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Revised: May 4, 2015
OL-15762-05
To simplify management, you can organize your assets for Cisco Digital Signs and Cisco Cast.
We recommend that you create categories for sets of characteristics that your assets have in common — such as their file type, intended audience, or genre.
Tip You can use DMPDM to shorten the splash screen duration.
A misconfigured or malfunctioning encoder might output video in which the PMT table names a different codec than was used. When you then try to play this asset through a DMP 4310G, the DMP might restart suddenly after rendering only a gray screen on your digital sign (CSCth61274).
Tip You can use free or open source software — such as MediaInfo (see http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en) — to check if the PMT table is wrong. If so, you can use other tools to re-encode or transcode the video properly for playback.
After a DMP 4400G renders a Windows Media video asset for playback, you might find that subsequent assets play without any audible sound (CSCtb09480). Our testing suggests that this behavior can occur only when encoding of the WMV asset’s audio track has combined lossy compression with the following attributes.
Tip You can use free or open source software — such as MediaInfo (see http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en) — to check if the audio track is encoded like this. If so, you can use other tools to re-encode or transcode the audio properly for playback.
When a Component Video signal cable connects your DMP 4310G to its presentation system, the DMP cannot render 1080p60 (progressive-scan) video for playback (CSCtf01345). However, the DMP 4310G in this case can render 1080i60 (interlaced-scan) video correctly.
We support ECDS live streams for digital signage, through the use of SDP files. However, our support for SDP is limited.
We do not support SDP optional values e, k, p, r, u, or z. Nor do we support SAP.
Note When you tell DMM the location of an SDP file on an ECDS server, you must enter the ECDS Delivery Service “Service Routing Domain Name.” Do not enter the real host FQDN or the real host IP address.
Also, you must specify the TCP port.
Note This release does not support audio in Shockwave Flash media. If your media library contains any Shockwave Flash files that use audio, their playback will be silent.
Our support for MPEG-4 requires that you use the MPEG-4 Part 2 or Part 10 (H.264) codec and that you multiplex audio and video in an MPEG-2 Transport Stream.
The filename extension must be MPG or MPEG and you must enter the estimated duration.
– License verification might fail, preventing any access to UI pages for licensed features.
– License installations might fail with a spurious message that a license is not valid.
– Upload of additional assets might fail.
– Charting services might fail.
– Any other server operation might fail that requires swap or temp space.
Tip So, before you bulk-import assets, use the DMS-Admin dashboard to check available space!
We recommend as a best practice that you avoid calling upon any remote assets from a playlist or presentation to you store locally to a DMP. Otherwise, any network disruptions will interfere with playback of media that should be impervious to all such disruptions.
A DMP 4310G that uses an attached USB storage volume might corrupt or erase data on this attached volume. Likewise, a DMP 4310G might lose its ability to mount this attached volume. After the DMP reaches this general state, it sometimes reports incorrectly that the attached volume is still mounted and working.
These problems can occur when you disconnect the external volume from the upper USB interface on a DMP 4310G and then, without any delay, plug it immediately into the lower USB interface on the same DMP. However, these problems do not occur in every such case. In our tests, they occurred approximately 1 percent of the time.
To reduce your possible exposure to these problems, wait no less than 3 seconds after you connect or disconnect an attached volume, before you do the reverse. In our tests, this best practice eliminated the risk.
Restart the DMP if it merely unmounts its attached volume.
There is no workaround after the attached volume is erased or its data becomes corrupted. All that you can do after the fact is reformat the volume and restore its data from a recent backup.
Before it tries to download content from a webserver, your DMP first makes sure that the content exists at its expected address. Your DMP starts this validation by sending the webserver what’s called an HTTP HEAD request. Then, when the webserver responds within a configurable interval (10 seconds, by default) to verify that the expected address is valid, your DMP sends an HTTP GET request that triggers the actual download.
Note This configurable interval is based on the “Failover Timeout (ms)” value in DMPDM. Therefore, this value has a powerful effect on your digital signs even when content failover is disabled. It is the maximum duration that can elapse before your DMP sends an HTTP GET request.
