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Additional BrightSign FAQs

Ian Maison avatar
Written by Ian Maison
Updated yesterday

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


Network.json file has caused a bootloop. What now?

If you find that your device is now bootlooping after adding a network.json file, we would recommend:

  • Removing the SD card manually

  • Remove the network.json file from the data folder

  • Insert the storage device back into the Brightsign (Ensure you have an ethernet cable connected to the player to establish an active connection)

  • Then attempt to connect to the player again via DWS

  • Upload the new network.json with the details for your Wireless access point

If the details provided in your new network.json file are correct, the player should connect and boot into Signagelive. If the issue persists, you should try a mobile hotspot to rule out any incorrect details for the primary Wi-Fi access point.

Gapless Widget Playback - How do I ensure no gaps between my widgets?

To enable this feature, press Ctrl + S while Signagelive runs and tick it on the settings menu. Our team are working on adding this feature to the Brightsign Generation tool, it can be enabled by manually editing the file with the following instructions:

"gaplessWidgetTransitions":true,

Put this setting in after the keyboardEvent JSON object.

How many videos can I display on my Brightsign device? - Multivideo support

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

XC2055

  • 1 x 8K (8 bit)

  • 2 x 4K

XC4055

  • 1 x 8K (10 bit)

  • 4 x 4K

XD5

  • 2 x 4K or HD video

HD5

  • 2 x HD

  • 1 x 4K

LS425

  • 1 x HD

LS445

  • 1 x 4k

  • 1 x HD

XT4

  • 1 x HD or 4K

  • 2 x HD or 4K

XD4

  • 1 x HD

  • 2 x HD

  • 1 x 4K

HD4, HS224

  • 1 x 4K

  • 1 x HD

LS4, HS124

  • 1 x HD

XT3

  • 1 x HD

  • 2 x HD

  • 1 x 4K

  • 1 x 4K + 1 x HD

XD3

  • 1 x HD

  • 2 x HD

  • 1 x 4K

HD3, HS3

  • 1 x HD

LS3

  • 1 x HD

  • Note 1: For the purposes of this, HD means up to 1920x1080 and 4K means up to 3840x2160. 1922x1082 would count as “4K” as it is too large for the HD decoder and must use the 4K decoder.

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.

Which video codecs does my Brightsign Support? - Codec Support

4K codec support

8K codec support

XD3, XT3

  • H.265 (HEVC)

XC5

  • H.265 (HEVC)

HD4, XD4, XT4, XC5, XD5

  • H.264 (AVC)

  • H.265 (HEVC)

Audio codec support

The following audio codecs are supported across all BrightSign Players:

AAC, MP3, MP2, WAV, AC3 (pass through only)

Please Note

Audio does not currently work on the BrightSign XC5.

Why does my 4K Portrait video look “corrupted”?

Many Brightsign devices 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 1080x1920, not auto. See how to configure your Brightsign for portrait display.

Why is my video appearing over all my other content?

Your player may have “video transparency” enabled; this can be disabled by uploading a new settings.json file into your data folder with this setting unticked.

What does the “video transparency” option on the XT series players do?

This option only allows the user to overlay a partially transparent video over an HDMI input signal.

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.

How can I play multiple audio sources at once?

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.

Is an internet connection required for content playback?

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.

I have a BrightSign connected to a 4K/8K screen but it shows as 1920x1080 in Signagelive and images/websites don’t appear as I would expect?

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.

What is the pin mapping for the GPIO module?

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.

What are the default credentials for the BrightSign Diagnostic Web Server (DWS)?

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

What is PTP?

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.

What devices are in which family?

Model

Series

Family

LS3, HD3, HS3, HO3

3

Pantera

XD3, XT3

3

Impala

LS4, HD4, HS4

4

Pagani

XD4, XT4

4

Malibu

XC5

5

Raptor

LS5, HD5, XD5

5

Cobra

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