Web Pages

Player Type: HTML

Supported
Format Comment

Web

Most web-pages and HTML files

Unsupported
Format Comment

Streaming Windows media

Real streams are supported

Unlisted formats have not been tested.

Most web content is designed to be interactive and to be read at close range making it unsuitable for digital signage applications. It is possible, on the other hand, to write web content specifically for digital signage using large fonts and no hyperlinks.

Requirements

The NTB must have access to the Internet (or the network where the web page is hosted)

Notes

  • When creating an HTML page to be stored on the NTB, any images, script files, data files, etc that are loaded with the page must be held in a folder named "PageX_files" (where the HTML file is named "PageX.html" or "PageX.htm").
    If any web page is loaded into a web browser and the menu option "File | Save As.." is clicked, the website will be saved as an HTML file with an associated _files folder and the pair of objects will be suitable for use on a Net-Top-Box.
  • Some web-pages are designed to auto-refresh and the web-page will tell the NTB browser to reload the page every X seconds. Most web-pages, however, do not have this feature. In order to keep showing the latest information it is important to determine if the web-page will auto refresh or not. Look for the following HTML tag: "<meta http-equiv="refresh" >. If the page does auto-refresh then it can be playlisted with an indefinite duration. If, on the other hand, the page does not auto-refresh then it should be playlisted with a fixed duration to make the NTB reload the page.
  • The NTB uses the Mozzila (Firefox) web-browser inside a zone without the navigation buttons and other stuff to show webpages.
  • To see what a webpage will look like on an NTB, open it in Firefox on your PC. If it doesn't display correctly in Firefox, it will not display correctly on the NTB.
  • The NTB can't make Mozilla zoom in or out or stretch a web page to fill a zone.
  • HTML zones always have a white, non-transparent background.
  • In some cases it is possible to show a dedicated part of the website area rather than the whole page.
    If you can get a URL to a frame or image on a webpage then the NTB can show just that item. Compare the following two URLs:
    http://nu.weathernews.nl
    http://nu.weathernews.nl/common/data/nu_radar.gif
    This type of trick does not always work, for further information you need to talk to the designer of the web page.
  • image It possible to make the zone window in into a specific part of a web page by shifting the origin of the page x pixels to the left and y pixels above the top left corner of the zone. Without web development tools, this process is done by trial and error.
  • Is it possible to block out certain parts of a web-page by placing other zones over the one showing the web-page or by completely obscuring the web-page zone with another zone that has an image mask in it.
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