- What is the difference between DisplayIt! and DisplayIt!X software?
1) DisplayIt!X plays all content full screen, while DisplayIt! allows you to define areas (zones)
for playing different types of content on the same screen at the same time. If you want content zones in DisplayIt!X, you would
use tools like Flypaper to design media that has pictures, movies, web areas, time, temperature, weather, RSS feeds and
more, all on the same screen.
2) DisplayIt!X uses Outlook for scheduling content. There is no administrative function within DisplayIt!X. To
schedule, you create an event in Outlook, attach content files to that event, and then invite the room resource for that display.
3) DisplayIt! has its own scheduling calendar that goes out two years. This is part of the administrative software that is
placed on one or more computers to control display content and scheduling.
4) DisplayIt!X allows control of digital signs through the file system. You can add, update, or remove content directly
from a special folder on the display PC to update the content that is playing. DisplayIt! requires that all updates be done
via the Administrator interface.
5) DisplayIt!X is self updating. Maintenance customers do not have to do anything to receive new features. The software
watches for the latest update and will self install it in a matter of seconds. DisplayIt! requires an installer download on
each administrative PC. Then media player software is updated by any of the administrators by initiating an update process.
6) DisplayIt! uses FTP communications to send content and schedules to players. DisplayIt!X relies on the availability
of Outlook on each display PC, or a connection via the network to the files on the display PC.
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- Can I run DisplayIt! and DI Player on a single PC?
Although it is technically possible to run DisplayIt! and DI Player on a single machine,
it is clumsy and defeats the purpose. To update the content or the schedule, you would have
to connect a keyboard, quit out of the DI Player software (by holding down the CTRL key) and
then start the DisplayIt! software. When you are done, you would quit the DisplayIt! software
and then restart the player or click on the Startup>WatchDIPlayer shortcut. Not nearly as
efficient as simply loading the administrative software (DisplayIt!) on your desktop PC and
only the player software on the media player PC.
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- Which software should be installed first? DisplayIt! or DI Player?
For most people, having at least one player set up before installing DisplayIt! is better. This way, when you,
start up DisplayIt! you will be able to immediately go to the Displays tab and add your first display. This will
'connect the dots' allowing you to understand the functionality of the software more completely. Otherwise, the
Schedule tab will not be available to you and you will only be able to see your presentations in the tiny preview
window.
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- When I set up a media player PC, is there anything special I need to do?
Yes. When you first run a PC, Windows will ask you to set some preliminary configuration parameters. Among them is a name and password for
the PC. You can give it a name, but DO NOT give it a password. Leave the password field blank. This will make it a lot easier later when you
are setting the control panel for the machine.
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- My displays are in Portrait mode, is there anything special I need to do for that?
Yes. Set your display to Portrait mode Orientation using the Display - Screen Resolution Control Panel FIRST - Before you install the
DI Player software. This is critical because the installation wizard determines which software to install, Landscape or Portrait, by reading
the settings in the Display control panel.
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- Can more than one LCD screen be connected to one media player?
Yes, more than one screen can be connected to a single media player. This can be done via a 'splitter' that takes
the video and audio signal and splits it into multiple signals, or by daisy-chaining together multiple displays that
have this functionality. No matter how you accomplish this, there is only ONE software license required. Please note
that all of the screens connected to a single media player will be showing the same content.
- Is having an internet connection a prerequisite for DisplayIt! to work?
No, a LAN is fine... unless you are trying to show content from the Internet such as a web page, weather, or
RSS feeds.
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- What is the minimum configuration for the DisplayIt! Administrative Software?
Computer and processor: 1 gigahertz (MHz) processor or higher; Memory: 512 MB; Hard disk: 600 MB for software, plus
room for media content; Display: 1024 × 768 or higher-resolution monitor; Operating system: 32-bit edition of XP, Windows 7 or Vista. (virtual machine is OK)
- Can I use any RSS feed on the Internet for my displays?
