Show HN: Greenscreen, open source digital signage with Chromecast | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Greenscreen, open source digital signage with Chromecast

greenscreen.io

49 pointsehzhang19 comments

The "takeover" button is evil. Please lower the volume for my fragile heart.

I'm currently have 3 screenly[1] installations on RPis and works nice. Doesn't support channels though, which is a major drawback for DS but other than that works fine and it's open-source.

[1] http://www.screenlyapp.com/

Can't you set screenly to a Webpage that just forced to update with new content, i.e. a different channel?!

Screenly uses a lightweight web browser (can't remember the name) that doesn't support javascript and I think doesn't support flash either (not sure though).

So I'm out of ideas on how to create something that resembles channels.

I'd like to have a channel to display pharmacy overnights. Now I'm just using a sinatra application to display dynamically generated static HTML page[1]. But that's about it.

[1] http://piseli.net/overnights/drama

Hi guys,

The creator of Screenly here.

If by 'channels' you mean breaking the screen into different blocks (normally referred to as 'zones' in DS language), it is possible using HTML, but strongly discouraged. The reason is simply that the Raspberry Pi isn't powerful enough to handle that heavy workload.

Regarding the browser Screenly OSE (the Open Source version) uses, it's called UZBL[1]. It does support JavaScript, as long as it isn't too complex. For instance, animations etc won't work. Also, Flash isn't supported for obvious reasons.

[1] http://www.uzbl.org

This looks great, but it's a shame that the chromecast itself is hostile to personal testing or use. If I didn't have to go through at least 4 bullet points just to get my chromecast listed on a central registry I'd be much more willing to try this out.

Interesting way to put content on screens. What's the performance like on chromecast?

I wrote a web based digital signage system ( http://www.streetsign.org.uk ) which we've used at a few conferences, and now at a couple offices around the world. The display-clients can be any web capable computer, but we're mainly using raspberry pis. They really don't have great performance, in terms of smooth transitions & scrolling text, etc. Even with the experimental collabora browser. But they're cheap.

I'd wondered about using chromecasts as clients, but wasn't sure if the built-in chrome would be up for it, and what performance would be like...

Note: beware the speaker volume for the 'takeover' button.

I've had an idea for a brick and mortar advertising network for small businesses, but its difficult to track conversion for ads in the physical world. Groupon, whats your angle?

Probably that! They've already got a massive network of local businesses.

Am aware of a high school that tried to use a Chromecast for digital signage (not this particular software) on the same network as students (woops)... needless to say the screen wasn't showing their digital signage for long! After a prankster played a few "educational" videos for the whole cafeteria, school admin panic ensued and that was the end of the Chromecast for signage plan.

(This scenario wouldn't happen of course on a network where you have 100% trust that no-one else is going to hit the Chromecast button on their browser or phone...)

Nitpick: doesnt work on Chrome on ios. Didnt test Safari, but its a pretty good idea to check mobile views before a show hn. I cant even tell if its a product page or the actual app.

I'd hoped it was a custom firmware replacement for the Chromecast, rather than an ugly hack on top of Google APIs.

I'd rather stick to the much more open solutions, like the Raspberry Pi, or for more computationally intensive signage, a small Intel NUC or Shuttle PC designed for signage.

Try NoviSign android based digital signagehttp://www.novisign.com/

I prefer Visibull.tv (http://visibull.tv/)

Volume on the takeover link is way too high.

Try NoviSign android based digital signage

Love it.

I see someone watches "How I Met your Mother"

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