RE: DMP add asset from URL - HTTP 500 error

RE: Emergency Messaging

2011-05-26T17:24:39Z

[quote]The playlist will resume if there is more than 10 minutes remaining before it ends. Otherwise a blank screen will display until the next scheduled event starts.[/quote] Hashir, We have a scenario where the customer has a playlist with a duration of 3.5mins (recurring daily from 12am-1159pm). After the emergency expired, the playlist never got restored on screen. Given that we have a daily recurring playlist, how would you define "until the next scheduled event starts"? Btw, we had tried observing the DMP for 3.5mins after the emergency had stopped (as we had assumed that would be the next scheduled looping iteration) but the playlist never resumed. Is there any way to ensure that the playlist will rerun again in this case? Thanks, Elaine

size limitation on playing movies using TVZilla

2011-05-03T01:54:07Z

Hi, Are there any known size limitations when using the TVZilla JS API for playing movies? What we have found was if the size of the video file (i.e. in WMV format) is around 500MB, the video doesn't play at all - there's just a black box where the movie is supposed to be displayed. Files whose size is less than this (i.e. 250MB WMV file) would play just fine. Could you please advise on this so we can document possible limitations? Thanks, Elaine

RE: Playing YouTube videos on the DMP

2011-04-27T21:18:17Z

[quote] Yes, this is expected behavior because you are not playing the video correctly. You are actually loading a Flash SWF that is playing the video. Flash plays in software on the DMP and we do not support audio in flash. Also any video that can play in Flash is limited in resolution and frame rate, i am surprised it plays at all. The correct way to play video on a DMP is using the Video hardware, which can be called through javascript. Unfortunately that means you CAN'T play YouTube videos because they are not in the correct format (we dont support MP4). The only way around it is to use the correct video formats and play them using the hardware. The advantage of the hardware is that we support Full HD (1920x1080) at up to 25mb/s. Greg[/quote] I ran into an issue playing YouTube videos on DMM 5.2.2. that did not previously exist in DMM 5.2. Basically, I publish a playlist as an emergency which references an HTML asset that contains an embedded YouTube video, i.e.: When the HTML asset is displayed on the target DMPs, the YouTube video doesn't load at all in DMM 5.2.2; using the same HTML asset in DMM 5.2, the YouTube video loads without sound ( as expected). Is this a potential firmware issue on 5.2.2 related to emergency playlist activation? Also, I logged into one of the target DMPs directly (DMP-4400 5.2.2) and in the "URL To Be Displayed" referenced a link to the same HTML asset that I used to publish the emergency, and this time the YouTube video loads. So it doesn't appear to be a DMP-specific issue but related more to the way the DMM 5.2.2. retrieves and displays HTML assets. Could you please advise? Thanks!

RE: Starting an emergency for multiple DMP groups

2011-04-08T02:12:05Z

[quote]The query above will deploy the emergency application to both groups, regardless of their relationship. Are you trying to achieve something other than this result? [/quote] My question is would there be an overlap in case of DmpChildGroup1, i.e. will the emergency be fired off twice (since this DMP group has technically been targeted twice, once as a child group of DmpParentGroup, and again on its own as DmpChildGroup1)? Or would the DMM have some sort of hiearchy resolution built in to ensure that the emergency request only gets activated once for DmpChildGroup1? My main concern here is that the emergency gets displayed more than once (which could be confusing to the users) or there might be an error as a result of two consecutive emergency requests being sent to the same DMP group. Could you please advise on this? Thanks!

Resuming a playlist after an emergency stops

2011-04-01T02:18:19Z

Hi, If we have a playlist that was started using "Play Now" (i.e. duration 1hr) and an emergency is started on the same DMP with a shorter duration (i.e. 10 minutes), after the emergency has been stopped, should the previous playlist resume? The DMS User Guide docs seem to indicate that it should; however, it seems to be geared more toward scheduled playlists: After an emergency has stopped and normal scheduling has resumed on a DMP group and its children, any playlist or presentation that was scheduled for playback at that time will start from the beginning. While this emergency is in-progress, the event-scheduling features at Schedule > Play in Future will be suspended temporarily for whichever group and children you chose. However, your other DMP groups will not be affected. You still can schedule events for those other groups. Later, after you stop this emergency, the event-scheduling features at Schedule > Play in Future will be restored for the group and children that you chose. Could you please advise whether resuming the playlist post-emergency applies to "Play Now"-activated playlists, or if this resume behavior is only applicable for "Play in Future" (scheduled) playlists? Thanks, Elaine