Best Wave cannot give you permission to a particular RSS feed, that permission can only come from the owner of that feed.
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- How are the displays connected to the media player PC?
That depends on the connections that the media player and display have. In most cases, a single HDMI cable is used because
that allows both high definition video and sound with a single cable connection.
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- Can more than one person in my company control the content on displays?
More than one workstation PC can have the (DisplayIt!) administrative software installed.
There is no license required for extra workstations. When installing, you will be asked where content should be stored.
This can be a shared folder or network drive, so that all the users are "pointing to" the same content library.
Alternatively you can install one administrative package and have users log into it via RDP, etc.
- Can multiple users be set up with their own user IDs and passwords?
DisplayIt! has an Administrative set up capability so that one administrator and up to 39 users can be defined
each with their own UserID, Password, and rights within the software.
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- Can DisplayIt! work with touch screens?
Yes, DisplayIt! can deploy content that is touch-ready. For example, PowerPoint and Flypaper presentations can have defined
buttons that users can touch. When the media player is connected to a monitor with a touch screen, the user can interact with
the content on the screen. Furthermore, DisplayIt! can control the schedule for the player, changing which interactive presentation
is being shown when. For example, a user could touch a menu item on the breakfast menu to learn its nutritional attributes in the
morning, and interact with a completely different menu during the lunch hour.
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- Can I see what is showing on a display screen from an administrative system?
Yes. The DI Player software snaps a screen shot every minute. It overlays each shot with the date, time, and presentation name.
You can see this by going to the Displays tab, selecting the display you want to see, and clicking the 'View Screen Shot' button.
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- Why would my schedule not work on a particular media player?
The most common reason for this problem is that the date and time on the media player PC are not set correctly. Go to the
Displays tab in DisplayIt!, select the display, and click the View Screen Shot button. Does the time and date match your system
time and date? If not, you need to reset the clock and calendar via the control panel.
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- Why can't I use a newer version of PowerPoint Show?
After PowerPoint 97, MicroSoft took away the ability for developers to control the size and placement of PowerPoint Shows. They
can only be displayed full screen. So, our player installer loads PowerPoint 97 Show, and the Access 2000 runtime library. This
combination gives most of the runtime functionality of the latest PowerPoint, but allows us to control size and placement according
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- I am getting a 'could not connect to media player' message. Why?
DisplayIt! uses three values to connect to a media player PC. 1) the IP address, 2) the FTP UserID, and 3) the FTP Password.
If any of these is incorrect, connecting will not work. Note that the UserID and Password are case sensitive, so be careful to
enter them exactly as you defined them in Filezilla on the media player PC. The other reason a connection might not work is if the
firewall on the media player PC is blocking it. Make sure the firewall is turned off in the control panel.
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- Can DisplayIt! be run on a server?
DisplayIt! is designed to run on one or more workstation computers. You can try setting it to compatibility mode for Windows
XP Service Pack 2, but that is not guaranteed to always work.
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- I want to place media players in remote locations. How do I do that?
DisplayIt! communicates with media player PCs via FTP (File Transfer Protocol). That means that it has to be able to connect to the media player
computer through the Internet. There are 3 things that FTP needs, 1) an IP Address, 2) a USERID, and 3) a Password. The UserId and Password are easy. They
can remain the same when you move the media player to a remote location. The IP Address is more complicated. The IP address that is given to a computer
connected to a network/router is an internal IP address. It is typically 192.168.1.xxx or something like that. That IP address can be seen only when connected
to the local network. To communicate from one location to another, you need an external (real-world) IP address that is unique across the Internet. The Internet
Service Provider at the remote location can provide you with an IP Address that is external, and static (will not change). The media player computer needs to be
set to that IP address, and the router that it is connected to needs to route incoming traffic for that IP address to the media player. A network specialist can
do this for you. It is out of the scope of Best Wave's software support to set up remote connections like this, as every router configuration is different.
