I was using Spring 1.8.0 and automatically upgraded to 1.8.1 so I had to update the Windows client player. (Version 1.8.0 always ran ok)
Well, I first uninstalled xibo client, deleted xibo library and then installed the new version. I updated the settings (url, key, etc), saved them (the status said: display is active and ready to start) and finally ran the client.
The problem is that it does not play any scheduled layout, it only shows the splash screen. I press ‘i’ but it does nothing, I have to press alt+f4 to stop.
When I look at the files in the library folder I see media files downloaded, so it connects ok to the CMS. But I don’t see the schedule.xml file there… strange, doesn’t it?
In the CMS I see the screen properties: authorized OK, connected OK, but status X.
I then replaced the old library folder (1.8.0) but it didn’t work either. The difference was that in old version it played at least the default layout, and in the new one there was only the splash screen.
You can disable auto-upgrades in your springsignage.com portal account - you navigate to Cloud Instances, click on Settings and then untick the auto-upgrade box.
The difference between 1.8.0 and 1.8.1 Players is actually tiny - there was one bug with how settings were written if you used the Commands functionality, but that was the only change. In terms of how they download files, talk to the CMS, etc they are identical.
I’ve looked at your player (you kindly provided your CMS instance name in your other topic) and can see that it is not currently connected, but that it has downloaded all the content it needed the last time it was connected.
I’ve edited the display and asked it to clear all cached data, so that next time it connects it gets completely fresh data.
I actually suspect that your other issue with the Schedule was also causing a problem here - the hourly repeating bug would have caused the scheduled to be huge and perhaps never downloaded.
Now that the schedule problem is solved, I hope that your display will come up to date when it connects.
Thanks a lot for your help. I was really turning crazy.
Finally the player downloaded the content and played it. So, you’ve worked
it out cleaning the cache data.
So from now on, the checked “Clear Cached Data” option means that the
player will clean all its downloaded content and whenever it connects to
the CMS will have to download them all over again? Is that true or I
misunderstood the concept? If this is true it will consume all the bandwith
usage, won’t it?
According to auto upgrades, Peter once recommended me to leave upgrade
to minor versions checked so as to have the CMS updated, that’s ok I think,
why not?. But if there’s one new fix which requires the player upgrade too,
it’s not a good idea, basically if you have lots of players running.
Perhaps you recommend to disable autoupdates, and when there’s a new fix,
read the features and if it does not require player update too, so then
upgrade manually the CMS minor version. Is that posible?
BTW, today I wanted to change an event from playing a layout to a
campaign. So I edited its schedule properties, changed layout/campaign from
ie. layout A to a campaign that contains layout A and layout B. So the
player was always playing the layout A as before and never played layout B
from the campaign. I didn’t change the date and time, only the content.
Also I started the player once again but nothing. The only thing that I
made it work correctly was deleting that event and adding a new one with
the same properties except the layout/campaing that selected only the
campaign. Is this an issue? Is there an old topic related to this?
Well, there was also something related to the schedule that I will write it
down on the other topic of the schedule issue we started before, so as not
to change the real content of this topic.
Thanks Dan.
Regards,
Diego.
PS: I’m testing the platform and my intention is to be your reseller in a
short/medium term here in my country, if it ‘all goes on rails’. Xibo is a
really interesting platform and waited anxiously for the 1.8 version. The
only things I think it Xibo has to improve are:
the CMS’ front-end that it’s not able for mobile devices (ie. you can’t
close popups because buttons are out of screen) and;
that needs a GUI for dummies, such a wizard or something with default
properties so as to drag and drop the content and start to run immediately
on the player. Because I see it’s hard to understand for any dummy user not
familiarized with IT knowledge.
Not true - it actually means that the “cached status” of the player in the CMS is deleted so that the next time the Player connects it recalculates from scratch.
I am certain that this was not the issue with your player - it was almost certainly the schedule issue we looked at in the other topic.
Here is the difference between “suggested” and “required”. We always suggest that the CMS/Player version is matched exactly - i.e. 1.8.0 with 1.8.0, 1.8.1 with 1.8.1 etc. However we do not introduce breaking changes in minor versions (unless we are talking alpha/beta). In other words it was not required to upgrade your players, but we suggest that you do.
I’ve not encountered this specific issue before - perhaps the content on Layout B was large and it took a little while to download? You can check the Display page to see the “status” of the Player, either tick, ! or x. I would expect the player to be a ! after a schedule change like the one you did, then switching to x while the player downloads the content, and then back to a tick.
The CMS isn’t mobile friendly - and we don’t claim that it is. It would be a non-trivial development project to get it to be mobile friendly and there are some parts of it that I don’t ever see as being mobile (i.e. the layout designer)
When I referred to ‘mobile friendly’, I meant to have some functionalities
restricted such as layout design, but it will be useful for example for
adding, updating and deleting events in the schedule, player settings,
datasets, etc. So functionalities that can help you out when the player is
on and want to change something at the last moment.
I’ll tell you my short experience what happened to me last month when I was
showing a demo for a potential customer. I showed a layout that I prepared
before for this customer, and then I wanted to show another layout that was
not scheduled before.
So I wanted to add it by loging in with my cell phone and couldn’t add it
because I could not scroll the add event popup screen. So I didn’t have my
laptop there nor a PC, so I finally had to: stop the player (that is PC
stick) that was playing the first layout, log in the CMS, add the event,
log out and run the player again.
That’s another suggestion according to my short experience in Xibo. That’s
it. So feel free to close this topic now, your responses were very helpful.
