In this article, you will find additional information addressing other frequently asked BrightSign-related questions.

The table below shows the various configurations for showing video on each model:

It should be noted that you can run into issues if you attempt to play multiple simultaneous videos (including HDMI) with different audio sample rates. If you are not using audio, we recommend that it be removed from the videos or disabled via the player setup screen.

This means that the player is unable to connect to the Player API to check that the model and firmware are supported. Check that the network is connected and that there are no firewalls blocking any of our IPs/domains.

The XT3 & 4 and XD3 & 4 can only play 4k video in landscape. The same limitation applies to FHD video when playing on a 4k screen. To play in portrait, the device output must be set to 1920x1080, not auto. See BrightSign FAQ.

The user has enabled “video transparency” which should be disabled unless you want your video to be transparent. See below for more info.

This option is only designed to allow the user to overlay a partially transparent video over an HDMI input. Any black areas of the video will appear transparent, and the video will appear on top of any other graphics elements, including our info screen. You will not be able to overlay any graphics (PNGs) over the video window. If you are not trying to use a video overlay over an HDMI input, this setting should remain disabled.

In most cases we advise against using multiple audio sources in a single publication (for example using a Layout with two separate videos playing at the same time) as these audio sources need to be summed into one output in order for the device to play this back. This can sometimes lead to audio issues, therefore we recommend not exceeding more than one audio source at once. If using more than one video, please remove the audio codec from any videos you do not wish to hear. See our encoding article for more information.

An internet connection is not required for local content playback on any BrightSign devices.

The LS4 does require an internet connection to be present at bootup in order to set the time, as it does not have an onboard battery. Once this is done, it is no longer required until power is lost again. Later versions of the LS4 were built with this battery and do not have this issue.

The graphics pane on BrightSigns is limited in most cases to 1920x1080. When using a 4k/8k screen, this can lead to poor rendering. The XT3, XT4 and XC5 players support “full resolution graphics”. To enable this, the player resolution must be set via our config tool to be the resolution of the screen. Other players do not support this, however where 4k video is supported, these will show at the correct resolution, regardless of the resolution reported by the Signagelive application. Note: The XC5 is the only player series supporting 8K graphics so far.

The following diagrams show the pin layout and function for the 12-pin GPIO ports.

To send a button “down” event, you need to connect the appropriate button pin to ground, i.e. GPIO2 down would mean connecting pins 1 and 5. When the circuit is broken, you will get the “up” event.

Do not connect the 3.3V supply (pins 2 and 8) to any other pins.

The default username is “admin” and the default password is the serial number of the device.

PTP stands for Precision Time Protocol. All BrightSign players can be members of a PTP domain, which means that one player will be a master and the others on the network will be slaves. Only the master will connect to the NTP server, the rest will sync time from this player. This is required for video frame sync and the reason all players are members of the domain is that it requires a reboot to enable and disable PTP. As of version 1.47, use of PTP can be configured in the setup screen. Prior to this, all players were automatically members of a PTP domain.