We are happy to speak with your network specialist to explain what is needed.
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- Can I modify files that are in the media library already to skip the 'Add' step within DisplayIt!?
The answer is a qualified Yes. DisplayIt! saves information about digital video files when you add them to the media library. They are checked
to see when they were last modified, and a text file with that date is added to the library along with the video file. So, it is not good to modify digital video
files directly in the media library. On the other hand, images, Flash movies, and PowerPoint files do not have date files saved with them, and could be modified
directly. To do this, first, add the file to the media library through DisplayIt! the normal way. Then, open the media library folder within the
DisplayIt! content folder, and find the file you added. Make a shortcut to it, and place it on your desktop. Now you can modify that file directly.
Remember to re-save any Presentation that uses the file you have modified before clicking the "Send Schedule to Player" button.
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- Can DisplayIt! content be 'Cloud-Based' so that all the media players update automatically?
Yes. Certain types of content can be placed on a web server, and when that content is updated, all of the media players displaying that content will update automatically.
A good example is a slide show created in html. We have a sample here: www.bestwave.com/Examples/htmlSlideShow.zip To use this sample, download and unzip the zip file.
It contains a folder named "display01". This folder should be placed inside an Apache htdocs directory or IIS wwwroot directory.
Once it is there, you can go into DisplayIt! and perform these steps:
1) create a new presentation
2) name it
3) choose the "Full Screen Playlist" template from the pop-up
4) set the refresh time for web sites to 60 seconds (that is the default)
5) click +Add Web Site
6) enter this for the web site: http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/display01/index.html
(substituting the IP address of the machine running Apache or IIS for the xxx's)
7) save the presentation
8) now, schedule the presentation from 9AM-5PM in the Schedule tab
9) click "Send Schedule to Player"
Now, you can substitute some of your own images for any of the 7 that
are in the display01 folder. Within 60 seconds the new one(s) will be used.
The demo images are 1920x1080 - you might need bigger or smaller
images depending on the display resolution your players are set to. You can add more images to the slide
show, or make it show fewer images. Simply edit the 'index.html' file using a text editor like WordPad.
Instructions for adding more slides, changing the time per slide, and so forth are included as comments inside the index.html file.
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- Is DisplayIt! compatible with Windows 7 and Vista?
DisplayIt! is compatibile, but might have issues if it is installed in the typical installation folder. Windows 7 and Vista
can, depending upon security settings, block the writing of files within the Program Files folder. In that case, you can install
(or move) the Best Wave folder from Program Files to the root of your C: drive.
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- How can I update display content automatically from an Excel Spreadsheet?
You can publish any Excel spreadsheet or chart as a web page and include it in a Presentation. Publishing a web page from Excel, is explained in this article:
» » » Microsoft Office - Put Excel Data On A Web Page» » »
When you save the web page, you should save it in a specific location on your web service. Generally this is a folder within the Apache htdocs directory, or the IIS wwwroot directory.
Alternitavely, it can be a new folder within your corporate web site. Once that is done, add the URL (Address) of the generated page to a DisplayIt! Presentation, either as
an item in a Full-Screen-Playlist or as the URL for a web zone. If you use the Full-Screen-Playlist method, you will see the page as an entire screen, for a specified number of
minutes and seconds. If you use a web zone in a Presentation with other content, you can limit the view of the data to a specific section of the page, showing only the data that
you want people to see.
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- We are upgrading from NMP-530 web-based players to PCs. What should we do?
If you are using a DisplayIt! revision prior to 3.2, then it will need to be upgraded to the latest version. Otherwise,
your licenses for the old media players transfer directly to the new ones. Software upgrades for non-maintenance clients
are $300. If you have a maintenance agreement, simply request the update password from support@bestwave.com
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- My company's firewall is preventing downloading the installer from your web site. What can I do?
