Dune HDI HD Duo manual

HD Network A Digital Signage Solution User Guide 2013-04-29[...]

2 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Legal Note Dune HD and Dune HD Network are trademarks or r egistered trademarks of Dune HD GmbH, Germany. Java an d all Java-ba sed marks are trade marks or regist ered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. Micr osoft, Windows and all Windows-based marks are tr ademarks or registered trademarks of Micos[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 3 Contents Introduc tion ........................................................................................................ 4 System Co mponents ........................................................................................... 4 Capabilit ies .....................................................[...]

4 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Introduction Thank you for your interes t in Dune HD Netw ork—a flexible and powe rful Full HD Digital Signage solution , which allows automated d emonstration of a wide rang e of HD video materials (up to 1080p, includin g H.264) on monitor s, television sets, etc. The solution includes su pport for scr ol[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 5 “HDNetwork” option is purchased, all the basic player functionality remains available. Each Presenter plays video files which ar e located on its local storage —a built-in HDD or a connected USB drive (for clarity , in this manual such local storage is always referred to as HDD). The configuration of a [...]

6 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Supported Media Formats In the Digital Signage mode, the following file formats and codecs are supported: ∙ Video files: T S, M2TS, MPG, VOB, AVI , MOV, MP4, QT, ASF, WMV. ∙ Video codecs: MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, Xvid, WMV9, VC1, H.264. ∙ Audio codecs: AC3 (DD), E AC3 (DD+), DTS, MPEG 1 layer 1/2/3, AAC , [...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 7 Automated Playback When a Presenter enters the Digit al Signage mode, it starts perfor ming the automated playback according to its co nfiguration which is stored in the configuration file on the local HDD. T he configuration, among other option s, defines a playlist and optionally a schedule which may assign[...]

8 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Note: In case the synchronized playback for multiple devices is config ured (see a dedicated section of this manual), a black screen may be shown at the beginning of each clip fo r a necessary time period. Scrolling Text The configuration of scrolling text spec ifies a list of messages and a number of options[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 9 Attention: It is the responsibility of the conf iguration author to assure that the graphic logos will never inte rsect with the scrolling text line. Otherw ise, visual artefacts may occur. Updating Configuration File The configuration file may be updated an y time via FTP (as the Control Center application d[...]

10 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Attention: All devices in the same group should have identical synchronizatio n settings, sche dule, playlist, and cont ents of files on the playlist. It is recommended that all devices have identical configuration files. For conveniency, the Control Center applicatio n allows to save the configuration to al[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 11 In this mode it is importan t to specify in the config uration the exact number of devices in the group. In case some device turns off, stops responding or loses the net work, all other devices in the group will w ait until the device is back on, but afte r that the lost- and-found device will continue playb[...]

12 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. I f a t i m e p e r i o d i s n o t m e n t i o n e d i n t h e s c h e d u l e , i t i s c o n s i d e r e d t h a t t h e Presenter should stay off for that period. Attention: The “off” state requested b y the schedule is a special mode of a player when the disp lay is turned off, b ut the player softw[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 13 ∙ Windows 2003 has a built-in Time Servic e which supports the NTP protocol. Please refer to Microsoft Window s docume ntation for details, e .g. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc773013.aspx . ∙ For other Microsoft Windows vers ions, the free NTP server from http://www.meinberg.de may be inst[...]

14 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Usage Getting Started In order to start us ing a number of Presente rs in the Digital Sig nage mode, please assure the followi ng steps are taken (see the r est of this manual for details) for each player which is intended to be a Presenter: ∙ Install the latest fi rmware which supports Digital Signage. Pl[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 15 Note: The Setup > Applications > Digital Signage > Enabled option al lows t o show and hide the Digital Signage top-level menu item. To configure the Digital Signage mode au tomatic start, go to the player menu Setup > Applications > Digital Signage and set the Automatic start option. In the D[...]

16 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.  REW Decrease the playback speed. Press  PLAY to return to the normal spe ed.  FWD Increase the playback spee d. Press  PLAY to return to the normal spe ed. ZOOM Stretch (enlarge) the image. Each p ress sets the zoom factor from the list: 100%, 105%, 111%, 118%, 126%, 134%, 144%, 156%, 170%. This[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 17 To edit these settings, you shoul d use th e IR remote control with the Presenter. ∙ Configuration file "HDNETWORK/config.txt" on the Presenter’s HDD. This file may be accessed by FTP/SM B. The Control Center application reads/changes this file via FTP to a llow the user to view/edit Pres enter[...]

