Samsung Tizen Player Setup

This guide takes a Samsung commercial signage panel from the carton to playing your content, with the player on the panel itself: no box behind the screen, no HDMI cable to come loose. You need a supported panel on your network, your CMS address and key from the welcome email, and a phone or computer on the same internet connection.

Add a screen in easyCMS Studio does the same job: choose Samsung Tizen and it shows the steps one at a time, with your CMS address and key once you sign in, then finds the panel and connects it.

Done this before? Set the clock, set Play via to Custom App, install the player with Install Web App and https://app.myeasycms.com, choose Configure Manually, enter your CMS address and key, press Connect, and connect the screen at Add a display.

Before you start

Watch out The player runs on Samsung’s commercial signage displays, not on Samsung home televisions. A Samsung TV from a shop, however recent, refuses the install. To use one anyway, see can you use a Samsung TV for digital signage.

• A supported panel: Samsung signage running Tizen 4.0 or newer (Samsung’s SSSP 6 and later), roughly 2018 models onwards: the QM, QB, QH, QE, OH and similar series. Not bought yet? Send us the model number and we will confirm it.
• Current firmware: most failed installs are fixed by a firmware update. Check under Menu → Support → Software Update before you install anything.
• A network connection: wired Ethernet is best; Wi-Fi works if the signal is strong where the panel hangs.
• Your CMS address and key: in your welcome email, and on Add a screen on your phone once you sign in.
• The panel’s PIN: Samsung asks for it before installing an app. Unless someone changed it, it is 0000.
• A licence for Samsung Tizen or LG webOS: each Samsung screen needs the 129€ licence, which includes its player licence. The licence included with your account covers a Windows, Android or ChromeOS screen, not a Samsung one. See adding a new display.

1. Set the date, time and timezone

1. Press Menu on the remote and go to System → Time.
2. Turn on NTP (automatic time) if the panel has internet, or set the clock by hand.
3. Set the timezone and daylight saving for where the screen is.

Do this first. A wrong clock fails secure connections, so the install fails or the player cannot reach the CMS, with nothing on screen to say why. It also starts schedules at the wrong hour.

2. Switch the panel to Custom App

Samsung panels start their built-in MagicInfo player unless told otherwise.

• Newer panels (SSSP 10, about 2023 onwards): the first-start setup asks how the panel should play content. Choose Custom App. If setup is already done, use the route below.
• Earlier panels: press Menu (or the cog button), go to System → Play via, and choose Custom App. On older firmware the same option is called URL Launcher.

Tip If you press Home and see MagicInfo Player where you expected Custom App or URL Launcher, Play via is still on MagicInfo. Change it, and the right option appears.

3. Install the player

The internet install is quicker and lets the panel update itself later. Use a USB stick when the panel has no internet, or the internet install refuses.

From the internet (recommended)

1. Press Home on the remote and open Custom App settings (on older panels, URL Launcher Settings).
2. Choose Install Web App.
3. Type https://app.myeasycms.com exactly, including https://, and confirm.
4. Enter the PIN if asked (0000 unless changed).

The panel downloads the player from your CMS, installs it and opens it by itself, in a minute or two.

From a USB stick

Use the Samsung Tizen USB install pack (a .zip) from the downloads page. You do not edit or rename anything inside it: you only unzip it and copy one folder. The stick must be FAT32; if the panel cannot see it, reformat it (on a Mac, Disk Utility calls it MS-DOS (FAT)).

1. Download the USB install pack (easyCMS-tizen-usb-4-R417.zip) on a computer.
2. Unzip it. On Windows, right-click the file and choose Extract All. On a Mac, double-click it. You get a folder named SSSP; on Windows it may sit inside a second folder named after the zip.
3. Copy the SSSP folder to the top level of the USB stick, as it is. Copy the folder itself, not the files inside it, and not the .zip.
4. Plug the stick into the panel, press Home, open Custom App (or URL Launcher Settings) and choose Install from USB Device.
5. Enter the PIN if asked (0000 unless changed), wait for the confirmation, then remove the stick.

On your computer, the stick should look exactly like this:

USB stick
└── SSSP
    ├── sssp_config.xml
    └── sssp_dl.wgt

Building the stick by hand

Only if you cannot use the pack, for example because you were sent a newer player file on its own. Create the SSSP folder at the top of the stick, put the player .wgt in it renamed to exactly sssp_dl.wgt, and next to it create a plain text file named exactly sssp_config.xml containing:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<widget>
  <ver>4.417</ver>
  <size>4709508</size>
  <widgetname>sssp_dl</widgetname>
  <webtype>tizen</webtype>
</widget>

• <ver> is the player version: the major version, a dot, then the release number, so v4 R417 is 4.417 and R420 would be 4.420. The panel only installs something newer than what it has.
• <size> is the size of the .wgt in bytes.
• Turn file extensions on first: with them hidden, sssp_config.xml can quietly become sssp_config.xml.txt, and the panel will not see it.

