Player apps

The browser is enough. An app adds the six things a browser tab cannot do on a television that has to run unattended for months.

You do not need one to start
Everything in this help centre works with the television's own browser at cms.screenroll.live/tv. Install an app when the screen is permanent and nobody will be there to nurse it.

What an app adds#

  • It remembers the screen across a power cut, so a 3am outage does not leave a pairing code in a shop window.
  • It starts itself at boot, with nothing to click.
  • Kiosk — no address bar, no menus, nothing a passer-by can get out of.
  • It keeps the display awake, which every operating system otherwise refuses to do for an idle machine.
  • It reloads rather than ever showing an error page to the public.
  • It tells the platform which version is running.
Why it existsThe app is deliberately thin — a shell around the same player the browser runs. Everything about content, pairing, scheduling and offline lives in the player, which updates the moment we deploy. A shell that reimplemented any of it would put a release cycle between a fix and five platforms.

The packages#

One player, five packages
PlatformShips asNote
Windows.exeInstalls per user — no admin rights needed
macOS.dmgSuits a Mac mini driving a lobby screen
Linux.AppImage / .debComing soon — until then, Chromium in kiosk mode on the same address
Android / Android TV.apkComing soon — until then, the television's own browser
Samsung (Tizen).wgtRetail televisions need developer mode

Installing#

  1. Install and launch

    The app opens straight to a pairing code — the same six characters the browser shows. There is nothing to configure and no address to type.

  2. Pair it

    Scan the QR, or enter the code in Link TV on the Screens page. Exactly as in Your first screen.

  3. Leave it

    It starts at boot from now on and needs nobody. Everything an operator does once a month is in one menu: right-click anywhere on the screen, or press Esc.

The menu#

  • Settings — full screen or exact rectangles for an LED wall, pixel-exact scaling, the pointer, start with Windows, diagnostics, the server, and each panel with a Re-pair button.
  • Show diagnostics — the player's instrument panel on this machine, whatever the screen's own setting in the dashboard. Ctrl+Shift+D does the same.
  • Full screen — untick to get a movable window while setting a box up; back to full screen on the next start regardless.
  • About — version, browser engine, and for each panel whether its window really covers the display. Ctrl+Shift+I.
  • Quit — asks first. Ctrl+Shift+Q.

Several panels on one machine#

A PC driving four monitors opens four windows, each pairing as its own screen — which is how a video wall is modelled in the dashboard. An LED controller is different: it shows a rectangle of the desktop at a size no monitor has. For those, Settings → Display → Exact rectangles gives the window exactly that rectangle, and Pixel-exact keeps Windows from scaling it.

A warning on first install
Until the apps are code-signed, Windows shows a “Windows protected your PC” screen and macOS refuses to open the file at all. On Windows, click More info then Run anyway — the app is unaffected. Download the apps has the steps for each platform and the checksum of every file.
Note
The player itself updates on its own, on every platform, the moment we deploy. What the app version affects is only the six behaviours above, which change rarely.
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