zApp is an app that allows you to play your recordings from Windows and Mac devices. You can use zApp to take your ATSC 1.0 recordings with you when you travel. If you have a dual or a quad tuner, you can record both the ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0 versions of a simulcast show so you can watch the best quality at home and travel with the ATSC 1.0 version using zApp.
Download zApp at this link. zApp for Windows and macOS are hosted on OneDrive. Currently, these versions are not signed with a developer license and may give you install warning. We are working to create signed versions.
How to make ZapperBox drives readable on a Mac: Dues to a bug in Android any storage device formatted on a ZapperBox is not readable by macOS. You can fix this by running a script on your Mac that can be downloaded from this link. Please review the "README.txt" instruction carefully before using the script.
Finding recordings on the storage device from your ZapperBox: All recordings made on your ZapperBox are kept in the following folder \Android\data\com.bitrouter.zapperbox\files\recordings. The Windows drive (like C:, D:, E:, etc.) will vary for each computer. Each recording is in a directory with a name that has the format of YYYYMMDD_xxxxxx. The YYYYMMDD is the date when the recording was made and xxxxxx are random characters to make the name unique.
Notes for zApp Python source code: zApp v1.0.3 is also a command line utility written in Python that is available in source code form in case you want to modify it yourself. You can download the zApp Python source code at this link.
- You can run zApp on any platforms that supports Python, which is practically everything.
- zApp v1.0 is a command line utility suitable for tech-savvy customers.
- zApp converts our proprietary HLS manifest format into a standard format that can be played by tools like VLC.
- We have not tested with Windows Media Player, QuickTime or standard Google players yet.
- zApp v1.0 can only convert recordings made with v3.2.5 or later. v3.2.5 was released on April 7, 2025. This is another reason to always run the latest software version.
- Currently ATSC 3.0 clear recordings play without audio because VLC does not support Dolby AC-4.
How to copy or backup ZapperBox recordings:
1. Format another drive on your ZapperBox. Let’s call this the target drive.
2. Plug both the source drive and target drives into you PC or Mac.
3. If you are using a Mac you will need to run the script described in the second paragraph to make the drives readable on your Mac.
4. Copy the contents of the “\Android\data\com.bitrouter.zapperbox\files\recordings” folder from the source drive to the target drive's "recordings" folder.
5. Plug the target drive into the ZapperBox to verify the backup worked and all your recordings appear in the DVR library.
6. Remove the target drive and plug your original source drive back into the ZapperBox.
