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Amazon

Let’s get you started with your Amazon FireTV

Amazon offers a wide range of HDMI sticks and TVs loaded with their FireOS operating system. For any Amazon FireTV Stick or TV, you can easily find, download, and install our APP and run it as an entry-level player. Amazon FireTV Digital Signage works amazingly with Play.

Before you begin, please read the section below Auto-Launch

Amazon FireOS for Digital Signage
1
How to set up Amazon FireOS for Digital Signage
2
Plug in your Amazon FireTV Stick
3
Installing the app on AMAZON FIRETV STICK
4
Link your screen with your account
5
Design your content in Digital Signage
6
Link your playlist

Stuff you should know

Even though the Amazon FireTV players work almost out of the box, we thought we'd gather some of the most common features for you here.

From start to finish

Watch this video, where we're unboxing the Amazon FireTV Stick, connecting it to a TV, and finding, downloading, and installing the APP.

Watch the videoYoutube icon:icon features a black play button triangle inside a white rounded rectangle

Auto-Launch

Applicable to devices: Fire TV 4K 2nd generation (2023), Fire TV 4k Max 2nd generation (2023)

Starting from Android 10, apps that need to launch at startup need to be granted permission SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW (also often called “drawing over other apps”).

Go check out the guide. click here

Portrait Orientation

Playlists in Digital Signage can be both horizontal as well as in portrait, and In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to rotate your Digital Signage slides by 90 degrees clockwise (portrait mode). You’ll find it useful if you want to rotate your display vertically, learn more.

How to update the APP

If you installed the APP using Amazon Store, the APP will update automatically, but sometimes it can take days after we've released a new version.

If you installed the APK, there are no automatic updates, the only option is to remove the APP and install it again.

An entry-level media player

Amazon FireTV Digital Signage is for entry-level projects, not because of limitations in our APP, but because most devices, like the Amazon FireTV Stick 3. Gen, Amazon FireTV 4K, etc., have limited resources.

Options & FAQ

Options can be accessed directly on the TV by using OPTIONS.

Options

Options can be accessed directly by the player or in settings for your player.

  • Launch player on startup - Toggle this ON to make sure our APP starts when your player starts up, for example after a power outage.
  • Show top menu bar - Toggle this ON if you want the top bar to appear when moving the mouse or using the remote for your player. Toggle this OFF if you want a kiosk experience where users can't exit the app by clicking the exit button on the top menu bar. You can still access the menu with the "Ctrl + o" command.
  • Optimize for touchscreen - Toggle this ON if you are planning on using our APP on a touchscreen. This setting will make small adjustments to how our APP works in conjunction with a touchscreen.
  • Analytics - Toggle this ON if you need analytic data from this particular player. Read more about Analytics
  • Display Orientation - This option should only be used if your player operating system does not support changing the orientation as we recommend the adjustment on an operating system level instead.. You have the option of portrait (Clockwise) and portrait (Counter-clockwise).
  • Website rendering engine - Our app comes with a pre-packaged Chromium engine and by default the websites are rendered using the prepackaged browser, however, you can change this and use the system engine instead, and then websites will be rendered using the default browser that is configured as the web view engine in your Android device. The prepackaged browser works well for most users so there should not be a need to change it unless there are problems with specific website rendering.
  • MediaPlayer engine - Select which video player the device will use to play videos:
    • MediaPlayer - the default MediaPlayer built into the device. We default to MediaPlayer as in our experience it has better support across a variety of devices.
    • ExoPlayer - A video player built by Google, it promises better codec support and on some devices, it may work better, however on some devices it may not work at all.
  • Website plugin engine - Select how the player will render websites:
    • WebView - This option creates a new browser instance to render the website, using this option you can also use website scripting functionality, however zoom option works differently.
    • iframe - This option creates an iframe in the same browser process that our app is rendered in. Iframes do not support website scripting and are limited by other web security restrictions, such as X-Frame-Options where a website owner can prevent the website from being shown in an iframe. However, the iframe option performs better with the zoom option and adheres to scaling to the desktop version better than the WebView option.
  • UserAgent - UserAgent is a piece of text that browsers use to identify itself to the web server. Certain websites will render a mobile view if they detect Android userAgent, although the site is displayed on a big screen. With this option, you can work around this issue and spoof a desktop computer's UserAgent. The UserAgent lets you pick Default, Mobile, Desktop, or Custom.
  • Reload player every day at - It is good practice to clear the cache on the player once every 24 hours. Here you can set a time that is not inconvenient, for example at night when no one is watching your TVs. Rooted devices will be rebooted, unrooted devices will simply restart our app.
  • Tags - If you are using tags they will be listed here. You also can find and add a tag.
  • Clear cache - In case you need to clear the cache manually you can do that here. For example, if you are changing your content continually and you experience something not working as expected, clearing the cache should help as it removes any old data stored on the players' storage.
  • Reload - Reloading your player is similar to clearing the cache. In addition, reloading will close and start the APP.
  • Status - Status tells you if the APP is connected to the cloud. Green means you are connected and red means you are not connected. If you see a red status you should check the internet and wifi connection to your player.
  • Device Time - The device time tells you the player's time and date. If the device time is wrong it will also be wrong in our APP and thus all time-related scheduling will be off, so make sure to correct the time on the player operating system if you are having problems.
  • Resolution - The resolution is the resolution according to your player's operating system. If the operating system on the players tells us it's running HD, your content on the TVs will be optimized for HD. Please note that many devices that are advertised as 4K can only decode video in 4K but run apps in a lower resolution. This means you may see a lower resolution reported by our app, but any 4K video that you use will be still played as 4K. If you are seeing a lower resolution, you can install a 3rd party "resolution checker" app on the device to confirm the resolution from another app as well.
  • Version - This is the version of our APP
  • Screen ID - Also referred to as UID. The UID is the unique ID for your player.
  • Disc Usage - Disc usage will tell you how much data has been used on the player's storage. We do not recommend more than max. 80% storage use.
  • Android Settings - This is reserved for developers only
  • Screen edges - In case you have a LED screen, video wall, or an older model TV you might have to adjust the edges so that they match your TV and the content.
  • Browser - Here you can easily access the browser used by the APP to check content, connectivity, etc.
  • Reset - If you need to unlink your player or perhaps link the player to another account you can use reset.

