Installing 4yousee Universal Player

The current version of the 4yousee Universal Player is exclusively compatible with Raspberry PI 3b and Raspberry PI 3b+. The purpose of this document is to guide through the process of installing and configuring it on your device.

Before proceeding, you should be aware of the following IMPORTANT information:

1.The installation is exclusive to Raspberry PI 3b and Raspberry PI 3b+;
2. This Player is in its initial version, so pay close attention to its features and limitations;
3. The Player WILL restart every day at 5:00 AM to maintain proper functioning;
4. Be aware that about 0.1% of the media played over a day may play for a longer duration than expected;

Features:

In this version, we offer a set of features for a Digital Signage player. The following subsections will list the supported and unsupported features in this version.

Supported features:

  • Video playback;

  • Image playback;

  • Sending play logs (only when the player is online);

  • Sending logs of content downloads;

  • Playlog monitoring in real time.

Unsupported features:

  • News playback

  • HTML;

  • Remote configuration;

    • Monitor information;

    • Change orientation;

    • Scheduling operations: Power on, power off, and restart.

  • Layout playback;

  • Carousel playback;

  • Sub-playlist playback;

  • Dynamic content playback;

  • Videowall playback as Leader and/or Follower;

  • Content scheduling;

  • Screenshot;

  • Brightness control;

  • Corporate radio;

  • Player API use;

  • Audio file in playlists.

Limitations:

  1. We do not recommend playing media above FullHD resolution (1920x1080);

  2. Currently, only video files with the same aspect ratio should be played, otherwise, it may exhibit conflicting behavior with the graphical output;

  3. When adding content in 4yousee Manager, do not change the video duration to one different from the original; this may cause problems in content swapping on the player.

    1. Example: If the original video is 10 seconds long but changed to 7 seconds in 4yousee Manager, display errors may occur.

  4. As mentioned in item 4 of the Important Information notice on the first page hereby, only a very small percentage of media may play for a longer time than desired, leaving the content frozen for the time exceeded.

    1. Example: One of the 10,000 videos that should play only for 10 seconds played for 25 seconds. Due to this inconsistency, the screen will be frozen for 15 seconds at the end of the video.

  5. For information about supported media on Raspberry, click here.

  6. The Universal player for Raspberry will only send playlogs as long as it is connected to the Internet. An important detail is that if the player is not connected to the Internet, it will not save the play logs to send later. Therefore, for projects where sending playlogs is essential, we recommend using either the Windows, Linux, or Android 4yousee player versions or the ones for LG and Samsung professional monitors.

Installation:
In order to install, you will need the following items:

  • MicroSD card (recommended 32GB or larger, for faster processing speed);

  • Balena Etcher (or similar software to flash the image onto the microSD);

  • OS image to run the player on Raspberry Pi (click here to download);

  • USB keyboard.

You will need specific software to flash the image onto the SD card. For this installation, we will use Balena Etcher. Below is the explanation for the installation:
Balena Etcher: Click here to download.
On the page opened, click the download button, as shown in the image below:

Tip: If you're using Windows, download the portable version to avoid installing it on your machine.

If you don't use the portable version, install Balena Etcher.

Mounting the image on the SD card:

First, plug your SD card into your computer, and then open Balena Etcher. Once in the application, click on the option to search for a file, clicking on 'Flash from file':

Search for the OS image to run the player on the Raspberry Pi, which you downloaded previously. If you haven't downloaded it yet,  click here to download.


Click on the second option to select the SD card where flashing will take place, under 'Select target':


Select the USB disk, and then click 'Select';
 
And finally, click 'Flash!':

 
The process may take a few seconds. Upon completion, you should be presented with the following screen:

 
This means we are all set to proceed. In case of an error, make sure that:

  • The card is correctly inserted into the computer;

  • Try using another adapter or another SD card;

  • Try downloading the image again to ensure there were no errors in the download.

Raspberry:
Connect the SD card to the Raspberry Pi, then proceed to connect the HDMI, Ethernet, and power cables. 

It is utterly important to connect the Raspberry Pi in the precise order so that all components involved are secure. If you are unsure how to connect the Raspberry Pi, consult the manual here.
Click here to access the manual.

The initial boot involves creating system partitions and preparing the environment. This process may take a few minutes. Note that the device will restart several times during this process.

After initialization, you will see a homepage with the verification hash, as shown in the image below:


 

In the bottom-right corner of the screen, there will be a PIN number:

Connect the keyboard to your Raspberry Pi and enter this PIN; finally, press Enter. You should see the screen shown below:

Navigate to the App URL field with the keyboard arrows (the keys with arrows on your keyboard) and fill it with the following address:  https://files.4yousee.com.br/universal/lts/raspberrypi3b.zip

Then, move to “Install App” and press Enter.

The system will check and configure the 4yousee Universal player; this may take a few seconds.

Next, the player menu will be displayed and ready for use.

 

ATTENTION: This configuration process is only done the first time. And remember to select the Universal Player platform in the player configuration in 4yousee Manager. At the end of this documentation we present instructions and an image demonstrating it.

To navigate between fields, simply use the keyboard arrows.

But, what are  'Manager Account' and 'Player ID'?

The URL is the website address you use to access 4yousee Manager, where you can upload content, build playlists, etc

For Enterprise clients, the URL is in the format: https://company_name.4yousee.com.br. An example of an Enterprise account is https://demo.4yousee.com.br.

For Self plan clients, the URL is in the format: https://4usee.com/company_name/code, with this code at the end of the URL being a sequence of numbers and uppercase letters defined upon account creation. 

An example of a Self account is https://4usee.com/demo/12C345F.

To find the "Player ID," access 4yousee Manager and click on the menu: Players (1) > Players (2). The ID is displayed in the left corner of the screen (3).


Adding the player in 4yousee Manager:
In case you haven't configured a player for Raspberry yet, follow the steps below:

  1. Go to the top menu Players > Players;

  2. Click on Add;

  3. Configure the Player as desired, but in the “Platform” field, select “Universal Player”.


How to reset the 4YouSee Universal Player on Raspberry Pi

To reset the settings of the 4YouSee Universal Player on Raspberry Pi, simply press the F6 key on the keyboard, which will return you to the player's configuration screen.











 











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