18 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. NFS encoding FTP server encoding ∙ Setup > Miscellaneous > Time Synchron ization ∙ Setup > Miscellaneous > Advanced > Remote control type Please refer to the player manual for details on these settings . Local HDD Contents The internal HDD of a Presenter is expected to have a top-level fol[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 19 Local HDD Access Each Presenter device has a local HDD, either i n t e r n a l o r , w h e n i t i s a b s e n t o r t h e device does not su pport it, a USB-connected one. The contents of this hard drive may b e accessed without having to disassem ble the Presenter device. The follo wing means are provided:[...]

20 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. To access a Presenter via SMB, open “# .#.#.#internal_hard_disk” in Windows Explorer, e.g. using “Start” menu, “Run” command, or the address bar of any opened folder. Notes: 1. The usage of specialized FTP clients (such as FileZilla ) is recommended for better performance . 2. FTP access typic[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 21 Preparing Logos Logo files should be stored in the "HD NETWORKlogos" folder of the Presenter ’s HDD, and those files should be in the special ".aai" format (proprietary to Dune HD). To prepare logo files, at first a raster im age should be created using any graphics editor. Then it sho[...]

22 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. However, there is a possibility to use transparency, moreover, a complete alpha channel support is provide d, that is, for each pixel it s transparency leve l may be specified, and not only th e fact of a transparency. If, for example, Adobe® Photos hop® is used, an image in RGB mode should be created, the[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 23 Control Center The “Dune HD Network” system comes wi th a PC application called Dune HD Network Control Center, which is able to control a number of Presenter devices on a network. This is a cross-platform app lication based on the Java technolog y, so it will run on Windows, Linux, MacOS and other ope r[...]

24 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Device Registration and Tasks To start working with dev ices, their IP addresses shoul d be manually registered in the Control Center using the Register New Device task. The device may be later unregis tered from the list using the Delete Selected Device task. I n o r d e r t o b e a v a i l a b l e o n t h [...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 25 when most tasks are pe rformed, includ ing the Refresh Status... tasks. If needed, the application may be configured to automa tically update the device status in the specified intervals us ing the Configuration > Automatic Device Status Update menu. Please note that updating th e status involves download[...]

26 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Device Configuration The corresponding tasks i n the device lis t allow to open a device configuration window which allows to view and edit all options of the device configuration file in a convenient and user-friendly way. Seve ral device windows may be opene d in parallel. Please refer to th e dedicated se[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 27 Clips This page allows to configure the playlist which may include video clips and static images, as well as so me related options. The right pane shows the playlist. The left pane offers the list of files which are located on the local HDD of the Pres enter, in the "HDNETWORK/clips" folder. This l[...]

28 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Options: ∙ Automatically proceed to t he next image after ... sec. Defines the show time for static images on the playlist. If checked, each image is shown for the specified pe riod, after which the next playlist item is activated. If not checked, each static image is sh own for an unlimited time, unless t[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 29 Scrolling Text This page offers to define the contents of the scrolling te xt and related opt ions. The left pane defines the list of messag es which is cyclically show n in the order of appearance in this list. Bu ttons below th e list allow to add, delete and re arrange messages. The right pane allows to e[...]

30 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Options: ∙ Message separator Defines the text which is added be tween messages in the list. If empty, the messages are concatenated directly. This text may include multiple leading and trailing spaces. ∙ Text and Background groups Define colors of scrolling text font and backg round stripe, and their lev[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 31 Logos This page defines the graphic l ogos to show over the video. Either one or both logos m ay be turned on. The Logo file list shows the files located on the Presenter’s local HDD in the "HDNETWORK/logos" folder. This list i s not updated automatically , so after changing the set of files on t[...]

32 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Options: ∙ Screen corner Defines the screen corner relative to which the logo position is calculated, called the base screen corner for the logo. ∙ Horizontal distance (min, max), Vertical distance (min, max) Defines the distance from the base scr e en corner to the nearest logo corner. 100 corresponds t[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 33 Schedule This page defines the schedule. The values shown in the screen shot d e fine the default schedule, which prescrib es using the basic config uration all the time. If a certain day of week is unche cked, the Presenter will stay in th e “off” state for this day. Otherwise , the time periods should [...]