You can use an FTP client software program to download from our Guest FTP service. The userId and password are
BestWaveGuest and bwguest. You can also try this link in Explorer:ftp://BestWaveGuest.bestwave.com:bwguest@bestwave.com
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- Where does the media library and other content for DisplayIt! reside?
Everything related to administration is housed in a single folder. You select the location for that folder when you initially
install DisplayIt. The folder name is DisplayIt! and inside are your presentations, templates, media library, and display information.
It also contains your activation information. That way, you can install DisplayIt administrative software on as many computers as you need to
by selecting a network drive or shared folder on the network. Make sure that everyone set up that way has read/write ability to the folder you select.
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- How can I change the content folder location?
First, find the present location of the DisplayIt! folder. If you don't remember where you placed it originally, you can see the path
to the folder by clicking the 'DisplayIt Settings' button on the first screen of DisplayIt! Now, copy the folder to its new location. Finally,
on the DisplayIt Settings screen, browse for the new location. Do not select the DisplayIt! folder itself! Select one level up, the folder that
contains DisplayIt! Then quit and start DisplayIt! again.
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- I am installing DisplayIt! on another person's workstation. Can I use the Activation Code from last time?
No. DisplayIt! activation codes are computer and time specific. When you reach the Activation screen, click on the Get Code button, and
fill in the form. You will receive a new activation code for this computer in a few seconds.
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- The IP address of my media player PC has changed. What should I do?
First you need to find out what the new IP address is. If you restart the player manually, DI Player will display the IP in big red letters
right on the screen. If it has changed, go to the Displays tab of DisplayIt! on your administrative system, select the display, and update the IP.
Then, click Save Changes. It will ask if you want to update the player software. Say NO. To prevent this from recurring, you should make the IP
address on the media player PC static. This is done by changing the IP4 Preferences for the network connection (inside the network and sharing
control panel. Change it from DHCP (which gets its IP from the router) to a fixed address.
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- How can I update the software on the media player PC?
Updating the administrative software will place an updated copy of DI Player and DI Player Portrait on your workstation.
To send that newer software to the player(s), go to the Displays tab and select the first media player. Then click on the 'Save Changes'
button and answer the 'Update Software on the Player?' question 'YES'. This will update and restart the player. Do the same for each of your
players.
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- Can I update only one of the Administrative software workstations?
That is not a good idea. New functionality within DisplayIt! may alter the way that presentations are stored, and anyone with an older
version will take away the new features if they open and save the same presentation. So it is a best practice to update all of the worksations
that are using DisplayIt! at the same time. You can download the update file onto a thumb or network drive and use it over and over to speed
this process.
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- Do you have a recommendation on PC, Processor, RAM or Video Card/RAM for Resolution quality and performance?
The answer really depends on the content you intend to use. At the low end we see Atom processors with decent video chips. At the upper end
we see dual core systems with lots of cache and memory. Basically, if you are going to be playing video at 1080p resolution, you need a card/processor
that supports that. On the other hand, if all you do is show PowerPoint or slide shows and web sites that would be overkill.
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- How can I display dynamic content from a database or other source?
Many DisplayIt! clients want to display values that are constantly changing on their displays. For example, production data, or days without
accidents at a factory. This data can often be found within a database or spreadsheet. The easiest way to format and display this informaiton is
to create a simple web page that has variable field names inside - i.e. 'unitsProduced'. Then a small program that runs all the time and pulls that
data from the database is created. It automatically updates the variable fields in the web page HTML, and places the newest file on the web service.
Best Wave has experience writing this kind of automated software and can either assist your programmer or do it for a modest fee. It is a very
simple process once the formatting of the web page is decided upon.
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- When I clck the 'Get Logs' button on the Displays tab, where do the logs from the player end up?
The logs are placed into a folder named 'LOGS' inside of the same folder where DisplayIt! is installed. You can quickly go to
this folder by right-clicking your DisplayIt! shortcut and choosing properties. Then click the Find Target selection. Within the
LOGS folder will be another folder for each of the displays in your network, and the logs will be stored inside.
