Unable to publish to new IS-XPT-2000 players

landaufortecollege

Hi everyone

I have just finished setting up our Composer 4 server; adding our 6 IS-XPT-2000 players, installing the Skyline layouts & templates and the architecture and live media TPKs. The players are connected and report no connection issues through Composer and currently all are playing the AMX animation as they are new and have come straight out of the box.

The problem I am having is that I don't seem to be able to publish anything to the players, or at least the players aren't displaying the content I am sending them. They don't even want to start displaying the layout template, even though I have added the Tri Split layout to the Layout playlist and assigned messages to all the primary playlists.

I have tried publishing and force publishing multiple times, I have also tried rebooting both the players and the Composer server but to no avail.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what I might be doing wrong or have I missed something stupidly obvious? I have read and followed the steps to the letter in the IS XPert reference guide multiple times.

Many thanks,
James

[Deleted User]

James,
When you defined your players - did you add them by hostname or by ip address? It needs to be IP even though the field is labeled hostname.

When you click on the configuration icon in composer >Playlists > and then View Playlist Assignments - what do you see?

landaufortecollege

Hi Chris, thanks for the quick reply.

Composer found and added all the players automatically when I clicked the Import Players icon. All 6 players are listed with their correct IP addresses in the Host Name box, FTP port 21 and web port 80. The username for each of the players is inspiredsignage and they are all enabled. The only thing I changed for each player was the Player Name so I could easily distinguish them.

The View Playlist Assignments window shows a top level folder (All Players) inside of which is a list of all the playlists (primary, live media, layout, overlay, etc) and a list of all 6 Players.

If I check the box that says "Show all Players with the Playlists that will get published to them" then it shows me all 6 Players as top level folders with a list of the above mentioned playlists under each Player.

I have just deleted everything from Composer (all the template defenitions, playlists, Players, etc) and setup everything again. This time I manually added each player. Everything is setup exactly the same (except the web port of the Players defaulted to 25001, which I kept) and I am still having the same problem. All the players continue to show the AMX animation and no amount of forced publishing seems to do any good.

I have noticed that when I publish (or force publish), the column QueueStatus remains unchanged (No queued files). If I watch it for about 60 seconds I may see one of the Players update to "13 files to go" (the number can change) but nothing changes on the Player's screen.

Thanks for your help

James

yuri

Did you try restarting the Composer service?
This has helped me sometimes (don't ask why )

landaufortecollege

Thanks for your reply Yuri.

I have gone one better and restarted everything. The Composer machine and all the Players have been rebooted but unfortunately publishing still isn't working.

James

[Deleted User]

James,
Please check the c:\Data\Logs folder on the player for the xml file PlayerFTPService-xxxxxxx (whatever your most recent transfer attempt was).

Are there any details contained within that may shed light on the transfer issue?

Have you spoken with your dealer or technical support on the issue? Our signage support team should be able to join you in a remote meeting to investigate your settings and permissions to resolve the problem.

landaufortecollege

Hi Chris

I have looked at the log file you mentioned and it doesn't seem to contain anything out of the ordinary. I have attached the full file for you if you want to take a look. Here are a few extracts:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<islog machineID="" appname="PlayerFTPService" instance="Default" version="3.6.41.6">
<log time="2011-11-02T09:02:51Z" since="2011-11-02T09:02:51Z" repetition="1" LogLevel="0"><fileDelivery><src>FTPFileHandler</src><action>RX</action><filename>548161cf-d70c-4f21-92f3-919a7218a81b.jpg</filename><size>369788</size></fileDelivery></log>

The log tag here is pretty much the same throughout the document except for the filenames and sizes. There are a few exceptions though:

<log time="2011-11-02T12:06:52Z" since="2011-11-02T12:06:50Z" repetition="10" LogLevel="0"><fileDelivery><src>FTPFileHandler</src><action>RX</action><filename>e109fbc6-5ae9-478a-94ec-c2ed37964446.ISCMD</filename><size>1211</size></fileDelivery></log>
<log time="2011-11-02T12:07:50Z" since="2011-11-02T12:07:50Z" repetition="1" LogLevel="0"><msg><src>ISCMD Delete Command</src><text>File was Deleted: C:\Data\d67154e6-5597-4fd0-b003-2ad3ea03f112.dat</text></msg></log>
<log time="2011-11-02T12:07:52Z" since="2011-11-02T12:07:50Z" repetition="10" LogLevel="0"><error><src>ISCMD Delete Command</src><eclass>TimComposerCommandHandler</eclass><emsg>File was not Found: C:\Data\d67154e6-5597-4fd0-b003-2ad3ea03f112top.dat</emsg></error></log>
<log time="2011-11-02T12:07:52Z" since="2011-11-02T12:07:50Z" repetition="10" LogLevel="0"><error><src>ISCMD Delete Command</src><eclass>TimComposerCommandHandler</eclass><emsg>File was not Found: C:\Data\d67154e6-5597-4fd0-b003-2ad3ea03f112tail.dat</emsg></error></log>

