Raspberry Pi digital signage setup.

What we’ve done

• Based on Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit.
• Built our app to start as a system service with the ability to switch into kiosk mode without any desktop interface.
• Configured the firewall to block all incoming requests.
• Disabled screen saver.
• Configured the mouse and taskbar to auto-hide
• Installed player software (If you only want player software, you can download the latest ARM64 AppImage).
• Installed cec-utils package for HDMI-CEC support

Raspberry PI 5 & 4 installation guide (kiosk mode available)

• Download the Raspberry Pi 5 & 4 image. (Based on Debian 12 – bookworm, kernel 6.6.74, imaged on March 5, 2025)
• Unpack the zip archive.
• Write the .img file to the SD card using balenaEtcher.
• Insert the SD card into the Raspberry Pi and power it on.
• NB! During the first boot, the file system will be expanded, and the device will reboot during that process.
• Once the device starts up, it will launch our app. Press “Exit” in the top-right corner
• Connect to the Internet (top-right corner, a toolbar will appear)
• Open Menu (top-left corner) -> Preferences -> Raspberry Pi Configuration.
  • System tab: default password is raspberry, we recommend changing it!
  • Localization tab: set the correct locale and time zone.
• Launch the player application from the desktop.

Raspberry PI 3 installation guide

• NB! Raspberry Pi 3 runs our app quite slowly, but it can be used for simple content.
• Download the Raspberry Pi 3 image. (Based on Debian 12 – bookworm, kernel 6.1.0, imaged on July 24, 2024)
• Unpack the zip archive.
• Write the .img file to the SD card using balenaEtcher.
• Insert the SD card and turn the device on.
• NB! During the first boot, the file system will be expanded, and the device will reboot during that process.
• Once the device starts up, it will launch our app. Press “Exit” in the top-right corner
• Connect to the Internet (top-right corner, a toolbar will appear)
• Open Menu (top-left corner) -> Preferences -> Raspberry Pi Configuration.
  • System tab: default password is raspberry, we recommend changing it!
  • Localization tab: set the correct locale and time zone.
• Launch the player application from the desktop.

In our tests, the device heats up quite fast, especially in an enclosure. When the device runs hot, it can damage the components and makes performance degrade. We recommend installing a heat sink on the chip. You can get one on eBay or a nearby electronics equipment store.

If you are not using the official power supply, make sure that the adapter is powerful enough:

• At least 2 A for model 3 devices (ideally 2.5 A)
• At least 3 A for model 4 devices

Raspberry Pi is likely the most affordable option to run our players on open-source software (Linux is also available). However, being a low-end device, it has certain drawbacks:

• Most slide transition effects lag, so we don’t recommend adding them.
• Element animations lag; they are meant for more powerful players to begin with.
• SD cards wear out; unlike built-in storage, an SD card can only be written to a limited number of times. We recommend getting a high-quality and high-speed SD card to minimize the issues down the road.

While both models 4 and 5 advertise support for 4K, the ability to play 4K video is limited to certain codecs and video players. We tested several video players and found that VLC has the best codec support for 4K, but even with VLC the support was very limited (mostly H265 below 30 fps). We also found that VLC was not stable for repeated playback: sometimes the player started but the video was not visible, and VLC also crashed the entire desktop session. Therefore, we currently cannot provide smooth 4K playback on Raspberry Pi and recommend running the devices at 1920×1080 resolution.

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.
• Always on top - Tells the operating system to keep our app window above other windows. This prevents pop-ups or notifications from showing on top of it.
• 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).
• UserAgent - UserAgent is a piece of text that browsers use to identify themselves to the web server. Certain websites will render a mobile view, 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 convenient time, for example at night when no one is watching your TV.
• Display on / off – Turn the display on and off based on a schedule. (Read how to schedule the display)
• Tags - If you are using tags, they are listed here. You can also find and add a tag.
• Clear cache - If 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.
• Transfer Screen - Move screens between teams without deleting or relinking them. Learn more about Transfer Screen
• 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 still be 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 called UID: the unique ID of your player.
• Disc Usage - Disc usage will tell you how much data has been used on the player’s storage. We recommend using no more than 80% of the storage.
• Screen edges - If you have an LED screen, a video wall or an older 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 link it to another account, you can use reset.