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- There are html files inside of the DisplayIt!/PRESENTATIONS folder. Does that mean presentations can be viewed from a browser?
No. Those html files are formatted for use with web-based media players like the Cisco 4305g and ViewSonic NMP-530. They will not work
in a web browser.
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- All of the sudden I am getting an activation screen when I start DisplayIt!. Why?
The most likely cause is that the folder where DisplayIt! stores content is not available from your computer. Go into 'My Computer' and see
if you can click on the drive and open it manually. If you do not know where content is being stored, you can find out by going into the
Preferences folder where the DisplayIt! program is installed. You will see a file called 'serverfolder.txt' and in that file will be a path
to the folder that contains the DisplayIt! content folder. If it is pointing to the wrong place, you can change that path and start DisplayIt! again.
Make sure the path points to the folder that contains DisplayIt! not to the DisplayIt! folder.
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- I am using NMP-530 media players and noticed that the text in my text bar does not crawl, but appears one line at a time. Is this normal?
Yes. The NMP-530 is a web-based media player and has some limitations - including the inability to make text scroll as it does with newer, PC players.
Upgrading to PC players would also allow you to use PowerPoint presentations without converting them first, Flash 1-11 (you are limited to Flash 6 now),
and many different image and video formats (you are limited to JPG and MPG I / MPG II now).
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- Sometimes my presentations do not play on my media player. I see an error that the presentation cannot be found. Why?
Most likely, the FTP connection between your computer and the media player is not good. You can check to see if there are FTP errors occuring during
transmission by looking at the transport logs. These logs are created by DI Transport - the program that transmits your presentation and schedule
to the player. It saves logs inside the content folder DisplayIt!/SCHEDULES directory. You will see a TransportLog.csv folder for each month. These
files can be opened using WordPad or Excel. Scroll through the file and see if there are numerous FTP errors being logged. If so, you need to have
a network specialist determine the cause.
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- I have a 'standard message' that I always use for my scrolling text. Then I just add a daily message line to that. Is there an easy way to do this?
Yes. Place your standard message in a text file that you create in WordPad. That way, when you create your presentation in DisplayIt! you can
add all of that text to your scrolling text field by clicking the blue 'Add .txt' button and browsing to your text file. After that, add additional
lines for today's message, and you are done!
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- What are all the 'parts' to a digital signage system using DisplayIt! software?
1) Software - DisplayIt! is licensed on a per-media-player basis. 2) Media Player - a small-form-factor Windows PC. 3) Display -
a commercial display is necessary. Do not use a cheap consumer television and expect it to last in a 24/7 environment. 4) Content -
there are a number of content creation tools you can use. Many of our clients simply use PowerPoint. Others use Photoshop, digital
video authoring systems, and Flash. One very popular content creation tool is Flypaper (Flypaper.com). We offer a discount for the Digital
Sign version of Flypaper because it upgrades the look of digital sign content for our clients.
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- I want to use my existing PowerPoint files that contain embedded video, fancy transitions, etc. Is this possible?
Yes. We recommend Flypaper Express from Flypaper Inc. It takes your current PowerPoint and 'publishes' it in Flash format. This retains all of
the properties of the PowerPoint and plays very well on our platform. You can also use the templates inside of Flypaper Express to get a great look
for all of your content. Find out more at Flypaper.com
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- Can I have more than one of each type of zone in DisplayIt!?
No. But there are ways around this limitation. For example, if you are using PowerPoint 10, you can publish as an AVI video file.
That way you can show one PowerPoint using the Flash/PowerPoint zone and another using a video zone. If you have an earlier version of PowerPoint
consider Flypaper Express from Flypaper, Inc. - which also allows you to publish your PowerPoint presentation as video. Find out more at Flypaper.com
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