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Playlists

The Net-Top-Box (NTB) displays content on a screen according to a user-defined geometry and sequence.

A Playlist is the sequence in which content that will be played on the screen.

Playlists on an NTB are 'circular' or 'looped'. After the last item in the playlist has been played, the first one starts to play again. Any item for which the file is missing is simply skipped.

Playlists can contain one of three types of media:

1. Folder Play
2. Playlisted Files
3. Special Items (e.g. Web-based content, text and special commands)

What is Folder Play?

A Folder Play will automatically play all the files in a given media sub-folder on the hard drive of the NTB.

If new files are uploaded into the folder while it is being played then they will appear in the playlist in due course. If files in the folder are deleted then they will disappear from the playlist.

Play order is alphanumeric order so renaming files in the folder will re-order the playlist. It is also possible to play in random order (shuffle play). In random order, it is also possible to play with memory to prevent files from being played more often than any others.

It is also possible to limit the number of files played from the folder. Once the limit has been reached the next item in the playlist will be played.

There can be more than one folder play in a playlist.

It is possible to set up complex playlists using random folder play with memory and limits. Suppose the requirement was to play one music video in a given order, followed by two advertisements at random from a dynamic pool of advertisements, followed by the corporate logo for ten seconds and to repeat this sequence in a way that every music video and every advertisement plays an equal number of times.

You would create three folders on the NTB as follows:

1. Create a Music folder on the NTB and upload videos into it.
2. Rename the video files according to the order in which they must play (e.g. "A Summer in the city.mpg, B Be my girl.mpg",..).
3. Create an advertisement folder on the NTB and upload the advertisements into it, file names make no difference.
4. Create a logo folder and upload the image into it.

Create a playlist as follows:

1. Add the Music folder as a folder play, limit 1.
2. Add the Advert folder as a folder play with memory, limit 2.
3. Add the Corporate logo image as an individual file, duration 10 seconds.

What is a Playlisted File?

Any file that has been uploaded onto the NTB may be added to a playlist if it is of a suitable type for the a particular zone.

File types include videos, music, images, flash, HTML (web-pages) and text.

How files are arranged within the media folder is up to you.

What are Special Items?

Special items are not files in the media sub-folders on the NTB and include:

1. Live Video (Feed or TV)
2. Streaming Video
3. Typed-in Text (as opposed to text files in the media folder)
4. News Feed Text from the Internet (RSS)
5. Internet-based Web Pages
6. Tables (NTB generated)
7. Clocks (NTB generated)

Special items are added to playlists by selecting them from the 'Special Items' section of the user-interface rather than from the folders and files. They usually require some sort of configuration after having been added to the playlist.