When the webserver takes more than the configured interval to respond OR when its response is negative, your DMP enters a content substitution (“failover”) state. In this state, your DMP substitutes available assets for unavailable ones. So, instead of showing a black screen, this behavior causes an affected digital sign to play alternative content that you chose previously. The underlying logic for this behavior anticipates a serious problem and overcomes it gracefully.
However, this logic cannot account for all possible scenarios. When a webserver would otherwise verify that an asset’s address is valid, your DMP misinterprets the delay and enters its content failover state unnecessarily.
You can use DMM to edit this timeout.
1. Click Network and Endpoints.
2. Choose Digital Media Players > Advanced Tasks > System Tasks.
4. Create a “Set” system task with this command string:
failover.timeout= < interval > &mib.save=1
where <interval> is the desired interval in milliseconds.
5. Deploy the system task to DMPs, as needed.
Alternatively, you can use either of these methods to edit the timeout on one DMP at a time.
– < password > is whichever password you set most recently for this DMP’s admin user.
– < DMP_FQDN > is the DNS-resolvable hostname for exactly this DMP.
– <interval> is the desired interval in milliseconds.
– < password > is whichever password you set most recently for this DMP’s admin user.
– <interval> is the desired interval in milliseconds.
You can use DMM to disable this timeout (CSCua03897).
1. Click Network and Endpoints.
2. Choose Digital Media Players > Advanced Tasks > System Tasks.
4. Create a “Set” system task with this command string:
video.force_wget_use=0&mib.save=1
5. Deploy the system task to DMPs, as needed.
Note To reenable the timeout, use this command string: video.force_wget_use=1&mib.save=1.
Alternatively, you can use either of these methods to disable the timeout on one DMP at a time.
– < DMP_FQDN > is the DNS-resolvable hostname for exactly this DMP.
– < password > is whichever password you set most recently for this DMP’s admin user.
Note To reenable the timeout on one DMP in isolation, change the set_param command string to: video.force_wget_use=1&mib.save=1.
Step 1 Click Content Management.
A tree on the left side of the Media Library page names the types of media that are supported and shows the hierarchy of categories that you have created to organize assets without regard for their media type.
Step 3 Click the name of a media type or of a category.
An untitled table on the right side of the page is updated automatically to describe assets of the relevant type that your library contains.
Step 4 Enter the values and choose the options that meet your requirements.
Step 5 Stop. You have completed this procedure.
Note ● After you start to import an asset, do not click any browser button or navigate away from this page until the import is finished. When you do, the import will not finish successfully.
Step 1 Click Content Management.
The Add Asset dialog box opens.
Step 5 Do one of the following in the Source area to specify the full local pathname or remote HTTP URL of the asset.
Note The URL must be encoded properly (using “%20” instead of spaces, for example), according to the principles set forth in RFC 2396.
Step 6 Choose the option in the Asset Type area that best describes the asset.
Step 7 Enter a title for the asset.
Step 8 Enter the estimated duration for playback.
Note The user interface in Cisco Digital Signs sometimes shows a mistaken estimate of 0 (zero) seconds as the full duration of a video playlist. Even though the estimate is wrong, the error does not have any practical consequences. Playback starts and stops as scheduled, without disruption.
This occurs after you set any video asset in the playlist to use 0 seconds as its planned duration. A video asset whose planned duration is 0 (zero) seconds will play from beginning to end.
When you want to skip a video instead of playing it, you must remove it from the playlist. Any playlist’s constituent nonvideo assets must have a planned duration of at least 1 second.
Step 9 Choose at least one category.
Step 10 (Optional) Enter a description.
Step 11 (Optional) Enter an owner for the asset.
Step 12 Click Save.
OR
Click Cancel.
Step 13 Stop. You have completed this procedure.
The amount of time that a batch download operation requires depends on the speed of your connection, the number of directory levels that you search for downloadable files, and the total combined file size of all files that you transfer.
Note ● After you start to import an asset, do not click any browser button or navigate away from this page until the import is finished. When you do, the import will not finish successfully.
Step 1 Click Content Management.
The Add Asset dialog box opens.
Step 5 Enter, in the Base URL area, the root-level URL for the batch download operation.
We do not support any use of spaces in URLs.
Step 6 Enter, in the Pattern area, a filename pattern that identifies which files to download.
For example, to download every file that uses the three-letter MPG filename extension, the pattern is *.MPG.
Note Do not enter the filename pattern to use any unsupported file type.
