Whether a smart TV can run digital signage on its own depends on the system inside it, not on the brand on the front. A TV running Android TV or Google TV can install the SignageStack Android app and needs nothing else. A Samsung TV (Tizen) or an LG TV (webOS) cannot install it. Its built-in browser can open the web player, but it will not bring the player back after a power cut or hold it in kiosk mode. For a screen nobody looks after, plug a small Android box into one of its HDMI ports.
A USB stick in the side of the TV is the route many people try first. It works for a fixed set of pictures, and it stops working the first time you want to change something without walking over to the screen.
What follows is the decision in order: find out what your TV runs, then follow the branch that matches.
What does your smart TV run?
The quickest test is to look for the Google Play Store on the TV's home screen. If it is there, the TV runs Android TV or Google TV. If it is not, the name of the system is usually somewhere under Settings, in a section called About, System or Support, depending on the maker.
What the TV runs | Can it run SignageStack by itself? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
Android TV or Google TV | Yes | Install the Android app on the TV |
Tizen (Samsung) | No, there is no app | Add an Android box; use the browser for a trial only |
webOS (LG) | No, there is no app | Add an Android box; use the browser for a trial only |
Fire TV edition | Not qualified | Add an Android box for anything that matters |
Another maker's own system, or no smart features | No | Add an Android box |
The same rule covers commercial displays. A professional panel often runs its maker's own system: Samsung's QMC series, for example, lists Tizen and Samsung's own built-in player in its spec sheet. That display needs a box as well. A panel that runs Android and can install an APK does not.
Android TV and Google TV: install the app on the TV
A TV that runs Android is its own signage player. No box, no second power supply, no extra cable behind the screen for the cleaner to pull out.
How to install it
- Download the APK from the Android download page and copy it to a USB stick.
- Plug the stick into the TV and open the file with a file manager. If the TV has none, install one from the Play Store first.
- Android asks before it installs an app from outside the Play Store. Allow it for the file manager you are using. Where that setting lives depends on the manufacturer.
- Open SignageStack. It starts full-screen, shows a six-character code, and sits in the TV's row of apps so the remote can find it.
- In the dashboard, choose Add screen, type the code, name the screen and give it a playlist. The code works once and then expires.
Check the TV can carry the load
The app needs Android 8 or newer and at least 2 GB of RAM, on a TV just as on a box. Not every budget set meets that, and a TV that struggles to play video all day makes a worse player than an Android box, which typically costs somewhere between €40 and €120.
What you get, and what you do not
- It starts with the TV. The app opens at boot, after a power cut and after its own updates. A supervisor restarts the player if it ever disappears. A frozen page is reloaded, then rebuilt, then restarted, and if all of that fails an offline page takes over and keeps retrying.
- The kiosk lock is probably pinning. The strongest lock needs the device set up as Device Owner, which happens at factory reset, and many TVs and boxes cannot do it at all. The Android TV we walked the app through end to end ran without it. Without Device Owner, the app falls back to screen pinning, which someone with the remote can undo. On a TV the public can reach, keep the remote in a drawer.
- Updates ask first. The app downloads new versions itself and checks each one against a published SHA-256 hash. Without Device Owner, it asks whoever is standing in front of the screen to confirm the install.
- Off means off. The app runs inside the TV, so when someone puts the TV in standby with the remote, the player sleeps with it. On the Android TV we tested, the app had no network while the panel was off, so changes published overnight wait until someone switches it back on.
Do the power-cut test
The app starts when the TV starts. Whether the TV starts after a power cut is up to the TV: some come back on, others return to standby and wait for the remote. Test it before you mount anything. With the player running, pull the plug, wait a few seconds and plug it back in. If the screen comes back to your playlist, you are done. If it stays dark, look for a power-on setting in the TV's menu. If there is none, someone will have to switch the TV on every morning.
Samsung, LG and other smart TVs: add a small Android box
There is no SignageStack app for Samsung's Tizen or LG's webOS. Those TVs install apps from their maker's own store, and SignageStack is not in it.
Can I just use the TV's browser?
