The player and its controls
Live pause, audio language, subtitles, quality, picture format, sleep timer, next episode and picture-in-picture.
On this page
Live, on phones and tablets
In portrait, the picture fills the top of the screen. Below it: the channel, the LIVE badge (or Delayed), the program on now with its progress, what’s on Next, then a row of buttons:
Exit · Record Premium · Favorite · Quality · Audio language · Subtitles · Picture format · Switch to landscape
The group’s channel list comes next, with the Categories button to change groups. A vertical swipe on the picture changes channels.
In landscape, the picture fills the whole screen. Tap it to show the banner and the controls (previous and next channel, channel list, pause, sleep timer…); they hide on their own after 5 seconds.
Live, with the remote
| Key | What it does in full screen |
|---|---|
| ▲ ▼ | Previous or next channel (also with CH+ and CH−) |
| ◀ | Channel list over the picture; ◀ again for categories |
| ▶ | Info banner: program on now and next |
| OK | Control panel |
| Number keys | Go to a channel number |
| ⏯ | Pause and play |
| Back | First closes whatever is open, then shrinks or exits the player |
The panel opened by OK has everything: Pause, Back to live, Channels, Previous channel, Next channel, Record Premium, Add to favorites Premium, Audio language, Subtitles, Quality, the picture format, Sleep timer and Restart stream. Each button’s name appears below the selection.
Live pause and delayed viewing
Pause a live channel: Zappia keeps recording the program on the device during the pause. When you resume, you watch in Delayed mode, exactly where you stopped. Back to live catches up with the program on now.
The maximum length of a pause is set in SettingsPlaybackLive pause: maximum length: 15 min, 30 min, 1 hour (the default), 2 hours or 4 hours.
Movies, episodes, catch-up and recordings
For anything that isn’t live, the player shows a position slider, the elapsed and remaining time, and the buttons Rewind 10 seconds, play/pause, Forward 30 seconds, Audio language, Subtitles, Picture format and Sleep timer.
On phones and tablets
Tap the picture to show the controls; they stay on screen while paused. Drag the slider to move around.
On TV, with the remote
◀ goes back 10 s, ▶ goes forward 10 s. ▲, ▼ or OK show the controls. The ⏪ and ⏩ keys go back 10 s and forward 30 s.
When you go back to a movie you started, the Resumed at 42:10 badge appears for a few seconds with the Start over button. A movie or episode counts as watched past 92%.
Audio language, subtitles and quality
- Audio language: choose among the stream’s tracks. If there’s no other track, Zappia tells you: No other track available for this stream.
- Subtitles: choose a language or Off. They’re only available if the stream includes them.
- Quality: for a channel offered in several versions (4K, FHD, HD, SD).
Set your default preferences in SettingsPlayback: Preferred audio language, Subtitles and Subtitle language.
Picture format
The format button cycles through Fit (the whole picture, with black bars if needed), Stretched (full screen, distorted picture), Zoom (full screen, edges cropped), then 16:9 and 4:3. Choose the default format in SettingsPlaybackPicture format.
Sleep timer
Sleep timer stops playback after 15 min, 30 min, 45 min, 1 hour, 1 hour 30 min or 2 hours. The stop time is shown (Stop scheduled at 11:30 PM). No timer cancels it.
Next episode
At the end of an episode, the Next episode: S1 E4 box offers Watch now or Cancel. If you do nothing, the next episode starts after 10 seconds.
Picture-in-picture
On phones and tablets, press Android’s home button during full-screen playback: the video keeps playing in a small window over your other apps. Tap it to go back to Zappia. The device must support picture-in-picture (most recent devices do).
When playback fails
Zappia never leaves you with an unexplained black screen: it tells you the cause (access denied, too many devices connected, server down…), shows its retries and offers Try again or Next channel. What each message means is explained in the Troubleshooting guide.