I have given tech support a call and the guy couldn't help me with the basic talk we had. He said he would call me back a few hours ago but I am still waiting for his call

I thought someone on here may have been able to help me out which is why I tried on here too

Thanks again,
James

[Deleted User]

What is the version of your composer server? ver 4.8?

When you are importing the template pack, what is the setting you select?

Under Import Template pack
- Import template definition - checked
-Create a template for newly imported template definition - checked
- Don't create message - checked

Under Playlist and Template Pack Option
- Publish the import Template Pack to player - checked
- create a playlist - checked ( if there is no playlist created)

Under publish point
- check the player u want the template publish to.

landaufortecollege

EDIT:
It seems as though things have started to publish but only to a couple of Players, which is very odd. I selected 1 player from the list when publishing the templates and that seemed to publish fine. I then did the same thing again (after deleting and re-importing everything) and selected another player individually and again it imported fine. I deleted and re-imported templates in exactly the same way a third time but no matter what I try (individual Players or all Players) I can't seem to publish to anything else.

I can now update content and layouts on the 2 playes that recieved the content but I can't update any other the other Players.

Any ideas?



Hi Jason, thanks for your reply.

We have Composer Server 4.8.42.694 installed. I have removed all the templates and playlists and re-imported them as you mentioned below. I followed your import instructions to the letter and this time only selected 1 Player to publish to. I imported the Graphite layouts, Midnight templates, Architecture templates and Audio/Live Media templates.

I then created a message for the layout and one for the 16x9 area and assigned those to their relevant playlists. I published the changes but still nothing

Any other advice? I'm really stuck and I need to get this system distributed ASAP.

Many thanks,
James

[Deleted User]

If you do not mind, can you delete the playlist and all the template packs and try the below steps?

Step 1 - Importing Player
1) Under configuration-> Players
When you import the players, make sure you can see the players all the left side,
Thing to make sure:
FTP : 21
Web port: 80
IS player : enabled
Then added the players to the publish point. If all the players is playing the same content, you can create Root Player set. Then assigned all the players into the root player folder. Remember to name it and remember it.

Step 2 - Import Template pack
Under Import Template pack
- Import template definition - checked
-Create a template for newly imported template definition - checked
- Don't create message - checked

Under Playlist and Template Pack Option
- Publish the import Template Pack to player - checked
- create a playlist - checked ( if there is no playlist created)

Under Publish Points
- Check select the publish points where you would like the imported template packes to be sent to
- then choosed the root player set (This will be the same name list in Part 1)

For testing purpose, try to use the skyline template first. It come with the cd. The files are
AMX_Skyline_Template.tpk
AMX_Skyline_layouts.tpk
Architecture.tpk
Audip_livemedia_templates.tpk
Weather_Icons_square_looping.tpk

If my memory did not failed me, if all the template pack was imported successfully to your players, all your 6 players will have a little hour glass spinning at the bottom of the screen. If you see this , u can be happy for a while. If not, it is okie. Becos i may had remembered the wrong thing.

Step 3 - Create message

I am sure you know this part. I will keep it short.
Create a layout then assign to the playlist.For Layout message will be assigned to layout selector playlist.

Step 4: Publish Content.

You just need to select publish changes. There is no need for the other 2 options.

That's all to it.



Troubleshooting tip 1.

Usually for me,if i encountered where the contents do not get published i will look at the playlists that was been assigned to the players.

Can you go to Configuration -> Playlist Administration -> view Playlist Assignment?
Click on all players with playlist location that will get published to them.

It will then list all the players with playlists that are attached to the players. Make sure all the players have playlists linked to them.

That is all. My little brain can think of. If i think of anything else, i let you know.

landaufortecollege

SOLVED

Hi Jason (and the other contributors)

Thank you all very much for your contributions. I spent 45 minutes on the phone to AMX last night and they managed to figure out the problem.

The issue stumped tech support for a while but they realised that when entering the readable names of the Players in Composer I used an ampersand (&). These names are stored in an XML file and the ampersand, being an illegal character, prematurely stopped the publishing process.

Thanks again for all your help. Problem solved.

James