to take effect.

Note: this creates a new folder named SnapKast in the folder you select. If you wish to consolidate SnapKast data in the old location with the new, you will need to copy (or move) the folders and files from the old to the new directly in Windows (e.g. with you Windows Explorer).

Configuring Miscellaneous Options

Click on the Miscellaneous tab (1).

Appearance

This section specifies window placement options relative to the main Media Center window. The Media Center is shifted appropriately, but not resized to accommodate the new window. Choose one of Right, Left, Bottom, or Top (2) to tell SnapKast where to place the help window (launched from the Help > Contents menu). Choose Top or Bottom (3) to specify where to place the Properties window (i.e. the window that appears when "View Properties" is clicked).

Other Miscellaneous Options

• If you would like to be warned about Podcasting being an advanced feature of SnapKast, then check the box labeled "Warn for Showing Podcast tab" (4).
• Windows Media Player does not support playback of MPEG-4 videos without additional components being installed. SnapKast warns users about this whenever Windows Media Player is chosen as the preferred player. To disable this warning, uncheck the box labeled "Warn for Windows Media Player compatibility" (5).
• To enable logging of debug messages in SnapKast check the box labeled "Log debug messages" (6).