YTV Clone – User Guide

 

Overview

YTV Clone is a simple app which duplicates (clones) Chrome browser windows and creates Picture in Picture (PIP) browsers centered around videos played in the browser. This app is compatible with all Windows versions, does not use Windows resources and does not load up your CPU. This version only works with Google Chrome browser.

YTV Clone is particularly suited for:

 

·       watching multiple Internet TV channels on a PC at once using Internet TV apps like Google YouTube TV

·       watching multiple Internet TV channels on a TV by connecting your PC to TV using HDMI cable or a WIFI PC to TV streaming devices like Google Chromecast

·       creating Picture in Picture videos which allows you to share your computer screen between your work and your favorite video shows

·        

YTV Clone is designed to work particularly with Google YouTube TV streaming app (https://tv.youtube.com/live) but any other Internet TV streaming app will work the same.

TV streaming apps usually require subscription and they’re not available everywhere, but you can use YTV Clone to clone any video played in the Chrome browser. Netflix, Amazon, ABC, BBC, KBPS, History and Science channels are just a few of the websites broadcasting video content which can be cloned.

 

How YTV Clone works

 

YTV Clone makes one or more PIP browsers which are miniature copies of the Chrome browser preserving the most important browser controls available as a right-click pop-up menu. The PIP browsers center around videos played in the browser and create cloned Picture in Picture videos.

Note: In case you need to clone the video window only with no other browser controls or artifacts around you can use our Video Clone Plus program (check our website).

 

Great things you can do with YTV Clone

·       Watch two or more TV shows simultaneously (a feature your TV set does not provide)

·       Turn off your regular TV and watch your favorite shows on your computer with Picture in Picture capability (another feature that your TV set does not provide)

·       Use your computer screen for doing your work while watching TV shows on the same screen.

 

System Requirements

·       All Windows versions, Mac (with Bootcamp or Parallels installed)

·       Chrome web browser (preferable, last version)

·       At least a dual core CPU, 2 GHz, 4 GB RAM

Installation

YTV Clone can be installed on administrator or user accounts. The program does not need elevated privileges.

 

Running YTV Clone

1.   Setup a show:
• Open the Chrome browser to your show page, stop, pause or close video playing in the browser (if any), open YTV Clone.
• Copy/paste the browser URL from the browser address to YTV Clone Copy/Paste URL edit box. The website name/logo is also displayed on Website name/logo (if the web site name/logo doesn’t show click the Reset button and try again. Click the top of the browser window to setup focus).
• Minimize all open Chrome browser windows (YTV Clone will do this if you don’t do it). It is also good but not necessary to close the Chrome tab that you want to PIP.

2.   Open a PIP show: 
• Click Open show to open the show in a PIP browser. Optional, if you want to save the show URL and name type a friendly name on the Friendly name edit box.

3.   Save a show: 
• To save a show URL, website logo and friendly name click Save.

Important: In some cases (usually live broadcasts) the saved show URL may no longer be valid (Google YouTube TV app shows ‘recording is not allowed…’). You need to reset the show URL and get the new one as shown above.

4.   Run multiple shows:
• Select one or more shows in the show list (up to six) then click Open shows. YTV Clone opens the PIP browsers. The size and position of the cloned windows is automatically determined as a function of the number of shows and your screen resolution (see Main controls and menus below if you want to use your own settings for the size and position of the PIP browsers).

Note: Google YouTube TV is the only YV streamer (we tested) which allows running more than two TV shows at once.

Warning: avoid overloading your CPU by running too many cloned videos at the same time. We recommend a maximum of four cloned videos (PIP browsers) running simultaneously on your screen.

5.   Run preset configurations:
The preset configurations can be opened using the Preset dropdown list. The configuration of the cloned windows is shown in a pop up window when you select a preset.

 

6.   Cast to TV:
Using a PC to TV streaming device (Google Chromecast for example) you can cast your desktop and the cloned videos to your TV. Note that casting the desktop creates additional loading to the CPU in which case the TV image may look choppy. In this case, you can use an HDMI cable instead of a wireless device.

 

 

Main controls and menus

 

 

ytv_main1

 

 

Auto size and position option can be used to automatically scale and position the cloned windows.