Playlist overrides emergency

2011-04-01T02:09:38Z

Hi, We have a scenario where we selected a playlist and started it as an emergency on the DMP. While the emergency playlist is still on-screen and active, another playlist was pushed to the DMP not as an emergency but using the "Play Now" feature of the DMM. The new playlist essentially overrode the emergency playlist. Is this the expected scenario? I also did a bit of searching and found this in the DMS User Guide docs: Although all of the "Play in Future" features are suspended (for affected DMPs only) while an emergency is in progress, none of the "Play Now" features or "DMP Manager" features are suspended. Therefore, it is possible for a careless user or malicious user with sufficient permissions to start another event manually on the DMPs where an emergency message should play. The docs seem to indicate that using "Play Now" will override even an emergency. However, it is somewhat vague. Could you please confirm if emergencies, once started, can still be overriden by playlists that are started using "Play Now"? Thanks, Elaine

Stopping an emergency on schedule

2011-03-31T22:05:53Z

Hi, In the DMM 5.2 user guide, it's specified that it's possible to schedule the duration of an emergency: Q. Can I set an emergency event to stop after a particular duration? A. Yes, but only through our API. You would program the stop to occur N minutes after the start. However, looking at the Digital Signs API docs, there doesn't seem to be any provision for setting the schedule in the payload, i.e.: Could you please advise how to go about setting the emergency duration in the payload and provide an example if possible? Thanks, Elaine

Playing YouTube videos on the DMP

2011-03-17T21:59:52Z

Hi, I have an HTML asset that contains a reference to a YouTube video. The video itself plays fine on the DMP, but without the audio. Is this the expected behavior? If so, is there any way to make the audio play over the DMP as well? Below is the sample HTML code snippet:

Starting an emergency for multiple DMP groups

2011-03-17T21:31:51Z

Hi, My question here is regarding starting an emergency for multiple groups. Assuming I had 3 DMP groups, wherein the parent group has two child groups: - DmpParentGroup (id = 1) - DmpChildGroup1 (id = 2) - DmpChildGroup2 (id = 3) If I submit an emergency start payload that contains the DMP group IDs for both DmpParentGroup (1) and DmpChildGroup1 (2), will the emergency be started twice for DmpChildGroup1, or does the DMP have a filtering/handling mechanism for this case? Thanks, Elaine

bug in creating playlist payload

2011-03-05T00:28:55Z

Hello, It seems the duration of the playlist is not being added correctly in the DMM. For some reason, if I specify the duration in minutes, it gets converted to hours once the playlist is created. I.e., below the sample playlist payload I sent, and the playlist details as returned by the DMM - note that planned duration was supposed to be 5 minutes, but ended up as 5 hours: Create playlist payload: 1920X1080 false true Fire Alert Again superuser 114e9152-e49b-47f6-89a2-2d9294c7ce5a 0 5 0 242 Playlist details payload: 230 1920X1080 false true Fire Alert Again superuser 114e9152-e49b-47f6-89a2-2d9294c7ce5a 5 KB 5764 5 0 0 18000 1299202092513 5 0 0 18000 242 http:///xTAS-core/services/content/assets/242 Could you please check on this and advise? Thanks!

TVZilla in DMP 4400

2011-02-24T03:41:53Z

Hi, I wanted to confirm if TVZilla JS APIs are still available in DMP 4400 (firmware 5.2.2). I have been trying to test out the API to play movies in the DMP, but have been unsuccessful so far. Sample code is below: Please advise how I might be able to verify that the JS file is available in the DMP file system. Thanks, Elaine

playing audio on the DMP 4400

2011-02-23T04:56:10Z

Hi, I created an HTML asset and uploaded this to the DMP. The HTML has an image and an embedded audio clip. When I display the HTML asset on the DMP, I can see the image but the audio is not playing at all - I only see a "missing plugin" marker on the screen. Is there an API in TVZilla for playing audio clips (in MP3 format) or a recommended way to embed them in the HTML file that would make them compliant with the DMP? Below is the sample HTML audio snippet: /audio/sample.mp3" /> Thanks, Elaine

Determining the DMP model programmatically

2011-01-19T01:48:28Z

Hi, Is there any way to determine the DMP model along with the capabilities supported by that particular model from the DMM or the MIB APIs? This is because it seems different DMP models don't support the same display format (i.e. 4400 can support HTML, 4310 will only support Flash), and we would like to determine which asset type to push to the DMP group given the DMP model(s) supported within a particular DMP group. Thanks! -Elaine