My device says it’s offline

If the device is offline, it means the device is not connected to the internet and therefore cannot connect to our digital signage cloud. See our Offline guide.

The resolution is incorrect.

Raspberry Pi digital signage will try to automatically set the resolution; however, sometimes it fails to detect the most optimal resolution. You can manually set the resolution in Menu -> Preferences -> Display Settings.

If you can’t find the desired resolution option there, you will find more display configuration options in Menu -> Preferences -> Raspberry Pi Configuration -> Display -> Resolution.

How can I put the TV on standby at night?

This functionality sends a command over an HDMI cable to the TV, telling it to go to standby and wake it up in the morning. Raspberry Pi digital signage will remain on through the night.

NB! Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 have two micro-HDMI ports; the HDMI-CEC commands are only sent over the first port (the one next to the USB-C power port). If you use the other port, the commands will not work!

If you downloaded our Raspberry Pi image after April 2021, then all the required packages are included in the image, and you can skip the first step of installing cec-utils.

• Install cec-utils software package: sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install cec-utils (Ubuntu)
• Make sure that CEC is enabled in your TV. Different manufacturers have different names for the same functionality.
  • Tizen: Menu -> System -> General -> Anynet+
  • Philips: Home -> Settings -> TV Settings -> Easylink
  • LG: Settings -> All Settings -> General -> SIMPLINK
  • Sony: Options (On the remote) > Settings > Inputs > External inputs > BRAVIA Sync settings
  • Other brands: Most modern TVs have this functionality. Find out what your TV’s manufacturer calls it and look for it in the settings.

Now that the software is installed and CEC is enabled on the TV, you can test if the TV is detected. Run the following command in the terminal:

echo 'scan' | cec-client -s -d 1

The scan takes about 10 seconds, and it outputs a list of devices. If you see your TV listed (usually under device #0), then the connection works! You will also see the “Pulse Eight” device; don’t mind it, it’s a virtual interface.

You can also use our API function to trigger the TV on or off; this can be combined with a scheduled webhook service, such as Crontap.

The app crashes on startup

If you installed the operating system yourself and the downloaded .AppImage file does not start, it’s likely because some libraries are missing. To get more info, first try launching the .AppImage from the command line:
./PlaySignage*.AppImage
The terminal will output the error, often hinting at the problem.

bpf failure in syscall 0403 -> Try launching our app with an additional parameter:
./PlaySignage*.AppImage --disable-seccomp-filter-sandbox

Why can’t I use 4K resolution?

There are some known hardware acceleration issues with the VideoCore drivers and the HTML5 canvas support that our app is built on. We’ve disabled the driver in favor of stability; however, it’s also possible to run Raspberry Pi OS with the driver and disable hardware acceleration:

• Enable the VideoCore driver in the /boot/config.txt file by uncommenting the following line: dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d
• Run the Play Digital Signage app with hardware acceleration disabled: ./PlaySignage*.AppImage --disable-hardware-acceleration

Intranet website with a self-signed SSL certificate is not showing?

By default, as a security precaution, the application does not show websites with certificate errors. However, if you need to show a website that does not have a valid SSL certificate, you can launch the app with a --ignore-certificate-errors parameter, for example:
~/Downloads/PlaySignage.AppImage --ignore-certificate-errors

How can I enable ssh?

We’ve disabled SSH access for obvious security reasons, since the image has a default password. If you do want to enable SSH for remote maintenance, here’s how:

1. Run the passwd command to change the password – the default password is raspberry, and the whole world knows it
2. Enable port 22 in the firewall: sudo ufw allow ssh
3. Enable SSH service: sudo systemctl enable ssh
4. Start the SSH service: sudo systemctl start ssh

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

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

Can I turn the display on and off?

Yes. See our guide Turn your TV on and off.