FAQ

I got my screen linked, what next?

We recommend checking out our Getting Started video.

Design your contentYoutube icon:icon features a black play button triangle inside a white rounded rectangle

Can Amazon FireTV digital signage run 4K content?

Yes, some of the Amazon FireTV Sticks as well as TVs run 4k, but check the product’s specifications before your purchase.

My TV has a USB port, can I use that to power the FireTV stick?

We do not recommend using the USB ports on the TVs as they’re meant for data transfer and can’t supply as much power as the stick may need. This leads to the device operating in a lower performance mode and can lead to it crashing often.

How do I set up the display in portrait mode?

See the FireOS section of our portrait guide.

I can not find the Amazon FireTV digital signage on the app store.

If our app does not appear in the search, then likely it’s because the device you’re using is not supported. Please beware that the First Generation FireTV stick (released 2014 model AFTM) is not supported.

When you search for our APP, use Play Digital Signage

How do I update the app?

Amazon Store will keep your app automatically up to date. You can also start the update process manually:

  1. Find our app in the Amazon Store.
  2. If there is an update available, you will see a button to update the app.

How do I access OPTIONS if I disabled the top menu bar?

In the APP options, you can hide the top menu bar if you for example are running a touch screen. To access the top menu bar, when hidden, you can use CTRL + O for options or CTRL + Q to close the APP.

How do I install the APK file directly on the device?

A .apk file is a file format for Android apps, just as .exe is a file format for Windows applications. If it is not possible to install the app via the Amazon app store, you can also download and install the APK file directly on your device, though this process has a few extra steps:

  1. Enable developer options: go to Settings -> My FireTV -> About Select your device and click 7 times on it, you will see a message that options tools are enabled.
  2. Go back one menu, you can see a new menu item “Developer Options”.
  3. Enter developer options and enable “Apps from unknown sources”.
  4. Search the FireTV app store for an app named “Downloader“, and install it (Amazon’s FireTV browser doesn’t allow downloading files…).
  5. When installed, open the app, and in the “Enter a URL” box type: “https://t.ly/dvLq(without quotes, this is a shortened URL as it is inconvenient to type using the FireTV remote. If this URL does not work (some users have reported issues), then please use the full URL https://release.playsignage.com/download/latest/android_armeabi_v7a).
  6. After our app has been downloaded, it will ask for permission, click “OK” and it will take you to FireTV settings where you grant permission to install apps to the “Downloader” app.
  7. Press the back button until you return to the app, now you can install our app. When the installation finishes, you can open the PlaySignage app.

If the shortened URL does not work, you can download the APK here.

Is Amazon firetv digital signage the best option for me?

Amazon FireTV Digital Signage is for entry-level projects, not because of limitations in our APP, but because most devices, like the Amazon FireTV Stick, Amazon FireTV, etc., have low resources.

How do I force the latest APP version on an Amazon FireTV Stick?

Step 1 – Go to my.playsignage.com > Find the screen you want to update > Go to Options > Go to Remove

Step 2 – Using your remote for the Amazon FireTV Stick > Go to HOME > Go to Profile > Go to Applications > Go to Manage Installed Applications > Go to Play Digital Signage > Go to Force Stop (Just to be sure) > Go to Uninstall > Go to Confirm > Go to Home > Go to Find > Go to Search > Type PLAY DIGITAL SIGNAGE > Go to Play Digital Signage > Go to Download > Go to Open > Note the 6 digit pairing code.

Step 3 – Go to my.playsignage.com > Go to + Add Screen > Use the code you have on the TV > Give it a name > Pick a group > Go to Add

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Get started designing your content

Most people think designing content for digital signage is super difficult, but if you can use Powerpoint, you can also create and design your own content in our editor.

Play Digital Signage, Inc., 2035 Sunset Lake Road, Newark, DE, 19702, USA
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