Screens and Players
Understand the difference between a screen, a Player and an output, and find your screens in the application.
The Screens area of the application covers everything about your physical screens: adding them, their format, their license and the devices that run them. You find it in the Screens menu, which includes All screens and Players.
This section explains how to manage screens and Players in the application. To install the Player software on a device (browser, Windows, Linux, Raspberry Pi, Android TV), see the Players section.
Screen, Player and output
Pixlova distinguishes three notions.
| Notion | What it is | What you set there |
|---|---|---|
| Screen | The screen as it appears in Pixlova: a name, a format (size in pixels, rotation), a time zone, a site and a license. This is the screen you schedule. | Name, format, rotation, time zone, license, schedule. |
| Player | The device that shows your content: a mini PC plugged into the screen (native Player), or a smart TV, a tablet or a computer that opens the web Player. It downloads your content and plays it, even if the Internet goes down. | Name, machine settings, version, remote commands. |
| Output | A video port of the Player, for example an HDMI output. A Player can have several outputs; each one shows one screen. For the web Player, each tab opened on a player number is an output. | Nothing directly: the output is chosen by the pairing code you enter. |
A few rules to keep in mind:
- A screen has one Player at a time, and more precisely one output of that Player.
- Each output shows its own pairing code. The screen stays bound to the port whose code you enter.
- A Player never changes screens. An output that has already shown a screen stays bound to it, even after it is detached. To reuse a device elsewhere, delete its Player, then pair the device again with a new code: it will be a new Player.
- Pairing a Player creates no screen and no license. The screen uses a license, not the Player.
Screen licenses
You can create as many screens as you like, but only active screens play content. Each active screen uses one license from your plan. At the top of the Screens page, the Screen licenses box shows how many active screens you have compared with the number of licenses in your plan.
- An inactive screen keeps its name, its Player and its schedule, but only shows the standby screen.
- To activate a screen, use the Activate button in the list or the switch on the License card in its settings. If all licenses are in use, you can move another screen’s license or change plan. See Screen settings.
- If all your licenses are in use and you are allowed to manage the subscription, the More licenses button takes you to the plan change (see Plans and billing).
The screen list
The Screens page lists the screens of the site chosen in the header (or of all sites). For each screen, the table shows:
| Column | Content |
|---|---|
| Preview | A thumbnail in the shape of the screen. |
| Screen | The screen’s name (click it to open its page) and its site. The Inactive site badge flags a site that is inactive with your current plan. |
| Size | The size in pixels, the shape (Landscape, Portrait or Square) and any rotation. |
| State | Online, Offline (with the time of last contact) or Never connected; No Player if no Player is paired. |
| Playback | What the screen shows: Playing, Fallback content, Scheduled standby or Playback error. An offline screen shows Last program received, played locally. |
| Player | The Player’s name and its output, or the Pair a Player → link. |
| License | Active or Inactive, with the Activate button for an inactive screen. |
Offline does not mean switched off
An Offline screen is a screen whose Player has not contacted Pixlova recently. It usually keeps playing the last program received, locally. To monitor your screens, see the Monitoring section.
Above the table, you can filter by state (All, Online, Offline, Without Player) and search for a screen by name.
Who can do what
- Adding a screen, changing its settings, activating it or deleting it requires the technical configuration permission.
- Pairing a Player or changing a screen’s Player requires the pairing permission.
- Updating a Player, rolling it back or restarting its machine requires the disruptive commands permission.
With the standard roles, these permissions are granted to the Owner, Administrator and Technician roles. Other members see screens and Players read-only. See Organization.
In this section
Add a screen
Create a screen and pair it with its Player using the code shown.
Screen settings
Name, format, rotation, time zone, Player, license and deletion.
Manage Players
Player list, Player page, machine state and settings.
Player updates
The “Player version” card: installed version, update and rollback.