If you are the kind of person that pays careful attention to things, then you will have noticed by now that there are two places to plug video cables into the Snappy hardware module, one labeled Video In, and one labeled Video Thru. If one (Video In) is to get the output of your video source into Snappy, what's the other (Video Thru) one for? It is for getting the output of your video source to a TV set at the same time as Snappy sees it.

When you take advantage of this option, Snappy acts like a transparent viewing window: you can watch what is happening on the TV set and take a snapshot whenever the time is right. This setup is great when you need to closely monitor a tape, laserdisc or live television signal so that you can grab just the right scene, or if you have a camcorder on a copystand and want to focus in on artwork of different sizes: looking at the TV set shows you exactly what Snappy is going to snap, and is much more convenient than those tiny little viewfinders most camcorders have. Here's how to make the connection:

Connect the Video Thru connector of the Snappy Hardware Module to the Video In connector of a separate TV set using a standard video cable.

When you turn on the TV set, you will notice that your video source looks too dark. There is a very simple way to fix this:

Click on the Setup button

This will display Video Through on the Setup controls (figure 1).


figure 1: The Video Through Button

Set the Video Through option to the Connected To TVsetting.

Whenever you use a TV set with Snappy, you will have to set the Video Through option to Connected to TV, so that Snappy can deal properly with the extra load on the video signal. If you ever remove the TV, you will need to set the option back to Not Connected To TV to avoid the opposite problem of having the picture appear too bright. Note that pressing v on the keyboard toggles the Video Through option between Connected To TV and Not Connected To TV.


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