34 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Synchronization T h i s p a g e a l l o w s t o t u r n o n t h e s y n c h r o n i z e d p l a y b a c k o f p l a y l i s t i t e m s , a n d provides necessary options. Plea se refer to the corresponding section of this manual for the conceptual description of the synchronized playback, and to the section[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 35 Misc. This page defines mi scellaneous opt ions. ∙ Lock remote control buttons If checked, the IR remote control buttons w ill be locked during the Digital Signage mode. When the buttons are lock ed, the specified s e quence of numeric buttons allows to exit the Digital Signage mode. ∙ Show technical inf[...]

36 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Extra This page offers a text field which may be directly edited by the user. When the configuration file is loaded by the Control Center, all o ptions which were not recognized go to this page. Whe n the configuration is save d, all text written in this page is appended to the configuration file. Attention:[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 37 Programmatic Access This section provides info rmation which is helpful if manual control of Present er devices via the Control Cen ter application is not e nough for your installation. The Dune HD Network sys tem allows a customer to wr ite her own applications/scripts which interact with Presenter de vices[...]

38 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Unicode Support The Unicode is supported for scrolling text, however, the se t of fonts included in the Presenter’s firmware may not include all the Unicode character s. Unsupported characters are displayed as “?”. The char acters from the following code pages are supported: ∙ Central European (1250)[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 39 # List options belonging to the basic configuration clip image1.png clip image 2.png # List option belonging to the "Mo" configuration config "Mo" clip video_for_monday.mpg # List options belonging to the "Mo" configuration config "Mo" message Welcome on Monday! config[...]

40 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. message message_tex t List option (may occur mu ltiple times). Defines the list of messages for scrolling text. The list of message s is cyclically shown in the order of appearance of these options. By default (if no such options are spe cified), the scroll ing text is not shown. message_text_color rrggbb (h[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 41 logo_first_corner corner (one of top-left , top-right , bottom_ left , bottom-right ; default is t op-left ) Defines the screen corner relative to which the logo position is calculated, called the base screen corner for the logo. logo_first_space_h orizontal_min percentage ( 0 .. 100 , default is 10 ) logo_f[...]

42 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Global Options Options described in thi s section do not belong to any particular named configuration. schedule_monday schedule_exp ression (default is empty ) schedule_tuesday schedule_ex pression (default is empty) schedule_wednesday schedule_exp ression (default is empty) schedule_thursday schedule_expr e[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 43 sync_enabled flag flag ( 0 or 1 , default is 0 ) If this option is 0, the synchr onized playback is off and other sync_... options are not in effect. sync_status_info_d elay seconds seconds (decimal ≥ 1 , default is 5 ) In case waiting for other devices to report being ready for play back of next playlist [...]

44 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Defines the period the server waits for othe r devices to report being ready for playback on non-first sy nchronization phases. If a device did n ot respond during this pe riod, it is exclude d till the next synchronization phase, and other devices start playback synchr onously with each other. sync_num_devi[...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 45 Troubleshooting This section describes t ypical cases of undesired/unexpected bahav ior of a Presenter, and the p ossible reasons for such behavior. Should you ever encounter a problem with Dune HD Network, please consider the options in thi s section before appl ying for customer se rvice. No Display ∙ Th[...]

46 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. ∙ The serverle ss synchronization mode is being used. I n this case the schedule is not supported, see the detailed description of synchronized playback fe ature in this manual. ∙ The three parallel activities—play list playback, scr olling text and showing graphic logos—perform configuration switch [...]

© 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. 47 Unable to Access via Control Center, FTP, SMB ∙ The network settings are not configured prop erly in the player menu Setup > Network . ∙ The network is unavailable physically . ∙ You are using a wrong IP address . The IP address of a Presenter can be found in the player menu Setup > Information .[...]

48 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved. Missing the “Digital Signage” Menu Item ∙ The Presenter has no pr oper license . The “Dune HD Network ” license should be installed. The license type may be checked in the player menu Setup > Information . ∙ The player menu Setup > Applications > Digital Signage has a setting to hide the[...]