what time server to use?

I recently started having problems with a schedule that has two presentations. Originally I setup our XD1230 to use San Jose's nist.gov time server, but then discovered that it was taken offline. Don't know if it's related, but my main presentation started failing little by little, 'til it stopped playing all together. (The first presentation worked fine and ran the 45 minutes each morning that it was supposed to but the 2nd presentation would fail and all I'd get were black screens). The brightsign box is showing 10 red error lights.

I'm using simple file networking and having things loaded from a web server.

1. Anyway to make a long story short. What time server can I use in the box's setup? Would just using "time.nist.gov" and setting the drop down in BrightAuthor to PST work? It should right? I shouldn't have to use this instead correct? "http://nist.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Pacific/d/-8"

2. If I need to completely reset the box would simply unplugging it and inserting a flashcard with new setup files start me "fresh" or is there flash memory in the box that would also need to be reset / cleared out somehow? If so how do I do that?

3. Is there a way that I can check to see if the box is properly connecting to the webserver and downloading the files it needs and

4. When I lose my presentation properties in my presentations what causes that and is there a place / file that I can copy and paste into my presentation that lose those properties? Specifically the presentation properties that I always seem to lose are my data feeds. (all rss and mrss feeds that I like to keep in one place.) I've had to resort to keeping the links in a text file as a backup). Is this a bug that has been reported? I'm still using BA version 3.5.0.24 as I'm a little gun shy about switching to the new version as well as the new firmware. Should I bite the bullet and what will it mean to my existing presentations? Can I simply load them in the new version of BA and re-save them out with no issues? Please advise.

And finally. In your experience which video files fail most often on the brightsign boxes? I've recently taken to downloading goddard space center videos from youtube using a program called YTD Videodownloader and was having relatively good success until the last batch of videos that I included. Is there a good benchmark to use for acceptable vs. non-acceptable video formats for the brightsign boxes? (i.e. a video player you recommend that identifies what might cause me problems in my presentations?) btw this is also another reason why some kind of software preview window would be most ideal as part of the brightauthor software suite (either build in or as a separate utility)

Thanks for any insight you can give me. I'll keep plugging away to see if I can get my presentation running again.

I've attached a screen grab of my template in case you have questions. The main presentation takes place in zone 1.

template_beta_a.png

Lyndon December 24, 2013 23:58

You can use the brightsign network time server:

http://time.brightsignnetwork.com/

2. There's a script on our downloads page that does a factory reset, including wiping out network settings, any passwords, etc. THis doesn't rever the firmware to an older release.

3. If you publish, and turn on logging, you can log into the box, if the diagnostic server is enabled, click on the log tab, and see output from the project running. You can also click on the sd card tab, to see if files are being saved to the sd card.

4. This sounds like a bug. How often is this happening, where you lose preferences? Any particular steps you can repeat that always cause this failure? Yes, you can import old presentations into a newer brightauthor. YOu can always make a copy of your presentations before opening them in a newer release.

Video files that are out of spec can cause crashes and reboots. So, if your mpeg4 isn't h.264, if it's provile is above 4.1 for hd units, and 4.2 for xd units, if you're using mp3 audio in an mpg4, generally anything that's out of spec can cause playback problems. You can look in our faq for supported codecs. THere's a free program called mediainfo that will give you full specs of your video files.

We are looking into a preview feature. But, the preview doesn't necessarily qualify content. It would be there to show you what the presentation looks like.

what time server to use?

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