Dune HD HD Network User Manual

A digital signage solution

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HD Network

A Digital Signage Solution

User Guide

2013-04-29

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Summary of Contents for Dune HD HD Network

Page 1: User Guide
HD Network A Digital Signage Solution User Guide 2013-04-29...
Page 2 The PC software provided by Dune HD for the “Dune HD Network” solution, as well as the “Digital Signage” mode of a Dune HD device, is licensed for use only by the users who obtain the “Dune HD Network” license in addition to obtaining a Dune HD device.
Page 3: Table Of Contents
Local HDD Access..................... 19 Preparing Logos ....................21 Control Center ....................23 Installation ....................... 23 Device List......................23 Device Configuration..................26 Programmatic Access ..................37 Configuration File..................... 37 Remote Commands ..................44 Troubleshooting....................45 © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 4: Introduction
Introduction Thank you for your interest in Dune HD Network—a flexible and powerful Full HD Digital Signage solution, which allows automated demonstration of a wide range of HD video materials (up to 1080p, including H.264) on monitors, television sets, etc.
Page 5: Capabilities
PC connected to the same LAN— transfer video files, edit configuration, restart Presenters, etc. The Dune HD® brand is constantly improving its products, and may provide firmware updates, which may extend the capabilities of Dune HD Network.
Page 6: Supported Media Formats
The set of supported file formats may differ from the one of the basic player mode. In particular, the MKV format is not supported in the Digital Signage mode. In future versions of the firmware, more media formats may be supported. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 7: Automated Playback
In case of unlimited time, the playlist item may be changed manually with an IR remote (if the buttons are not locked), or when the schedule demands configuration change. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 8: Scrolling Text
The screen location for each logo may be configured, and some randomization of the placement is supported which may be helpful to prevent screen wearing for certain display types. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 9: Synchronized Playback
Presenter’s configuration. All Presenters which have the same group name are considered to be members of that group. Presenters which have an empty group name are considered to belong to the same group with an empty name. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 10 Thus, this mode is more liable to the LAN quality and loading level. Note: This mode has some limitations and should not be preferred to the recommended server-based mode unless there are special reasons. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 11: Playback On Schedule
Playback on Schedule The “Dune HD Network” system supports performing on a weekly schedule. To configure playback on schedule, a number of named configurations should be defined. A named configuration defines options for playlist playback, scrolling text and graphic logos.
Page 12 LAN is connected to the Internet, a free public time server may be used, e.g. the popular "pool.ntp.org". In the absence of the Internet connection, using a time server software on one of the PCs connected to the same LAN may be recommended, e.g.: © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 13 ∙ Windows 2003 has a built-in Time Service which supports the NTP protocol. Please refer Microsoft Windows documentation details, e.g. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc773013.aspx. ∙ For other Microsoft Windows versions, free server from http://www.meinberg.de may be installed. Please refer to the player manual for details. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 14: Usage
Presenter to automatically enter the Digital Signage mode on power on and restart, including return from the “Standby” mode. In either case, when the mode is entered, the playback according to the playlist and the schedule starts immediately. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 15: Using Ir Remote
In the Digital Signage mode, the device power may be turned off at any moment. Using IR Remote An infrared remote control typically comes with Dune HD players. During the playback in the Digital Signage mode, it may be used to control the playback, and to exit the Digital Signage mode to the player menu.
Page 16: Configuration
Digital Signage mode. The button lock function is useful to prevent accidental interruption of the playback, especially when Presenters are used near some other Dune HD players, e.g. in a store. Note: If the synchronized playback mode is turned on in the configuration, the...
Page 17 (and only them) from the player Setup menu influence the Digital Signage mode: ∙ Setup > Video ∙ Setup > Audio ∙ Setup > Network ∙ Setup > Miscellaneous > Encodings > Ext2/Ext3 encoding © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 18: Local Hdd Contents
(which are shown over the video and/or static images). ∙ config.txt The configuration file which defines the playlist and other options (see below). Note: If this file is missing, it will be created by the Control Center application. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 19: Local Hdd Access
∙ Via USB, as USB Slave (for some hardware models). Player Menu (Navigator) A Presenter device remains a fully functional HD player, so it is possible to exit the Digital Signage mode and thus get to the player menu (the regular player mode). It provides a powerful file/folder manager (called Navigator) with network support.
Page 20 Attention: On some player models, inserting and ejecting of the HDD rack may be performed only when the power is off (e.g. “Dune HD Mini”), while some other models allow hot-swap operation (e.g. “Dune HD Center”). Please refer to the appropriate player manual.
Page 21: Preparing Logos
Preparing Logos Logo files should be stored in the "HDNETWORK\logos" 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 image should be created using any graphics editor.
Page 22 CS2 (newer versions were not checked), BMP files with alpha channel (32 bits per pixel) are saved incorrectly for some image sizes (e.g. 64×64). Therefore it is recommended to use the native PSD format or PNG instead of BMP when working with Photoshop. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 23: Control Center
Control Center The “Dune HD Network” system comes with 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 application based on the Java technology, so it will run on Windows, Linux, MacOS and other operating systems which support Java.