For a trial, yes. Open the web player in the TV's browser, pair it with the six-character code, and within a few minutes you will see your own playlist on your own screen. We have measured the player's video handling in an LG webOS TV's browser, and it plays.
What a TV's browser will not do is run a screen unattended:
- After a power cut or a switch-off, the TV comes back to its home screen or its last input, not to the player. Someone has to open the browser again.
- Nothing holds the page in kiosk mode. One press of Back or Home and the playlist is gone.
- TV browsers differ widely in how they cache media and keep the screen awake, and none has been qualified. The offline playback we promise on the Android app is not something we promise in a TV's browser.
Good for finding out whether you like the product, then. Not for the menu board above the counter.
The box
A small Android TV box turns any TV with an HDMI input into a player, and it brings the Android app's autostart, page recovery and self-updates with it. Look for Android 8 or newer, 2 GB of RAM or more, wired ethernet if you can run the cable, and a box that switches itself back on after a power cut. The guide to Android TV boxes for signage goes through what to buy and what to skip.
Three setup details that save a visit later:
- Power the box from its own plug, not from the TV's USB port. A TV's USB port may switch off when the TV goes to standby, and may not supply enough current for the box.
- Leave the TV on the box's HDMI input, and check with the power-cut test that it returns to that input.
- Turn off the TV's energy-saving auto-off. Samsung, for example, switches its TVs off by default when no remote button has been pressed for four hours, according to its own support page. A signage screen gets no button presses, so it goes dark every afternoon until you change the setting. Other brands have their own versions under their own names.
What about a Fire TV edition set or a Fire TV Stick? Fire TV runs Amazon's own version of Android and can install an APK, but we have not qualified it, so we do not promise it. The article on Fire TV Sticks for signage explains where people run into limits.
What about a slideshow from a USB stick?
Almost every smart TV can show photos from a USB stick, and many can play video too. For a picture that never changes, or an event that lasts one afternoon, that is enough.
It stops being enough quickly:
- Every change is a walk. A new price, a new offer, a typo: someone copies files to a stick, carries it to the TV and restarts the slideshow.
- There is no schedule. It plays to the empty shop after closing, unless someone remembers to switch the TV off.
- It does not come back. A consumer TV generally does not restart the slideshow after a power cut or a switch-off. Someone with the remote has to.
- The auto-off still applies. A slideshow nobody touches for hours is exactly what the energy-saving timer is looking for.
- Nothing tells you it stopped. You find out when a customer mentions it.
- You get what the TV's media player allows: its order, its timing, its transitions.
If your content is already a stack of slides, there are better ways to get it onto a screen. The PDF Reader app flips through a PDF's pages on its own and plays offline. The Google Slides app shows a private deck and updates on screen when you edit it. As when presenting, it leaves out slides marked "Skip slide", so you can show only part of a deck. The guide to showing Google Slides on a TV compares all the options, including casting and a laptop on HDMI.
The decision in five questions
- Is this a trial, or a screen that has to run every day? For a trial, open the web player in the TV's browser, or on a laptop plugged into the TV. Decide the rest later.
- Does the TV have the Play Store? Then it runs Android TV or Google TV. Install the app, check for Android 8 and 2 GB of RAM, and do the power-cut test.
- Does it run Tizen, webOS, Fire OS or something else? Put a small Android box behind it, power the box from its own plug, and turn off the TV's auto-off.
- Does the TV come back on by itself after a power cut? If not, and no setting fixes it, someone has to switch it on every morning, or the screen needs a display that powers on by itself.
- Will it run from opening to close, face a window or hang in portrait? Then the question is the screen, not the software. A consumer TV is built for a few hours a day; the comparison of a signage display and a TV explains where the line is.
Where to start
Start with the TV you already have. Open the web player in its browser, or on a laptop connected over HDMI, pair it, and put a real playlist on it. If you like what you see, install the app on an Android TV, or buy one Android box for a Samsung or an LG and test that one before you buy for every wall. The hardware page lists what to look for, and the SignageStack trial runs for 21 days with every feature and no card.
