Playlists

Table of Contents

You can create and manage playlists by combining media files and widgets already available in your Yodeck portal.

Quick How-to Video

Adding a Playlist

To add a playlist, you click on the orange ”Add Playlist” button found at the bottom of the Playlist list. As a next step, you must select the type of playlist you want to create. You can select among the:

Classic – Create a Classic Playlist. After clicking “Add”, you can select the Media you want to add to the Playlist.
Tag-based – Create a dynamic Playlist by using Media Tags. The Playlist will update dynamically whenever you assign or remove Tags from your Media.
Dropbox – Link a folder in your Dropbox to a Playlist. You can then manage your content (Video, Images, and Documents) through your Dropbox account.
OneDrive – Link a folder in your Personal OneDrive application folder to a Playlist. You can then manage your content (Video, Images, and Documents) through your Personal OneDrive account.
Import CSV – Create a Playlist by importing a text file. Each line should contain the name of the Media item to be added, optionally followed by a comma and the playlist duration for that Media.

As a next step, you are requested to provide the following:

the Name of the Playlist and
an optional Description for it

There are various settings available that you can enable. They are separated between Transition Options and Playback Options. Click the corresponding tab below to learn more information.

1. Add a black gap between videos

The transition between the two videos right now is gapless. The last video frame will display the screen with gapless transitions between videos playing back-to-back.
If you want a 0.5s black gap between the videos, enable the above option on your playlist.

2. Image Transitions

You can pick more than 23 different Transition Types and, of course, control the Transition Speed.

Slow: 3-second transition
Medium: 2-second transition
Fast: 1-second transition
Custom: Configure how long the transition will occur from one image to another.

Limitations

We are improving the Transition feature daily, but there are some limitations that you need to consider for now.
1. Transitions are available only between images. You cannot have transitions between images to videos or images to any other media.
2. If you decide to add a playlist to a layout, do not enable the transparency option on that layer. Transitions will not work with the transparency option enabled.
3. Transitions are not available for 4K resolution yet.

1. Sync Playback

Players under the same account can be synced and display the content on the TV screen synced and almost frame by frame.

How To

Click the link to see how you can sync media between your monitors.
You can also click this link to see a detailed example of how you can sync different regions in a Layout configuration.

2. Random Playback

Choose to enable the ”Random Playback” option. This option will randomize the media on your playlist, and the player will display these media on the TV screen in random order.

3. Keep Web Pages Open

Choose to enable the ”Keep Web Pages open” option. This option will be displayed in your Playlist settings if you have at least one Web page entry on your Playlist’s filmstrip.

Keep Web-pages running on the Background

Normally, Web Pages and Web Widgets in a Playlist are reloaded every time they are shown. However, you can enable this option to keep them open in the background.
By default, Web Pages in a Playlist are closed and reloaded every time they appear on the screen. By enabling this, you keep all Web Pages in the Playlist open and never reload them. To set a refresh interval, check the ‘Advanced’ settings on each Web Page.
For example, if you have dashboards that require to be refreshed frequently to display new content, by activating this option, dashboards will be kept active on your player’s RAM to be displayed on your screen instantly instead of loading again from scratch.

RAM Usage

This feature should only be used with Yodeck Players based on the latest Raspberry Pi 4 board with 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB of RAM. Using this feature on Yodeck Players with 1GB boards might cause Player instability and corruption if the memory usage is too high.
IMPORTANT: This might lead to reduced Player reliability if the memory used is too high. We recommend using Raspberry Pi 4 Players with 2GB, 4GB, or 8GB of RAM.

Adding Media to a Playlist

You can see an empty filmstrip where you will add your media files:

Below the filmstrip, you’ll find your account’s library with all the media files available. You can see them all or locate them under their respective category (Images, Videos, Web Pages, Widgets, Audio Assets, Documents, and Playlists). Also, you can use the Search button to find your media file.

You can click on the Preview (Magnifying Glass icon) or the Arrow to place it on the playlist by pointing to any media file in the library. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the item into the filmstrip directly.

You can change the media files’ position by dragging and dropping them in the order you want.

All media inserted into the playlist inherit their default duration except Videos with a fixed display time (the duration of the video itself), which cannot be changed.

You can use the -/+ icons to decrease/increase the duration at will.

You can also check the total duration of your playlist. This info is located on the right side of the filmstrip:

Which media are calculated? The media that are calculated are:

Images
Web-pages
Widgets
Videos (YouTube videos are excluded)
Documents

Clicking” Save” will create the Playlist.

Creating/Editing Playlists with a large number of media files

In case your playlists contain numerous media files, you have the option to activate the Folder View for your convenience.

To see in detail how you manage playlists with the Folder View, check the section Managing P laylists with Folder View

How do I preview the playlist’s content?

This feature is currently in the beta stage and will soon have the full functionalities of a Yodeck Player. In other words, you will be able to see exactly what is being shown on your TV screen; in the same way, you would view that content if you had a Yodeck Player connected to your screen.

With a simple click, you can see how your playlist will display on the TV screen without needing a Yodeck player or any hardware.

You only have to fill the playlist with the media of your choice and then click the Preview button at the top left corner.

A new window will appear and start displaying the playlist.

Allow pop-ups

Upon clicking the Preview button, your browser might block the pop-up. Please click the options button in your browser and click the “Allow pop-ups for app.yodeck.com“.

Managing Playlists

In the Playlists section, you can see a list of the playlists currently created in your Yodeck account. Information about your playlists is organized in the following columns:

the Name of the playlist
the Description of it (if any)
the Timestamp (date and time) that the playlist was modified for the last time
icons of the Media Type that are included in the playlist
the Workspace (for accounts in the Enterprise plan) that the image belongs
the Actions column

If you click on the three dots icon in the Actions column, you will be presented with a list of actions you can apply to your playlists.

Click on each tab below to see a short description.

Edit
Duplicate
Move
Delete

Change the details of a playlist by clicking the” Edit” button.
Check out the “Adding a Playlist” section above for more details.

Create an exact copy of the playlist with a new name.

You can move playlists to other Workspaces (for accounts in the Enterprise plan).

Delete the playlist.

Additional Control Settings

You can use the Search box to sort out your playlist listing quickly in the top-left corner. Search using any columns by name, date, workspace, etc.

You can select more playlists by clicking the square box left to their thumbnail. Click the Actions button at the bottom to Move or Delete all the selected playlists at once.