Platforms: which devices run Szenera

Your program reaches a display in three ways: with a player, with an app on a TV or stick, or in a browser. This page explains which devices qualify, which way fits which device, and what the portal can do there.

Three ways onto a display#

Whichever way you choose, the same display software runs, that is, the software that brings your scenes, playlists, and media onto the display. The ways differ in what runs around the display software.

Only the player has SzeneraOS and remote maintenance. A host app and a web display get the display software from the cloud, and what the device can do beyond that is decided by its manufacturer.

Retail devices and business devices#

Amazon, Samsung, and LG each build two kinds of devices: retail TVs and sticks, and devices for continuous operation in stores, medical practices, and restaurants. For continuous operation, these are the Amazon Signage Stick, the professional panels from Samsung (Smart Signage), and those from LG (webOS Signage).

A business device comes with a management system from its manufacturer. It starts the app at power-on, keeps the display awake, and installs the system updates. Where the manufacturer allows the Szenera app to do so, the portal also gets screenshot, restart, and on and off through it. It does not replace the remote maintenance of a player with system log and service menu.

Caution: The app for the Signage Stick is planned and not yet available. The apps for LG panels and for Samsung panels are new and have not yet been verified on any panel, see Set up LG TVs and LG panels and Set up Samsung TVs and Samsung panels. Until then, use the URL Launcher or Web Launcher on the panel as a web display, see TVs and panels in the browser. Amazon sets up the Signage Stick for a provider from its list. With Szenera, you use it as soon as Szenera is on that list.

What works where#

The table lists for each platform the way onto the display and what the portal can do there. It applies to the platform. What an individual device can actually do is reported by the device itself, and the portal shows it in the What this display can do card.

Planned, or not yet approved on any device. What these rows say is the goal, not a promise:

The columns mean:

• Starts by itself: The display software comes back after power-on or a power outage without a remote control. “Up to the device” means the browser, launcher, or panel decides that, not Szenera.
• Stays awake: No screensaver or sleep mode covers the program. “With limits” is explained in the setup guide of the platform.
• Screenshot, Restart, Power on and off: The buttons for these appear in the portal only where the device supports them. Power on and off also covers the night shutdown schedule.
• Remote maintenance: System log, system updates, and the service menu at the device. That exists only on a player. “Through the manufacturer’s management” means: On a business device, the manufacturer installs the system updates, and its management carries restart and schedule, see Retail devices and business devices.

Caution: The apps for Fire TV, LG, and Samsung are built but are not yet in any store. Until they appear there, use the browser route on these devices. Ask Szenera support about the status.

How to choose#

For retail TVs, one limit applies that no app lifts: The manufacturers build them for people on a sofa, not for continuous operation. After hours without operation, a TV asks whether anyone is still watching, puts a screensaver over still images, or starts into its start menu after a power outage. If a display should run reliably without anyone touching it, it needs a player in front of it.

TVs and panels in the browser#

A TV or a professional panel can also show your display software without an app. For that, it opens the display address in its own browser and keeps it. A panel has a mode of its own for this that opens an address at power-on: on Samsung the URL Launcher, on LG the Web Launcher or SI Server. Both are a web display.

Which address a device needs#

The same display software exists under two addresses. The difference is not in the content but in the age of the browser that the device brings:

What matters is not the model but the browser engine of the system version. A TV gets it at build time and usually keeps it: A panel from 2020 often still has the browser of 2020 in 2026.

A device whose browser is too old for the display address does not always say so. A very old browser shows a refusal with the reason. TVs from 2020 and 2021, in contrast, often stay on a white or blank page. Then open the TV address. The apps for LG and Samsung choose the matching address themselves.

Caution: This table is derived from the manufacturers’ information about the browser engine and has not been checked model by model on the device. The test takes a minute: Open the address, and either the display software starts or the device shows a refusal or a blank page. If the TV address does not respond, ask Szenera support.

Checked on the device so far:

Checked with a network cable: pairing through the code, program, override, images, and videos. An override appears without reloading, videos start without a click, and the browser’s header bar disappears as soon as the display software is running. Ask support about the status for your model before you buy in quantity.

The four settings on the device#

The display software runs on its own. What it needs is a device that does not interrupt it. For a TV in the browser, these are four settings:

The clock of the device does not have to be right. The display software works with Szenera’s time, not the device’s. A TV with the wrong date still shows the right program at the right time.

When the TV does not start by itself#

Not every retail TV starts into the browser by itself. A retail Samsung TV with Tizen 9 starts, after being switched off with the remote control and after a power outage, never in the browser but in Samsung TV Plus, even if the browser was running before. The start screen settings change nothing about that. They know no autostart for the browser, and the last used source refers only to the connectors, not to an app.

Here is how you bring the display software back:

1. Open the browser app of the TV.
2. Open the display software again, from its tab or from a bookmark for the display address.

After that, the display software keeps running by itself. The access is preserved in the browser’s storage, and a new code is not needed. So create the bookmark right when you set up.

On a Samsung TV, the Tizen app comes back by itself after power-on with the setting Autorun Last App, see Set up Samsung TVs and Samsung panels. If a display should run unattended, it needs a player in front of it, such as the Player Lite, or a panel that opens an address by itself at power-on.

What is different on a TV than on a computer#

• No screenshot. The browser extension that solves this on a computer does not exist for a TV. The button is missing in the portal.
• Hard cut instead of a crossfade between two videos. Where the device has only one video decoder, the display software does not crossfade but cuts. This is intentional: A crossfade would freeze one video on its last frame there, and that looks like a defect.
• No reboot from the portal. The page is reloaded, not the TV.
• One display per device. The access is in the browser’s storage, and a TV has one.

Everything else applies as for any web display. The two ways to connect, the access in the browser’s storage, and the limits are described under Web display: a display in the browser.

When it does not run#

If you have many displays#

For a rollout, you create all displays in one go and get a file with one connection address per display: Connect many displays at once.

A panel does not read the file, it takes an address. So you still type something in on each device, but an address instead of a code read off the display, and you can put the list next to you instead of waiting at each device until a code appears.

What a host app and a web display do not have#

• No remote maintenance. System log, locating, system updates, and the service menu exist only on a player.
• No updates of the device by Szenera. The system of the TV, stick, or computer is maintained by its manufacturer or by whoever looks after the device. The display software still updates itself, from the cloud, and the app itself through its store. How is explained under How does a player update itself?.
• No control of the display over HDMI. On and off and the real brightness exist only on a player, and there only where the display understands them over HDMI.

Related pages#

• Web display: a display in the browser: the basics that apply to every display without a player
• Set up Samsung TVs and Samsung panels (Tizen)
• Set up LG TVs and LG panels (webOS)
• Set up Fire TV, Signage Stick, and Android devices
• What a display can show: every state and what it means
• Pair a display: the way through the six-digit code
• Player Lite: the device that brings along everything that a TV has to be set up for itself