Help / Screens and schedules

TV power

Turn your TVs on and off on a schedule, or right now.

Your player can switch its TVs on and off by itself through the HDMI cable, so nobody has to find the remote at opening and closing time. You can set times for each day of the week, or turn the TVs on or off right now from anywhere. TV power comes with the Premium plan.

Before you start: HDMI control on the TV

The player switches TVs using HDMI control, which most TVs have but often ship with turned off. In the TV's settings menu, turn it on. Each brand calls it something different:

Then use Test TV Power to check that each TV answers.

Set TV times

TV times say when the TVs are on, day by day. You can set them for a whole location, or for one screen.

For a location

1. In Screens, choose the location on the left.
2. Press TV Power.
3. Choose Always on (the screens leave their TVs on) or Set times.
4. With Set times, tick each day the TVs should come on and set TVs on and TVs off. A day that isn't ticked is Off all day.
5. Press Save.

You'll see TV times saved. The screens follow them within 15 seconds. Every screen at the location follows these times, except screens with their own.

For one screen

1. In Screens, open the screen.
2. Under TV Power, press TV Times.
3. Choose one:
   • Its location's times (shown with the location's name): the same times as the other screens there.
   • Always on: this screen leaves its TVs on, whatever its location's times.
   • Its own times: this screen turns its TVs on and off by itself, at times you set for it.
4. Press Save.

A screen without a location leaves its TVs on unless you give it its own times.

How the times work

• Times are in your business's time zone, set in Settings.
• An off time earlier than the on time runs past midnight: 07:00 to 01:00 keeps the TVs on until 1 am the next morning.
• The screen keeps its times itself, so they work without the internet too. After a power cut during the off hours, the TVs stay off.
• The player only switches at the on and off times. If someone turns a TV on with its remote in between, it stays on until the next off time.
• While the TVs are meant to be off, the player also sends them a black picture with no music or video. A TV that ignores the off command shows black instead of your slides. When they come back on, the slides pick up where they would have been.

Turn TVs on or off now

In a screen's details, under TV Power, press Turn TVs On Now or Turn TVs Off Now. You'll see, for example, Front Counter turns its TVs off within 30 seconds, until their next on time.

• On or off now lasts until the TVs' next on or off time, then the TV times take over again. With no times set, it lasts until you press the other button.
• Saving new TV times ends it straight away.
• While the TVs are off, music stops and videos pause.

The screen does it at its next check-in. Its details show how it went: asked, done at a time, or didn't work with the reason. A screen that's offline does it if it's back within 10 minutes; after that, the request expires so it can't surprise anyone later.

Test TV Power

Press Test TV Power to have the screen turn each of its TVs off and back on. It takes about a minute. Afterwards the details say which TVs answered the last power command, for example Left TV (HDMI port 1) answered.

A TV that didn't answer gets a note: it doesn't respond to power commands, and which setting to turn on. Until then, the screen shows that TV a black picture instead of turning it off.

Who can change TV power

Owners and editors set TV times and turn TVs on and off. Viewers can see the times and the last command, but can't change them. Each screen can be asked the same thing at most 5 times an hour.

TV power and offline alerts

Turning the TVs off doesn't take a screen offline: the player stays on and keeps checking in. And while a screen's TV times say its TVs are off, Pixigns doesn't send offline alerts for it, so you can switch the player off at the wall overnight. See Offline play and alerts.

If something goes wrong

• A TV doesn't turn on or off. Turn on HDMI control in the TV's settings (see the table above), then press Test TV Power.
• “didn't work: No TV answered on HDMI”. No TV answered the command. Check the HDMI cable and the TV's HDMI control setting.
• “This screen has been asked that 5 times in the last hour. Try again later.” Wait a while before asking again.
• “Turning TVs on and off comes with the Premium plan.” An owner can choose Premium in Settings, under Billing. See Plans and billing.