4. Connect the player to easyCMS

When the player opens, it shows Choose how to connect your CMS.

Watch out Choose Configure Manually. Use Activation Code shows a six-character code meant for a different enrolment service, and it does not work with easyCMS. If you see a code, go back and pick the other option.

1. Select Configure Manually.
2. In CMS URL, enter your CMS address, https://app.myeasycms.com, including https://.
3. In CMS Key, enter the key from your welcome email, exactly as written.
4. Select Connect.

Most panels accept an ordinary USB keyboard, much quicker than the remote.

The player now says Player is unauthorized. Awaiting authorization from the CMS or administrator. That is right: until you connect it to your account, it uses no licence and shows nothing. Leave it switched on.

If it says The Server key you entered does not match with the server key at this address, the key has a typo or the address is missing https://. Check both against your welcome email and connect again.

5. Connect the screen to your account

1. On a phone or computer connected to the same internet connection as the panel, open Add a screen in Studio or Add a display, choose Samsung Tizen, and sign in with your easyCMS login.
2. easyCMS lists the players that have just checked in from your connection. Give the screen a name you will recognise later (“Reception”, “Window left”) and select Connect.
3. The panel notices at its next check-in, usually within a few minutes, and starts playing. Still showing the waiting message after five minutes? Switch it off and on with the remote.

Two separate licences. Connecting the panel uses one of your display licences: on a Samsung screen, the licence for Samsung Tizen or LG webOS. The Tizen player’s commercial player licence comes with it, and we apply and manage it centrally, so there is no licence field on the panel.

Connected a Samsung screen before checkout asked which kind of screen each licence was for? It got only the player’s free trial. Open Plan & licences in Studio: it offers the player licence for exactly those screens at our cost, 79€ instead of 129€.

Setting up several panels

For a batch of screens you can skip the typing in step 4. With a plain text editor, make a file named cms_settings.json and save it at the top level of the USB stick, next to the SSSP folder, not inside it:

{
  "CMSUrl": "https://app.myeasycms.com",
  "CMSPassword": "your CMS key",
  "CMSEmail": ""
}

1. Replace your CMS key with the key from your welcome email and leave CMSEmail empty.
2. Start the player with the stick in and its connection fields empty: it fills them in from the file, so you only select Connect.
3. Connect the panels at Add a screen as you go. With several new screens on one network, each row shows the last four characters of an identifier: match it against the player’s status screen.

Treat the stick like a key afterwards: the file holds your CMS key in plain text.

Using the remote on a running panel

Press the yellow button while the player is running to show its menu bar:

Press the yellow button again to hide it.

Tips for running Samsung panels

• On/off times, brightness and remote lock live on the settings profile your account shares, so we change them centrally: tell us what you need. A panel switched off overnight gets schedule changes the next morning.
• Portrait screens: set the panel’s own rotation and design portrait layouts at the matching resolution. See screen resolution and orientation.
• Keep layouts light. Several videos at once, or live web pages, run more smoothly on an Android or Windows player over HDMI.
• Keep firmware current. Many Tizen quirks, from video stutter to a player that will not start after a power cut, are fixed in firmware.
• Updating the player: panels installed from the internet update themselves when we release a new player to your CMS. For a USB install, put the newer pack’s SSSP folder on the stick and choose Install from USB Device again. See updating players.

When something goes wrong

“Unable to install”, “Failed to connect to server” or the install hangs. Update the firmware, check the date, time and timezone, and try again: that fixes nearly every case. If the internet install still fails, use the USB stick.

The USB stick is not detected, or nothing happens. The stick must be FAT32, with the unzipped SSSP folder at its top level: not the .zip (the panel cannot open zip files), and not inside another folder. On a hand-built stick, check the two file names; a hidden .txt on the end is the usual culprit.

The panel says the app is already installed, or does not upgrade from USB. It only installs a player newer than the one it has. Download the latest USB install pack rather than reusing an old stick; on a hand-built stick, raise <ver> in sssp_config.xml to match the player.

There is no Custom App or URL Launcher anywhere. Play via is still on MagicInfo (step 2), or the screen is a Samsung home TV, which cannot run the player. For a home TV, plug an Android player into its HDMI port instead.

The screen stays on the connect page after a restart. It lost its settings, usually after a firmware update. Press the yellow button, choose ··· then Connect to CMS, and enter the address and key again. The screen keeps its name and schedule.

The screen does not appear at Add a display. Your phone and the panel must be on the same connection (not the phone on mobile data), Connect must have been pressed on the panel, and it can take a few minutes. Adding a new display has the full list.

It plays, but new content never arrives. See player connected but not updating and, if it worked for about a month first, player licence problems.

Still stuck? Send us a support request with the panel’s model number, its firmware version and a photo of what the screen shows.

Moving off MagicINFO? See leaving MagicINFO. Once connected, you run your screens from easyCMS Studio on your phone; Samsung Tizen digital signage software has the overview.

Related articles: Adding a New Display, Other Players, LG webOS Player Setup, Reading the Player Status Window, Network Requirements