Help / Screens and schedules

Manage your screens

Screen details, TVs, portrait, pictures of the screen, restarts and updates.

The Screens page

Screens is the first page you see when you sign in. Across the top, 1 of 2 online (or however many you have) says at a glance how your screens are doing. Under it are four boxes:

Screens: how many you have, and in how many locations.
Up to date: how many show their playlist's latest published version.
Needs attention: screens that are offline or have nothing to play, with the reason. Click one to open it.
Library: how much your media takes up. Each screen keeps a copy of what its playlists use, so it plays offline.

At the bottom, a bar says whether every screen is in sync and when one last checked in. Screens check in every 15 seconds, so changes reach them quickly. Press Refresh to update the page.

What each status means

Status	What it means
Playing	Online, and showing the latest version of what it should be playing now.
Updating	Online and downloading a newer version, or switching to another playlist. Normal for a minute after you publish.
Offline	It hasn't checked in lately. It keeps playing what it has, but can't get changes until it's back. The card says for how long: “Offline for 3 h. Check its power and network.”
Nothing to play	Online, but its playlist isn't published yet (“Its playlist isn't published yet.”) or it has no playlist at all (“No playlist to play yet.”). Publish a playlist, or choose one for it.

Find a screen

Search by a screen's name, its location or its group.
Status and Playlist filters show only the screens in that state, or playing that playlist.
Locations and Groups down the left show only their screens. A dot next to one means some of its screens need attention. See Groups and locations.
Switch between the Grid view, with a card and picture for each screen, and the List view, a table with each screen's status, playlist, location and when it was last seen.

A screen's card

Each card shows a picture of the playlist it's playing, its status, and whether its TVs are landscape or portrait and how many. Below that:

Playlist: what it plays now. Click it to open the playlist.
Chosen by: why it plays that: Its own choice, Its group, Its location, The default playlist, or Its schedule, for now.
Version: which published version it has, and whether it's getting a newer one.
Loop: how many slides the playlist has and how long it takes to play them all.

Change Playlist picks what it plays, and saves as soon as you choose. Choose None of its own to have it play its group's, its location's or the default playlist. You'll see, for example, Front counter plays Lunch. It changes within 15 seconds., or …once it's published if that playlist hasn't been published yet. New Playlist for makes a new playlist just for this screen.

Screen Details

Click a screen's card (or its row in the list) to open Screen Details beside it. From top to bottom:

Name, playlist, location and group

Click the screen's name at the top to rename it (up to 80 characters). You'll see Renamed.
At the bottom, set its Playlist (or leave it on the default), its Location (choose one or type a new name) and its Group, then press Save. The Group field shows once you have a group.

Playing

What the screen plays and why: the playlist, what chose it, the version it has on screen, the latest published version and when it was published, and how long its loop is. Preview on Its TVs plays the latest published version laid out for this screen's TVs, with only the slides scheduled for right now.

Screen

Whether it's Online or Offline, its Last check-in, and its Screen ID. Give us the Screen ID if you contact support about this screen.

Schedule

A week chart of what plays when, the times other playlists take over, and Preview at to see what plays at any date and time. See Schedules.

TVs

One TV (1920 × 1080) or Two TVs side by side (3840 × 1080 combined). Two TVs act as one wide picture, so a slide can stretch across both. A slide made for one TV plays on each of two.
Landscape (wide, the usual way) or Portrait (tall, turned on its side: 1080 × 1920 each). Both TVs on a screen face the same way, so one slide fits them both. For portrait, say which way each TV was turned to stand it up: Clockwise or Counterclockwise. Picture upside down? Choose the other way. The TVs go blank for a few seconds while they turn.
Swap TVs (two TVs only): if the left TV shows the right half of your slides, swap them here instead of moving cables. The TV on HDMI port 1 is the left one in the picture.
Show TV Names puts each TV's name and HDMI port on it in big letters for a minute (one TV shows the screen's name), so you can see which is which. They take up to 15 seconds to appear. Hide TV Names takes them off sooner.
Frame gap (two TVs only, 0 to 120 px): pictures that span both TVs skip the strip hidden behind the TVs' frames, so straight lines stay straight. Raise it until a line across both TVs lines up, then press Save.
TV size, corner to corner, from 24 to 98 inches. Design's preview uses it to show what reads from across the room.

Each change reaches the screen within 15 seconds, for example One TV. The screen changes within 15 seconds.

Two TVs on one screen, and portrait TVs, come with the Basic and Premium plans. A screen set up that way before a downgrade keeps its TVs; what's refused is adding a second TV or turning one.

TV Power

Turn TVs On Now, Turn TVs Off Now, Test TV Power and TV Times, for switching the TVs on and off by themselves. See TV power.

What It's Sending

A picture of exactly what the player is sending each TV, taken by the player itself: the best way to check a screen you can't see. Press Take a New Picture and it appears within 30 seconds (Front counter sends a new picture within 30 seconds.). Each TV's picture is labelled with its HDMI port and when it was taken; portrait TVs' pictures are turned upright for you.

The player can't tell whether a TV is switched on or set to the right input. If the picture looks right but the TV doesn't, check the TV. Only the latest picture of each TV is kept, for 7 days.

Restart

Restart Player reopens the picture on each TV. Try it first if a TV looks stuck. You'll see Front counter reopens its TV windows within 30 seconds.
Restart Device turns the player off and on again, for when that doesn't help. Its TVs go dark for about a minute.

Below the buttons you'll see how the last restart went: asked, done at a time, didn't work (with the screen's reason), or expired. Restarting doesn't set off an offline alert.

Screen pictures and restarts come with the Premium plan. A screen does what you ask at its next check-in, within 30 seconds when it's online. An offline screen does it only if it's back within 10 minutes; after that the request expires, so it never surprises anyone later. Each screen can be asked the same thing up to 5 times an hour.

Software

The player's software version and what its updates are doing. Players update themselves overnight, between 2 and 5 in the morning in your business's time zone, while you're closed. A new version has to play on every TV for a minute before it's kept; if it doesn't, the player goes back to the version it had.

Software says	What it means
Up to date	It runs the newest version for its updates setting.
Downloading, then “is ready; it installs overnight”	A new version is on its way and installs in the night.
Installing, then Restarting into	It's installing the new version and restarting into it.
didn't work, so it went back	The new version didn't play properly, so the player kept the old one. It won't try that version again.
Too old to update by itself	The player needs a fresh copy of its software. Contact support; what it plays now keeps playing.
Can't check for updates	It couldn't check for new versions. It keeps playing; check its internet connection.

Owners can choose which releases a screen follows under Updates: Stable, Early releases (a few days before everyone else), or the same as the business. The business's own choice is under Software updates in Settings.

Replace

For when a player stops working: type the code a new player shows, and it takes over this screen's name, playlist, TVs and schedules. See Replace a player.

Remove

Remove at the bottom stops the screen playing and shows a new code on its TV, ready to be added again. See Remove a screen.

Who can do what

Owners and editors can add, change, restart, replace and remove screens.
Viewers see everything on Screens, including the pictures, but can't change anything.
Owners alone choose which software releases a screen follows.

See People and roles.

Still stuck? Email support@pixigns.com with your business's address and the screen's name, and we'll help.