Step 7 Make choices and enter values to add assets to your library.
Step 8 Click Save.
OR
Click Cancel to discard your work.
Step 9 Stop. You have completed this procedure.
Content Management > Media Library
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A complete list of the types of assets that are supported. The supported assets are:
When you click the name of a media type, an untitled table on the right side of the page is updated automatically to describe assets of the relevant type that your library contains. |
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A hierarchical list of categories in your media library. A category can contain assets or it might be empty. You can create new categories, edit existing categories, delete categories, or click a category whose assets the untitled table should describe. You can add almost any number of nested categories to your media library. |
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Options — A menu from which you can choose among these options: |
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Filter by |
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Methods by which you can cause the untitled table to describe only the assets from your media library that match parameters you have specified. Choose the filtering method, specify the parameters, and then click Go. You can use only one filter per query. You cannot apply a second filter to results that are already filtered. |
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Enter in hours, minutes, and seconds, the duration to be matched. |
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Click the first calendar icon to choose the start date for the range of modification dates to be matched, and then click the second calendar icon to choose the end date for the range. |
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Choose whether the asset is stored locally (File) or remotely (URL). |
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untitled table |
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Describes all assets contained in the category, or of the media type, that you clicked in the list. The table sorts information into columns. |
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Identifies the format of the asset that the corresponding row describes. |
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![]() • To avoid this behavior altogether, use only video clips whose full duration is 3 seconds or more. • To prevent this behavior temporarily when extremely brief video is somehow essential, disable video failover. • To recover from this behavior, restart the application. A DMP 4310G does not exhibit this behavior. The duration value that you entered when you added this asset to your media library, or when you edited attributes of this asset. |
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Time stamp (in the format |
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pagination controls |
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Options |
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The Add Category and Rename Category dialog boxes help you to manage the categories for organizing assets in your media library.
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Features of the Add Media Asset and Edit Media Asset dialog boxes help you to populate and manage your media library. Options are sorted under two tabs, Single and Batch, which help you to manage either one asset or multiple assets, respectively.
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The full local pathname or remote HTTP URL of the asset. We do not support any use of spaces in filenames or URLs. |
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Choose the type that best describes the asset:
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The estimated duration for playback, counted in hours, minutes, and seconds. |
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Describes each of the categories that should contain this asset. To add a category to the list, click Select Category. |
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Batch tab |
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An HTTP URL that points to a directory on a server. The directory that you point to serves as the root-level URL for the batch download operation; every file that you download is retrieved from this directory or from one of its children at a lower level. We do not support any use of spaces in URLs. |
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The filename pattern that identifies which files to download. We do not support any use of spaces in filenames. |
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Choose the type that best describes these assets:
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The number of levels below the specified base URL to search for (and download) files with filenames that match the specified pattern. |
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Click the name of the one category that should contain these assets. |
2.See the “MPEG-4 Support and Restrictions” section. 3.See the “Shockwave Flash (SWF) Support and Restrictions” section. |
The View Asset dialog box describes the attributes of one asset in your Media Library and, in some cases, shows a preview. Attribute information is sorted under two tabs, Overview and Usage. Click a tab to see the asset attributes that it describes. To close the View Asset dialog box, click Close.
Content Management > Media Library > Options > View Media Asset
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Overview tab |
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Attributes that are derived from information in your media library include the elements with these field labels: Title, Description, File Type, Estimated Duration, Owner, Category Names, and Source. To understand these elements, see Elements to Add Assets and Edit Their Attributes. Other elements on the Overview tab are as follows. |
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Either a generic icon that represents the asset type or a thumbnail that you can click to view this asset, assuming that its file type is viewable in your browser. |
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The total count of playlists that contain and are dependent upon this asset. To learn more about these playlists, click the Usage tab. |
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The total count of presentations that contain and are dependent upon this asset. To learn more about these presentations, click the Usage tab. |
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Time stamp (in the format |
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Usage tab |
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Shows either the Playlists for Asset table or the Presentations for Asset table, depending on whether you click Playlist or Presentation , respectively. The table sorts information into the following columns. |
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The name of the presentation or the playlist that is dependent upon this asset. |
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The total count of instances when the described presentation or playlist includes this asset. |
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Time stamp (in the format |