Digital signage guides

How to put ScreenTinker on the screens you already have, how to run your own server, and how to build what plays on them. Pick your device below; each guide goes from unboxing to a screen showing your content.

Getting started

• What is digital signage?. How it works, what you can show, the hardware you need and what it costs.
• Open source digital signage. Own your data and pay no per-screen fees, on our cloud or your own server.
• Self-hosting ScreenTinker. Run the server yourself: Docker or a plain Linux install, backups and upgrades.

Use ScreenTinker

• Getting started. Create your account, open the player on a TV or in a browser tab, type its 6-digit code and put your first picture on the screen.
• Content and playlists. Upload content, build a playlist, set how long each item shows, publish it, and put it on a screen or a group.
• Scheduling. Play a different playlist at set times, decide which schedule wins, and check what a screen will show before it does.
• Layouts and zones. Split a screen into zones, decide which layout each screen uses, and put every item in the zone where it belongs.
• Groups and video walls. Group screens so one playlist reaches them all, play them in step, and join panels into one big picture with a video wall.
• Users and roles. Invite your team, choose who can change what, keep separate sites in separate workspaces, and require approval before anything goes live.
• White-label branding. Put your own name, logo and colours on the dashboard, the sign-in page and web player screens, and know what stays ScreenTinker.
• Troubleshooting. A screen is offline, a pairing code is refused, new content does not appear, or the screen is black: what it means and what to do.

Set up a screen

• Raspberry Pi. A browser kiosk or the native player on a Pi 3, 4 or 5.
• Android TV and Fire TV. The free player app on any Android TV box, Fire TV Stick or tablet, with kiosk mode.
• Fire TV Stick 4K Select and HD (Vega OS). The newer sticks that run Vega OS, not Android, and the player for them.
• Samsung TVs and signage displays. Tizen panels through the built-in URL Launcher or the player app.
• LG webOS Signage. The player app on LG webOS Signage panels, installed from your own server.
• Roku. What the Roku player plays, and what a Roku cannot do as a sign.
• BrightSign. One autorun.zip from your server, dual output, wall sync and panel power.
• Windows. Any Windows 10 or 11 PC as a player that stays up unattended.
• Mac, iPad and iPhone. The native macOS player, and the app for iPad and iPhone.
• ChromeOS. Chromeboxes and Chromebooks, managed through Google Admin or on their own.
• LED video walls. Driving a large LED wall at its native resolution.
• E-paper and ESP32 signs. Low-power signs with no browser on the device at all.
• Apple TV. Why Apple TV cannot run a sign, and what to use instead.

Not sure which device to buy? See Certified Hardware. Already have a server? Its download page lists every player it can hand out.

Build what plays

• Widgets, layouts and transitions. Split a screen into zones, add a clock, weather or a ticker, and choose how items change.
• Manage screens from an AI assistant. Point Claude or any MCP client at your server and manage screens in plain English.
• Integrations. Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Power BI, Canva, Zapier and more.
• Solutions. Menu boards, meeting rooms, emergency alerts and other uses, start to finish.