RE: Obtaining DMP authentication credentials through DMM APIs

2011-01-19T01:11:59Z

[quote] There is no way to do this with DMM APIs because all DMPs associated with the DMM need to have the same password (hence the administrator would be aware of it). It is not allowed on stand-alone DMPs because it would be a security vulnerability to be able to obtain the password of a DMP without any other form of authentication. Could you explain what you are trying to accomplish? Perhaps there's another way to solve your overall problem. Thanks for the clarification! Essentially, I'm trying to obtain the DMP's screen resolution through the MIB APIs (so I can optimize the asset and/or playlist resolution). But using the MIB APIs seem to be predicated upon knowing the DMP's credentials in advance. Is there any other way to accomplish this?[/quote] Looking at the MIB APIs again, it seems that there's a difference between the DMP max/min screen resolution and the actual detected screen resolution, i.e.: init.auto_screen_height T_LONG 1024 init.auto_screen_width T_LONG 1280 init.MAX_SCREEN_HEIGHT T_LONG 1080 init.MAX_SCREEN_WIDTH T_LONG 1920 My questions now are: - Is there any possible way to obtain the DMP screen resolution (actual) through any of the DMM APIs? - If not, is there any possible way to obtain the DMP screen resolution (actual) through the TVZilla JavaScript functions? Thanks!

RE: DMP 4400 local storage API question

2011-01-19T00:32:45Z

Elaine, You can use the following URLs to obtain the total capacity, and free space of a DMP: https://:@/get_param?p=init.sd_capacity https://:@/get_param?p=init.sd_free Are these the equivalent MIB APIs for obtaining the DMP details? Noticed that if I use the DMM APIs, I can get the internal storage info per DMP, i.e.: http://:8080/xTAS-core/services/dmpgroup/dmps/dmpgroup/11/ 2863.0 39.0

RE: Obtaining DMP authentication credentials through DMM APIs

2011-01-14T04:25:53Z

RE: Obtaining DMP authentication credentials through DMM APIs

2011-01-14T00:53:08Z

[quote]If you enter the DMP's IP address into a web browser, you will be taken to the DMP DM. You will need to log in with the username and password which by default is "admin/default". From there you should be prompted to change the password to your liking. [/quote] Per my original post, my query is about how to programmatically obtain the DMP's credentials (either through DMM or directly through the DMP), or if that is even possible at all. Thanks!

Obtaining DMP authentication credentials through DMM APIs

2011-01-12T04:45:46Z

Hi, In looking at the DMM APIs, it appears that it's possible to obtain the list of available DMPs (i.e. get DMP details /xTAS-core/services/dmp/dmps/{id}). However, now that I have the DMP IP, I would like to make use of the DMP MIB APIs to obtain the DMP settings (i.e. https://DMP_IP:7777/get_param?p=init.SCREEN_HEIGHT&p=init.SCREEN_WIDTH). In order to do so, however, I need to have the credentials (username/password) for the given DMP, and I haven't seen anything in the API docs that will allow me to retrieve the credentials. Are there any other APIs that I can use (either on the DMM or DMP itself) that will allow me to do so? Thanks, Elaine

RE: DMP add asset from URL - HTTP 500 error

2011-01-11T04:58:58Z

I was sending the HTTP POST out programatically through the .NET HTTP APIs. I found the issue with the form boundary field and I can create the asset successfully now. Thanks for your help!

RE: DMP add asset from URL - HTTP 500 error

2011-01-11T03:23:23Z

[quote] I'm trying to upload an image (PNG) file from URL to the DMP via HTTP POST. You cannot upload an Asset to the DMP directly using an HTTP POST. One possible way to display an Asset on the DMP is to display it within a Playlist. To do this via APIs, you must upload the Asset to the DMM, create a Playlist that contains the Asset, and then publish the Playlist to the DMP. -Hashir[/quote] Perhaps I should have made that distinction clear, but I am in fact trying to upload the asset to the DMM using the documented API (/xTAS-core/services/content/assets/content/assets/). Please refer to my original post (endpoint URL): HTTP POST Endpoint URL: /xTAS-core/services/content/assets/ Content type: "multipart/form-data" This is the API that is throwing the HTTP 500 error. -Elaine