Custom size and position. In custom mode, the cloned windows have the size and position you’ve setup (provided the PIP window titles are not the same).

Set all opened windows on top option is the default option for positioning the cloned windows on top of other opened windows. This can be changed according to your needs.

Use the Reset button on the main screen to:

·       clear the URL, Website name, Friendly name. Use this function if the website name was not captured or not captured correctly

·       clear the Preset dropdown list

 

The PIP video menu

 

ytv_pip_menu

 

The PIP video menu opens when you slowly hover the mouse over the left side of the PIP browser. The settings apply individually to each browser.

 

Set on top option should be used especially when the background window is a full screen window and you want the PIP window to always be on top.

 

You can also add/remove transparency to the PIP video, mute/unmute the Chrome browser, remove/restore the borders and caption bar of the PIP window and a few other options.

 

Note that the Mute/Unmute control applies to all Chrome browser windows not to individual PIP windows. However, all cloned videos have their own audio control which can be used to mute or adjust individual audio volume.

 

 

The system tray menu

 

 

ytv_tskmenu

 

The menu shown above opens when you click the system tray icon (located under taskbar hidden icons or on your taskbar). With this you can control some of the features of the cloned videos. You can minimize, restore, mute or close all opened cloned videos. Note that when you close and reopen YTV Clone the program will not have any control over the windows left open from a previous run.

 

The PIP browser control menu

 

ytv_control_menu

 

The PIP browser control menu opens when you right click the top bar of the cloned windows. It offers a few basic Chrome browser controls. You can use the Zoom function to fit larger videos in smaller PIP windows.

 

Video tutorials

 

·       PIP and clone a YouTube TV channel (from https://tv.youtube.com/live)
Shows how to open the YouTube TV web site, select a channel, copy/paste the video URL and website logo, assign a friendly name and save the show, close the Chrome browser, open the PIP browser and show the options available from the PIP menu and the PIP browser control menu.

·       PIP a web TV episode

Shows how to copy/paste a TV episode URL, close the original browser then click ‘Open Show’ to open the PIP browser.

·       Clone a YouTube video from www.youtube.com
Shows how to copy/paste the video URL and how to open the PIP browser. The video URL is not saved.

·       Watch three TV channels
Shows how to use the Clone 2 preset to clone a main TV show in the center and clone two other shows on the side. Shows also, how to remove borders and turn on/off audio.

·       Watch a sports show and a PIP news channel
Shows how to use the Clone 3 preset to clone a main TV show and PIP’s a news channel. Shows also, how to make the PIP channel top window while running the main show full screen, minimize the PIP video, remove borders, apply two levels of transparency and turn on/off audio.

·       Watch a full screen movie and PIP a sports channel
Shows how to watch a movie played in the Firefox browser and PIP a soccer game played in the Chrome browser using the fuboTV streamer. Shows also how to remove borders and apply transparency.

·       Watch four news channels
Shows how to use the Size 2 preset to fill the screen with four PIP windows. Shows also how to turn on/off audio on each PIP window.

·       Rescale a video that doesn’t fit the PIP browser
Shows how copy/paste the Chrome browser URL then open the PIP browser. The PIP browser is maximized in order to select a video, then it is restored to its original size and video is played. The video size does not fit the PIP browser window. “Ctrl –“ key combination is used a few times to lower the video size until it fits the PIP browser. When opened again, the PIP browser remembers the lowered size.

 

Troubleshooting

 

·       Nothing works: Make sure your browser is Google Chrome, latest version.

·       Cloned videos are slow, non-responsive: Too many cloned video windows opened. Close some of the cloned windows or stop playing some of the videos. Stop any other videos played in your Chrome browser (or other open apps playing videos).

·       PIP menu and system tray controls don’t work: this can occur if YTV Clone was closed without closing the cloned videos. Close this window and open again.

·       Chrome browser has no audio: the audio was muted and all PIP browsers were closed. Restart YTV Clone, open a saved show and unmute audio. Or, open Chrome browser, right click the speaker icon in your taskbar, click ‘Open volume mixer’ and unmute audio.

·       Any other issues: Close/restart YTV Clone, Restore initial settings.

 

 

 

 

 

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