Page 24 The status reflects whether the device may be successfully contacted via the network, and shows error messages in case the device configuration cannot be retrieved from its configuration file. By default, the status of a device is updated © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 25 They offer to choose a number of files to be uploaded (using multiple selection in the file chooser window), and then start uploading to all devices in parallel, one file after another for each device. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 26: Device Configuration
The contents of the inner pages always correspond to the named configuration currently selected in the top pane. The top pane provides some action buttons for the currently selected named configuration. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 27 Note: Files of unsupported formats (if any) are also shown in the left pane. The playlist may include the same file multiple times. All lists support multiple selection (click holding the Ctrl key on Windows or the Command key on MacOS). © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 29 The Unicode is supported for the message text, but not all Unicode characters may be supported by the Presenter’s firmware. Please refer to the section of this manual which describes the Unicode support for the configuration file. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 30 Defines the vertical position of the scrolling text stripe, 100 being the screen bottom and 0 being the screen top. ∙ Text scrolling speed Defines the speed of the text scrolling, 1 is the slowest, 10 is the fastest. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 31 "HDNETWORK/logos" folder. This list is not updated automatically, so after changing the set of files on the Presenter’s HDD, the configuration window has to be reopened. Note: Files of unsupported formats (if any) are also shown in this list. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 32 The number of seconds (0 or more) to wait after the logo has been shown for the configured number of seconds and then hidden. After this pause, another logo (or the same one if another logo is not configured) is shown. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 33 (the configuration file schedule options have the same syntax as these text fields). Note: If the synchronized playback mode is on, the schedule should be reset to the default. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 34 IP address of the server device: sync_server_address ∙ Maximum number of devices: sync_server_max_clients_number ∙ Wait for devices on boot for: sync_server_startup_timeout ∙ Timeout to exclude a device: sync_server_invalidate_timeout ∙ Number of devices: sync_num_devices © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 35 Digital Signage mode. ∙ Show technical info at start for ... sec. If checked, the technical information (Presenter’s IP address, etc.) is shown for the specified time period after the Digital Signage mode is entered. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 36 ∙ Misprints in the option names in the configuration file (e.g. when it was generated by the user). ∙ An older version of the Control Center is used; the configuration file corresponds to a newer version of the Presenter firmware which supports new options. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 37: Programmatic Access
Unknown options are ignored. Note: In case your Dune HD Network contract includes such kind of service, sending a debug dump to the customer support may reveal the error/warning messages of configuration file parsing. See the player manual for instructions on debug dump generation.
Page 38 127 characters. If the configuration prefix is not added, the option is considered to belong to the basic configuration which has empty name. Here is the example of a simple configuration file which illustrates different option kinds: © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 39 Defines the way static images from the playlist are shown. If set to 0, no automatic switch to next playlist item is performed, the switch may be performed only with the IR remote control. Otherwise, the switch occurrs after the specified number of seconds. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 40 Defines the first logo to show over the video clips and/or static images. The should be one of the file names in "HDNETWORK/logos". file_name If no file name is specified, then the first logo is not shown. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 41 (0..100, default is 20) percentage logo_second_space_vertical_max (decimal ≥ 0, default is 10) seconds logo_second_show_time (decimal ≥ 0, default is 10) seconds logo_second_time_after The same as logo_first_... options but for the second logo. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 42 Digital Signage mode is entered. If 0, the technical information is not shown at all. (no longer than 127 characters, default is empty) name group_name A name of the group to which this Presenter belongs. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 43 Defines the duration of the first synchronization phase. Only the devices which have reported their presense to the server during this period will participate in the synchronized playback. (decimal ≥ 5, default is 30) seconds sync_server_invalidate_timeout Setting for server-based synchronization mode. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 44: Remote Commands
Note: The list of commands may be extended in future firmware versions. Available Commands ∙ restart Restart the Presenter. The Digital Signage mode is entered after the restart regardless of the automatic start setting. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 45: Troubleshooting
This section describes typical cases of undesired/unexpected bahavior of a Presenter, and the possible reasons for such behavior. Should you ever encounter a problem with Dune HD Network, please consider the options in this section before applying for customer service.
Page 46 ∙ The logos configuration specifies zero time period for a logo to appear. ∙ The schedule demands the “off” state for the current time, but the current video clip is not finished yet, and the message list is already shown to the end. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 47 ∙ The "HDNETWORK" folder is missing on the local HDD. Stop Immediately After Start ∙ The synchronized playback is configured, and the network is not available or the configured time to wait for an IP address is too small. © 2013 Dune HD. All rights reserved.
Page 48 Missing the “Digital Signage” Menu Item ∙ The Presenter has no proper 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 >...